Draw inspo for your dream home design from 3 unique styles
Designing your dream home can be both exhilarating and a teeny bit overwhelming. One thing is certain, the options are endless and there are people out there doing some innovative things that you can draw inspiration from. So, let’s take a look at some unique styles that you may be able to borrow from when designing your dream home.
Tiny house design
Is your dream home design based on the tiny house movement? Your initial reaction might be “no way!” but here’s the thing. There is so much innovation in tiny houses to ensure they’re still functional. Many houses could benefit from introducing some of these measures to maximise space.
Tiny houses are generally any residential structure under 400 square feet, which may feel claustrophobic for some! But the essence of the tiny house movement is simple living and making the most of the space you have.
How tiny houses may inspire your dream home design
You may like to maximise height space by building a loft that provides an extra living area for you and your family. Maybe it’s the parents’ escape or maybe the kids. Or perhaps you’re keen to get clever with space saving measure like a pack away laundry, storage cupboards under the stairs (or even the clever stair drawers!), fold down tables/desks or window blinds that can double as drying racks. Or maybe the tiny home inspiration for your dream home design is to rethink the total size of your home to reduce costs.
Passive house design
When considering your own dream home design, you may also like to draw inspiration from the passive house movement. At their heart, passive houses are about using clever design to eradicate the need for additional energy-consuming heating or cooling measures. There are 5 principles that shape a passive house: thermal insulation, high performance windows, airtightness, thermal bridge free construction and mechanical ventilation heat recovery. We won’t go into the details of what they mean here but suffice it to say, you could use considerably less energy and live in a home that had a significantly lower ecological footprint if you take some of the passive house principles and apply them to your dream home design.
How passive houses might inspire your dream home design
You may like to orient your dream home so that it maximises passive cooling or focus on thermal insulation in your walls. Or maybe your dream home design will include triple glazed windows that are designed, based on orientation, to maximise free solar heating during the winter months but keep heat to a minimum in the summer. Then again, it could be as simple as solar panels on the roof or those clever roof tiles that are solar panels. Essentially, look for opportunities to increase the natural heating and cooling of your dream home design without requiring energy. It will save you so much money in the long run!
Shipping container home design
Could your dream home design utilise shipping containers as the key building material? Not only would this innovative design save you money, it’s also eco-friendly as you are recycling materials already used once (or more) for another purpose. Shipping container homes can look quite smart – and you can even cover the walls (inside and/or outside) with a different material if you wanted a different look.
How shipping container homes might inspire your dream home design
If having a whole home made from shipping containers isn’t your thing, you may like to incorporate one or two into the design and build around with other materials. This can work incredibly well with contemporary or modern house design and give your dream home design an entirely unique look.