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So you’ve made the decision to get your luxury home custom-designed and built. The sky may be the limit on how you’d like it to look, but where can you find inspirations to help you narrow down your choices?

 

Your dream house

The very first place you should look is none other than the house that stands in your dreams. Everyone has one; some may be foggy while others may be as bright as day. The point is that looking for inspiration in your dream house first means that you’ll eventually come up with a design that resonates with you.

Take a good look at your dream house. What features make it amazing to you? Those dream features would then solidify into must-have features you can ask your design-build contractor to include.

 

Favourite houses or buildings along your daily commute

Travelling to and from work may seem boring after a while, but the brain can pick up a surprising amount of information even when you don’t notice it. Next time you’re on your way to work, pay attention to what houses or buildings always make you take a second look. What is it about them that stood out to you?

If you pinpoint the architectural details that you liked about them, those can also be filed away as details you may like to have in your luxury custom home.

 

Architectural history

It’s fascinating how far architecture has come along since our cave-living days. If you’d like to ground your home with specific architectural styles, this is the way to do it.

Look at the evolution of different architectural styles and either re-imagine them or mix-and-match elements from each that can work together. The result may end up being a pleasant surprise beyond imagination.

 

Published works from architecture experts

You can also get ideas straight from the experts. Architecture trends are constantly changing and you can read the latest from books, magazines like Architectural Digest, or a whole host of architecture design blogs.

The great thing about getting inspiration this way is that you’re learning from the best of the best. And that would be a big plus if you want your custom home to be top-notch.

 

Once you know what you want, the easy next step is to communicate that to your design-build contractor.

 

Ergonomic assessments are becoming commonplace in offices. However, they’re often brought in as an afterthought far too late in the game.

 

But what if you can build your office with ergonomic features right at the start? Here’s how you can set the stage for your staff to be in a comfortable working environment:

 

Lead by example

Start off by actively promoting the idea of taking breaks. And what better way is there than a break room that’s actually inviting? By doing so, you eliminate the stigma of employees visibly taking breaks.

To make sure the break room makes the right impact, it’s important to first keep it separate from the lunch room. That way, you’re catering to two different crowds of people: those who want a high-energy recreational break in a creatively designed lunch room and those who want a quiet relaxing break. You can then fill the quiet break room with comfy sofas, armchairs, and yoga mats.

 

Accessibility of office equipment

Office equipment should be placed as close as possible to the staff who use them the most. It may seem like a trivial trip each time going from desk to equipment, but the added stress of multiple trips will build up in the body by the end of the day.

This may mean centrally locating general equipment like photocopiers so everyone travels a similar distance to use it. And if your office layout is split into team zones that have their own specialized equipment like 3D printers, those equipment should be situated closest to the corresponding team zone.

 

Convenience of plugs and ports

If you have a nomadic office layout, it’s especially crucial that your employees have reliable wireless access wherever they happen to be working in the office. You should also plan out your office wiring system thoroughly so that plugs and ports are easily accessible whenever they’re needed.

Maintaining this convenience prevents your staff from having to perform extreme acrobatics just to find a working plug or port.

 

Custom-fit workstations

After taking care of the common work environment, you also have to allow room for personal adjustments. Everyone’s body is different so it’s only fitting that your staff get to fine-tune how their workstations are set up.

Your office can provide that flexibility through sit-stand desks so your employees have the option of changing their postures. As for chairs, they should be adjustable ergonomic chairs with lumbar support. When an employee switches to standing up though, issue ergonomic mats to lessen the pressure on the knees.

Monitors and keyboards should also be mounted on adjustable stands for further tweaking of angles. Even lighting at each work station should be customizable with individual lamps!

 

By keeping ergonomics at the forefront of your office design, you’ll retain employees with high productivity a lot longer.

 

After designing an attractive dining area, it’s the kitchen’s turn to get a makeover. To get a restaurant kitchen that hums along efficiently, we need to first identify what the different zones in the kitchen are and how the workflow between them mesh together.

 

Inventory zone

This is the source of all magic in the kitchen. The more organized this zone is, the smoother the rest of your kitchen operations will be. With that in mind, make sure this zone is near the back door so that bulk foods and ingredients that get delivered there can be sorted right away into either cold or dry storage. You may even want to leave a wider floor space in the receiving area to give your staff more room to carry out inventory duties.

Non-food items, of course, should be stored separately near the zones that will use them the most. For instance, stock cleaning supplies near the dishwashing zone and stack clean dishes next to the food preparation zone.

 

Food preparation zone

The kitchen staff are the first ones in the restaurant to arrive for work every day as they rush to get menu ingredients chopped, pre-cut, and mixed before customers start coming in. All that business is done in the food preparation zone, which is where most of the heavy-lifting in the kitchen is performed.

To make their jobs easier, place this zone as close to the food storage area as possible. Provide the staff with enough counter space and chopping blocks to separate raw meat and produce work. Sinks for washing vegetables are also important, as are specialized food processing or mixing equipment that fit your restaurant menu needs.

 

Cooking zone

Add in some heat and the final dish is complete! The cooking zone houses all the hulking equipment and appliances in the kitchen. You’ve got the grilling ranges, deep fryers, baking ovens, and even specialized appliances like steamers to speed up the cooking process.

Again, the appliances you get depend on your restaurant cuisine. When you set them all up though, arrange them near the food preparation zone for workflow efficiency and away from the cold storage area for energy efficiency. As the final stage for plating dishes, the cooking zone should also brush right up against the counter where servers pick up orders.

 

Dishwashing zone

Last but not least, the zone where all the dirty but necessary work is done. You never want to be in a situation where you run out of clean dishes during a rush. Avoiding that means streamlining the dishwashing process through appropriate equipment like triple-basin sinks and commercial dishwasher machines designed for speedy spotless dishes.

Even the location of the dishwashing zone counts! By setting it right by the door between the kitchen and the dining area, you minimize the travel time of dirty dishes.

 

Basically, it all comes down to choosing the right equipment and layout to maximize your kitchen staff’s productivity as well as their comfort during the long hours in the kitchen.

 

With the hot days upon us, backyard summer parties are ramping up! While you may have already prepared for that with all the rear addition features that impress your guests, you’ve also got to find a way to keep them feeling refreshed and cool for the party to last:

 

Landscape for shade

One of the first and natural ways you can provide some cooling shade in the rear addition is by planting one or more trees in strategic locations. You’ll want to choose spots where you get maximum shade over the area you’ll most often hang out in during the day. At the same time, you should balance that choice with ensuring the tree(s) don’t pose a hazard risk by being too close to your house.

As for what kind of tree to get, you can never go wrong with trees that are native to your region. That’s an easier and more environmentally friendly way that chooses for you!

 

Shelter from the sun

Of course you want to spend as much time as you can outside to take advantage of the short summer season. Just make sure you provide a roof cover over your deck or patio so you can stay outside longer. That can take the form of either a permanent roof or a retractable awning. If you have the space, a gazebo is the perfect covered party structure to have because they can also serve as cool places of solitude on quiet days.

 

Refresh with mist

At one point in your life, you’ve probably desperately tried to cool off by spraying your face with a spritz of water. Well, you can upgrade your backyard with an automatic misting system that does that for you! And since you’d be installing a roof cover overhead anyway, that makes it easy to hide all the piping involved.

 

Reflect solar heat

The rear addition should always be finished in light colours if you don’t want it to become an oven at the peak of summer seasons. Light colours reflect sunlight which then reflect solar heat. That goes for everything from the pavement or flooring of your backyard structures to the overall paint job.

 

Now you can crack open that brewski and enjoy the party outside.

 

The success of a co-working space can often be gauged by the people and talent who stay there for the long run and make positive contributions to its atmosphere. So to attract the best, you have to build the best.

 

Do your research

It doesn’t matter how great a co-working space you build if it’s not a good fit for the types of businesses that gravitate to your area. Although co-working spaces are usually most attractive to freelancers, there’s a growing trend of large companies also moving into co-working spaces.

Start with studying the competition from other co-working spaces around you. What business types are they catering to and how can you do better? Another excellent source of information is from commercial real estate agents. Is there a consistent demand for leased office spaces from certain kinds of businesses? It’ll probably be in their best interest to give you their professional opinion on the best businesses to design your office space for.

Next, you should also shortlist the businesses that can co-exist and synergize in a shared work environment.

 

Plan for flexibility

A co-working space needs flexible layouts for different work types in its target markets. So once you have a list of complementary businesses to focus on, it’s time to optimize your space layout for them. For example, magazine publishers and marketing professionals work best in semi-divider layouts. Team zones grouped by job functions are ideal for developers in software, app, or video game industries.

Of course, don’t forget about the freelancers like freelance writers, graphic designers, or web business owners. They’re more used to a nomadic office arrangement.

 

Include all personalities

You have to make sure your co-working space appeals to both extroverts and introverts. Wide open areas with high ceilings are a good design theme that offers the ultimate flexibility to balance these two personality types.

An essential goal of designing co-working spaces is to create opportunities for spontaneous interactions. Sprinkle small arrangements of sofas and armchairs throughout the space for impromptu discussions to happen anywhere. A refreshment station complete with a juice bar and snacks can replace the cliché water cooler for break conversations to happen. You can even build your very own café with standing tables to facilitate quick stand-up meetings.

It’s also important to mix it up with quiet deep work corners or alcoves and relaxation lounges for those who need solitary breaks.

 

Finally, remember to make your co-working space fun as well by playing with colours, textures, and furniture choices!