The rising costs of pretty much everything nowadays make it hard to save up for what you want or need. This is especially true for those of us who want to have a house of our own. We often end up taking out credit card loans and mortgages to finance the home we dream of. Some of us even juggle multiple jobs to make that dream of owning a home a reality. Owning a home, however, doesn’t necessarily have to mean back-breaking and back-breaking work. With careful planning and decision making, you can have that dream home you want without spending a lot for it.
Most of us have become accustomed to the idea that a house has to be huge. The average size of a US home is 2,600 square feet, a value that has doubled since 1960. We’ve been told to have separate rooms for our kitchen, our dining room, our living room, and of course our bedrooms. But studies have shown that not all spaces of our home are being maximized. A lot of larger homes in the US often have rooms and spaces that are redundant. With underutilized and duplicate spaces in such a house, that means that the money that went into the home mortgage or construction went to waste. Keep the budget for your home a lot more manageable by reducing the size of your home. You don’t need a huge mudroom or a large study.
In the same vein, having a room serve more than one purpose can lend itself well to those on a tighter budget. Japanese homes, for example, are smaller than most American homes, and yet serve multiple functions. One room can be transformed into a sleeping area at night, and in the daytime can serve as a recreational area and dining area at the same time. Kitchens are smaller but contain all the cooking essentials. Some even have enough space to become the dining area as well. When planning your dream home, think about how one room can transform to satisfy more than one need to keep construction costs lower. Modern homes like those from stillwaterdwellings.com can be customized to have multifunctional rooms.
All this talk of a smaller home can feel, well, cramped. To help reduce the uncomfortable feeling you can get in a small space; there are a lot of visual tricks to make a home feel larger. Doing things like painting the walls a lighter color or making use of floor-length mirrors can make space feel a lot larger. Guide your gaze by painting your counters a darker color and then make sure to get the cabinets in a lighter color. This will force the viewer’s gaze upward and make the room feel slightly taller. Minimize decorative elements like knick-knacks and tchotchkes to avoid making any surface feel crowded. Having a lot of things make a room feel smaller. Take some time to plan out what is and isn’t necessary when purchasing items for your soon to be constructed home.