How To Design Your Own Home

The decision to build a home can be overwhelming at the start. However, with online tools and careful visualization, you can find the best products and design features to suit your home and your future plans. To start, keep things simple to reduce the number of choices you need to make.

Choose An Exterior That Will Suit Your Intended Neighborhood

Often, building a new home means that you have to build in a new neighborhood. Carefully review any HOA restrictions to prevent expensive mistakes that you have to fix on a completed building.

Many new developments have just a few builders that focus on each development. Review any show homes offered by these builders and be ready to stick with the colors and finishes most prevalent in the neighborhood. To avoid hassles, make your home unique on the inside.

Visualize Each Space From The Doorway

When you walk in the front door, what do you want to see? Many new homeowners and first-time homebuilders can get bogged down in what you put in the house. Try to see the space without furniture. If you plan to have a foyer, what do you want to see on the floor? How will it sound when you walk in? What kind of lighting would make you feel at home?

Stay as practical as possible. A white floor sounds elegant until you get a dog. Misty grey carpet is appealing until your child rides their tricycle off the deck through your lovely pale living room. Your future needs have to come into consideration when designing your home right now.

Customize To Your Next Five Years

Do you plan to have children in this house? Are you going to retire in place in this house? Design your home with an eye on your future needs. Having a home with a bedroom and bathroom on the main floor will work for everyone, as anyone can suffer an injury and need to avoid stairs for a time. Nearly everything else is up for grabs and customizable.

For example, if you plan to retire in place, setting up your laundry space beside the bedrooms will reduce your risk of a tumble down the stairs with a basket of dirty clothes. If you plan to have children, put some extra money into your yard security, especially the railing and edges on your deck. Be ready for cabinet bumps and dings. You may want to wait to install that custom kitchen. For those who want a pool, fencing and security are of critical importance.

Focus On Footprint

It can be tempting to fill your new home with customizations such as built-in cabinetry or shelving. However, these features may limit your options once you get moved in. Instead, focus on the best footprint for you and your household.

Working with designers that offer access to custom tools such as 3d laser scanning services can help you get a truer sense of space for your home design. As possible, set up your new home with as open a structure as possible and create custom storage features after functioning in the space for a time. One poorly placed doorway or closet can severely limit your joy in your home over time. Moving these customizations after the fact can be disruptive and messy.

Your new home will need to work for you now and in the future. If there is something you absolutely have to have, such as an outdoor kitchen or a pool table and game room, work with your designer to customize your patio or your living space to allow these items.