Form or Function?
Kitchen Designs and More • Aug 06, 2020

Once you have taken the important step of making the decision to remodel a portion of your home, there will be a large, even overwhelming, amount of questions. The first of these difficult questions, as obvious as it may seem, is what area of the home should be remodeled. Once one gets into the mindset of making an in-home change, it is impossible to not want to do it all. Once one begins to imagine one part of their home being re-done, that thought begins to snowball and before one realizes it, they are imagining having the entire home remodeled. Due to time constraints and budgetary reasons, this is not feasible for the majority of people. In order to most effectively get the best perceived value for one’s dollar, it is necessary to prioritize which project to start with. An important thing to consider in this list of priorities is the overall positive effect that this particular remodel will have for the family. There have been plenty of instances where I have come into contact with individuals who have opted to spend their time and money remodeling a bathroom or closet instead of spending a similar amount of time and money remodeling an area of the home that is used by the entire family on a regular basis. In all of my experience designing homes, I have found it most rewarding to put a focus on the areas that the family comes together. Family is the center of one’s life and the areas where family convenes and shares time is the heart of the home. These are the parts of the home that need to be focused on first. 

Once one has narrowed down which area they want to remodel, the sky is the limit. There is no template to follow. I have seen people get stressed over making certain beneficial changes to a room because of preconceived notions of what that room should be. This is an artificial limitation that is easily overcome. For instance, over the decades, today’s family room has also been named the rec room, the TV room, the den, and the great room. These are all the same room! These are just names and one does not have to adhere to them – you can name that room whatever you want and have it serve whatever function you want. In the past, old architecture gave these rooms certain names because it made them easier to sell. Today’s architecture is more progressive and has no limits or boundaries. Today’s family lifestyles have evolved to achieve a higher quality of shared family time. 

In South Florida today, the dominant styles of in-home architecture are traditional, contemporary, and industrial/restoration. Each of these pose a unique challenge when approaching a remodel. Through my personal experience, I have found it rewarding to design within the parameters of each of these variations without disrupting the existing style of the home. 

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