How to Design a Custom Home for Your Family
Designing a custom home is one of life’s most rewarding experiences. With the freedom to craft any lifestyle you have in mind, a custom home is the best way to build a house that’s tailored to your family’s needs. If you’re thinking about building, the article below has a few tips on how to design a custom home for your family!
1. Decide Which Features Your Family Needs
The best place to begin your custom home design is with your list of needs. These are the non-negotiable features that you’re determined to include for practical or lifestyle reasons. Your custom design will take shape around these features, so it’s important to get them right. Consider things like:
The number of bedrooms and bathrooms you need
Additional living areas like theatre rooms
Kitchens and luxury features like butler’s pantries
Outdoor entertainment areas
Office and workshop spaces
While figuring out your core requirements, take a moment to think about how your lifestyle will look in 5 to 10 years. Building a custom home is a big project, so it pays to make sure the home includes everything your family needs for the foreseeable future.
2. Add Some ‘Wants’ to Your Wishlist
Once you know what you need, it’s time to think about the features that would be nice to include! If you need space to entertain your friends, a gallery to display your art collection or a separate teenager’s retreat, this is your chance to build those things into your custom home design.
A good way to make your wishlist is to dream big and then pare it back to suit your budget. Don’t forget to involve the whole family! Designing a custom home or home extension should be exciting, and your kids may have some helpful input about how they’d like to use your new home.
3. Choose a Design Aesthetic
Design aesthetics can have a big impact on the layout of your custom home. For instance, farmstead homes are known for being sprawling, single-storey designs. Meanwhile, a Hampton’s home is likely to be multiple storeys and feature breezy, open-plan living areas. There are no right and wrong answers here, and you don’t need to commit to a single design style. If you need some inspiration, research the architects and designers in your area to get a feel for their style and how any previous projects turned out.
4. Think About the Layout
Designing a home’s layout can be tricky. There are lots of things to consider, and it’s likely to take a few attempts before you get it right. Spend some time thinking about how you use your current home and what you do or don’t like about the property. Then, use that information to make improvements to your custom home design until it suits your lifestyle perfectly!
Here are a few things you should think about when designing your layout:
Do you want separation between the living and bedroom areas?
Do you want separation between the master suite and the other rooms?
For multi-storey homes, which rooms go on which floor?
How the indoor and outdoor spaces interact
The number of entrances and whether rooms like the laundry need an external door
How rooms are grouped together, like placing the playroom near the central living area
Whether areas like your home office need additional privacy
5. Consider Practical Limits
It’s easy to come up with a long list of your needs and wants, but it’s not always simple to fit them into your final design. The biggest limits are typically the block of land you’re building on, local council restrictions and your budget. If you already have a block of land to build with, it’s worth visiting the site to get a feel for how your new home should sit on the property. You’ll need to think about things like:
The size and shape of the block
How many storeys you want
Features like slopes or ocean views you want to take advantage of
Local height restrictions
Access to the road
Neighbouring homes and privacy
Sustainability factors like block orientation and how the sun travels through the sky
6. Draw Some Rough Sketches
This final step is optional, but sketching floorplan ideas is a good way to figure out what you want. You don’t need to produce a professional-quality blueprint. The important thing is to get your big ideas on the page so that your designer has something to work with. A skilled architect or draftsman will be able to sort out the details, refine your ideas and add in anything you’ve missed, but rough sketches are a great way to get the ball rolling!
Build a Custom Home for Your Family with the Team at SSR Projects!
Designing a custom home can be a lot of fun! You have complete freedom to craft anything you want, so it’s possible to create a home that’s perfect for your family. If you’re unsure where to start, or if you already have plans and you’re ready to build, get in touch with SSR Projects! SSR Projects is a custom home builder in Sydney. Our team specialises in waterfront construction and building high end homes that feature incredible details and quality materials. Working with leading designers and architects, we craft considered homes that can transform and support your new lifestyle. Whatever your family needs from a new home, working with SSR projects means you can build with confidence. Contact us for more information or for a quote on your project!