The best home designs are the ones that grow with your family. Anticipating your family’s needs ahead of time will help you arrive at a great home design. A solid home design is a fabulous investment. It will also help you save on renovation costs in the future.
There are key elements to designing a family home. If you take these into consideration in your extension and renovation design, you and your family will be able to enjoy your home at present and even as you grow and change.
It is every good home designer’s goal to design a home that’s for today, tomorrow and the future.
Knowing and Understanding The Family
Any home designer should take some time to get to know the family living in the home and the spaces they will occupy:
- Are there kids living in the home?
- Is there a baby on the way?
- Does the family love to entertain guests?
- Do one or more adults like to do a lot of work at home?
- Is anyone in the house hypersensitive to allergens?
- Do any of the family members have mobility issues?
- Is it a multi-generation household?
Knowing and understanding the dynamics of the family and how they operate in the household will help the designer create a home that will remain perfect for your family many years into the future.
Creating Spaces For Time Together And Time Alone
A private space for reading
A family will need time together as well as time apart within the home. Therefore, a home designer should create spaces that allow both.
This is a key to a family having a harmonious relationship with each other – to have separate spaces each can go to for time alone, to relax, recharge, and recover.
This is not only relevant to the adults, children also need time alone as they grow. They are going to need quiet time for reading, daydreaming, and playing.
Unsurprisingly, a good home design should inspire each member of the family.
Open spaces brighten the home and invite interaction
Creating Adaptable Spaces
A good home design features spaces that are adaptable. What is that you ask? This is how a home grows with your family when spaces adapt to suit your changing needs.
For example, a baby’s nursery becomes an office or vice versa.
By thinking many years ahead, you can create a home that is both adaptable and flexible.
Designing A Family Home With Adequate Storage Space
A well-designed home comes with adequate storage space for the whole family. You will be storing winter equipment, summer equipment, Christmas decorations, toys and memorabilia over the years.
Imagine all the hobbies each one of you will accumulate over the years. Living in Sydney with its wonderful beaches and great outdoors means often many varied activities. This is especially true for growing children. Therefore extra storage space is essential.
Designing A Sustainable Home
A home design that maximises sunlight and cross-ventilation to be energy-efficient, is a sustainable home. In a sustainable home, your family will feel comfortable in all seasons.
When I prepare a home renovation design in Sydney’s northern suburbs, I first consider where the house sits on the property in relation to the sun, prevailing winds and surrounding topography. This is important as the design of the floor plan should minimise your heating and cooling requirements.
Ideally, your main living spaces should be north-facing where possible because they will receive good daylight most of the day, and throughout the year. This is especially important in winter when the additional warmth and brightness make for very comfortable living.
In addition, for the summer months, the installation of horizontal shading on the windows to the north will prevent your home from overheating.
These are the keys to designing a family home in Sydney or anywhere in Australia.
Sustainable Home Design includes creating rooms that allow cross-ventilation
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