Home Design 101: Three Mistakes People Make When They Plan Their Home

The one thing people love about working with Custom Smart Homes is the fact that they get to design their own modular home.  Nationwide Homes has plenty of floor plans and layouts to choose from, but many people choose to get creative and add their own special features to their home.  We’ve built plenty of homes over the years, and we’ve seen home owners make the same mistakes over and over again.  When you’re designing your new dream home, try to avoid making these design mistakes.

Under estimating the amount of dining room space

The dining room has faded out of popularity in favor of kitchens and eating away from the kitchen table, but plenty of home owners envision having dinner parties in their fabulous new dining rooms.  A lot of people under estimate the amount of space they’re going to need in their dining room.  Think about it: you’ll need room for a long table, chairs, and guests, and all of them need to fit comfortable in the room.  There’s nothing worse than sitting elbow to elbow at a tightly packed table, so do your best to make your dining room as spacious as possible.

Forgetting about cabinet space

When you’re planning your kitchen make sure you have enough cabinets for cookware, glasses, dishes, appliances, and food.  When most people design their kitchen they think about where they want to put major appliance, and not about how they’re going to store their essential kitchen items.  Home builders and interior designers gush about having ample counter space, but if you want to have a functional and good looking kitchen you’re going to need a lot of cabinets for storage. 

Making a home too big

You’ve always envisioned that your dream home would be spacious, but having too much space can backfire on you.  Having space for the sake of space isn’t the most cost effective way to design a home.  You’re essentially going to be paying thousands of dollars for space you’ll never use.  You’ll also have the added problem of trying to maintain a large home.  Imagine spending time mowing a large lawn you never step on, and removing layers of dust from rooms you don’t spend time in.  Plan your home carefully and think about how you’re going to use each square foot.

Three Things To Think About When Planning A Home

Since Custom Smart Homes uses modular home building methods, some people think that they don’t need to do much planning for their home design.  You can easily choose any of the custom home plans, but it’s still important to think about your home’s layout so that you can properly plan it.  If you’re looking over our floor plans, think about these factors before you decide on one.

Think About Privacy

Whether you’re an open book or you enjoy your privacy, your feelings about personal space should factor into your home design.  Have you always envisioned building a house with an open floor plan, or do you like to have some walls up so that you can have your privacy?  Do you have young children that you need to check up on frequently, or do you have older teens that need their privacy?  

Think About Company

If you’re a social butter fly, you’ll want to design your home so that it’ll be ideal for entertaining others and have enough space to accommodate everyone.  If you like throwing parties, you may want to have more of an open floor design so that guests have plenty of room to mingle and explore their surroundings.  You should also consider building a few guest rooms so that friends that live far away will have a place to stay when they come visit.

Think About Stories

Multistory homes are common, but that doesn’t mean that your home has to have multiple stories.  Each home style has its own unique elements.  Many single story homes tend to have more “public” rooms like the kitchen and family room in the middle, and has bedrooms located on the end of the home.  Multistory homes can give you a nice view of the neighborhood instead of your neighbor’s kitchen window, and some find that it’s easier to maintain separate stories.