One thing that makes a custom home so special is that you can customize (or personalize) features in your home in a way that makes it comfortable and convenient for you. Customizing your home also lets you emphasize design elements that reflect your personal sense of style. Your great room is a place that lends itself well to customization. Let’s look at some ideas for creating an incredible great room in your Rochester custom home.
Looking and Feeling Warm
Your great room is a room where you relax and feel comfortable. For many of us, this room is all about feeling cozy and relaxed. A fireplace is a great feature for achieving that look and feel. There is something welcoming about a glowing fireplace on a cold and snowy Rochester day. You can choose an elegant fireplace such as the one you see here or opt for a stone fireplace for a more casual or rustic look and feel. You can also choose between a conventional wood-burning fireplace or a natural gas unit that lets you turn the flames on (and off) whenever you want—without the hassle of cleaning out the ashes.
Built-in bookcases are another feature that contributes a warm and welcoming look to your living room. There’s something inviting about shelves of books and special mementos that makes you and your guests feel at home. An advantage to building the cabinets directly into the walls is that you gain extra storage and display space without having to sacrifice floor space. That makes your great room feel more spacious and uncluttered.
Fantastic Flooring
The flooring you choose for your great room makes a big impression as well. There’s no denying the warm and comfortable feeling that this wood flooring brings to the rustic family room you see here. Of course, you can also choose a more formal or elegant wood floor, depending on your specific taste. One nice thing about wood flooring is that it’s a great way to tie spaces together (in this case you see how the dining area transitions seamlessly into the family room) while still allowing each space to have its own identity. Should you go with natural wood or an engineered wood floor? Here’s an article that provides a helpful comparison of the two different options.
Custom Doors and Windows
When considering the design and layout of your great room, you’ll want to give some consideration to your doors and windows. There’s been a significant trend over the past few years to deliberately blur the lines between indoor and outdoor living. The photo you see here provides a great example of how folding glass doors (whether open or closed) create this stunning look. The example you see here is a traditional style, but folding doors are available from a variety of manufacturers that will perfectly match your home's style.
Custom Elements
Building a custom home also enables you to use custom elements within rooms to tie your design together. Here’s just one example from a custom home we built recently that shows how you can do that. The ceiling trusses pick up the same wood pattern used in the barn door—tying the whole room together. And you’ll notice that the tresses also work as a unifying element to tie the family room to the kitchen. This is a great example of how an open concept floor plan works to create separate spaces that still share common elements to tie them together.
More Customization Help
Of course, creating a custom great room is only part of your overall house plan. If you’re looking for additional ideas and information for creating the custom home of your dreams, we invite you to download our free Custom Home Guide eBook. It’s packed with helpful tips for budgeting, selecting a team, finding a home site, choosing a floor plan, and designing your custom home.
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