Last time, in part 1, we talked about built-in bookshelves and built-in bed frame. This time, we’ll tackle something different: built-in seating and built-in storage features for your custom home.
Built-In Seating
This one is a classic when it comes to window seats. Everyone loves a good window seat. But, have you considered built-in seating in other parts of the home?
If your custom home has a large bathroom, you could add built-in bench seating there. That bench could have a soft bench pillow added to it to make it more comfortable. This seating space would make it more comfortable to go about your post-shower or bath routine. It would give you a place to sit while brushing your hair or applying lotion. After a long day at work, sometimes a comfortable place to sit is just what you need.
Even if you don’t have the master suite type bathroom required for a bench, there are other parts of the home perfectly suited to built-in seating. For example, the dining room or breakfast nook! Americans and Canadians alike have made it standard for a dining table to be surrounded by chairs, that’s not the only way.
If you’ve ever looked at some European cultures, you’ll notice that they’re big fans of the bench! Often, dining rooms will have a large, wooden bench – with a back – up against the back wall. Then, there will be chairs for the walkway-adjacent part of the table. This setup allows you to make better use of a tight space, since a bench doesn’t need room to pull back. Plus, you can use a bench as storage if the seat is liftable.
Built-In Storage
Built-in storage on a large scale is common practice in most places. For example, every home has a closet or three. Most homes have an attic or basement. People love stuff and memories, and so, love storage spaces. However, built-in storage doesn’t have to be an empty room. You can build storage into most facets of your home. In fact, the standard for space usage in most homes is pretty abysmal. If you like efficiency, you’ll love built-in storage features for your custom home.
A great example of max efficiency, built-in storage is the use of stairs as drawers. This is something you’ll see often in tiny home designs – because they don’t have any space to waste. If you like to use as much of your space as possible, you can adopt this concept even in a more spacious home. Stairs can have drawers put into them from the get-go. Even better, you can decide whether you want wide drawers or deep drawers. Wide drawers would open from the front of the stair, while deep drawers would open from the side.
One of the benefits of deep drawers is they can work alongside an understair bookshelf. If the side of your stairway is exposed, the entire space beneath those stairs can be used for storage of one kind of another. Not enough access to the far side of the storage? Well, there’s no need to be able to reach 3 feet back. Simply divide the understair space down the middle and make another built-in bookshelf on the opposite side of the staircase. You may not even know it’s under the stairs if the bookshelf is in an adjacent room!
Custom Homes From Heidan Construction
Getting creative with custom home design is what we do here at Heidan Construction. We’ve been happily designing and building custom homes for many years. If you’re interested in built-in features for your custom home, just give us a call and we can talk home design.
