Furnishing Your New Home
As well as your new home being aesthetically beautiful, it also needs to be functional. This means that everything needs to be in it’s optimal place … including furniture. Taking into consideration the size and location of major furniture items from the outset can save a lot of hassle come moving day.
Let’s start with your living room arrangements. The size and shape of your couch is going to determined by the size of your family and whether it’s main use is for TV viewing or as a comfy seating area when entertaining guests. Often, couches will be backed up against a wall, allowing for a walk space between the couch and the TV. This means that the backing wall needs to be long enough to cater for the size of the couch that you want. Depending on where your living area is going to be located, you will also need to consider how much traffic is going to be going through this area. Do you really want to miss the most important part of the show because someone walked in front of you to get to the kitchen? There are other options. With large, open plan living areas, you may want to use the couch as divider to define the living space from the greater area. By doing this, your couch also becomes a showpiece but will require more circulation space to move around it.
In the bedroom, the size of your bed will ultimately decide the size of the room. A quick Google search of standard bed dimensions will give you some idea of the space you are going to need. Keep in mind that these dimensions are for mattress sizes only and do not take into account bed frames. In the main bedroom, the location of your bed will depend on access points into the room as well as into the walk in robe and ensuite. For some, the orientation of the bed is important in terms of promoting positive Feng Shui and other cultural factors. For others, it’s just being able to hide the fact that you didn’t make the bed that morning! Having the head of the bed to the north or south of the room can also help to stop the transfer of heat in the mornings and afternoons; making your sleep more comfortable. You also need to take into account the space required if you were wanting bedside tables.
Keeping in mind the size and style of your appliances is also important. This includes making sure that your fridge recess is wide enough and easily accessible. In the laundry, if you are wanting underbench appliances then you need to make sure that the benchtop is high enough to accommodate this and that washing machines and dryers are all front loading.
As with all custom designs, decisions your new home is going to be dictated by your desired lifestyle. To achieve this lifestyle, it’s important that your furnishings are taken into consideration at the very beginning of the design process. Importantly, we can almost guarantee that there will need to be a compromise at some point. Having a hierarchy of priorities will help you decide which areas of your home.
