How to Design Your Own Dream Home

November 25th, 2011

Having the chance to design your dream home is a rare one, but if you are ever in the fortunate position of being able to do so then you should be aware it takes considerable time, planning and money. Most people will choose to go to a professional architect to get it done, but this can be expensive.

You can, however, save money by doing at least part of the design yourself. Begin by making a list of must-haves and a separate wish list of things you’d like. Your must have list is going to contain the obvious – a bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom – while you wishlist could contain en suite bathrooms, a games room or a sauna or swimming pool.

Now prioritise your must have list. Which rooms do you envisage seeing yourself using the most? It is likely to be your kitchen or living room, depending on your lifestyle and personality. This is where your focus should lie when it comes to designing your home.

You’ll know how much space you have to work with so if, for example, the kitchen is going to be your most important room allocate as much space as you can to it, then less for your second most important room and work your way down the list like that, not forgetting essentials like stairways and connecting corridors.

What you are doing is creating a basic floorplan. Once you have the essential rooms in place, ask yourself if you have room for more – then move on to your wish list, adding the en suite to your master bedroom or creating a games room near the kitchen.

At this point you’ll want to take your rough plans to a professional so they can create proper site plans and blue prints. You will also need to have decided on the style of building you want. Before any building work can be carried out you’ll need these professional plans so it can’t be avoided.

Once your professional plans are drawn up and you’ve agreed on the style, size of the rooms and number of floors and you have sourced a good, reliable builder, you can turn your attention to the interior while basic building gets underway.

Here it is a good idea to utilise interior design software such as kitchen design software and bathroom design software as it will allow you to design your rooms right down to the finest detail, including decor, fixtures, fittings and even location of furniture, TVs and the like.

This 3D CAD software will save you a lot of time and money in the long run as you design your dream home. As your main building work nears completion you can take your interior designs and begin purchasing the required materials, including bathroom suites, kitchen suites, carpets, floorcoverings and lighting.

A skilled interior designer may be able to help you out at this point, though there is obviously a cost to that too. Your builders will want the fixtures and fittings to install on your behalf, so don’t leave it until the last minute!

When building work is finally complete you can add your finishing touches with furniture, curtains and any other special, personal items you wanted. After months of planning, months of design, months of building and weeks of finishing off you will be left with the home you always wanted – and probably a large hole in your savings – but it will be well worth it.

Posted in Home Plans

Garden Rooms As a Good Alternative to Conservatories

November 25th, 2011

Conservatories have become one of the most popular ways to extend our homes. The high cost of moving and the more relaxed legislation on planning permission are some of the reasons why many people choose to extend, and a conservatory offers the added benefit of natural light. If you’re extending a north-facing property then light is a real concern as any extension would darken the existing room. A south-facing conservatory, however, presents a different problem, because here there can be too much sunlight. This article takes a brief look at an alternative to the conservatory extension, the garden room, which can be a good all-round solution.

To many, the garden room is a new idea, but in actual fact they’ve been around for some time. The essential difference to a conservatory is that the garden room has a solid roof rather than one made from glass or transparent plastic. The benefit of natural light is retained in a garden room, but this is provided through large glass windows and a glass gable front. The gable is the part of the roof that forms the triangle, as you look at the end of the roof. The roof itself is then tiled or slated as with a regular extension.

Advantages of a Garden Room

One of the advantages of a garden room over a conservatory is that it will not become so hot in the summer, a common problem for south-facing conservatories. In such cases many people find that after their first good summer they need to either install blinds in their conservatory or have air-conditioning fitted. This demands both added expense and another task to perform when you probably just want to sit and enjoy looking out onto your garden. The solid roof of a garden room instead of a glass one can provide a balance of natural light over too much heat.

Then there is the opposite situation that all conservatory owners experience in the winter – the loss of heat through the glass roof. Glass generally loses heat faster than a tiled or slated roof and this can be long-term cost benefit of a garden room. There is also less maintenance with a solid roof. Whereas glass and plastic needs regular maintenance, there is little cleaning required for a tiled or slated roof.

Finally, there is the issue of taste. For many people a conservatory roof renders the extension as one that will always look like a ‘bolt-on’ addition. This is particularly true for more traditional homes, where the modern conservatory clashes with the classic feel of the existing building. The glass roof is often the culprit for this clash of old and new. A garden room can provide a solution here, if a matching roofing material is used then the new and old can be blended so that after a little weathering the extension looks like it ‘belongs’ where it is.

Sometimes the term garden room is used to describe a free-standing building located literally in the garden. To save confusion, however, these buildings are increasingly referred to as ‘garden houses’.

Posted in Home Plans