The Top 5 Custom Home Design Trends of 2021
At Springhouse Architects, we've been designing a lot of modern homes and renovations lately. That being said, we also design quite a bit of traditional architecture, which is just as lovely. When it comes to style, anything that’s unique and special to you is unique and special to us. At the end of the day, we want your space to serve you and your family—a place to restore, relax and feel safe. This is what home is supposed to be.
Although everyone’s style varies, design trends are inevitable. While some are aesthetic in nature, others are more practical. Let’s take a look at five design trends for custom homes we’ve been seeing with our clients lately.
1. Intimate Dens & Closed Off Small Spaces
Open floor plans have been trendy for many years now—everyone loves them, and we love designing them, too. There are many techniques to make them feel cozier, as well. However, more and more people are asking for smaller, intimate spaces that are closed off, where they can sit and read a book or watch TV.
In the 90s and early 2000s, we called this a den. One of our clients calls it her cozy room—with two couches, a TV and lots of windows. Before open floor plans, living rooms and sometimes sunrooms used to meet this purpose, but over time, we did away with this. Now people are noticing they want this private space back. You can also think of it as a flex room with multiple purposes over the lifetime of your home.
2. An Indoor-Outdoor Space
At Springhouse, we’ve been having a lot of conversations about indoor-outdoor spaces. This is more than just a patio with a fire pit or a covered space with an entire kitchen outside. Although we’re still doing all of these renovations, a true indoor-outdoor space is more of a transition space—one that’s gradually moving from indoors to outdoors. It may be covered, but it’s furnished and finished more like a living room but open to the outdoors.
Outdoor dining spaces are making a comeback, in general—particularly, one that can be totally opened up from the kitchen space to an outdoor dining space. Some of them are screened in, but most of them still aren't. At this moment in time, we're incorporating a lot of retractable screens, so when there aren't a lot of bugs out, you can have a truly open air space, and then those retractable screens can come down. Lucky for you, they're coming down in price too.
3. At-Home Offices
Home office spaces are coming back for obvious reasons, but paradigms are shifting in actual office buildings, too. Many people are working in these spaces just like you work at home. Grey walls with hundreds of cubicles are turning into something more comfortable with good lighting. People have learned that sitting forward and upright at a desk all day long is uncomfortable, and certainly doesn’t inspire a healthy work environment.
When it comes to your home office space, however, we don’t mean the room off the foyer with cherry wood cabinets and trim. It could be that we’re designing your dining room so you can work and are able to move to the couch while still being connected. There are a few things you’ll need to invest in to make a home office situation work for telecommuting—stick around in the coming weeks where we’ll have an expert give their opinion.
4. Storage
Storage space has been on the design trend list since the beginning of time, but lately, we’re rethinking it quite a bit—something that isn’t limited to an unfinished room in your basement. For example, you may want us to design a specific holiday closet. Let’s say you love decorating for the holidays, but hate going in the basement to get your stuff. Since this is your custom home, you can request a storage closet on the first floor specifically for their holiday decor, like a simple walk-in closet.
We're also creating custom storage for people who love to craft. A place where everything can be put away and closed off, but easy to access. Gone are the days of pulling out bins from the dark, spidery basement. We even do storage for people who own a lot of cars. We may keep the garage for cars, and then create some other outdoor storage for your pool, lawn care, or bikes, for example.
5. Different Materials
Lastly, our team at Springhouse has been super excited about using different materials. Materials are exploding right now—whether Shou Sugi Ban, vibrant colors, and even metal siding. People are more accepting of different material options these days, especially in a modern setting with material blocking, rather than a stone water table and siding above it. We’ve also been using a really heavy gauge vinyl siding, made with rigid insulation backing, so you don't get any warping or movement that you might identify with vinyl siding and the insulation value of a continuous plane is amazing.
Bottom line? Be open to materials! At Springhouse, we can work within different budgets. While some materials are sky-high, others are coming down in price for a more modest project.
Have any questions?
Although we covered a lot in this post, you may still have some other questions about the biggest custom home design trends in 2021. Whether you’re involved in the custom home process now, or even just considering it, join our free Facebook group—we’ll help you answer any questions you might have! Also, feel free to invite anyone that you think would benefit from this collaborative. You’ll not only get advice from me, but from other people who have been through this, too.
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When it comes to designing and building a custom home, nothing beats having a trusted, experienced team of architects on your side. Let’s set up a call to meet, discuss your goals, answer your questions, and settle your fears. We can’t wait to meet you!