If you’re tired of the architecture of your traditional home design in California, not to worry, there’s actually something you can do about it. Modernizing your home will transform your traditional home, giving it a state-of-the-art design that goes along with the current trend.
However, the process to modernize your home can be daunting, taking a huge chunk of your time, money, and even thinking faculty.
If you’re searching for ideas of how you want your future home to be, you’ve stumbled at the right place. In this post, we will be considering some modern home design tips that can serve as a guide in setting you up for actualizing that transformation that you want for your home.
Best Modern Home Design Tips
Keep the Floor Plan Simple and Straight-Forward
Traditional home design is easily recognized by how complicated their floor plan is. This is because enough thought is not given to the planning process of the floor. In traditional home design, the architectural design incorporates rooms laid out in a disorganized way as floor spaces are not accounted for in detail. This results in a disordered merging of excess floor spaces. As a result, you can end up with a garage lurking behind the master bedroom.
However, in modern homes, symmetry is key. Detailed attention is given to the floor plan so as to layout the rooms in a logical fashion. The result is a seamless integration of rooms. Rooms in modern houses make use of strong shapes like rectangles and squares to achieve perfect symmetry.
Tips on Modernizing Your Floor Plan
If your floor plan looks disorganized, you can look for innovative ways to simplify it.
Organizing floor space is crucial; can you look for ways to organize the spaces on the west and east wings? Or can you remove wall partitions in so rooms to create larger space?
Try and figure out ways to make organized use of spaces.
Make the Spaces Flexible
Traditional rooms are defined by distinct rooms. The living room, kitchen, bedrooms are clearly partitioned by walls.
On the other hand, modern homes integrate rooms by minimizing interior walls. There is free flow between rooms allowing more penetration of sunlight. Also, this creates more interior space.
Tips to Create Flexible Spaces
Firstly, look for ways to remove walls between rooms next to each other. However, a civil engineer must be involved in the process to assess its effect on the integrity of the overall building. This must be done so as to know if additional beams are required to support the building once the walls are removed.
Others ways to squeeze out space should be sorted after. This will give you enough space suitable for multiple functions.
Go Simple on Your Roof Design
It is well known that traditional homes are easily identified by roof design. Gable or pitched roofs are signatures of the architecture of a traditional home. The profile of these pitched roofs greatly affects the starting point of the floor plan and invariably defines where the second floors are located.
To modernize a home, the roof plan needs to be simplified. This makes it possible to have multiple spaces under one or two continuous roof that extends beyond the walls.
Tips on Modernizing Roof Design
If you currently have a gable or pitched roof typical of a traditional home, there are two major ways to modernize a house. You can choose to leave the roof design and work more on modifying the exteriors. On the other hand, you can have a full roof redesign. It is important to note that till will cost more money.
An architect will be of immense value in coming up with modernized room designs.
Redesign Your Windows
Traditional windows are fundamentally different from modern windows. Traditional windows are usually smaller, encased, and uses a double-hung sash design.
On the other hand, modern windows are usually broader giving you a wider expanse of glass. This allows more light to come and gives a better view of the surroundings. Window manufacturers are now even producing standard windows with a larger size.
Tips on Window Redesign
If you have a single/double hung window, why not try converting it to a fixed window? You can even further remove the framing to make the window look more streamlined.
In terms of the materials used, you can try using other materials apart from vinyl. Wood and aluminum window gives you that modernized window look. The good news is that they are becoming more affordable in recent times.
As indicated earlier, try extending your window to give it a modernized outlook.
Take Storage Space Seriously
In traditional homes, it is very common to see clutters because of inadequate storage spaces. In modern homes, you should consider storage. Though some traditional home contains cabinetry, and modern furniture systems that designers use to create these storage spaces, modern homestays unique because of the style implemented.
In modern house design, storage spaces use modern casework that is simplified, consisting of simple shelves or full-faced flat slab cabinet fronts.
Tips for Modern Storage Solutions
Try to keep your home clutter-free. Ensure that you completely remove all luggage out of sight.
Also, integrate a simple shelving/ cabinetry system. Stay away from traditional styles like recessed panels. If you want to use wood, avoid plainsawn wood. Instead, use quarter-sawn cut to give your cabinetry that modernized outlook.
Alternatively, you can get modern storage solutions from companies like Ikea. The bottom line is to ensure simplicity.
Reduce the Architectural Design Details
Traditional houses have both complicated interior and exterior architectural designs. For example, a window trim can be made up of multiple kinds of wood. However, a modern home design incorporates simplified architectural design details. You won’t find an intricate combination of woods for the window trim. Walls and ceilings are usually subject to smooth surface painting.
Tips to Modernize Traditional Details
First and foremost, try to identify the essential structures in the architecture of your building. Eliminate all redundant pieces like extra wood profiles and unnecessary supports. You can even replace the siding materials with larger-sized panels to reduce the course line.
In the interior of the room, do you really need the window trim, door trim? Not really. Why not remove them and replace them with a simpler profile. If you want to use tiles, use larger ones so as to reduce grout lines.
Use slender windows and flat doors as opposed to recessed panelized doors. Even using a solid surface instead of a granite countertop can further simplify the architectural design. And finally, stick with smooth surfaces.
Use Modern Materials
Traditional homes use a lot of redundant materials. On the other hand, modern homes incorporate materials with consistency and simplicity as a priority. To modernize a modern house, the key to consistency is to make use of larger surfaced materials like big tiles, wide planks of wood, uninterrupted surfaces of glass, concrete, sheetrock, and so on. This will ensure continuity in the look of the material.
This will eliminate joints and gaps to the barest minimum. In modern home design, busy surfaces like wallpapers, small tiles, carpets are absent.
Tips on Modern Material
For starters, make sure you select smooth-surfaced materials. Also, consider larger materials like larger panel sizes to reduce the activity on the surface.
On the exterior, smooth surface finishing should be incorporated. Stucco, a sheet of cement board or wood can help with that. For the interior, nothing beats smooth painted drywall as it’s cheap, durable, and modern. You can cover floors with concrete or wood.
When you want to incorporate wood, either for floors or ceilings, a wider surface will definitely look more modern. However, they are costlier than thinner ones.
Concrete floors look best when integrated with glass or metals. A polished surface with a consistent color will surely give it that perfect look for your modern floor.
Use a Neutral Color Palette
Due to the larger interior space of modern homes, sunlight easily brightens the rooms. Therefore, the neutral color will be perfect.
Colors like light brown and cream don’t work quite well when trying to modernize a home even though they are very common in traditional homes.
Design Tips for Modern Colors
Color selection depends on personal preference, however, you must always stick with a light color. You can never go wrong with either white or grey as they seamlessly complement modern materials. You can incorporate bold colors, however, they must you should select carefully and systematically to maintain the aesthetics of your home.
Due to the larger windows, the surrounding can influence the interior color choice. For example, in a forest area, green color in the interior can work magic.
The choice of exterior color is largely dependant on material selection. As a guide, many modern homes use white, grey, black, and a variety of woods for exterior painting.
Choose Modern Fixtures, Furnishings, and Accessories
Unlike traditional homes that use complicated appliances, modern houses are unique in the way they select simple fixtures, furnishings, and accessories.
Since spaces in a modern house are intentionally orchestrated, you should consider the arrangement of fixtures. For example, a centralized light fixture typical of traditional homes will not work quite well to modernize a modern house. You may need to place Multiple light features in strategic positions to bring out your home’s lighting optimally.
Tips to modernize a modern home interior
Interior accessories are many that you should take care of when selecting so as to make the best choice for your interior design. Here are some of the key items to remember;
1. Kitchen and laundry appliances
2. Plumbing fixtures
3. Electrical fixtures (light, witches, cover plates, etc.)
4. Mechanical register/vent
5. Hardware (door handles, cabinetry hardware, etc.)
6. Bathroom kits
7. Furniture and so on.
You should select these accessories to further enhance the modernized look when you want to modernize your home.
Conclusion
Summarily, the main feature of the architecture of modern home design is its simplicity. To modernize a modern house, keep the layout, material, and accessories simple.
As you decide on what design to give to your modernized home, this list will serve as a guideline and reminder as to the factors that matter the most to modernize your home.
In addition, you can employ the service of a design expert like an architect to help you bring to reality all the muddled-up ideas you have in your head.
