Television has tons of programs about homebuyers, and if you’ve sat through one of these shows, you’ve probably seen house hunters look for homes that have been built with open floor plans, multipurpose laundry rooms, upscale master bathrooms, spacious kitchens, smart technology features, and enclosed porches that are ideal year-round. Those who can’t afford a new home built to their specifications often opt to redesign an existing home by upgrading it with all the features they desire.
But what if you do have the option of building your new home? Just think of all the practical features you can add that are often not found in most homes available for sale.
For those serious about having their home built from the ground up, it’s important to consider what features you can’t live without and what features you would like to have when planning how you want your new home to look. After all, the goal of building your own home is to make sure it has all the comforts, amenities, and luxuries you want in the ideal home.
Now, let’s take a moment and explore some of the latest trends in custom-built homes.
1. Jetted Utility/Laundry Sink
The sink where you wash and prepare food is not the ideal place to soak soiled clothing. You can free up your kitchen sink by building a utility sink in your laundry room. A utility sink is an ideal location to wash clothes that require handwashing and to soak those clothes that have hard stains. These sinks come with air jets that blast away hard stains without harming the fabric.
2. Laundry Room with a Pet Washing Station
Instead of doing the usual shampooing, cleaning, and rinsing of your pet in your tub or out in the yard, you can now do this task in your very own washing station. Having a washing station in your laundry room (or mudroom) can take the nightmare out of washing your fur babies. You can have this novelty built into the laundry room or garage of your new home (or remodel your existing laundry room and garage).
3. Double Kitchen Islands/Dual Workstations
Families that spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking, eating, and spending time together can benefit from having dual workstations. Two workstations will allow you to do more cooking in less time. So, why not have two workstations to prep and cook food when entertaining family and guests? You can have the workstations of your dreams by equipping them with sinks, more cupboard space, trash cans, and cooktops.
4. Under-Cabinet Outlets
Cluttered countertops can be a thing of the past when you install your outlets under the cabinets. Now, your kitchen appliances will have more space, and you don’t have to worry about excessive use of energy if you utilize a smart-home design. Also, these under-the-cabinet outlets can add an extra flare and personality to your kitchen’s overall style.
5. Outdoor Outlets
Ever think about all the trouble your neighbors go through just to give the outside of their home that Christmas feel? If you’ve ever done it yourself, then you know how much of a hassle it is to deal with tangled extension cords just to have festive decorations on your roof and the front yard. But thanks to today’s smart technology, you can have outdoor outlets built with your new home wherever you need them! You can choose the smart home automation system that allows you to operate your lighting and outdoor appliances from your smartphone, or you can install outdoor outlets that connect to switches within the house. Finally, you can stop wrestling with tangled outdoor extension cords the next time you decorate for the holidays.
6. Garage/Grocery Pantry Doors
When you get groceries, you probably head to the kitchen with them so you can load them into your pantry. But, if your garage is on the other side of the wall behind your pantry, you can take the heavy weightlifting out of unpacking groceries by turning the wall between your garage and pantry into a pantry door. A pantry door is half the size of a regular door, and it’s ideal for doing a quick unpacking of your groceries as soon as you get out of the car. The beauty of having a pantry door in the garage is not having to make treks to the kitchen with large cases of bottled water.
7. Accent/Statement Walls
Express yourself with an accent/statement wall in your bedroom, kitchen, and bathrooms. You can have designs painted directly on the wall, create images with geometric tiles, or use specialty wallpaper. Your headboard space and entryway can be as creative as you want them to be when you are designing your own home. As long as you like the designs, the possibilities are endless!
8. Energy-Efficient Design
If you’re into reducing your energy bill while being friendly to the environment, then you will love the energy-efficient home design. In addition to having a nicely sealed building envelope, you can also include smart lighting (with LED lightbulbs), custom installation, and top-notch Energy Star appliances. A bonus of having a solar electric system will allow you to use solar paneling to save on your utility bills.
9. Skylights for Stargazing
It’s your dream home, right? So, what’s to stop you from having a brighter view in your kitchen or living room? Imagine watching the stars while snuggling up in your bed for the night. Having big skylights in your kitchen, great rooms, and bedrooms is a great way to make your home environmentally friendly, and you will save on your utility bills, also.
10. Smart Home Technology
And last but not least, what better way to enjoy the comforts of a modern home than to have it equipped with smart technology? Here are some popular smart home features designed to usher your home into the future and make domestic life much easier.
Digital Apps for Smart Homes
Your home can become the face of the future when you use digital assistant programs like Google, Alexa, and Siri to help run your home. You can use these smart apps to not only get directions while on the road but to also communicate with devices within the home to schedule timers, turn on and off entertainment systems, set the thermostat on the heating and cooling system (and even turn it off), and do so much more! Just take a look at some of the examples below.
Smart Appliances
Nothing says welcome to the comforts of the future more than telling your coffeemaker to brew a half-pot of coffee, programming your stove to turn off the left back burner while you head to the laundry room, and adjusting the temperature on the refrigerator while sitting in the living room trying to drink half-frozen orange juice. Thanks to digital assistants like Google, Alexa, and Siri, you can even program your oven to start heating up while you’re still twenty minutes away from home.
Smart Lighting
A big part of energy efficiency is having the right lighting. If you install smart LED bulbs in your home, then you can use an app to prevent wasting energy in rooms that no one is occupying (or when no one is home). Smart LED bulbs come programmed with software that makes the use of your lighting cost-effective, and it can help you save on the expense of installing wall switches. A smart thermostat can also be installed to automate your heating and cooling system, which will also help to make your home energy efficient.
Smart Security
Domestic security systems have also received an upgrade thanks to digital technology. You can synchronize your home security system to also communicate with your appliances and secure the locks on your doors while you are taking care of business away from home.
