Managing Acoustics

Sometimes people create a whole space without considering what the ambient soundscape will be.  They may consider where to place speakers for the sound system they will install but not what user ears will experience when that sound system is off.

• The sort of floorplan in place, the zones you’ve established, have a lot to do with the acoustic situation. Try to group spaces that will be similarly noisy together (say, the kitchen and the family room) and separate spaces with different noise profiles (i.e., where you expect or need different noise conditions, for example, bedrooms and family room).  Transition zones, for example, hallways can act as noise buffers, to some extent, and can themselves be managed noise-wise (a corridor can be carpeted or not),
• Harder surfaces lead to echoing and echoes make us feel tense. Carpets and hanging textiles (on walls or at windows) make echoes less likely.  Uncurtained windows, ones without blinds, are large hard surfaces and they send sound ricocheting around.  Sure, curtains and blinds can block views, but you may be particularly happy to have them at night when those views disappear and you’re still in your home.
• To some extent, green leafy plants can prevent sound waves from rolling through a space but plants, by their very nature are not a solid mass, they are, well, leafy. Plants help people feel calmer, however, and anything that brings calm, whether it’s vegetation or wall colours, etc., will make it more likely that people will be quieter.
• Different shoes make different sorts of sounds on different surfaces, some of which can be more abrasive than others. Users wear sneakers?  Then hard surfaces that will cause those sneakers to squeak can be annoying. Leather soled shoes sound different on terra cotta tiles, and slate, and marble, and wood, and carpet . . . —check them out at the home improvement store before you buy to coordinate choices with what users are likely to be wearing.  Ceiling height can affect these effects, but that can be more difficult to factor in as you test, but bear in mind that higher ceilings will create a more formal vibe, acoustically and otherwise.
• Adding soundproofing materials to walls is sometimes an option. If you play the tuba professionally soundproofing may not be much of an option, for example. And remember, your home may be a quiet oasis now, but what if someone who plays the tuba moves in next store or upstairs?  Soundproofing may save your sanity.  You can decide to soundproof part of your home or all of it.  Don’t think about creating a silent space—that’s impossible anyway and if you succeeded, all that nothingness acoustically would drive you mad.  If you wear lots of stiletto heels, etc., you may want to consider putting down rugs to save the sanity of people who live on the floor below you—being sound-conscious makes you a good neighbour and remember the Golden Rule—do onto others as you’d like them to do onto you.
• Maybe you don’t want to think about adding a sound system to your home, you’re not a person who’s into music. There are good arguments for putting it in anyway—for example, when we hear nature sounds, the sort that might be present in a meadow on a lovely spring day (for instance burbling brooks, gently rustling leaves and grasses, peacefully calling birds) we relax, and our mental performance improves.  If you live in the right spot and can open your windows you may be able to add this sort of naturescape to your home for free for lots of the year (and the ability to do so may make all the effort to keep a garden alive worth it), but the whole year?  Probably not.  Add the speakers and source that nature soundscape online.