Buying a new home is a really exciting time, full of possibilities. Whether you’re a first-time buyer, looking for a bigger home to suit your family, or downsizing as part of retirement, here are just some of the design features you should look out for in a future home.
Open plan
This depends on your preference for a home, but open-plan designs are very popular for a reason. Perfect if you enjoy hosting and socialising at home, open-plan designs allow for easy communication throughout the home. This design is also useful if you have children as it means you are all able to be in the same space doing different things such as cooking and playing.
Open-plan rooms often also benefit from being brighter and are often easier to navigate when deciding where to place your furniture. Another benefit of buying a house with an open-plan layout is that you can easily create segregated zones using furniture and colour blocking, whereas doing it the opposite way around and trying to create an open-plan space in a home that doesn’t have it often includes intense and costly renovations. Do some research into new homes as part of your house hunt, as these often have this design feature.
The kitchen triangle
A common term used in home design is the ‘kitchen triangle’. This is the concept of having a triangle shape between your fridge, stove, and sink. The purpose of this setup is to create a logical flow through your kitchen for when you are cooking to reduce the movement required, making the whole process easier.
Similar to open plan, buying a home that already has this layout will save you time and money in renovation costs. Consider how you use your kitchen and whether this would work for you.
Direction facing
For many of us, we are willing to overlook certain design choices in a future home as we know we can make changes later down the line to meet our own needs. One design choice that cannot be changed is the direction in which the house and garden face.
Do some research into the benefits of homes facing certain directions and consider what is most important to you when viewing houses. Do you want your garden to get sun throughout the day? Or are you more concerned about avoiding extreme heat during the day? Be sure to take these things into consideration.
Windows
Windows can be very expensive to replace and doing so can also be very disruptive. Therefore, it is best to look for a home that has been designed well in terms of windows. There are two main things you need to consider with windows: the size and the positioning.
Combined, these two factors directly impact the amount of natural light you will receive and the views you get. Look for a home that has large windows, double-glazed if possible, with considered placement for the best views possible.
Entryway/Porch
Increasing in popularity, a covered entryway or porch is a great design feature to look out for in your next home. These are effective in ensuring less mess throughout your home and can be useful for the storage of shoes and outerwear. They are particularly useful if you live somewhere with extreme weather conditions as they offer a dedicated area for taking off potentially wet and muddy shoes.