OPEN SPACE PLANNING
6. Light-Filled Lakefront Cabin The furniture and decor recede in this Minnesota home by design-build firm Tays & Co Design Studios, allowing its showstopping lakefront views and abundant natural light to wash over the double-height living room. A beamed door frame, massive stone fireplace and black-framed windows add dramatic contrast to the neutral tones, tying in with hardware and other material accents in the adjacent kitchen.
The sun porch also serves as a favorite reading room, thanks to two comfortable armchairs. “They love to have a cup of coffee here in the morning and they also love to read here,” Tays says. The chairs swivel to take in the views. Tays & Co Design Studios The sun porch is fully conditioned for year-round use. Tays designed a custom banquette to fit around a 60-inch-long dining table. She chose a light fixture that has elevated cabin-inspired style. “The outside of the shade is black wrought iron, but the inside is gold leaf and it’s just beautiful,” she says. She covered the walls in whitewashed wood paneling with varied vertical grooves. “It’s hard to tell in the photo, but you can see the knots and character in the wood and some of the wood tones through the whitewash,” Tays says.
The bar’s stone wall wraps around the pantry and continues onto the sun porch. This serves as the only dining space in the home. By combining spaces like this, the team made the most of the home’s 3,000 total square feet. “This house feels a lot larger than that,” Tays says. The sun porch also serves as a favorite reading room, thanks to two comfortable armchairs. “They love to have a cup of coffee here in the morning and they also love to read here,” Tays says. The chairs swivel to take in the views.
The JetBot 90 vacuum from Samsung picks up pet hair and can watch out for your fur babies as well. A sensor that’s similar to one used in self-driving cars detects distance and tracks location for precise movements. Another sensor recognizes the difference between objects such as a toy and the leg of a chair, senses even small objects on the floor and recognizes a room’s shape to maneuver around it. An object-recognition algorithm allows it to identify objects of all kinds and map the safest, most efficient route. When it’s finished cleaning, the vacuum heads back to a disposal unit, where it empties the dirt into a bag that needs to be replaced only once every two to three months. Use an app to connect the vacuum to your phone so you can control it remotely, schedule cleaning or even connect to its camera to keep an eye on your home and pets while you’re away.
Focus on Sanitation 30. Hands-free lighting. As we mentioned earlier with hands-free kitchen faucets, a focus on germ-free features is something we’ll continue to see in the coming years. The hands-free Wave Switch from Legrand can help reduce virus spread in any area of the home by allowing the user to simply wave a hand in front of a sensor to turn lights on and off.
27. Rethinking the open plan. Perhaps no other design element was put under the microscope this year more than the open plan. Anyone who had multiple family members attempting to participate in video meetings in an open layout quickly saw the disadvantages to a lack of walls. The open plan isn’t going away, but many people are considering sliding doors or partitions that can close off rooms for much-needed privacy.
5. Creamy and Serene Custom home builder and remodeler Cornelius Homes took a balanced, sophisticated approach to this Kansas City living room designed for a horse enthusiast. Ceiling beams draw the eye up. Matching built-in cabinets flank a limestone fireplace, and round mirrors above the cabinets bounce light around and add to the feeling of spaciousness in the room. Pops of black and brass contrast with the creams and beiges in the decor.
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