Modern Home Living: Design and Features

Delve into a world of modern designs with a house that aligns functionality with aesthetics. Modern architecture, characterized by its clean lines and brightly lit spaces, is the ideal living space. Whether you’re a fan of a Scandinavian-inspired style or single- or two-story homes, learn how to put everything together to suit your aesthetic to perfection. There’s a world of possibilities out there for you to design your very own modern haven.

What makes a house modern? Everything from its entryway, façade, and layout

Make it a streamlined experience: Take a deep dive into everything that involves late 19th-century architecture, 1920s-inspired layouts, as well as other contemporary homes. With those on hand, you’ll find strikingly similar homes staggered across a bit more than 100 years. The façades are simply stunning, with or without towers, forward-facing extensions, patios, and pergolas; the interiors are big, cozy, and bright. Overall, they feature bold looks, and in each and every single one of these homes, there’s a recurring adjective used to describe them, and that’s modern living. 

As such, a question arises, “Is modern inherently modern, or should it be redefined?” To achieve such a concept when building a house, you first have to fully grasp the essence of what modern is. What was once the essence of modern living can’t be replicated this century and deemed modern too. Yet, designing with a modern touch doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel, but rather what The New York Times already summarized back in 1982:

• Choosing a designer

• Trends

• Layout

• Materials 

Our idea of “modern” is definitely different from what was deemed "modern" during the last century. It’s personalized. Today’s modern is eco-friendly; it’s unique. Here’s everything you should know about building your dream modern home.

A Modern Home’s Exterior and Interior Features

Modern Architecture Trends

Modern should be revolutionary and progressive. As such, why even consider trends? For these two reasons at least:

• Materials and building methods impose a certain uniformity

• With innovation often comes aversion 

The new materials now make it possible for someone to build a custom home, cost-effectively. Most notably, 3D-printed concrete paves the way to a lot more possibilities when it comes to building a house to your image. With today’s modern, you can start your own trends. 

Let’s start off with materials, to then segue into everything to do with minimalism. 

Materials and Textures

This century will be marked by 3D concrete, smart glass, cross-laminated timber, glass, bamboo, and hemp…or will it not?

3D-printed concrete allows for 95% faster timelines; it's a cost-effective innovation that also reduces environmental impacts by 32% compared to standard concrete. Better yet, it makes personalization possible courtesy of digital modelling. 

Glass is gaining in popularity too, not only on account of its still-better insulation performance but also courtesy of the invention of smart glass. Some models are colour-changing based on the degree of sunlight, while others are self-cleaning, with energy-generating glass, powered by photovoltaic technology in between. As for glass partitions, they’re the ultimate window into a ton of sunlight; they're no longer the gateways to thermal bridges as they once were.

To frame these openings, there’s bamboo, hemp, and cross-laminated timber (CLT). 

Bamboo is on the way to replacing steel rebar used for reinforced concrete and fibre-reinforced concrete by showcasing the following:

• Consumes 780 times less energy than steel

• Six times less energy-consuming during production than concrete 

• Same density as wood 

Hemp, by way of hemp wool, has a carbon-negative footprint (-0.78 kg CO2 eq/Uf). It’s a recyclable and non-threatening insulation material that’s three times as effective as standard insulation. Hemp chaff is even found in concrete, making it twice as lightweight. Lastly, cross-laminated timber replaces both steel and concrete, reducing the environmental impact of new constructions by 40%. Since it can stock one ton of carbon per cube metre, it’s an essential component of modern building materials.  

Embodying Simplicity with a Sleek-Like Appeal

Building a modern house means designing by way of a minimalist aesthetic. Clean lines and open-floor plans are baselines for such ambitious projects, which are designed according to the following principles: 

• Simplicity 

• Functionality 

• Beauty 

To do so, there’s nothing simpler: 

• Distance yourself from useless items

• Favour neutral colours

• Solely purchase beautiful and functional items 

That way, you’ll be naturally decluttering your home by emphasizing quality over quality. 

The Key to Designing a Modern Home

Natural Light and Open-Concept Spaces

Modern house plans are often designed with spacious rooms, with long-spanning, glazed openings, allowing for as much natural light to filter in as possible. To furnish said interior spaces, you have to rely on said natural light, nourishing one’s mind and body, blurring the space’s edges. 

Making the most out of one space’s light is accessing a whole other design-based dimension. This means playing off the shadows and creating a setting by altering colours to revamp the textures.

The difficulty lies in meshing design and endlessly changing natural light while highlighting its power and nuances. By looking at your interior setting during those daylight hours, you’ll be able to display items around the space in such a way as to showcase them under the impact of the sun’s rays. 

Given our geographic location, the goal is to maximize the effects of natural sunlight. As for furnishings, favour light colours on which light will bounce off, lighting up your ceilings. Avoid dark items which will soak up the light. As such, the rooms in your house will appear bigger and more appealing. 

Maximizing Efficiency with Functional Spaces

Treat all the rooms in your house as you would your kitchen. Every single space should be functional and well-defined. Whether it be a cupboard, drawer, lounge area, or dedicated plant space, organize said area so that even empty spaces are fulfilling a given purpose.

Partitions, modular furniture, and glazed partitions come to mind. Interior partitions are perfect for dividing a space without casting a shadow over the area as a whole.

Consequently, to optimize a space, start by:

• partitioning off the areas used;

• organizing the space to facilitate foot traffic and accessibility; and

• optimizing lighting.

Rightly so, as the latter brings us to our next topic: home automation.   

Integrating New Technologies

Home Automation and Cutting-Edge Features

What’s a modern home without cutting-edge technologies? As such, home automation rests on two factors: 

• A good internet connection

• Smartphone and iPhone apps 

Once you’ve reached that point, you can: 

• Manage lighting (including its intensity)

• Lock and unlock doors

• Modify your thermostat’s reading, for heating purposes

• Pair your heating with the weather forecast

• Monitor your home

• Manage water use (e.g. watering your garden)

• Open and close shutters 

Overall, once you’ve installed the options listed above, your home is literally in the palm of your hand. 

Adopting Sustainable Practices

Home automation also allows you to be energy-efficient. On top of owning a house that was built with sustainable materials or with energy efficiency in mind, you can optimize your budget even further. How so, you ask? As we mentioned above, by automating it. For example, pair your home’s shutter opening and closing mechanisms with the weather forecast. During the summertime, your blinds can be lowered automatically when the sun shines through in such a way as to not warm up the inside of your home. During the winter, the opposite can be done. 

As for water-related matters, between water-efficient showerheads and garden watering needs, you can save water and use solely what is necessary. The same applies to heating, which, when you’re out, be set to lower automatically in each room of your house.

How to Decorate a Modern Home for a Cozy Setting

House plans aren’t guidelines when it comes to interior designing and creating cozy settings. There’s no foolproof way to do so; everything is sort of situation-based, maybe even room-based.

To give you a head-start, we suggest basing your design on the following: 

• Light yet rich colours

• Soft or dimmable lighting 

• Mirrors to play off the light

• Hints of wood

• Soft fabrics

• Comfortable throw pillows and blankets

When choosing, keep in mind that a modern home is, in some way, an extension of modern art. In other words, designing the here and the now. This means that your house looks like no other. It has a unique presence, a one-of-a-kind extravagance that reflects your taste, and yours solely.

When it comes to modern art, there’s no room for beauty, truth, justice, or goodness. Not allowing your inspiration to guide your thought process would simply be criminal.

Modern Living

The concept of a modern house transcends the straightforward idea of a home, becoming an experience embedded in comfort and style. With clean lines and cutting-edge features, it represents the future of residential living. Opting for such a style not only improves your home’s aesthetic but also increases its functionality, rendering each space more enjoyable and efficient. Consider transitioning to a modern-inspired home to redefine your lifestyle.