Discovering Your Dream Home: Essential Features That Elevate Everyday Living

Whether you’re embarking on the exciting journey of house hunting, meticulously planning a new build, or simply daydreaming about your ideal living space, chances are you’ve compiled a mental checklist of coveted home features. These might be elements you currently adore or design choices you’re eager to incorporate into your next residence. Drawing from years of personal experience—from living in various homes, collaborating with local builders on new constructions, and undertaking significant renovations on two beach houses—we’re excited to share our top seven favorite home features. Our insights are born from both successful integrations and lessons learned, encompassing everything from ideal ceiling heights to strategic room layouts and innovative holiday decorating systems. We’ll even delve into two dream features we wish our current home possessed, and explore some surprising scientific findings about holiday cheer.

For those who love to deep dive into home design discussions, our podcast offers an auditory journey through these topics and more. You can find this and other episodes on your preferred podcast platform, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify. These platforms provide a wealth of information to guide you through your own home design endeavors.

Beyond our favorite features, we’ve also recently refined our approach to holiday decorating, creating a system that maintains a festive and cozy atmosphere without undermining our year-long efforts to simplify our home. This mindful strategy not only saved us money but also yielded surprising insights from scientific research on the optimal time to begin holiday decor. More details on our minimalist yet festive holiday setup will be shared in an upcoming blog post, featuring beautiful items like the mercury glass trees that add a touch of sparkle (like this 12.5″ one and this 8.5″ one).

The Foundation of Comfort: Thoughtful Design Choices

Elevating Spaces: The Impact of Ceiling Height and Staircase Design

One of the most profound, yet often overlooked, elements in home design is ceiling height. It dramatically influences how a space feels, affecting everything from perceived spaciousness to the overall mood of a room. In our beach house, for instance, the downstairs living room boasts generous 9-foot ceilings, immediately imparting an airy and expansive feel. This contrast is particularly noticeable when moving to the upstairs, where 8-foot ceilings, though standard, create a more intimate and cozy ambiance. The difference of just one foot can transform a room, making taller ceilings ideal for main living areas where a sense of grandeur and openness is desired, while slightly lower ceilings might suit bedrooms or studies where comfort and containment are priorities.

The strategic use of ceiling height extends beyond individual rooms. Consider the impact of a lofted ceiling above a staircase. In our duplex renovation, we experienced firsthand the remarkable transformation this feature can bring. Initially, the staircase area felt somewhat confined, creating a “tunnel” effect where the ceiling sloped down to match the incline of the stairs. This common architectural choice, while practical, often limits the sense of vertical space and can make an entryway feel cramped.

By raising the ceiling above the stairs and adjusting the wall at the top, we achieved a dramatically more open and inviting entry. The removal of the “tunnel” effect not only enhanced the aesthetic appeal but also significantly improved the flow and perceived size of the entire space. A well-designed staircase, especially one with an elevated ceiling, can become a stunning architectural feature, serving as a welcoming introduction to the home rather than merely a functional transition.

The Open Concept Debate: Balancing Connection and Privacy

Open concept living has been a dominant trend in home design for decades, celebrated for fostering connectivity and maximizing natural light. However, our experiences, particularly with our showhouse, have highlighted its potential challenges. While the seamless integration of living, kitchen, and breakfast nook areas in the showhouse created an undeniable sense of expansiveness, it also presented difficulties in defining distinct zones for decor and daily living. Without clear architectural breaks, it became harder to create cozy corners or delineate functions, leading to a sprawling feel that could sometimes lack intimacy or visual anchors.

This experience reinforced our preference for a more balanced approach. In our own home, we opted to include a cased opening separating our kitchen from the living room, even though the wall wasn’t load-bearing and could have been removed entirely. This subtle architectural feature created a gentle division, providing just enough separation to define each space without sacrificing the overall open feel. The cased opening made furnishing both rooms significantly easier, allowing us to create distinct vignettes and even build functional wrap-around bookcases for extra storage and display space. This approach proves that partial separation can offer the best of both worlds: encouraging connection while providing the necessary structure for comfortable and stylish living.

Harnessing the Power of Natural Light

Natural light is a powerful design tool, capable of transforming a mundane space into a vibrant and inviting one. Maximizing its presence in your home is not just about aesthetics; it profoundly impacts mood, perceived spaciousness, and even energy efficiency. One simple yet effective way to invite more light into your entryway is through the use of sidelights around your front door. These narrow window panes flanking the door allow sunlight to stream in, instantly brightening the space and creating a cheerful ambiance, as seen with the light flooding our own entryway floor.

For homes where sidelights aren’t feasible due to space constraints, a half-lite door offers an excellent alternative. This style features glass on the top half of the door, like the front door of our beach house, effectively bringing in abundant light without compromising privacy in the lower portion. Thoughtful window placement, size, and even the type of glass used can drastically improve a home’s natural illumination, reducing the need for artificial lighting during the day and making every room feel more welcoming and expansive.

Beyond Aesthetics: Functional Features for Everyday Living

The Indispensable Mudroom (or Functional Entryway)

In the symphony of daily life, the entryway often bears the brunt of incoming clutter—coats, shoes, bags, and mail. This is where the concept of a mudroom, or at least a highly functional entry zone, becomes invaluable. A dedicated space to shed outerwear and organize essentials can significantly reduce clutter throughout the rest of your home. While a proper, separate mudroom is often on wish lists, we’ve found creative ways to integrate this functionality even in unconventional spots. For example, we carved out a makeshift “mudroom” within our kitchen, proving that with clever design, even limited space can be optimized for organization.

The key is to create a drop zone that serves your family’s needs, whether it’s a built-in bench with cubbies, a wall-mounted hook system, or a combination of both. When planning our kitchen layout, we even considered adding a more formal mudroom, understanding the immense benefit of a designated space for tidiness and transition. A well-designed mudroom, regardless of its size or location, acts as a crucial buffer between the outside world and the serene interior of your home.

The Strategic Placement of Your Laundry Room

The location of the laundry room is another functional decision that can greatly impact daily convenience. While traditional homes often place laundry facilities in the basement or on the main floor, we’ve come to strongly prefer an upstairs laundry room. This choice significantly reduces the effort involved in transporting dirty clothes from bedrooms and clean clothes back for put-away. Imagine the ease of simply moving laundry down the hall instead of hauling baskets up and down multiple flights of stairs.

Of course, this preference comes with its own set of considerations, such as plumbing logistics and potential noise. However, with modern soundproofing and careful planning, an upstairs laundry setup can be a game-changer for household efficiency. It’s about optimizing the home’s layout to align with the rhythms of daily life, minimizing chores, and maximizing convenience.

Designing Bathrooms for Comfort and Privacy

Bathroom design, particularly in multi-person households, benefits immensely from thoughtful planning focused on privacy and functionality. One feature we’re particularly fond of, and one that our podcast listeners helped convince us to implement in our showhouse, is the water closet. Separating the toilet into its own small, enclosed space within a larger bathroom offers an unparalleled level of privacy and allows multiple people to use the bathroom simultaneously without discomfort. It’s a simple addition that elevates the user experience and provides a touch of luxury.

Another common layout, especially in family homes, is the Jack-and-Jill bathroom. In the same showhouse, we designed a Jack-and-Jill setup featuring a green vanity in the central room connecting two kids’ bedrooms, with the toilet, shower, and tub behind another door. This configuration is ideal for shared spaces, offering a compromise between individual bathrooms and complete communal access. It provides dedicated vanity space for each adjacent room while centralizing the wet areas, making it a practical solution for busy households. Careful consideration of door placement and separation within these shared bathrooms ensures that privacy is maintained, even during peak usage times.

Integrating Modern Conveniences and Personal Touches

Smart Home Technology for Enhanced Living

In today’s interconnected world, integrating smart home technology seamlessly into your living space can greatly enhance convenience and efficiency. We’ve become avid users of smart switches and plugs, turning mundane tasks into effortless interactions. Smart switches, whether three-way or single-pole, allow for remote control of lighting, while smart plugs (standard or slimmer versions, even a smart power strip) bring automation to lamps, holiday lights, and other appliances. The beauty of many modern smart devices is their ability to operate without a separate hub, meaning you can control them directly from your phone. Adding a voice assistant like Echo or Google Home further streamlines the experience, allowing for hands-free command of your environment. This blend of technology allows for effortless control of your home’s ambiance and functionality.

Simplifying Holiday Decorating: A Mindful Approach

As mentioned, our journey toward a more simplified lifestyle has extended to our holiday decorating. Last year marked our initial attempt to rein in excessive decorations, a process detailed in Episode #75 of our podcast. This quest for a cozy yet minimalist approach continued through Episode #111 and Episode #116, where we discussed Myquillyn Smith’s inspiring book, Cozy Minimalist Home. This mindful approach ensures our home feels festive and welcoming during the holidays without accumulating unnecessary clutter. Interestingly, science backs up the joy of early decorating, suggesting that those who decorate sooner tend to be happier, a finding explored in this intriguing article.

Ultimately, designing a home that truly resonates with you is a personal journey, a blend of aesthetic preferences, practical needs, and the unique rhythms of your life. By thoughtfully considering features like ceiling height, room separation, natural light, and functional spaces, you can craft an environment that not only looks beautiful but also enhances your daily living experience. We encourage you to reflect on your own “favorite features” and envision how they might transform your dream home.

For more insights into home design, renovation projects, and our ongoing discoveries, explore our comprehensive resources including a master list of everything we’ve been digging and our Book Club page.

A big thank you to The Citizenry for sponsoring this episode, bringing beautiful goods from artisans worldwide into your home. Discover their collections at CitizenryPodcast.com/YHL and use code YHL for $50 towards your first purchase of $200 or more.

Thanks for reading, and happy designing!

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