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How to Maximize Your First Living Space

September 19, 2016

It’s finally time. You’re ready to make the switch and invest in your first living space. Finding a new home in Portland may seem like a difficult task. After all, Portland is one of the hottest cities in the country. And if you’ve been renting for any length of time you know just how difficult renting can be. Finding a place is next to impossible; every rental seems to fill up as quickly as it is left behind. And when you take what you can get, chances are it says nothing about your personality or your lifestyle. You’re in it simply because it was available. But when you make the decision to buy a new home, something changes. You begin to see your stuff in a whole new way. How can you create the right ambiance for your lifestyle? How can you maximize the space to its greatest potential? After all, once you buy, it’s your space. Taking on someone else’s design still leaves you working with existing space. By building a new home, you can ensure it’s the way you desire from the moment you move in. Open Up Your Floor Plan One of the first things you’ll appreciate by choosing to build your new home is how open the floor plan will be. Older homes often have a closed concept, distinct, rooms, walls and doors used to separate each living space. New construction gives you freedom and flexibility to design the space how you choose to live. Having the kitchen flow into living space, for example, allows you to mingle with your guests and keep an eye on the children at play. It doesn’t section you off from where the action is happening. You can continue to open up areas of your home to further suit your needs. Some people like sleek design and clean lines. Have you always loved the look of an open kitchen? Why not choose cupboard doors with glass to peer what’s inside on the shelves? You can even switch out pantry doors with glass panels to further open up your space and show off all the hard work you’ve accomplished behind. Openness means bringing in the light and allowing the space to flow. Any way you choose to increase the light as it falls across your room, use design to increase the flow from one room to the next, that will continue to provide you with a home you can love for years to come. Light It Up Ever walked into a dark and dingy room before? Nothing friendly about it. With many older homes, lights seem to be an afterthought, with only one goal in mind: to light up the entire room. Yet when you’re in control of the design of your new home, you have the ability to light it up any way you choose. That’s where customization can be so much fun. Start in the kitchen. You can add pendant lights to add light to your island. You can choose under cabinet lighting to light up the corner space … even the darkest corners can come to life. You can even use spots to accent the most important parts of your kitchen, from the workspace to the wall with the artwork you so carefully picked out. But it doesn’t stop there. If you’ve always wanted a crystal chandelier in your bedroom, why not make it a reality? Those contemporary lights you thought would be perfect in the bathroom? Why not have them installed? That’s the fun part of utilizing a custom approach to creating your new home. It lets you be in charge of what matters most. Add switches where you desire, install outlets where you’ll use them most. Replace Doors With Sliding Walls Have you seen the latest trend? Doors are no longer the best way to separate rooms. Instead, consider sliding doors and walls instead. Doors take up a lot of space. Open them up into your rooms and you’ll discover several feet of wasted space. Why not replace them with sliding doors instead? Sliding doors can make that hallway bathroom more functional. Sliding doors can add more aesthetics to the office off of your living space. Discover Unexpected Space Sometimes space in an existing home really makes you wonder what the design time was thinking. We question it all the time.

• What about the space under the stairs? What is under there? Why couldn’t it be used for storage?
• Why did they lay out the hallway in this manner? By making a change, it would have opened up this space a lot better.

Yep, we’ve heard statements like this from a lot of homeowners. You may have even made them yourself with the places you’ve rented. But when you buy a new home before it’s constructed, you have options to make the changes you desire. Even the smallest changes can have big impact on the way your home flows. You can have the spare closet under the stairs. You can flip the closet space and give yourself more room for your antique furniture if you so desire. When you see it on paper before the work begins, it’s easier to say “what if” and actually incorporate those ideas into the design. Which of course makes it a truly unique house built just for you. Keeping It Clean and Clutter Free If you’re used to small, rental living, you may have adjusted to living amid the clutter. When you make the decision to build, you can choose how you’ll store as well as how you live. Are you the type that prefers keeping everything out in the open? Shelves with baskets, bins and bowls can provide you with ample storage while providing you with convenience for everyday living. Are you the type that prefers the out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach to living? Customized closet options may be the perfect solution for you. Selecting a new home in Portland doesn’t have to mean taking on someone else’s problems. By building, you can design for the way you choose to live. And by designing with your day in mind, you can create simple strategies that will provide you with a clean and clutter-free approach to your day in an easy way.