The incredible thing about building your own custom home, is that you can craft in detail every single aspect of the house. Since your home is not only an investment, but also a place that you will spend many of the many years going forward, you will likely want to build with any current or future children you might have in mind.
If you’re planning on starting or growing your very own family, Building A Custom New Home with children in mind is a very important aspect of your custom home build. Here are the best tips for designing a custom home that your children and family can grow into.
Kitchen size and layout design
A large kitchen with luxury appliances is what most people want out of their new home, but if you are growing your own family, you’re going to want to also make sure that you have more than enough room to prepare and serve food. Good things to consider include extra seating at an island or Nook with boost seating for convenient and casual meals outside of your formal dining room.
Beyond that, it is also worth it to take the flow and organization of the room into consideration. For example, adding open shelving to your island might seem convenient, but that open shelving becomes a lot less desirable when there are little hands that can get into things and make them dirty period.
How many bathrooms and bedrooms you have, and where they are
Another crucially important aspect of building a custom home with children in mind is the number and placement of bedrooms and bathrooms in your house. Many new parents design a nursery with a baby in mind, typically that room is very close to the master suite. That being said, you will also want to keep in mind how that room, or other rooms in your house, will be able to grow as your children do. Think about rooms for sleepover nights or design A bedroom with bunk bed space in mind.
Open floor plan
Open floor plans that combined living dining and kitchen areas have continued to become a very popular design and layout for custom built homes. Not only do these floor plans create an open atmosphere with fantastic flow, bright natural light, and ideal sightlines for living and entertaining, but they also offer parents an ability to keep an eye on their plane children or sleeping babies while they attend to other important tasks.
Beyond that, an open floor plan renders far fewer opportunities for children to hit their heads on sharp corners or closed doors on their little fingers.
A mudroom
Mudrooms are fantastic additions to the home because they give you a specific place to clean off your child before they get their muddy and wet hands and feet all over your wood floor or new carpet. Mudrooms offer a place to clean up, leave dirty shoes and jackets, and store things so they don’t end up all over your house.
If you are designing a mudroom, make sure not to forget to install copy spaces and jacket hooks to make the most out of the area that you have. On Top of that, don’t forget to make some of those copies and hooks reachable for the smaller members of your family.
Stairs and levels
Before kids, it might be loads of fun to have a sweeping staircase that you can walk up each night and down each morning, but once kids come into the picture those stairs could pose a major obstacle. Not only are stars quite difficult when you are pregnant with a child, they can be a major issue for kids as they are learning to walk.
Specifically, spiral staircases can be difficult or even dangerous for children to navigate. Of course, there is nothing wrong with building a multi-level house if you are thinking about having children. That being said, keeping staircases wide and simple is definitely best for your future children.
Yard space
When you are planning your home’s surrounding landscape, make sure to keep safety a priority for your children. Access to natural water or man-made elements such as pools or large fire pits should be considered. You especially want to make sure that the access to these areas are easily controlled even if you are not in the area. You may also want to consider expanding your lawn so that you can ultimately add in a play area for your children and their friends.
Location, location, location
This doesn’t have much to do with the actual design of your home, but it certainly has something to do with where that house sits. The location of your home is one of the most important decisions that you will make, and you should not take it lightly.
Some major factors to consider while choosing the location of your home is proximity to medical facilities and daycare facilities for when they start to grow out of infancy. You will also want to check in the location’s proximity to loud and busy stress, as well as access to great parks and quality school districts.
It is also worth it to take a look at neighborhood demographics in terms of age so that you can better see if there are young families that are also likely to have kids in the growing years that your kids can befriend and grow up with through the years.
Designing a home with children in mind is not hard, but it certainly demands a little extra care and planning than if you are building without them in mind at all. If you still have questions about how to best prepare for your future family, do not hesitate to ask your architect and designer for any ideas on how they would best recommend you build your custom new home with your future children in mind.
Good luck!