A house plays a very significant role in everyone’s life. In today’s hustle and bustle culture, coming home to a comfortable house is something many people look forward to every day. It’s a place where you can relax, eat, and sleep. Besides that, it’s the best place to invite some guests over.
When a house has this much influence and extent in everyone’s daily life, it’s only important that you give extra time, attention, and budget in its design. Unless you’re an experienced and professional architect, building and designing a residential project is an unfamiliar and challenging process. Most of the time, DIY-ing a house’s design and overall floor plan can lead to a series of mishaps. Read on to find out more about the common mistakes to avoid when designing a residential project.
Compromising lot location and size for the price
This is probably one of the gravest mistakes to commit when designing a residential project. The goal is to provide a comfortable and functional home that is reasonable within the client’s budget. Unfortunately, compromising lot location and the size all for the price will only cause plenty of construction mishaps and future home problems, making unnecessary changes and renovation way too soon.
Not designing to purpose
It’s so easy to get caught up in today’s trends, especially with social media’s growing influence. But it’s very difficult to establish plans right now without knowing the size, shape, and surroundings of the project. Of course, the aesthetic is an important factor when designing a home, but there’s more to home design than mere aesthetics.
Designing a residential home requires purposeful planning. If planning isn’t done right, you will only find it more difficult to move on to the next steps, into construction, and may stumble across significant problems later down the line.
Using too many different materials
Using three or more walling materials on the same elevation can create a ‘busy’ look, therefore distracting and overpowering other design features within the home.
Being too charmed by green design and technology
Implementing renewables such as solar panels and ground source heat pumps are undeniably great features. However, these should not be used without careful planning and consideration of designing passive measures first, like high-level insulation and locating big, main windows that collect heat from the sun.
Underplaying green design and technology
In the same way, neglecting to add green features in a residential project is also a mistake. Instead, try to add the right amount of sustainable features or give your client options that fit their home, location, and environment.
Disregarding storage space
Storage spaces are not meant to be placed only when there are extra spaces around the house with seemingly no alternative use. Storage is everything, and not everyone is a fan of minimalism. Design as much storage space and solutions around the residential project as much as possible. You may not see the value of these now, but it’s actually one of the best things to incorporate into a home.
Not analyzing the proportions
Now, your clients are planning to shop for furniture and appliance. They’re checking multiple shops for living room sets, kitchen cabinets, and appliances, but it doesn’t seem to fit into anything within the house, although the area is big. Chances are, you probably missed considering and analyzing the proportions.
It’s crucial that you don’t mess up analyzing proportions and other details so that your client has accurate information and sizing about which furniture and appliances to buy.
With APL Architects, you can rest assured that our team of professionals are determined to deliver excellent service with thorough design and planning, whether residential, commercial, resort or warehouse architecture project.