How To Ensure Your Home Is Future Proof

Whether you can see your future with absolute precision or whether it’s an interesting mystery, one thing is certain: a little preparation now can lead to a range of benefits further down the line. Future-proofing your home can take many forms, from making sure you have enough space for present or future children (or grandkids!) to giving you the maximum freedom to accommodate your living space to your lifestyle as it changes. Here’s our stress-free guide to future-proofing your home.

Extend Into The Future

An excellent way to future-proof your home might well be to extend it, turning today’s unused space into tomorrow’s landscape. Perhaps that extra pocket of emptiness can be filled with a guest bedroom or a special place to relax and unwind. Maybe you can gather up all the clutter and paperwork from around your home and put it in a discrete new office, controlling which zones in your house are for fun and which are for focus. If you’ve got a multi-generational vision in mind, creative thinking can generate spaces that are both sensitive and practical. The possibilities are endless, but the future is yours. If you can dream it, you can extend it.

Convert To Grow

Does every room in your house add value, meaning, and purpose? Are some areas rarely used, or simply there for some forgotten formality? Does your dining room gather dust while everyone congregates in the kitchen, and is the only life in your garage a lot of sleepy spiders? If so, you might want to think about converting some of your spaces into something more meaningful for your current and potential future needs.

For growing families, an unused loft could be converted into a home office or a small bedroom, whilst for the elderly, that cupboard under the stairs could be turned into an extra toilet. The National Design Academy also notes that a family home layout can be surprisingly important in aspects such as stress management. If you’ve got areas of your home that are not making a positive contribution to its dynamic, converting a future-focused space today is an excellent strategy.

Timeless Exterior

Do you ever take time to think about the exterior of your property? It’s the first thing that people see when they come to visit you, and the only thing that passers-by will ever look at. Whether this property is your forever home or you are planning on selling and upgrading in the future, having a functional and well-laid-out exterior space is vital not only for securing property value but also for your future comfort. Think decades ahead from now, will your outdoor space still be viable? If the access is difficult, will you still be able to enjoy the outdoor area of your property if your mobility starts to decrease? If you have kids, are there any high steps or spaces that could be dangerous for their smaller size? 

Internal Layout

An ergonomic home is a comfortable one. It has logically positioned staircases, a natural flow from room to room, ample light, and everything precisely where it ought to be. When it comes to future-proofing your home, getting the internal layout right now can be a major benefit in the future. There may be a day when you’re grateful that all your facilities are exactly the right height, and that you don’t have to clamber over obstacles to get where and what you need! This is especially important if you’re future-proofing a home for multi-generational families, who may have different mobility needs.

What Next?

Future-proofing your home is as much about bringing your dreams to life today as it is about preparing yourself for tomorrow. If your home isn’t quite ‘right’, it can help to talk to an architectural designer. For more information, please get in touch with the design team at NU Concepts by clicking here.

Image Source: Canva