I get most my inspiration for interior design from Pinterest and Houzz. There’s people who can do it better than me so I’m not shy when it comes to taking some ideas! However I think a big let down is when you see a lavish room but then there’s an eyesore which is a trade radiator that’s been in place since the properties first central heating installation!
I decided to look at what are the ways of bringing radiators into the 21st Century. I ended up going with the third option and will post about the process I took in getting them. The following are some of the ways you can make the radiator part of the space!
1. Cover your radiators
This would be the most traditional way of dealing with the mass of metal that contrasts your design. Albeit they all tend to look similar but at least you have the flexibility of being able to paint it in whatever colour suits your needs. They also bring another level of functionality as a shelf. More intricate designs could have even more storage as shown in the third pin.
2. Blend them in?
The next option is definitely a step up from leaving them as is. Painting the radiator the same colour as the walls certainly adds aesthetic appeal to the room. Just make sure to get the right kind of paint for it as it needs to withstand substantial temperature ranges! I really wanted to do some of my rooms like this. The main drawback that prevented me from going with it is that a colour change then requires the radiator to also be changed. This might not be a major downside for some but any less painting I can get away with I’m up for!
3. Make a statement
The boldest move. You could hide the radiator away or trying to blend it into the background. Or you could make the radiator a piece of the design for the room. The range of radiator designs now are endless and there are too many to choose from. These designs are certainly pushing the boat and they almost look like pieces of art! In the UK I haven’t seen much adoption of this when looking at houses for sale so I believe it’s a truly stand out way of making a space look from just nice to well thought out.
Depending on the design of your decor there is a radiator to suit your needs. Contemporary and traditional alike you won’t be limited by colour, style or theme you’re going for. Whilst I sit in my unfinished house I’ve had more people compliment my radiators than my flooring. I’m not sure if I should be proud or not!
Is cost a factor?
Once I saw the world of designer radiators, I couldn’t settle for less. With a overstretched budget I really had to be conscious on how much more it would cost just for going with the fancy option. Fortunately I will post later on with how I managed to source designer radiators at the same price as trade ones.
What to initially consider
Heat output of your current radiators.
Is the current radiator heating your room up enough?
I found the dining room in the back of our house didn’t warm the room up enough. I tried balancing the system and adjusting the valves to let more heat in. Turns out the radiator wasn’t big enough but also the pipes feeding it was a smaller diameter than the rest of the house. So simply putting a bigger radiator in wasn’t going sort the problem with the lack of heat.
This meant that the dining room radiator was a lot more work than a like for like size replacement as I ended up replacing the pipes under the floorboards. This was to allow a bigger radiator in the space and also to use a wider diameter of pipe. By having the pipe diameter the same to the rest of the house meant that the pressure would be equal to the other rooms.
BTU calculations
You can also use online calculators such as this to find out the BTU units required to heat the space. Be mindful that some sellers use different BTUs as it’s recorded at two different temperatures. Use this figure as a guideline to what the minimum size radiator you need. There’s no problem going over because you can adjust the valves to balance the entire system. Once you have calculated BTUs you can discount all the radiators that are too small or designs that won’t cut it for larger spaces.
What can your boiler handle?
It’s worth checking out the total power output of your boiler in case it’s already serving the maximum limit to the house. If that would be the case then upgrading to bigger radiators will start having a negative effect on the rest of the house.
I had to add a radiator to the system as one of the bedrooms didn’t have one in. We actually only realised til after we bought the house! It’s not an obvious thing to initially check when you know the property has central heating. We’ll certainly be checking every room for any future house purchases!
So before I went to spec this additional radiator I made sure the boiler would be able to cope with the extra demand. I was several radiators under the limit so this wasn’t a concern after I checked.
My next post will go in depth with where I got my designer radiators from and how I made sure they were from a trustworthy source!
Before I could start upgrading my radiators I would of course need to drain the central heating. Unfortunately I ran into a bit of a problem when I found a couple of isolator valves…