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You’ve finally found the floor plan with all the flexibility you need. Now it’s time to make the home’s living, sleeping, work and play spaces as malleable as possible. How? By designing with an eye for change.
Some of that design takes place with the builder’s design center; it’s best to choose anything that’s fixed and permanent before construction. Deciding later will add wait time and cost to the process.
To start, ask builders to explain their design process. Most, if not all, use a form of simulated design.
Using digital renderings of a home’s floor plan and design elements, buyers can see digital renderings of design choices in their home’s actual floor plan and decide what fits their style and needs.
Coupled with seeing and touching the finalists in flooring, cabinetry, masonry and more, the process provides a clear view of the future home’s look and feel.
Think about floors
Why create dividing lines if not necessary? If transitional and flexible spaces are a priority, let the floors flow. Luxury vinyl, hardwoods and other stone, tile or hardwoods and many kinds of carpet come in so many attractive — and durable — varieties now that a good floor can cover, well, an entire floor of a home.
Exceptions might include bathrooms, mudrooms or laundry areas. In those rooms, get creative with tile or even with attractive, washable rugs.
Some buyers may choose inlays or accents in spaces that are permanently fixed. Those might include a marble or travertine tile in the front entryway or wood accent inlays in certain areas of the kitchen.
Ask about doors
Do all your doors need to be hinged doors that open into the room? Perhaps not. Before construction, ask about doorways that might accommodate alternatives such as pocket doors, all-glass French doors, sliding or stacking barn doors and more. The builder may have even more ideas.
What about closet doors? While builder-grade, sliding closet doors may lack character, they allow more flexibility than closet doors that open out and would interfere with or bump up against furniture or decorative items.
Ask the design and construction teams about aesthetic alternatives to builder-grade sliding closet doors to spiff up the look. Some may have paneled, mirrored or even framed options.
Consider more flexible lighting
A chandelier centered where the kitchen and dining room tables will go upon move in may sound like a bright idea. But when the table needs to be larger or turned at a different angle, the light will cast down unevenly and may give the room a lopsided feel.
Consider, instead, tray ceilings with rope lighting or flush-mount ceiling fixtures with contemporary styles in asymmetrical groupings above task areas. These options allow furniture to be moved or turned without looking like the furniture, or the lighting, is off center.
Instead of clustering together recessed lights over specific task areas, ask the builder for ideas on spreading out the lights evenly around each room or space, such as in kitchen and great room combos; the primary bedroom; the home office space; the living and dining room combo; a loft area or bedroom used for multiple purposes.
The lights can even be installed in switch groups, including dimmers, to control how much light shines in what part of a space and when. Switches make rooms and transitional spaces more flexible.
Not thrilled with the standard offerings in recessed lighting? Look at other choices. Instead of basic canned lights, consider spiffing them up with prettier trims made of metals with a bronze or brushed nickel look or even including decorative molding in the same shade as the ceiling.
Make the most of entryways
The same goes for any other porches, decks and variations on the front step, the back door or the side entrance. For that matter, even space on the other side of the door into the home from an attached garage can be made functional and attractive.
To design or decorate these spaces, focus on creating a welcoming style that is more purposeful than a simple entry, walkway or hallway. Consider a comfortable banquette near a front or side door with a low-profile floor lamp beside it.
Cozy chairs or benches may even include storage cabinets under the seating area for everything from shoes to pet food bags to towels for wiping up entryway floors.
Originally published at Cameron Sullivan