Interior Design Sense

The layout of your home is probably one of the most significant choices you will ever make regarding your home. Regardless if you live in an apartment, a condominium or a house, the layout of the rooms and how they flow will largely depend on your lifestyle.  Whether you prefer single story or multiple stories, and all the bedrooms on the top floor – choosing a perfect plan can be stressful.  Here are 5 tips to help you decide on a plan right for your family.

1.) Choose a floor plan that suits your lifestyle: In a previous post we discussed the pros and cons of having an open floor plan.  There are factors you should consider regardless of openness. Factors such as: layout of rooms with consideration of family size and ages of children is essential. Most families who have young children like to have the private spaces of the house – bedrooms and bathrooms grouped in one area of the home.  While families with teenagers and young adults prefer to have bedrooms separated from each other.  If you’re house hunting, these factors will be important when choosing a home to move into. Assess your current floor plan and what the pros and cons are.  You may like it, or would prefer to try a different one.

2.) Do you entertain often or rarely? Many home floor plans are centered on entertaining and welcoming guests the minute they step through the front door. A wide foyer opening into an open floor plan living and dining room and meandering to the outdoors would be perfect for guests visiting. Although, if you and your family are more private and don’t like your full home on display every time the front door is opened, you may opt for a formal living room adjacent to the front door. This will allow guests a place to immediately sit and feel comfortable while leaving the rest of your house private.

3.)    Single story or multistory? Many families enjoy single story homes for the quietness of no overhead foot traffic noise.  Some single story homes, or ‘Ranch’ style homes tend to group public rooms in the center and bedrooms and baths are located on the “wings” of the floor plan.  Multistory homes give the added benefit of views to the outside instead of looking directly into a neighbor’s window. Multistory homes also give each family member their own space and room to have privacy over single story floor plans.

4.)    Do certain functions of your home need special accessibility? Whether you have a live-in family member that needs extra space to maneuver or children who need extra wide hallways to run around, consider this factor when choosing a floor plan.  Older homes tend to have narrower hallways, doorways and often door head heights. Remember renovating or altering non load bearing wall locations in the future is an option.  Consider this if you fall in love with a floor plan but your family needs change over the years.

5.)    How much outdoor living do you wish to have? Your floor plan will most likely include an outdoor leisure area. Whether that is a porch, lanai, swimming pool or other amenities.  When choosing a floor plan, assess how much your family will use these outdoor leisure amenities. Similar to a large yard, it looks beautiful when you keep up with it, but can look terrible if you don’t.  Ensure you want the added responsibility of keeping up with the outdoor plan AND the indoors at the same time.

Deciding on a floor plan can be fun and frustrating at the same time.  Assess your family’s lifestyle and your preferences to how you enjoy living.  With patience your dream home floor plan will be easier to find than you think!

Freshome reader’s how did you choose the floor plan of your current home? Do you like it, or would you change it? Share with us your thoughts.

Click here to connect with Freshome on or on

• 

Here is a sumptuous project that can be considered a true showcase of modern living. “Open Air Sculpture” Residence was designed by Marek Rytych Architekt and is located in Warsaw, Poland. The first striking fact when looking at this home is its size. Here is some relevant information about its structure from the architects:”The house is a three storey building designed on the undulating area. The roughness of the area was used in a way that in the cellar section immersed in the ground there are storage rooms and in the section which has access to daylight there are guest rooms. Above them there is a daily living section, and higher there is a private section with bedrooms and bathrooms. The L-shaped solid is differentiated by terraces put on different levels and by numerous bay windows thanks to which the interiors can be illuminated.” We have to say that even though extremely large living spaces are not our style, we really appreciate this home’s diversity and interior design.

Click here to connect with Freshome on or on

• 

The Glass Pavilion in Montecito, California has been conceptualized by Steve Hermann with great contemporary chutzpah. Minimalist yet theatrical, the one floor rectangular house features five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a very sophisticated wine tasting room and something called an “art balcony”. The Glass Pavilion contravenes conventions and also coalesces art and architecture flawlessly.

Post from The Glass Pavilion In Montecito Is A Stunning Modern House

The Glass Pavilion in Montecito, California has been conceptualized by Steve Hermann with great contemporary chutzpah. Minimalist yet theatrical, the one floor rectangular house features five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a very sophisticated wine tasting room and something called an “art balcony”. The Glass Pavilion contravenes conventions and also coalesces art and architecture flawlessly.

Post from The Glass Pavilion In Montecito Is A Stunning Modern House

I was always fascinated by chrome finished modern bathroom fixtures and how pure, ellegant
and timeless they look. But after seeing the Faraway bath collection created by Zucchetti Kos, it was pure seduction for me… Ludovica+Roberto Palomba designers have brought the greatest renovation in the iconography of contemporary bathrooms. They had the vision:
“The bathroom as a place for sensory experience, a real or virtual journey to self-discovery”.

Shown above is a wall mounted lavatory chrome faucet from the Faraway Collection by Zucchetti Kos.

Wall mounted showerhead with rain blade jets and light in chrome from the Faraway Collection.

Freestanding lavatory faucet in chrome from the Faraway Collection.

Vessel bathroom faucet in chrome from the Faraway Collection

It’s a mix of contemporary, antique and custom that interior designer Justine Hugh-Jones brings to her work. Layering texture on texture in her mainly monochromatic rooms hers is an easy elegant style. It’s a refined Australian style but via France, Belgium and Scandinavia as Justine studied and worked in Europe before moving to Australia more than a decade ago. In this time Justine has really embraced a casual style that embraces the Australian light and the open plan living common here. I really love her bathrooms. I’m saving these in my inspiration file. (I just wish that the images on her website were bigger … I need to drink in the detail.)

Today’s trendy tiles are as much about feel as they are about looks, and we love a tile that goes a step beyond. The Corporea collection of tiles from Keros is as fabulous in the light as it is in the dark, thanks to its ornate tactile designs that transform your walls into art. Measuring 25 by 40 cm, these large-scale tiles come in a range of great colors, from the classic black and white to vibrant orange, fiery red and the boldest of the bold – green! Make it a daring move, or a subtle one – these tiles can do it all. Your bathrooms will thank you! For more info visit Keros.

Until now I have shown you various ways of saving precious space when it comes to kids playing areas, bathrooms or home offices. It’s now time to look at your kitchen, especially if it’s a very small one. The Cook ‘n’ Roll is a concept that adds plenty of utility to your crowded kitchen while looking cool in the process. Acting as an all-in-one kitchen furniture the Cook ‘n’ Roll offers you plenty of uses: cooktop, dishwasher, sink, oven, storage and sanitizer. The whole design is very daring and it proposes some ingenious solutions: an inductive cooking surface, sensory cleaning sticks (waterless dish-washing) and a sink, an infrared oven and a storage area. The Cook ‘n’ Roll is still just a concept for modern kitchens but we’ll definitely look forward for this one. Via Yanko Design

Post from Cook ‘n’ Roll Kitchen Table All-in-One: Cooktop, Dishwasher, Sink, Oven, Storage and Sanitizer

Ushering in a hi-tech era of bathroom hygiene, the Aqualet toilet by New Linea Italia is on our list of modern must-haves. This new toilet combines a sleek aesthetic with hi-tech features that make spa-inspired health and well-being an everyday luxury. A side control lets your operate this toilet’s various features, like the built-in bidet and its numerous functions. The toilet itself is a wall-mounted design that doesn’t take up any floor space, making this fixture ideal for compact bathrooms, cozy condos and small-but-sweet urban homes. Regardless of your space, luxury has a place in every home! For more details on the Aqualet visit New Linea.

Dana Wolter is a designer in Birmingham, Al whose website recently went live and she wanted to share it with us. This is a synopsis of what her firm is all about: “Known for custom interiors that blend comfort and elegance into one, Dana and her team create clean-lined spaces that feel as though they have evolved over time. Through the art of layering the various textures of fabric and wood, contrasting hard and soft surfaces against one another, using light to affect how a space is perceived, and combining modern, antique, and classical elements in a room, Dana Wolter Interiors designs spaces that are naturally sophisticated yet truly functional.” Her living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and bathrooms are classically beautiful, but she also has a way with creating wonderful children’s rooms that are classic in their own right, yet perfect for a youngster (those are after the jump).