If you’re in the market to design a new home and build a life truly worth living, the team at Regional Home Builders has what it takes to offer something spectacular.
Your new home could be filled with fixtures, fittings, layouts, colours, textures and memories that you had never even dreamed of, if you just allow yourself to dream a little bigger.
Of course, that’s all according to the experts who we rely on to guide our 2024 home designs. The word on these regional streets is that next year will be packed with full-room colour, unique pieces and individuality, wellness and sustainability. Plus, there’ll be a bunch of ideas to combat the rising cost of living.
If you want to join Regional Home Builders at the forefront of modern home design, read on and get inspired with these tips and trends for your next build or renovation.
More Colour Than Before
In recent years, the trend has been towards neutral tones accented by bold pops of colour. However, the latest news is that the living rooms of tomorrow will be brimming with whichever colours will set your chosen mood.
We’re not talking about choosing one solid colour for the house either – quite the opposite. We’re advocating for homes draped in multiple complementary tones from floor to ceiling. This could be a deep blue feature wall and brown leather furniture, or an array of green house plants upon Scandi-style maple floorboards and bookshelves.
Whatever your vibe, don’t skimp on the colour. You heard it here: the neutral base is out, layered colours schemes are in.
Individuality
As you begin to decide on your colour palette, consider what kind of décor you enjoy in the home. This could be wicker and wool, or a gallery of obscure metal statues. There truly is no wrong answer in 2024.
Whichever your style, just make sure that it is a true representation of you and your family. If you like to think of yourselves as a bunch of eco-warriors, you may enjoy the vast catalogue of recycled timber furniture available at online marketplaces and in local boutique furniture stores. Every piece has a story when you buy recycled pieces, rather than telling guests you found it for sale at a certain Swedish retailer.
Finding more unique pieces lends itself to finding shapes and textures that stray from the norm. This concept is exactly what we’re looking for in 2024, as we embrace our own individuality.
Wellness and Nature
For those eco-warriors mentioned earlier, you’ll be pleased to know that sustainable home design continues to grow with each passing year. When you’re not entertaining or parenting, the home is a place to rest and reset. So, no matter how long you have in your day for this essential self-care, everyone should give themselves the room and opportunity to recalibrate.
As you design your new floorplan and assign a function to each space, consider adding a wellness room into the mix, or allowing for a corner of the home to be transformed into such. If you’re lucky enough to have a whole room spare for wellness, this will be much easier, but don’t rule it out if space is limited.
At Regional Home Builders, we’ve developed the “three Ps” that every wellness space should incorporate. At the very least, we believe the space should consider plants, position, and privacy.
Plants: Research has made it abundantly clear that a connection with nature can go a long way to calming us down, regulating the nervous system, and decreasing our heartbeat. As any busy parent will tell you, achieving these three things can often take more than a yoga mat and some scented candles. Find a handful of your favourite indoor plants and place them around your wellness space, helping to define the borders of where calm and quiet begins. We highly recommend that your space is positioned next to a window with a garden view so that your connection with nature is even greater.
Position: To ensure you leave the space feeling more relaxed than when you arrived, you’ll need to give yourself room to get comfortable. Invest in a sofa, daybed, or soft mat which will allow you to become as comfortable as possible. While it may be tempting to lay down completely, you want a piece of furniture which encourages you to sit up straight so that you’re not at risk of falling asleep – that’s what the bedroom is for!
Privacy: Don’t be disheartened if you can’t find a spare room for a moment to yourself. A smart floor plan and furniture placement can help to carve out a space that is solely yours. Facing furniture away from thoroughfares, using plants as makeshift walls, and even hanging sheets are great ways to escape your busy life.
If you can tick off these three Ps, you will be well on your way to designing a home that can withstand the stresses of 2024.
The Impact of the Rising Cost of Living
No matter whether you’re building anew, renovating, or solidifying the old family home, everyone is bound to feel the pinch of a rising cost of living in 2024.
Fortunately, some of the points that will help you battle inflation have already been mentioned in previous paragraphs!
Finding second-hand furniture can not only add character to your home but it will cut the cost of furnishing considerably. There can be so much joy in discovering your new favourite op-shop item, so long as you check any second-hand stigma at the door.
Also mentioned in relation to your wellness space, multifunctional design can add terrific value to your new home. What was first considered a 9-5 home office can also be converted into a kids’ playroom on the weekends. All it takes is ample storage for toys and office equipment to create two rooms in one.
Likewise, your living room can be used for movie nights, at-home workouts, and a party dancefloor if you plan your furnishings accordingly and give yourself the space to move things around. The alternative can be expensive when you start to give each of these functions its own permanent space and half of your house lies largely unused.
Our final tip for combatting the cost of living is the concept of “broken plan” living. While most home designs from Regional Home Builders include a generous open plan living/kitchen/dining room, “broken plan” living defines the purpose of each space in the home.
Of course, as we just discussed, one space can have multiple functions, and so it should. But that doesn’t mean that your living room should act as multiple things at one time.
Living by a “broken plan” means you separate work from play so that your mind can stay focused on a given task. It also allows household members to escape from each other while still occupying the same room.
Try adding sliding glass doors, open shelving, or (you guessed it) indoor plants to your blank canvas and watch as your home takes shape. You may notice that all these options have one thing in common: none of them completely block your view through the space, rather, they merely obscure it. Defining spaces while still allowing light and air to flow through is a great way to explain the essence of “broken plan” living.
Contact RHB
We hope you’ve learned a little bit about home design in 2024 and your new place can take some inspiration from our crystal ball. If you need any more guidance as you design your dream home, get in touch and we’ll lay the foundations for you and your family.