At Style & Structure, we have a motto… “Never the same home twice”. What that really means to us, is that every homeowner is different, lives differently, and has different styles. We want to capture that difference in each of the client’s homes when designing it. At Style & Structure, we treat our clients as more than homeowners, in our eyes, they are part of the team. We work alongside them, together, as partners. Our passion for building dream homes runs deep, and we want to share that with our clients and have fun along the way!
When building a home with us, the architectural plans are done in-house. Of course, we have people that bring plans in as well, but a custom floor plan can cost between $10,000-$40,000 (or more) and that’s a huge chunk of your budget when building a home. If you come directly to us, it is included in our process. Our clients are not paying a separate fee for custom floor plans; they also get to work with our design team when planning the layout.
Putting together custom floor plans may seem daunting to some people, but we have 3 things to consider when designing your dream home.
1. Lifestyle
From the moment you meet with our Architectural Designer, Justin, we are discussing how you live your day-to-day life. Your home should reflect the way you live. Our team members are always conscious of resale value, but at the end of the day, if you are building a “custom home” it should be customized to YOU!
To start off we want to know if a client prefers an open floor plan or more intimate enclosed rooms. Ever since 2020, we have had requests to close rooms up since everyone was home during the pandemic. People needed private areas to do work, school or just have a little privacy. Another thing people were missing with the big open floor plan craze, is the more intimate dinner parties when entertaining with a separate dining room. Our Spring 2023 Dream Home in the Parade of Homes has a separate dining room off the kitchen, and we have to say, it is really sweet and cozy.
Another example of a lifestyle you may want to consider is the laundry room situation. We have had clients that want a huge laundry room connected to the master bedroom closet, another had a laundry shoot because the kid's bedrooms were all upstairs, and another home had 2 laundry rooms (one upstairs and a smaller stacked one in the mudroom for all their children’s sports gear they could toss into the wash as soon as they stepped foot in the house)
Our team is so great at drawing out lifestyle needs that our customers don’t even think about. That is why people come to us, because we are the experts, and we do this for a living. We are here to help guide you and create a custom home just for you and your family. The point of a custom builder is, you should create a floor plan that fits your lifestyle—rather than try to change your lifestyle to fit a particular floor plan.
2. Cost
A lot of times when people are building their forever home, they build it out in phases because of budget. The bones of the house is the most important because it is a lot more money down the road to add on to the house. Finishing the basement, adding in built-ins and unique design details is easy if you prep for it during the first phase of the build. We had a client that knew they needed a bigger house for their growing family, so they decided to spend the budget on the square footage of the home and hold off on finishing the basement and adding beams in the house. We guided this client to still put support for the beams in the ceiling for the future and in the basement we roughed in for a bathroom and future wet bar. These are things you can prepare for upfront because it would cost way more to add later.
3. Changing Needs
Depending on how long you are planning on staying in your home, you may want to think more long-term. If you think this could be your "forever home", you may want to consider a main-floor primary suite. This is something young parents are not considering because they want their bedroom to be close to the kids, but someday it may be something they wished they had. We had one client that created 2 primary suites, one upstairs for them to be close to the young kids, and one on the main level for their mother-in-law suite that they planned on moving into one day when their kids were bigger.
A big trend we are seeing in MN is the sports court. It sounds great when you have kids living in the house, but what about down the road when you are empty nesters? Here are some ideas of what you can turn that space into:
-change it from a kid zone to an in-home gym with a peloton bike and treadmill
-golf simulator
-yoga studio
-party room
-extra storage
Owners of Style & Structure, Danielle and Joe, sat down with our architectural designer Justin and chatted all about designing floor plans. Take a listen to the Podcast "If Walls Could Talk" Ep. 3