How to Design a Family-Friendly Home

The personal environment has a huge effect on one’s well-being and happiness. Most importantly, the way people perceive their home affects their relationships and memories that happen inside that home. In that respect, it’s crucial that all family members feel comfortable, safe, and healthy when spending time together or alone in their personal environment. As the family grows and bonds, their home plays an important role in strengthening those bonds and contributing to making lifelong memories. This is precisely why it’s necessary to put some serious effort and thought into designing your perfect family home.

Utilize the power of the sun

Natural sunlight is very beneficial for both physical and mental health. The more you have it inside your home, the better it is for everyone living there. Not to mention that making the most out of natural sunlight can actually help you reduce the electricity bills when it comes to lighting, heating, and even cooling.

Essentially, you should talk to the contractors so that you can together come up with the best floor plan and design that will allow the sunlight to enter your home fully. However, during this talk, it’s also important to address the issue of adequate shade. While you may want to utilize the full power of sunlight during the winter months, it’s only natural that you want to enjoy a nice shade during the summer. After all, the Australian sun can be very strong, and having an effective shade is a must. Eaves and landscaping can aid in keeping the roof cool, while awnings, screens, and blinds can help with the horizontal and vertical shading.

Manage the view and entrance

The position of the windows, fence, and entryway will hugely affect the privacy and protection of your home. For starters, when you’re discussing the positioning of your windows, you want to make sure that you have a good view of what’s going on in the garden (especially if you have kids) as well as the street outside, to boost the overall security. However, you also want to keep in mind the privacy aspect, so ensure that your windows are positioned in a way that doesn’t provide a view inside for the neighbors. It might seem a bit overwhelming to incorporate everything into the design plan, but when you’re working with the leaders in the field of quality project homes in Sydney, you won’t have to worry about that.

Furthermore, think about the feel you wish to create when you and your family (or guests) arrive to your home. What kind of fence would be comfortable and secure enough for you? Do you want it to offer a clear view of the home and front yard? Maybe you have a car and need a proper driveway. And if your garage is further away from the entrance, you should probably consider a separate driveway and entryway.

Establish a connection throughout your home

When it comes to the interior design of your family-friendly home, keep in mind the importance of connection. On the base level, you should strive to create family nooks for every room, so that everyone can gather effortlessly. What’s more, it’s important to create a clear view from one room/area to the next; for instance, your kitchen island can provide you with a proper view of the play area and part of the living room where the TV or computer is located.

In case you want to have a two-story home, which is very popular in Australia, it’s paramount to take into account the visual and audio connection. That way, your entire home will feel more harmonious at the first glance, and you’ll also be able to hear someone calling you or make sure that the kids aren’t up to some mischief upstairs with ease.

If you’re already taking up the project of designing your ideal family home, don’t hesitate to do so with the future in mind. In that respect, you might want to accommodate the design of having more kids or even living together with your elderly parents.

Guest Contributor: Diane Smith