In the next two years, my husband and I are planning to build a new house in the countryside in Victoria, Australia. It will be a modest, simple, sustainable house. We currently live in a compact terrace house in Melbourne, so our new house will be somewhat bigger. I am currently designing the storage spaces and considering our requirements. I thought I should ask the experts in this forum for their best space saving, practical and "clutter-less" ideas for a simple clean look.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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we built a new room last year and the window seat is all cunning storage underneath.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pattiflynn/5265303578/
the middle part is a huge roll out drawer and i keep the ironing board and vacuum cleaner in there.
the side bits lift up and have large storage spaces beneath them.
i keep out of season bedding in there.in the other room we've got elfa shelving for office and wardrobe.
it wasn't cheap, but we can swap it around easily.the key is to declutter first and then, when you are down to what you really need, have a think about your storage needs.
i know i saved a fortune by getting rid of the excess first.
i had visions of huge big wall closets and in the end, i just needed a window seat!Posted 1 year ago # -
I'm actually planning on building a house too; no budget or anything yet but a dream nevertheless. I'd do exactly what bandicoot says and then add just a tad more storage, but to allure oneself with a lot of excess storage space is to ask for trouble in my opinion.
I have a favourite kitchen company that is Danish. It might be too expensive in the end, but then I'd like to have something similar custom made. I think it's great that there are so many kitchen options out there, but they all work on the same type of thinking, whereas I found out that I'd actually like something more in line of the Ikea Billy bookcases, only with many more shelves and also a pair of doors to close. This would be a pantry, but none of the mainstream kitchen companies think like this, so custom it will be. Here's the Danish dream: http://www.hansenkitchen.dk/
I think the most important question for every room is "What do we do in this room, how do we behave here?" and take it from there. Just because someone says that you should eat in a dining room or in a kitchen, doesn't mean that you can't make a comfortable eating arrangement in front of the tv if that is where you as a couple eat a lot. Or a Finnish example would be "Oh my, you're not installing a sauna?" and the answer to that "No because we would use it so few times a month that it'd be a waste". I'd love to have a bathtub though! And some mood lighting to go with it, maybe some music too.
If you have a huge film collection you might want to keep it close to where you watch them in a designated shelf system. If you like to cook a lot, analyse your behaviour before beginning to lock yourself into ideas; where do you need counter space, and how much?
I didn't know before my dreaming began that I'd love to have a decent laundry room. It's location would be close to both main entryway and kitchen so that I will be able to do some laundry while cooking, not being forced to run to another floor of the house. And close to the entryway? There will hopefully be dirty paws and small feet to clean fast before they do any damage indoors and so mommy would simply lift one after the other for cleaning in the laundry room.
I'll stop with my examples because they're mine, not yours; sorry for sort of replying with more questions than real answers :D What do you want from your home? Good luck and let me tell you I'm very excited to hear you share in the future too, if you feel comfortable doing so!
Posted 1 year ago # -
My favorite space saving idea is utilizing the spaces between the wall studs. There are a few ideas here http://architecture.about.com/od/buildyourhous1/qt/spaceinwalls.htm
My kitchen is small, so when we redo it, I plan on adding cabinets between the studs on one of the walls, which isn't a good spot for traditional cabinets anyway, to store spices and most pantry items. The shelves will be 6 inches deep (about 15 centimeters). I also plan to do this in the bathroom because it too is small without a lot of storage space.
I have a bunch of photos scanned from library books with ideas. You might want to check your library.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I forgot to add this collection of organizing ideas: http://www.marthastewart.com/organized-index I have a lot of my functional thinking from Martha and even though the visual part might not be my cup of tea, I agree with many of the ideas.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I love the idea of building a separate dressing room adjoining the bedroom, with walls of built-in closets and drawers in there, to minimize any clothing clutter that might end up on the bed or bedroom floor. I'm a believer in keeping the bedroom only for sleep and sex. No electronics, no media, just tranquility.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@Jackthetiger You might consider looking at design books from the turn of the last century, especially those dealing with Craftsman bungalows: the storage and design in those houses were specifically designed to deal with a household being managed with as little effort as possible.
As ninakk hinted, we're one of those couples who don't eat in the dining room and don't have an eat-in kitchen: it's simply not how we live. We have trays on an ottoman in the family room, or we eat at our desks in the office. And after ten years of tromping up and down a narrow twisty stair (and five years before that of living on four levels), I will never again have a laundry room on a separate level.
Posted 1 year ago # -
yes yes yes to the idea of a dressing room!
it seems like a wild luxury, but it really isn't.
it's smart design which will save you having to have dressers and wardrobes and other clunky bits of furniture for clothing storage.
a decent-sized dressing room could also house linens.
this is my very next project around here.....carving off some of the gigantic bedroom to make a dressing room.
i want to make it so that the (yet to be designed and built) new bathroom will sort of flow naturally into the dressing room.
one can emerge from the shower and drift over to look for clothing, without passing through the public areas of the house.Posted 1 year ago # -
You make it sound so stylish, Bandicoot. Like something from a 1940s movie! I read my husband all your posts and he said that you were all so sensible and generous with your comments. He now understands why this is now my preferred website.
You have all made some excellent points. I think living in such a tiny space has made me over-estimate my needs.
I was thinking of a false wall in the bedroom to hide away all clothes and use elfa baskets. I like the way they are open and allow air to circulate around the contents. I also thought we might have a small window to ventilate this further. I agree with Ella that the bedroom should be tranquil!
I really like the clean designs of the kitchens, Ninakk. I think I will go with lots of drawers again because we have many different pots, pans and utensils in regular use. Things can't hide at the back of drawers as easily. We will require a large kitchen bench to stretch the sourdough bread each week. JuliaJayne, the space between the studs is also a nice hidden resource.
We only have a laundry cupboard now, so I would like more space there so that everything does not have to be stacked. It is a bit of a hazard although it looks neat enough.
Lucy, I had not thought of looking at books from the last century. I do like modernist architecture like the Esher house and will hit the local library and get scanning.
Thanks again everyone. We are spending this year planning and preparing and we will start to build next year. Any more ideas would be welcome.Posted 1 year ago # -
i am insanely jealous of your opportunity to build the perfect home right from scratch!
and a whole year to plan and prepare is just right.
you'll need every minute of that to pore over the design blogs!i love my elfa shelving.
i like the airing aspect of it too.
i like the open wires and how there is very little chance of collecting dust.
it takes no time to dust down the wooden frames with a damp cloth every now and then.we renovated our kitchen almost 2 years ago.
we went with natural-edged local timber (qld maple) and mini-orb.....it's very aussie bush-style, which suits our repurposed farm machinery shed house.
the timber is covered in layers of polyurethane and is very forgiving of the odd bang and scratch....but it doesn't play well with heat, so i always use trivets.
i wanted units on industrial castors, so i could wheel them out and clean behind them.
i wanted big deep drawers to house stuff.
i wanted a pantry that was reminiscent of an old meat safe, with the fly wire netting.
i wanted lots of stainless steel commercial kitchen style racks for my pots and pans (it is the only way to store them in my opinion). the stainless steel seems to be the only thing that doesn't get banged up by the pots eventually.
i also wanted my tools to be hanging out in the open for easy grabbing.
i've got a tiny bit more stuff hanging up there now, but it is all stuff i use every day.it was a very inexpensive kitchen....almost the most expensive thing was the faucet, after the oven!
a couple of very young guys hand-built the whole thing....almost to my specs, lol.a couple of other things we have installed in this home:
solar hot water
a wood stove with a wetback and an oven
we have free hot water year-round now (unlimited rainwater too).
i highly recommend both, especially in light of the way energy prices are set to soar.
i'd also recommend passive solar design, it will save you a lot of money in the long run.double glazing is an awesome idea too.
some parts of victoria get so cold in the winter!while i am on the energy-saving bandwagon.....we had an opportunity to position power switches so that we could turn lots of things off at the wall with one switch.
my entire office shuts down from one switch: 2 laptops/desk light/printer/hard drive/another hard drive/modem/shredder/peripherals.
tv/dvd/speakers all shut down with one switch.
if you have an accessible switch, it is sooooooo much likelier that you will turn the stuff off.o wow.
none of this has much to do with decluttered storage and more to do with decluttered power bills!and one more thing
in my perfect house, i'd have polished concrete floors throughout.
so easy to clean and maintain.
and so beautiful.
especially with a few fabulous rugs strewn about.Posted 1 year ago # -
We have a dressing area in our master bedroom with works really well, especially if one person is getting ready for work while the other is still sleeping. It runs the length of the bedroom and can be closed off with a pocket door.
You step into a sink area with a long counter. Turn left, and there is a toilet, shower and large linen closet, all semi-screened with saloon-type swinging half-doors. Turn right, and there is a medium-sized walk-in closet, where we have installed wire shelving and drawers, plus the two fixed wooden shelves that run all around the perimeter of the closet and, of course, hanging bars.
The bedroom itself is divided into two parts. One half is the bed and two nightstands and a chair (plus, I admit, a 3-shelf bookshelf and a TV armoire and DVD storage, which I would like to eliminate some day.) The halves are divided by three arches, two of them fenced off with railings. The other half of the room has a fireplace and a french door leading to our sun porch. DH uses this half of the bedroom as his home office, so it has a desk, table, two more bookshelves and a comfy reading chair.
It's a very good design that has worked well for us.
This isn't a big house -- 1507 sq ft, plus the utility/laundry room (171 sq ft.) the enclosed sun porch (255 sq ft) and the 2-car garage (380 sq ft -- which also has a bump-out in the back for a workbench-shop area.)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Jackthetiger, what a wonderful opportunity! I think regardless of what you will do, you will probably know AFTER the house is finished what you would do differently the next time, LOL ;o) What is the opinion of the people in this forum who have already built a house or remodeled one - if there was one thing you would definitely do or not do next time, what would it be?
The only tip I have is that you work with the sunlight you get. When my parents built their house (one of three row houses), they surprised (more like: unsettled) the other two neighbors by switching the floor plan around: They knew they would spend time in the kitchen in the mornings for breakfast, so they put the kitchen where it would get sunlight in the morning, and vice versa with the living room. (The living room opens to a patio, which is also much nicer to sit on in summer evenings when there is sunlight.) My current apartment also gets sunlight in the mornings in the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen - great to wake up to - and from about 2 p.m. on, the living room and balcony get direct sunlight. So when you plan your new house, think about which rooms you use during which time of the day, and whether you want to have sunlight with these activities, and plan accordingly :o)
When you mentioned sustainability, I immediately thought of Dome houses - I think due to their unusual shape there must be some smart storage built in everywhere!
Posted 1 year ago # -
When planning a build, people have a tendency to focus on what their current living space lacks without taking into consideration what they liked and what worked places they previously lived.
Posted 1 year ago # -
JuliaJayne, you are right. There are many things I like about our current (tiny) terrace house. The kitchen is almost all drawers with two small cupboards for food storage. I love our spice cupboard (2 metres x 1 metre and only 10 centimetres deep with frosted glass doors).
I am hoping to extend my space for clothes as I currently have only 70 centimetres of hanging space. Also, the kitchen does need more drawers and the laundry will be bigger.
I know I am very lucky to have this opportunity. I never thought I would undertake such a project or live in the bush. Bandicoot@ double glazing is so important where we will be living. There is a great contrast in temperatures. It can get down to 0 C on a clear, cold night in winter, and the summer temperatures are extreme. It can regularly be over 40 C with hot dry winds. (I was visiting my husband's family once and it was 49 C!) We plan to have a long thin house - about 20 metres long and 6 metres deep with the windows running north and south. This will give us plenty of passive solar value and should reduce our need to heat in winter. It will also give us those nice sunny spots Trillie. The house will be bigger than I had expected because we will need to be self sufficient with water, so we required more catchment space on the roof. (Our rainfall average is 400 mm a year.)
I also like the central cut off switch. I had not considered this. Susanintexas @ The dressing room option seems to be very popular and I like the idea that one person would not wake the other when dressing - especially if I am the sleeper!
Thanks for all your ideas.
JackiPosted 1 year ago # -
Hi Jackthetiger! I would love to build a sustainable house. My dream would be a strawbale home with radiant floor heat and a metal roof for rainwater collection. I would also have solar panels.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi Claycat, We will install photovoltaic panels - probably 8. We will connect to the grid and put electricity in throughout the day. At night, we will redraw what we need. We will have a metal roof. We have one now and I like hearing the rain - when it comes! I would prefer floor heating - no clutter at all - but my husband does not like it. We will have hydronic panels instead. Many people like the straw bale house. It is certainly very efficient in a thermal sense, but not quite my style.
I think this post has got some people dreaming and planning....Posted 1 year ago # -
Do you need to worry about fire-proofing your house? I still remember those terrifying Australian fires ...
Posted 1 year ago # -
Hi Zora, There are some materials that retard burning, but it is impossible to completely fireproof your house. On days rated "Code Red Catastrophic" the temperatures are so high that all moisture is sucked from plants and the winds can be fierce and unpredictable. It is a consequence of living where we do. There are commonsense measures such as limiting ground fuel and overhanging Eucalypt branches (exterior decluttering!) and having a fire plan.
If our area is threatened by fire, we will prepare as best we can, then leave the property with our animals. I do not want anybody to risk their life trying to save our house. Sad as it would be, it is all replaceable.Posted 1 year ago # -
Now they have hydronic floor panels! I did not know that!
http://www.warmzone.com/hydronic-radiant-floor-heat.asp
One thing I really like about natural building materials is that they are more fireproof. This includes strawbale, cob, adobe, and rammed earth.
I'm currently living in a house that has walls made of expanded polystyrene. They are good insulation, fire retardant, and low vocs.
Posted 1 year ago # -
We couldn't afford to buy land and build a green house, but the flats we're looking at (in less than three weeks! Holiday! Whee! Sorry, it's been a while and I'm excited) are LEED Gold certified. Yes, it's going to cost more, but the utility bills will be very small and there will be practically no maintenance.
Posted 1 year ago #
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