Your dream home is your forever home, which is why when you’re designing it, you need to think beyond your current stage of life. A young couple will want to consider what a home needs for children, and then, eventually, what they’ll need when they get older. Older adults will need to prioritize design details that will make it possible to successfully age in place.
The good news is that simply being aware of your upcoming needs is a great way to seamlessly incorporate them into your home design. Since you’re designing your dream home from scratch, you have full freedom to ensure the space is going to work for you ten, even fifty years down the line.
As for those design features that will make your home work for you, no matter your era? That’s all here in this guide:
If you’re designing your own home, then you have the power to opt for larger doorways, hallways, and entryways. Yes, you may be able to have slightly larger rooms if you sacrifice the space in your hall, but this is only going to cause a headache later on. Wider hallways are more peaceful, they’re immediately more accessible, and they simply look more luxurious. The same goes for larger doors. They immediately make your home feel grand and more luxurious, all while being prepped in case anyone in your family ever needs to use a wheelchair.
A luxury home feature that will immediately mean your home will be ready to enjoy every year of your life, even if you’ve had an accident, is a home elevator. Residential elevator lifts use hydraulics instead of the hoist system used in apartment buildings, meaning they’re more compact and easier to install. Just by adding this feature, you ensure dignity and safety while maintaining that luxury experience in your home for your entire family throughout the decades.
Seamless, hidden storage is a luxury feature, particularly when it was designed from the outset (think walk-in closets or pantries). To take these storage spaces to the next level, upgrade the cabinet and shelves to a fully modular design. Think shelves that can be pulled down to eye level, cupboards with drawers that can be pulled out, and so on. This will maximize your space, make it feel luxurious, all while ensuring you can easily live at home even in your golden years.
Laundry chutes make it so much easier and even safer to transfer laundry from the bedrooms to your laundry or utility room. Dumbwaiters are the solution for sending heavy items up or down. Both are easy to add when you design them into your space. Just remember to add a safety door for chutes, or to place the dumbwaiter opening higher up so little children can’t enter them.
Appliances are designed to make our lives easier, but they don’t always have space in our homes. To ensure that you do have the space, go through and select which appliances you want in your home to begin with. If you want a full stove set that includes a dish warming drawer, then you’ll need to factor that into your kitchen design from the start, rather than trying to adjust and fit it into the space after the fact.
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