860-537-5345bruno@homedesignsbybruno.com

5 Tips for Creating a Cozy Home

5 Tips for Creating a Cozy Home

Posted on
By:admin

Everyone would love to know how to create a cozy home. It is typical to want to feel good in your own space, no matter the size. Maybe you just purchased a new home and need help giving it a little personality. Or perhaps you are living in a college dorm as a student and want to make your space comfier. No matter where you live, or what size home you have, you can use this guide to help you transition your home into a cozy space.

One of the first things you may want to accomplish to make your home cozy is to consider adding good lighting. If you are unsure where to start, determine how many light sources you have in your room now. Consider the design of each light and whether the bulb you are using is cool or warm.

If you are searching for tips for creating a cozy home, consider warming up your space with rugs. Rugs are cozy because it can get very cold underneath your feet if you have hardwood or tile flooring. You will feel warmer immediately by adding rugs and textiles to your space.

If rugs aren’t your thing, consider using plush mats in your bathroom, etc. Another tip is to consider adding texture to your living space. The texture is the quality of the material on the surface. Texture is perfect for adding depth and can make any space cozy. Consider putting woven baskets with throw blankets and pillows in them. You can even combine accessories such as ceramic, wood, and leather to create a variety of sensations.

Consider adding fresh flowers to your living space to make it cozy. Fresh flowers are excellent at delivering a beautiful touch. They can even last a long time if you maintain them. Consider faux greenery if you don’t care for fresh flowers too much. After all, there is nothing wrong if your preference is fake flowers and plants over fresh ones.

Finally, you should consider hanging artwork and mirrors around your living space to make it cozier. Completely empty walls will leave your space feeling depressing. Prints are always a good option if you’re on a tight budget for original artwork. Consider purchasing from sites such as Etsy or Redbubble, where you can find printed artwork, framed or unframed. You can even find artwork that matches whatever style you are looking for. Besides hanging prints, you may also consider textile wall hangings, quilts, mirrors, children’s artwork, framed photographs, and fiber art.2

Must-Have Features in Your Custom Home

Posted on
By:admin

When building a custom home, one of the main advantages is you have full control over what the home is. Features such as materials, the number of rooms, the overall layout, and various design choices are all up to you. Unlike a prebuilt home with a custom home, you don’t have to make do with a design choice you don’t like when buying the home, because everything is up to you.

An essential part of the building process is knowing what must have features for your custom home you should have. Here are five features for your new custom home that you should not miss out on.

Five Must-Have Features for Your Custom Home

  1. A Well-Insulated Roof: Having good insulation provides many useful benefits. It keeps your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer and saves you money by making heating and cooling far more efficient. Proper insulation also reduces noise pollution and improves indoor air quality.
  2. High-Quality Windows: Investing in high-quality windows makes your home warm, provides light, and makes your home look better. Well-made windows also help prevent outdoor air from entering your home and protect your home and possessions from UV rays and sun damage while not reducing light.
  3. Smart Lighting: Modern technology has made homes more responsive to owner needs. With smart lighting, you can control your home’s lighting from a smartphone or table. This means you can control your lights even when you are away from home. This saves on energy, helps light bulbs last longer, and can help with home security.
  4. A Heated Garage: Adding heat to your garage offers benefits as a homeowner. A heated garage can protect your car from the winter cold and other extreme weather conditions. Plus, if you like working on your car, a heated garage offers the perfect area. A warm garage also makes getting ready for winter outings easier.
  5. Outlets for Outdoor Spaces: Having accessible outdoor plugs makes your outdoor areas far more versatile. If you plan on putting up decorations or doing any work outside, you need access to outlets to power your tools or displays. Outdoor outlets can also be useful for patios and outdoor seating areas for plugging in laptops, cellphones, and other devices.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the ways you can make a custom home truly yours. When customizing a home, always keep your and your family’s needs at the front of your mind. Additions focusing on common needs and goals can greatly improve your quality of life.

Tips for Customizing Your Home to Fit Your Family’s Needs

Posted on
By:admin

The design and layout of your home can dramatically affect your day-to-day life.

Home is where the heart is, where you raise your family and spend most of your time. It should be designed in such a way as to cater to your individual needs and the needs of your family.

Things to consider when customizing a home to fit your families needs.

1. Add a mudroom

How to customize your home to fit your families needs. We cannot emphasize enough the difference a mudroom will make to your life. It is a space in your home, usually located outside the main living areas, near the front or rear of the home. It serves a very specific purpose. It is a dedicated room where you can remove any muddy shoes or other outerwear before entering the home’s main living spaces, such as the kitchen, living area, or dining room.

This space usually includes plenty of storage space for every member of the home. There are dedicated locker-like spaces where kids can hang things like backpacks, and a space to put shoes, coats, and bags. These rooms are designed to be cleaned very easily and are easily maintained.

2. Creating a separate space for your kids

It’s important to create a separate space for the children’s rooms away from the master bedroom. This will provide privacy for the kids and the adults. Allowing kids to have this space will also encourage some form of independence and structure in their own space.

3. Add a flex room

A flex room is an excellent addition to your custom home.

It’s a room that may serve many different purposes in the period that you call the property your home. For example, a flex room may be used as a storage room when you first move in.

You could change it into a kid’s playroom when the kids get old enough, and you need to create a play space. This way, you keep the kid’s bedroom organized, or at least to some extent.

As the kids grow older, you may want to change the flex room into a study where they can go and finish homework after school. When the kids move out, you may want to change the flex room into a reading corner for yourself.

4. Jack and Jill’s bathrooms

Think about the family’s size, the home’s space, and access to shared bathrooms. A Jack and Jill bathroom that leads to two different bedrooms may be a great way to save space and allow multiple family members to have access to a shared bathroom. One child could use the bathroom sink while the other uses the shower or bath privately.

However, in some families, it may be better to include a small bathroom with each bedroom, to ensure privacy and that each child has access to their private bathroom.

5. Make your home kid-friendly

If you have kids or plan to have kids, you may want to consider making your home kid-friendly by adopting or adding any of the following:

  • Non-toxic paint and flooring
  • Fireplace safety
  • Kid-friendly staircase
  • Outlet covers
  • Safer shelving

5 Tips for Making Your Home More Functional and Comfortable

Posted on
By:admin

The design of your home affects how you feel. However, the design is more than a style and aesthetics. A good design should enhance your experience of the space and simplify your day-to-day life. Here are some useful tips on making your home more comfortable and functional:

Tips on Making Your Home More Functional

If you wonder how to make your home more comfortable and functional, here is a list of things you can do:

  • Plan the layout right. The key element of any home design is its layout. Think about how you use and move around your home. Does it feel comfortable moving around? Is there something that you should alter? Maybe you need to knock down several walls to create more space or steal space from one room to add another.
  • Use awkward and challenging spaces. You likely have a space in your home that you do not know how to use. Challenging spaces are often left bare, which attracts clutter and makes a home less functional. If you do not want your home to look messy, you should think about transforming an awkward space into an area with a purpose.
  • Plan the lighting. Lighting is one of the most important aspects of a home design, and most homeowners struggle with it. You need to think about creating a balance of natural and artificial light, which might be tricky. To comfy your home with efficient lighting, you should use different lighting types, such as wall lamps, floor lamps, table lamps, chandeliers, and more.
  • Make your rooms multi-functional. If you have a small house, your rooms should serve more than one purpose. For example, you can put a futon sofa in one of the family rooms to use it as a guest room when necessary. There are many options and possibilities, and you can discuss them with a professional designer.
  • Think about the future. When trying to create a functional house, you should think about the future and the changes it might bring. If you are focused on your present only, you may experience problems later. For example, if you have just started a family and plan to have children in the future, you should consider how your home will function when your child is born.

Home Designs By Bruno – Affordable Custom Designs in Colchester, CT

Do you want to make your home more functional and comfortable but need professional help? It is time to contact Home Designs By Bruno, a company specializing in designing homes, additions, and drafting services. We use a unique approach to designing and building your perfectly functional home. We walk our clients through the entire design process and make sure that they experience 100% satisfaction with their new home. If you have any questions about the services we offer, or you want to discuss your project with us, do not hesitate to visit our website or give us a call.

Will 2023 Be a Good Time to Build a Custom House?

Posted on
By:admin

Should I build a custom house in 2023? Only 19% of consumers believe that 2023 will be a good time to build a custom home, according to the Housing Sentiment Index. This is because interest rates are higher than ever before, with many expecting a recession in the future. If you are asking yourself this question, you may have already started the planning process. One of the first reasons is that construction costs have begun to drop. When the pandemic first began, everyone was seeing increases of up to 32%. But now, the pace of the increases has already begun to significantly slow down. It is expected that construction costs will begin to increase at a more consistent pace, between 2% and 4% in the year 2023.

Is 2023 a Good Time To Build a Custom Home?

Here are several more reasons to move on with your plans. In the year 2023, you can count on resale values to remain steady. Besides the market crash in 2008, many homeowners have rates under 5% versus variable rates that they were unable to afford. The low level of housing supply that is being seen now will still remain present without any reductions in value.

Besides the resale value, there is not a lot of competition when it comes to finding land. Over the past years, it has been a challenge for people to find available land to build their homes on. But, this is no longer the case, which means stability is finally present in the land market.

Another reason 2023 is a good time to build your home is that interest rates are more likely to decline. The mortgage market has already begun making predictions about falling rates. When it comes to mortgages, many people either sell their homes or refinance their loan before their loan ends. The lenders make money between the rate you are being charged and the fed funds. Currently, the spread on mortgages is much higher than it has ever been only because it is expected that many newly originated loans will be refinanced when rates start to decrease.

Not only will interest rates decline, but the supply chain has also begun improving. Now you no longer have to wait 12 months just to receive appliances and garage doors. Over the past several years, waiting for appliances has been the new norm. More than half of the builder materials dealers stated that the supply chain has improved and is expected to remain stable.

Picking the Perfect Finishes for Your Custom Home

Posted on
By:admin

What finishes should I chose for a custom home? It can feel overwhelming to have a wide range of options available with different features to choose from. But, this process can be simple with the right tools, photos, and experts to help you out. Continue reading to find out various tips for picking the best finishes for your home.

Tips for Picking Finishes for Your Custom Home

Picking the perfect finishes for a custom hone doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are some tips to help you along the way. First, don’t forget to gather all of the information you need before you start choosing any paint colors and flooring options. Take this time to come up with a budget and familiarize yourself with the building process. All of these things should then be discussed with your lender since you may have to pay more for upgrades in cash instead of them being financed. Also, don’t forget to decide on structural upgrades, including a finished basement, additional windows, and any room extensions or upgrades.

Once you have gathered all of the information you need, you can now check out various websites such as Pinterest and Houzz to get some ideas for styles. Use this time to save web pages and email links. This will help you later on not to get overwhelmed and keep a record of everything you like. Before scheduling an appointment with your design expert, visit your builder’s website to browse photos of homes to see what you like. You probably already have an idea of what you would like your new home to look like. But, you will need to decide on the things that are more important to you and start with those first.

Finally, you can begin to work with your design expert. You may have to schedule multiple sessions with your designer to choose the best options for your new home. But, if you don’t have many options, this process may be a bit quicker for you. You should begin by scheduling an initial consultation in person or by video conference. During this consultation, you can talk about the many options you have chosen. Don’t forget to ask questions. Once the basics have been established, you can start to narrow down your options. Your designer may advise you on the finishes and colors that blend well and even inform you about the quality of various products. You can also take advantage of online sources to compare different products and finishes.

4 Tips for Finding the Best Custom Home

Posted on
By:admin

One of the best long-term investments someone can make is purchasing their own home. Beyond being a good investment, your home is also a place where you will spend a lot of time. Because of this, you will want to get a home that you love and meets all of your needs.

One way that you can do this is by purchasing and building your own custom home. When you are looking to purchase a custom home, there are a lot of factors to consider. Fortunately, there are various tips for picking a custom home that can make it a great option and investment.

Consider What Is Important

When looking for the best custom home, you must consider what is most important to you. There are many options to consider with any new custom home, so identifying the most important features should be your first priority. These can include square footage, home style, luxury amenities, outdoor space, and location. Once you have identified your most important features in the new home, it will make it easier to pair your options down to a more reasonable list size.

Have the Right Builder

When you are going to invest in any type of property, you will want to know that it is built well. While most people assume that a new custom home will be in great condition, there could still be near-term structure issues if it is not built well. Due to this, you should look to hire a builder and architect with a long track record and an excellent reputation for quality in your area. This should provide comfort that you are working with a reputable company that will build a quality home.

Ask Questions

When going through the process, various steps must be followed. This includes getting initial drawings, schematics, and blueprints from architects. These will then be the guide through the full home development. While you should be able to trust that everything is done well and in accordance with plans, you should never be afraid to ask questions. If a mistake is made, it is better to address it sooner rather than later.

Have a Budget and Prepare for Unexpected

Most people will know they need to budget properly for their home remodel. However, it is essential to remember that cost overruns can happen. Due to this, you should ensure that you have a contingency plan in place for additional costs that could arise.

If you are looking to have your own home built, there are a lot of choices to make to ensure you get a quality home that you will be able to enjoy for a very long time. When wondering how to find the best custom home, following these tips is very important as it can help guide your decision and ensure you get a quality property.

What To Consider When Building a Custom Home

Posted on
By:admin

Custom home builds are not for everyone. But there certainly are some situations in which a custom home is the way to go. This quick guide will help you decide if you should consider custom home construction. Keep reading to learn more about custom home design tips and custom home layout ideas.

You Have a Specific Vision for Your Home

Not everyone wants to simply buy a cookie-cutter home in a subdivision. If your dream home is something that you have specifically designed in your mind, you should definitely consider connecting with a custom home builder. These professionals will be able to take your vision and turn it into a beautiful reality.

Trying to shop around to find your dream home could prove to be frustrating and fruitless.

You Want Built-Ins

Built-in storage and shelving does not often come standard with a pre-designed home. If you have been dreaming of custom made built-ins for entertainment areas, the kitchen, bath, or even the closets. They will be able to provide you with custom closet ideas, storage solutions, and more.

It is always easier to plan built-ins during the construction process of a new home build, rather than to attempt to have them added to a completed space.

You Want a Kitchen Nook

Kitchen nooks are an adorable addition to a kitchen space, but these are usually a custom creation. A kitchen nook provides a great way to bring in more seating into the kitchen area. Nooks are often good for smaller kitchens that otherwise may not have a lot of room for an eat in table or island.

You Need a Mudroom

A mudroom or a drop zone as some people call it is a great feature to have in any home. Unfortunately, many pre-designed homes do not come with this feature. Having your mud room custom made allows for you to add custom designed built-in storage, benches, and more.

You Want An Upstairs Laundry Room

Some homeowners wish to conserve all of their downstairs space for living space or entertaining space. This can be easily accomplished by making sure that all bedrooms, main bathrooms, and the laundry are all upstairs. Most average home designs will not have the laundry upstairs, though. If you want your laundry upstairs, you should reach out to a custom home builder in your area. They will have the skills to design your home exactly the way you have envisioned it.

You Want a Spa Bathroom

If you want more than just the average master bath, a custom home builder can design you a home spa that you’ll never want to leave. A home spa can include things such as a jacuzzi tub, luxury shower, sauna, and more.

Five Tips for Picking the Perfect Color Palette for Your Home

Posted on
By:admin

Color can transform the inside of your home. However, finding the right colors for your space can be challenging with so many choices. Use these five tips for interior paint ideas to give your home the perfect color palette.

Find Inspiration

Before selecting a color, try pairing it with something you love. Whether it be a piece of artwork or your favorite throw pillow, use it as a starting point for your color palette. Once you have found a color you love, start exploring tints and shades of that hue to find the perfect match for your room.

Think About The Mood You Want To Create

The colors in your home should reflect the mood you want to create. For example, are you going for a cozy and inviting space or a more modern and sleek look? Warmer colors tend to make a room feel more inviting, while cooler colors can give off a more sophisticated vibe. In addition, you can experiment with custom home paint concepts to give you a unique look.

Choose a Focal Point

Every room has a focal point, whether it’s the fireplace, a piece of furniture, or even the view out the window could be the main focus area in your living space. You’ll want to pick paint colors that accentuate the focal point without drowning it out. The perfect interior has the right amount of balance to be inviting and stylish.

Test the Colors

Before committing to a color scheme, you can always test a few options to see how they look. Painting sample boards or even painting a small section of your wall can help you decide if a color is the right fit for your home. Also, ask your family and friends for their opinions! Sometimes they may have suggestions that you haven’t even considered.

Get Professional Help

If you’re still struggling to find the perfect color scheme, there’s no shame in seeking out professional help. An interior designer or color consultant can give great suggestions to pair with your home and existing furniture and interior design. While it might cost a bit of money, it could save you time and frustration by going this route.

Remember to have fun as you design your interior space. Color options are limitless, so take your time in finding the perfect scheme for your home!

How To Communicate Your Vision to Your Home Designer

Posted on
By:admin

How do you effectively communicate with designers when building a custom home? There are a number of different strategies that can help you do just that! While in this stage of the process, it is important to remember that designing a house is a big deal, and it’s often a good idea to approach the experience with a lot of patience!

Let’s take a look at some ways to approach your home design to ensure that you are able to see your dream home turn into reality!

How do you tell your architect what you want?

Designing a new home from the bottom up is an intense process. There are many factors to consider, from choosing the lot to selecting the exact siting of the house, and that’s before you even begin to consider the exterior and interior of the home. From the beginning, it is important to understand just how vital good communication is with your design team.

Like many other large projects, it can often be difficult to include every single thing that you want in your home’s design. One of the first things to do is create a list of “must-haves” or non-negotiable items. Similarly, you’ll want to identify the design elements that matter less to you. This will make it easier to make difficult decisions down the line as you progress through the design process.

If there will be restrictions enforced by budgetary considerations, be sure to keep them in mind when you create your list of non-negotiable items. Taking this step can help you to avoid future disappointment and confusion as you go through the design process. When there aren’t any budgetary constraints, other forces like availability and timing may cause you to have to make concessions.

Making the vision work

Create an idea book with the styles that you like and want your architect and designer and builder to incorporate into the design of your home. Some people have stronger aesthetic desires than others; figure out where you are on that spectrum. If certain areas aren’t as important to you, be sure to communicate this to your team and let them take the lead in those areas. If you are designing a family home, be sure to allow other family members to voice their desires as well.

When it’s time to put everything together, it will take some time to digest the design scheme before deciding on any changes. A few days can make a difference to your outlook. Making sure that your chosen color palette works well with your selected finishes is an important part of this process. Don’t be afraid to ask for input from your team, but remember that the final decision is yours to make.

Building a custom home may be a complex process, but it is well worth the time and effort for most people!

Contact Us:

Home Designs by Bruno
75 Lebanon Avenue
Colchester, CT 06415

Phone: 860-537-5345
Fax: 860-603-2622

Email: bruno@homedesignsbybruno.com