Make It Your Own: How to Personalize Your Custom Home with Appliances, Doors, Countertops & More
Here at Springhouse Architects, one of the greatest pleasures are the fun, custom features our clients want to add to their home—whether an art installation (where we commission an artist to create a piece to fit the design of the house) or custom features to the architecture itself.
If you're building a new custom home, you have so many opportunities to make it your own. By taking an active role in the design and construction of your house, you can create a space that truly reflects your personal style and needs. Keep scrolling for a few ideas…
Custom Floor Plans
A custom home is a brand new house that’s built and designed to your unique specifications—and your floor plan is no exception! As you start your custom home journey, be sure to put some thought into the layout of your home, too. Do you envision a huge foyer? A master bedroom on the first floor? Do you want your living room open to the kitchen, or separated by a wall?
For example, a client of mine wanted to walk through their front door and have it feel like an amphitheater. So, I designed the home where you open this beautiful red pivot front door to an elevated foyer, where you then take two or three steps down into the main living space of the house (luckily, the lot was slightly sloped, so we had some elevation change we could work with). As soon as you walk down, there’s an entire two-story wall of windows right in front of you. The entryway starts out small and cozy, and then opens up to this amazing view!
Work with your architect to create a floor plan that meets your needs and reflects your personal style.
Custom Finishes & Fixtures
From paint color to countertops, flooring, handles, faucets and lighting—unique finishes and fixtures are just a few of the many aspects of a custom home you have ultimate control over. Maybe the color green and low lighting makes you feel calm and relaxed. This could be a great choice for your bedroom! Maybe you love crisp white walls and would prefer the floors and accent pieces to do the talking. Or perhaps you can’t imagine your kitchen without concrete countertops!
Although concrete countertops don’t sound like a huge artist installation, you’d be surprised. These people really are artists! From the way they pour it in, care for it, finish it, glaze it—it's all very custom, and you need to have some direction. You need to collaborate with them and work through all of the details, like weight and thickness, for example. If this is something you’d like to do, we can do it for you with some amazing experts on our side.
Custom Personalized Touches
Consider adding custom built-ins, fireplaces, and other special features that reflect your personal style. You really can’t go wrong here. Whatever feels most special to you will fit beautifully in your custom home—and our team can find a way to make it work in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible.
One of my clients wanted their floorplan to be custom, but still like a pretty suburban home—nothing that stands out or screams ‘look at me.’ After touring their existing home, I noticed her husband had collected these amazing antique radios in every room spread throughout the house. She also happened to collect fine China, which were stored in her hutch cabinets. So, we designed the foyer of her custom home with a few architectural recesses for her collection to live in. For her husband’s antique radio collection, we designed a 20-foot, museum-quality display in the entire basement stair wall, which was lit from behind. It was so warm and inviting!
We’re also happy to reach out to local artists to help you reach your goal! A few years ago, I visited Mike Elsass at Front Street Studio in downtown Dayton, Ohio. A client recommended him to me after having something in mind for her front entry double doors. I knew I wanted these doors to be solid, because we have glass on both sides that are fully transparent, and I wanted them to be ten feet tall (if you've ever come through a ten-foot tall door, it's something special!).
From a technical perspective, it’s difficult to make a wood door that tall, due to warping. You need it to seal it and keep the environment out. Because of this, we quickly realized it needed to be steel instead of wood, so I wanted it to be painted. This client of mine mentioned an artist who does steel painting. Enter: Mike Elsass!
Our job as architects and builders is to make sure the doors seal, how it’s attached, how it’s weather-protected, what type of door it is, and how to install it correctly. Although we’ll work with the artist on a color palette, we really want the artist to have creative license. There's a lot of work and coordination that goes on behind the scenes with these art installations, and we love it all!
Custom Appliances
Believe it or not, there are tons of different varieties of appliances to choose from for your custom home. Be sure to select ones that suit your needs and fit the overall style of your home.
First, make an accurate list of what you really want. Decide if you want a range, or a cooktop and wall ovens. Decide if you want freestanding refrigeration and counter depth or full depth. Once you know that, it's a very simple process to narrow things down and arrive at a brand. Ask yourself questions like, What kind of cooking do you do? Do you do any high-heat cooking or Wok-cooking that generates a lot of airborne solids in your kitchen? This will help decide on ventilation options. From there, it's what's in your budget. You really do get what you pay for in appliances. There are packages out there that will meet everybody's budget—from a couple thousand up to $50,000. You’ll need to know where you draw that line to identify what's going to meet your needs at the best price.
If style is what you’re after, GE came out with their new cafe line a couple of years ago, which offers a limited number of colors with the appropriate trim, like brass or copper. To get real custom color, you move into luxury, like Viking or BlueStar. Miele actually has colors for their wall ovens, but they're all gray glass or black glass or white glass, which is very trendy. Typically, it's going to be an upcharge for custom color!
Custom Landscaping
With a custom home, you can design your own outdoor living spaces and choose plants and other landscaping elements that reflect your personal style.
The truth is, when it comes to a custom home, everyone is different with different priorities. Some clients just want something simple with foundational plants—something low-maintenance. This is easy for us and doesn’t have to be a huge part of our design and our involvement. On the other hand, landscaping can be an incredibly important factor for some of our other clients. At this point, I let them know that I’m not a landscape architect, but happen to know an excellent one.
So, we introduce our client to a landscape architect and work together to communicate design intent, like what we envision for the project. We already know the client, and therefore know what they're thinking and where we’re headed from a design perspective. We help communicate this to the landscape architect.
Our clients are always happy when we bring other experts in, because we simply don't act like we know everything! When we can introduce another partner that way, it's a very successful project.
Introducing Create A Home You Love
This online course is a one-of-a-kind experience that teaches you everything there is to know about custom homes—before getting started.
Together, we’ll determine your real long-term goals and internal motivators that drive your steps to build a house. Plus, you’ll learn how to set priorities early, establish a budget (and stick to it!), find the perfect location, and choose your team of professionals. By the end of this course, you’ll feel confident, organized, and equipped with everything you need to turn your vision into a reality. Learn more!
Start the process.
When it comes to designing and building a custom home, nothing beats having a trusted, experienced team of architects on your side. Let’s set up a call to meet, discuss your goals, answer your questions, and settle your fears. We can’t wait to meet you!