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Common Mistakes in Designing Your Own Home

Most mistakes made in designing your own southern house floor plans come from the planning stage. The lack of planning during the planning stage can result in some fairly common mistakes that when revisited by the designer seem rather simplistic. Budgeting is also a big area where common mistakes occur.

Planning Mistakes

Determining which way the home will face on the building site. Learn how to read house plans.  This is seemingly simple enough but often times over looked. It is important especially if the building site butts up to someone else’s property or to someone else’s home. There are actually building codes in place regarding placement of bathrooms when a home is built next to another one. So the design needs to take into consideration where the home will be placed on the building site. This element also affects where the driveway will be placed, whether there will be road access and whether the entrance to the home will look natural or unnatural. Another factor to consider is which way the natural light will fall on the house; this will affect heating/cooling costs. Make sure the site is well suited for building before the designing begins, it is no surprise that many pieces of property cannot support the size home desired to be built on it. Every community has building codes ignoring these codes or not knowing them can foil a design plan. So to avoid this common mistake check building codes in the area the home is to be built to insure the design is well suited to meet the codes or requirements of the area. Not spending enough time on the design is also a common mistake every hour spent designing the home is two hours saved on the building site in corrections. Expect revisions, most new home plans designs goes through a series of revisions before the final plan is drawn up, so spend the time that is needed on the design plan. Make sure that there is an availability of materials for the project. If the home design is for a specific type of constructed home from a semi-exotic material make sure that there is an availability of that material. Not taking into consideration plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling apparatus is also a common design mistake, getting to taken away with aesthetics and not considering the functionality of the space will  expense during the building phase of the project. Again knowing the codes for plumbing, electrical heating and cooling is important. Check to make sure there are no special requirements for the building site such as if there is a home owners association in the area you intend on building that may have special by laws for that neighborhood. Failing to check with the home owner association (if there is one) can be a huge mistake, some by laws instituted by developments can regulate the size, shape and other factors of what can and cannot be built. Plan ahead and avoid what can be avoided.

Budgeting

Budgeting is another area where common mistakes occur in designing your own home. Budgets cannot be so stringent that there is no room for error. A safe bet is to add $20000 to the budget for errors. Perhaps the $20000 will wind up not being used, but more than likely some of it will be used. Underestimating costs is also a common mistake. To avoid this error overestimate the costs so that when designing your home you will not be put out on a limb financially. Be realistic about the budget so you can avoid common mistakes in designing your own home.

The free spirited qualities of the modern-day loft juxtaposed with antiques and open brick; highlighted with massive windows and towering ceilings, has made this one of the most up-to-the-minute lifestyle trends in the twenty something group across America.

Once favored by artists and other imaginative community, loft living has taken on a soul of its own, and is considered to be a pretty prestigious way to live. Various lofts are housed within a transformed warehouse or old restored factory. However, in some cities, new condo or apartment blocks are rising that are devoted to loft spaces or which have the penthouse floor units as desirable lofts. Condo buyers and renters alike crave each of these.

What a first time loft occupant doesn’t understand are the various challenges that come with decorating and furnishing a extensive, open loft home. It can be quite a ordeal to produce areas without crowding or boxing in the natural flow of space. You want all areas to be exposed to the high ceilings and gigantic windows to gain from the natural light.

Here are some ideas for drawing attention to your high ceiling space…

1.    Use big, extra-large ceiling fans made from natural woods and sleek metals, to steer the eye up and circulate the air. At once it is practical and inspiring.

2.    Leave all the substantial original wood beams, wooden corbels, maple newel posts and duck work exposed. If you are going to cover up the most outstanding features of your loft space, you might as well relocate to a condo.

3.    Think on a GRAND scale when you are picking lighting for your ceiling in the central living space. You would like the lighting to be effective and spectacular. Large drum shades and giant chandeliers can be excellent choices.

Many lofts have a original stairway that goes up to the master bedroom area that is not a bedroom – but simply an elegant sleeping space that has spectacular views to the living space below. This design set up can also offer challenges but proposes the ideal chance to work with the high ceilings. For your balcony railings, choose either warm hardwood that is stained to bring out the inviting exposed brick, or use custom cast iron which is in keeping with the roots of the building. For the balusters, definitely consider wrought iron that come in straight or curved, lavish or plain, chunky or refined balustrades.

If you are fortunate enough to rent a loft, you already see that you have somewhere very out of the ordinary to live. Now be unafraid in your decor choices and make it the most impressive space it can be. You decided on an unconventional home style – why settle for humdrum in interior design?

When you conjure up summer memories, many of Americans will think about blue skies, neverending summer days spent with friends and loved ones on the front porch – sipping ice cold lemonade and letting the world go by. We all want to hold tight to our memories, and those things in our lifetime that are near and dear to us; for many of us, that includes a big front porch with its welcoming staircase, hand worn railing and battered spindles and newel posts.

Various architectural home design styles would be nothing without the presence of a front porch – Arts and Crafts, Georgian, the traditional clapboard farmstead and of course, the grand Victorian to name a few.

A porch should be big enough for at least a small party to gather on – that is the loose definition. However, in America a front porch is typically spacious enough for outdoor furniture, a porch swing and a variety of plants. Some porches are front and center under the front entrance, others cover the entire front of the house, and others wrap around 3 or 4 sides of the residence.

Regardless of the house style or when it was built, a front porch has many common design and construction elements. Each and every porch is made of up four main components:

1.    Newel Posts – Box newels, over the post newels, and ornate newels. There are many different types of newels available if you are replacing solid wood balusters on your old porch or building a new one. Oak and cherry wood newels are well liked because of the wood’s beauty and durability.

2.    Balusters – The balustrade are often made of quality woods, but in more recent times have been replaced with wrought iron or tempered glass. Solid wood porch balusters still remain popular as they give that warm, familiar feel and can be very cost effective. A cast iron baluster in an ornamental pattern can be attractive and interesting on a contemporary residential property.

3.    Railings – Top and bottom hand rails are commonly made of wood. These are the areas of your porch that generally take the most ‘human’ abuse. You will touch the railings, hang flowering plants from them and paint them. Visitors to your home will lean against them and your kids and grandkids will sit on the railing tops. Railings need to be well built and long lasting to ensure your porch lasts for many, many years.

4.    Floor or Base – Basically the part of your porch that handles the foot traffic, there are many modern options for a porch floor. older porches have wood or concrete floors and both of these options are still available today. There are also many new products on the market such as non slip exterior granite that would also be aesthetically pleasing and hard wearing.

Although not noted in the list of four above, porch stairs would be a close fifth. Not all porches, especially if they are constructed on the ground or on a second floor off an upstairs sitting room, for example, will not have stairs. However, the majority of conventional porches that lead to the front door of a house do include a set of stairs.
Although the front porch did lose popularity in house construction after World War Two, it is making a marked comeback. Maybe this is because Americans want to return to a simpler place and time when it was okay to take time for yourself and those that you care about without having to take off to our work. maybe the front porch signifies a stronger family unit when families did things together – an era before video game machines, personal computers and cell phones.

Who doesn’t appreciate a Juliet Balconette? This nostalgic smaller version of a terrace was made noteworthy by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In most cases, a Romeo and Juliet style Balconies is constructed of a concrete slab, wood bottom and wrought iron railings.

Not every person knows what a legitimate Romeo and Juliet Balcony looks like and if you have invested in an Older Residence, and looking to renew a balcony back to its original state, it would be crucial to recognize what category of balcony you have. Here is a short list of some of the most important and special features of a Juliet Balcony:

•    A Romeo and Juliet balcony does not extend from the front as a normal balcony deck or terrace would. On a Juliette balcony there is usually very limited space – essentially just enough for a person to take a gander outside.

•    A Juliet balcony is NOT a French balcony, which is a fake balcony without any room to walk out (essentially just a busy handrail).

•    A Juliet balcony is almost always positioned on an upper floor (2nd or higher) and never found on the first floor of a true historic or character home.

•    A Romeo and Juliet balcony has iron balusters only on the facade. In very nearly all conditions, the ends are like walls and are supported by pretty yet grand corbel style supports.

Many homes in mainstream Manhattan, NY are seen showcasing the trendy Juliette balcony on their external façade. Many are original to the age of the residential property but more and more are being handcrafted new “to look old” and put on older buildings to bolster visual charm and individuality.

Whether you are rejuvenating an old balcony or constructing a new one to your heritage home, your choices are vast in terms of materials. As long as you hold true to the main features of a Romeo and Juliet balcony (as outlined above), you can pretty much select whatever materials you want.  For example, you may choose handmade wrought iron balusters with solid cherry side walls and decorative wood corbels stained to match the shutters on your home.

The greatest advice I can propose is to take a walking or driving tour around any historical neighborhood. Check out many unique styles of Romeo and Juliet balconies, and be sure to snap digital photos of what you like for future reference. Then select the features you adore and have a wrought iron railed balcony fabricated for your heritage.

Many homeowners fail to see the residential decorating selections when it comes to the staircase. In fact, crafting a main point with your formal staircase is an impressive interior design technique to inject ambiance to a foyer or author coherence between two rooms that are separated by formal stairways.

Taking into account your resources, agenda or need to renovate, there are a collection of ways that you can revamp your formal stairway to turn it into a sensational focal point of your house. There are the quick fixes that result in enormous changes, or a complete remodel that will give you a gorgeous piece of design for your home. Check out these choices for your staircase:

Paint and Carpet – The quickest way to smarten up your stairway is by using paint and carpet. Wood stair treads, risers, custom wood balusters, railings and oak newels can all be painted. Or you may choose to paint the railing wood and carpet the wood stairs. A neutral color such as a creamy white in a smaller home or a sleek, glassy black in a larger room will work well. You may also elect to stain the wood stair parts instead of paint – especially if it is newer wood that is lovely and warm such as oak, mahogany or cherry wood.

Unique Stair Balusters and Newel Posts – There are so many incredible products available on the market today to turn an ordinary formal staircase into a functional work of art for your home. Distinctive or different materials can be used for stair balusters such as wrought iron, natural woods as well as custom made stair balusters made exclusively for your home. You might wish to go for hand carved balusters or stair newel posts that are fancy but totally suited to match the interior design of your newly renovated home.

Some woods you should consider for staircase designs include maple, oak and cherry. These species of solid wood are hard wearing and exhibit charm and grace that will last a lifetime.

From curved, spiral and circular formal staircases that commend awareness in a space, to more subtle staircases that sit graciously in the background and fit their household function, there is always a way to deck out or redo your main staircase if the colors or materials in the current design are just not working for you.

It never seems to matter how fast paced or chic the world gets, when it comes to interior design, there is a large percentage of Americans who still choose the unmistakable elegance of real wood. All across the United States, there is a growing trend of acquiring an older home, perhaps a grand Italianate three story dwelling or a seaside bungalow with a wrap around front porch. Often these homes can be bought for well below real estate norms because they need to be brought back to their former glory and renovated.

A word of advice: it is vital to remain as true to the intended character of the home as possible and this absolutely includes the use of solid wood.

In an older home, wood can be utilized in many house features  including the fireplace mantel shelf, the wide planked hardwood floors, the wood stair parts, the wood porch newels, the ultra wide base mouldings, the super ornate architectural moldings on the ceiling  and of course, the antique decorative corbels. Why on earth would anyone want to remove parts of an old home and replace them with particleboard, resin and characterless substitutes? It might take a little longer to redo the wood in your heritage property, but it will be well worth the labor and time.

One of the most daunting jobs of restoring wood in an old house is stripping away the years of paint to find the natural beauty of the wood. Here are a few basic guidelines to make it less daunting:

•    If you even think the presence of lead in the old paint, hire a professional that specializes in old house painting. It is an everyday occurrence that old paint is laden with heavy lead and you must be very cautious.
•    There is a fairly new product that you can buy that is a non-caustic stripper. It actually breaks the bond between the paint and the wood, and will make the job of peeling back many thick layers of old paint a lot easier.
•    It is critical to always wear chemical resistant gloves, protective glasses and work on your painted wood surfaces in a well ventilated place.
•    When you have completed the stripping work and ready to stain your newly exposed wood, make sure you wipe all wood parts down with tack or cheese cloth to remove all minute specks of sanding dust, dirt or even pet hairs.

Door moldings, hand carved mantel surrounds, acanthus leaf corbels, stair newels, and even the balcony can be made from the most amazing woods. Many heritage properties of the Georgian and Victorian eras were fitted with oak, cherry, mahogany, pine and maple woods. Some are used in very simple but effective ways, such as for plank wood floors and other solid woods are articulately carved to create the most wonderful fireplaces and window frame mouldings.

Your newly acquired home comes with a past and part of that illustrious history is the real wood that has stood strongly in your homestead for several decades, perhaps even 100 years or more. Honor the heritage of your home and let it to stand proud for another century.