Your home and your lifestyle are deeply interwoven. You need it to meet your needs, suit your style and give you a sense of peace and belonging. Your home should feel like an extension of yourself and your family.

Sounds lovely, right? It’s easier said than done but with the right design and the right intention you can absolutely create a space that is form-fitted to your lifestyle.

The best design should not only look beautiful but also complement and function with how you live – how your entire family uses each individual space. Here are some design tips for finding the form that fits your (real) life.

A Who’s Who of House-Mates

Start with the who and let that inform your design decisions. Is it just you in the home? Free reign! You have no other opinions or needs to contend with. Is it you and a partner? Define your needs, list out your wants and come to a compromise on design.

When kids and pets come into the mix you have to start thinking in different terms. You may need to think in terms of resilient materials and safety. That super lightweight, eco-conscious bamboo floor may need to give way to a more durable tile. Your countertops will need to handle a lot of wear and tear. You’ve seen the damage (and pure joy) that kids and animals can bring, don’t forget to factor their lifestyle into your design.

Bring Your Values into Consideration

Your values are a large part of your lifestyle and will inform many of your design choices. And while we do want to include your religious beliefs and family traditions in here – we are actually referring to how you value your time at home. How do you want to spend it? Is hosting friends and family a big deal for you? Consider how to design a space for gatherings (yes, we mean gatherings in a post-COVID world). Is personal space and regenerative alone time big for you? Maybe you need a Zen den or a bathroom oasis.

And then, how do you want your home to make you feel? Yes, we italicized that – and yes, for good reason. Do you want to feel like your home gives you a gentle hug every time you walk in the door and hands you a chilled cocktail before you dip your toes into your paradise pool?

Or!

Do you want your home to explode with color and style? To just evoke the very essence of your bright, bold personality? Do you want your home to show off your travel adventures (you know, when we all used to travel?). Do you want it to simply be a modular, clean and simple version of how you would assume Don Draper would live in today’s timeline?

Whatever it is – let’s define it – and then bring it into your space. 

Give Everything a Purpose

Our homes, much like us, must serve many purposes. Particularly since COVID, we have had to adapt spaces to meet a variety of needs. That living room has had to function as a classroom, home gym and office space. Your kitchen has become a full service hospitality hub (read: cocktail and coffee bar). When designing your home to your lifestyle you want to identify the roles that each space fulfills. Multifunctionality might be vital in some spaces but other spaces, like your bedroom or master bathroom, should be devoted to one role.

The Home Edit: All the Stuff Needs a Place to Go

It’s not as sexy as an outdoor oasis or an elegant home office, but you have to think about the more functional needs along with the lovely design. Where do you store your stuff? How can you design closets and storage space with the same lifestyle needs and beautiful design principles in mind? How can you keep your kitchen clutter free? How do you keep your kids’ lounge from looking like a hurricane swept through?

Ensure It Can Age Like a Fine Wine

Lastly, our homes, like us, mature and evolve. So leave room for change, both in your lifestyle and in your design. That could mean creating spaces that are purposefully multifunctional. Or it might mean creating a more long-term plan that allows for smaller redesigns as you need. One rule to live by – design your home for what you will need in 10 years. Crazy, we know. But those toddler-level vanities won’t really hold up in a few years when your five year-old is suddenly 15 and six feet tall. Just sayin’.

Houses are for living in. They’re not just large ornamental pieces that we happen to inhabit.

We’ve said it once, we’ll probably say it a thousand more times… A house is not a home until you love where you live.

How can we help you design your home to seamlessly fit your lifestyle?