1/11/24, 10:41 AM Why Americans Want a ‘Snug,’ a Special Room That’s an ‘Instant Magic Pill’ of Comfort - WSJ

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https://www.wsj.com/style/design/snug-room-interior-design-08f08f26

STYLE DESIGN

Why Americans Want a ‘Snug,’ a Special Room

That’s an ‘Instant Magic Pill’ of Comfort
As sprawling, noisy open-concept floor plans prove divisive, some homeowners are
adopting the British snug—a small, comfy, den-like space where a television doesn’t
dominate the décor or the vibe

By Lexi Mainland
Jan. 10, 2024 1:00 pm ET

“SMALL ROOMS set the mind on the right path. Large ones cause it to go
astray,” wrote Leonardo da Vinci 500 years ago. And though open-concept floor
plans have dominated home design for half a century, designers and their
customers are recognizing the old polymath was on to something. A capacious
living-dining-kitchen room can feel lonely and uninviting, even unmooring.

“My clients have started saying, ‘It doesn’t make sense to hang out in the great
room when it’s just me or a few of us,’” said Cathy Purple Cherry, an architect
and interior designer in Annapolis, Md. The design solution: a British-style
“snug,” a small sitting room that’s akin to a den, cozily walled-off and made for
reading, solitary relaxation or an intimate event.

“A snug is an instant magic pill, transporting you to a place of comfort,” said

Heide Hendricks. The interior designer in Sharon, Conn., painted her own petite
sanctum Farrow & Ball’s Setting Plaster, a soothing pink the color of a bandage.
Corey Hunton, a designer at Camden Grace Interiors in West Hartford, Conn.,
slicked the walls and ceiling of a little sitting room in her home with the same
blush pigment. A pillow-strewn curved sofa invites relaxation like a pair of open
arms. Notably absent from both lairs: a television. Jeanne Barber, owner of
Camden Grace, says clients likewise are requesting a respite from their busy
lives “that doesn’t include a TV screen.” Said Hendricks of such a spot, “You
welcome the feeling of losing track of time.”

Snugs don’t typically replace living or family rooms—that huge TV still needs a
home. But now that anyone with a phone or tablet can consume “Jeopardy” or

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“Slow Horses” solo anywhere, not every public room must include a wall-
hogging screen. Beata Heuman, a London designer with clients worldwide, finds
it liberating to design without the blight of big screens. Even when clients
seeking a snug want the option to watch TV, she aims to hide the set behind art
or inside a beautiful cabinet “so that it doesn’t take over visually, spatially or
spiritually.”

Rita Konig, whose eponymous firm turns out projects on both sides of the
Atlantic, outlines the design brief for a snug: “Take what might otherwise be
considered the dud room and turn it into the very best space in the house.” A
small-scale room, she said, leaves clients free to experiment aesthetically and to
invest in sumptuous finishes. “You can go bonkers,” said Konig, who adds that
this is the place to splurge on a couch. “Find the deepest, snuggliest, most
comfortable sofa on earth.”

A cashmere-covered sofa and white oak panelling lend a cocoon-like feeling to this Maine nook
designed by New York’s Gachot Studios. PHOTO: WILLIAM JESS LAIRD

Hendricks compares a snug’s décor imperative to that of a powder room. Both let
you break rules and indulge. “I like to use large-scale and dramatic patterns that

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you wouldn’t be comfortable living with in a larger, more visible room,” she said.
“This is your cue to go a little tacky, see it as a folly.” If you lack a room you can
transform into a snug, she recommends nabbing an area within, say, an open-
plan great room, and building in a nook or window seat you can sequester behind
a fabric panel that pulls shut.

Snugs originated a few hundred years ago as quiet alcoves in cacophonous

British pubs, and shadowy hideaways in English country estates, where vast
halls designed for balls hogged all the windows and natural light. Those grand
reception rooms were “not conducive to everyday life,” explained Laura
Stephens, a London designer who specializes in applying modern schemes to
historic interiors. Such stately homes needed a separate, informal room where
people could comfortably sew, play instruments or read. Darker but less drafty
than other common areas, the snug generally welcomed readers and
needlepointers with a fire. “It was the cocoon of the home,” said Stephens.

Such rooms have been staples of British interior design in nearly every era, and
in all sorts of homes—city and country, upper and middle class—sometimes as a
little den off the kitchen, sometimes as a more remote spot offering happy
isolation.

The idea has now caught on in America, says Purple Cherry, often as a way to
repurpose formal dining rooms. In many of her projects, living rooms feature
large windows to frame the landscape and maximize views. During the chilly
season, she says, her clients prefer to retreat to what she calls winter rooms—
warm and tucked in, frequently cloaked in a dark color and free of outside views,
so occupants feel less exposed. “It feels like an act of self care,” she said.

This hunger for security goes back eons to cave-dwelling humans, says Anna
Ruth Gatlin, professor of interior design at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala.
“‘Contained’ meant safe. You could protect yourself in a small place with only
one entry and exit,” she said.

Sean Curran, an architect and interior designer at Dyer Brown in Boston, has
been fulfilling his clients’ entreaties for homey, screen-free zones for several
years. “My clients want a room away from it all,” he said, adding that people
entertain in smaller groups today, preferring to welcome a handful of guests into
a more convivial, scaled-down space optimized for “human connections.”

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Carlos Sanchez-Garcia’s British snug forgoes a TV altogether, as seen in ‘Sense of Place: Design
Inspired by Where We Live’ by Caitlin Flemming and Julie Goebel (Abrams, 2023). PHOTO:
STEPHANIE RUSSO

In Norfolk, England, interior designer Carlos Sanchez-Garcia created a “private

room” in his own home next to the kitchen. Though modest, its square footage
suffices to let him and his husband gather, play piano or rest by the fire. Sanchez-
Garcia said that both its diminutive size and dense array of personal items—
antique rugs, art and mementos—contribute to its comforting vibe. “Warmth is
not just about physical heat but memories and meaning,” he said.

However they are designed, in America or abroad, a snug should function as an

antidote, a cure for the ungainly great room and a balm for our harried modern
condition. “People have discovered that the oversize rooms we’ve cultivated for
years are simply not the best place in the house,” said Curran.

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