Designing your dream home can be exciting. You get to choose a design that brings out your preference and your family’s personality. The best part is that you don’t have to be a professional architect to design your home.
You just develop a plan to guide your builder or architect to get a scope of how exactly you envision your home to look after completion. But what exactly should you consider when designing your home? This article guides you through designing your home.
- Budget
Your budget is the primary determinant in building your dream home. Customizing your design may be costly. If you need more than your finances along the way, you may have to decide what items on your list you can drop. Your budget should also include funds you’ve set aside for unexpected problems.
Your budget should have allocations for building permit fees, site work, inspections and architect fees. Secure some of your funds for the foundation, framing, exterior and interior finishes, driveway, deck, HVAC and plumbing.
- House Placement
Once you have your budget, the next consideration should be which part of your property you want to construct your home. The location should allow for as much natural light as possible. Your site of choice might determine your room placement.
If you’re designing a home in a cold area, natural light and warmth will help you save on energy costs. However, if you’re building in warmer climates with direct sunlight, consider building your house under tree shade.
Building on hills affects your sewer and drainage system even though they may have the most beautiful views. If you build at the bottom of the hill, ensure you direct rainwater runoff away from your foundation. You should also consider leaving enough space if you consider putting up more structures in the future.
- Lifestyle
Your lifestyle affects the design you choose. Factors like the number of bedrooms, hosting dinner parties or whether you work from are some lifestyle choices that will determine your design. List these preferences before you settle on a plan.
- Choose A Style
We all have different choices when it comes to our homes. Designing a dream home may not necessarily be everyone else’s choice. There are other designs apart from the modern and traditional styles. Here are a few sample styles you can choose from:
- Cape Cod
- Contemporary
- Farmhouse
- Ranch
- Craftsman
- Cottage
- Country French
- Colonial
- Mid-century modern
- Victorian Tudor
Don’t forget to research online for a home design guide to help you identify a design that suits you.
- Present Your Brief To The Architect
If you work with an architect, give them your design brief before construction. A design brief explains to your architect all your space requirements and vision for the project. The more details you provide, the easier it will be for him to envision your ideal home.
Add more details in your brief and include information. You might also want to include the time frame for completion, floor plans, budget, style, room requirements and images if you have any. Arrange your wishlist in terms of priority so the architect can easily find anything he deems unnecessary with your priorities in mind.
- Floor Plans
You can use hand-drawn sketches or home design software to develop your floor plans. For hand drawing, you roughly sketch with a pencil and paper. It gives your architect a rough idea of what you want but might give you an incomplete picture of your expectations. It’s hard to tell the exact measurements, whether your floor plan size will accommodate closets, bulky furniture or other fixtures.
The modern way of creating floor plans is using home design software. Two popular ones are SketchUp and AutoCAD. Either software is available online and allows you to draw with exact floor measurements. Using these tools assures you the floor plan will look like what you’ve pictured and that each door and window will be where you planned it to be.
The software also lets you drop premade 3D furniture designs. This way, you can decide whether to increase or reduce the floor size or change the whole plan. You can view photorealistic 3D images you can view from any angle.
If you have never used home design software, use your current home as a benchmark for the exact measurements. It might take a few designs and adjustments before settling on a final design.
Conclusion
Designing your home shouldn’t be a scary experience. Similar to finding a guide to buying a new build home online, you can also find several designs that match your aesthetic. Remember to choose a design that stays relevant years later. Remember, once you’ve built your house, you don’t get to change the entire structure.
