The modern home of today is more functional and stylish than ever before. Home builders and designers always have their fingers on the pulse of what homeowners want, which changes from time to time. While many trends in home plans and designs lose steam quickly after they’ve gone mainstream for a while, others stick around a lot longer and even become timeless.
Whichever path they take remains to be seen, but here are a few trends in home planning and designing that will be hot in California homes in 2016.
Outdoor Living Spaces
With the climate being as glorious as it is in California, there’s no reason to limit living space to the indoors. A huge trend home design in the Golden State is bringing the indoors out, and defining an outdoor living area that offers an extension to the home.
This design trend is much more than about typical porches and patios; instead, it’s about well-defined and articulated outdoor rooms that offer all the conveniences of a living room, but outdoors. Carpeting, furniture, a fireplace, and an outdoor bar are just some of the amenities used to create this defined outdoor living space. And the transition from the indoors to the outdoors is a seamless one with the use of glass doors that fold or slide almost out of sight to create an open concept expansion to the home’s overall floor plan.
Decline in Formal Dining Rooms
This might not necessarily be a trend per se, but it’s still worth mentioning: formal dining rooms have been dropping off floor plans for a while now, and this movement continues to be a strong one. These days, homeowners appreciate a wide-open concept where they can cook, entertain, eat, watch TV, and keep an eye on the kids all without being separated by walls.
This craving for open concepts doesn’t coincide with a formal dining space: it’s just another room to have to furnish and clean. And let’s face it: homeowners who still have these rooms are probably using them more for homework, office work, or storage rather than actual formal meals. Dining rooms are nothing more than spaces that are disconnected from other spaces in a home, and as such, more and more California house plans feature larger, more casual rooms where dining, hanging out, and eating can all be done in essentially the same space.
Multiple Ensuite Bathrooms
These days, it’s not just the master bedroom that benefits from an adjoining ensuite bathroom. Modern floor plans are now including multiple master bedroom suites that each come with their own connecting bathrooms.
This idea definitely works for families with growing kids who aren’t exactly fond of having to wait in line to use the bathroom. This arrangement allows everyone in the home to have their own private bathroom space for them to mess up as they see fit.
Smaller-Scale Rooms
An interesting trend on the home design realm is the return to smaller, more intimate spaces. More and more homeowners are foregoing massive kitchens in favor of smaller-scale ones. It might just be that millennials are playing a key role in this trend, as this demographic tends to want smaller homes that don’t require as much maintenance as larger ones on bigger lots. Whatever the case, many homeowners are now opting for smaller rooms that provide just enough space to be functional while still being very comfortable at the same time.
Lavish Garages
Some home garages in California are so sleek and comfortable that you could live in them. A big trend in home design in California is the transformation of garages into more grand spaces that feature temperature controls, finished flooring, large sinks or tubs to bathe family pets, car lifts to accommodate extra vehicles, and defined areas for the home’s audio/video controls.
Specialized Storage
Homeowners want to live in a home that’s well-organized, and for that to happen, everything needs to have a place to be tucked away into. Whether it’s a walk-in closet, an extra-large kitchen pantry, or a spacious linen closet, may homeowners are willing to sacrifice square footage and dedicate it to specific storage spaces. Such solutions help to cut down on the clutter, and make it easier to find specific items.
These trends have already gained some steam in 2016, and are expected to become even more popular throughout the year. How long these trends last is tough to predict, but as long as they suit the homeowner, there’s plenty of reason to hold onto them for the long haul.
