Home Design + Life at Home
For several weeks now, many of us have been at home far more than ever before. Whether it’s working from home or homeschooling the kids, the good and bad of a home design have become noticeable. Not enough room to setup a home office? No quiet space for the kids’ temporary desks? No matter your specific circumstance, there are some helpful home design lessons to be learned during this time. As an architect-led builder, we have the benefit of designing the spaces that we build. This allows us to design a home that meets a family’s needs today and can adjust to their needs as their lives change.
Here are some of our favorite design elements that help our families thrive now and into the future
Pocket Offices – A unique design feature to have a usable office space that is private, without sacrificing an entire bedroom. This is perfect for someone who doesn’t need to work from home full-time but works from home occasionally or needs a secluded space in the home to work during extended home-stays like our current situation. We often include pocket offices in our home designs and homeowners love them!
Flexible Rooms – Playroom, den, dining area for holiday gatherings, or all the above? Flexibility has never been more valuable than it is now. While homeowners are around the house more, the ability to flex a room into a classroom for the kids or a playroom for younger children, can make the transition easier for everyone. That very same room can become a den if a second TV is needed or can fit an extra table or two during the holidays allowing everyone to eat at the same time. There’s no better way to future-proof your home than adding a flex room!
Indoor-Outdoor Spaces – Getting fresh air is great, but Wisconsin weather doesn’t always make it easy. Sunrooms, screen porches, and covered porches are all desirable features that we are increasingly putting into our home designs. As an example, most of our stand-alone condos at The Preserve have a covered porch, screened porch, or a fully conditioned sunroom. These indoor-outdoor spaces can bring the outdoors in when the weather is good outside, while they can also bring the indoors out when the weather isn’t so good. Fresh air is always a plus and these indoor-outdoor spaces give our home designs more fresh air.
Healthy Homes – Speaking of fresh air, as we spend more time in our homes, the home health aspect becomes more important. Our designs improve home health including automatic filtered fresh air, higher rated furnace filters, UV lights to kill bacteria, and thermostat functions to control moisture and reduce mold potential.