Design Elements I Plan To Repeat From Our Current Home (& What I Don’t)

I was having a conversation with a friend who has also recently completed a home reno about how much I love my current floors (we also have similar in our condo), and she mentioned she was interested to see what design elements I repeat from this house, into the new home build – and that made me think what a great idea for a post that was! 

While our thinking is still fairly preliminary, I am also very clear on our vision for the new home lol, so am pretty certain on the big design elements at least. Without giving too much away up front (which is why I’m only sharing the exterior rendering so far, see below!), here are my thoughts on design elements for #holyguacamolehouse: 

What We’re Repeating: 
+ floors! As mentioned, super love our whitewashed oak bc I feel they’re more laid back and airy, but also much better at masking everyday dirt.

+ predominantly white walls – don’t think this will shock anyone, but the walls are going to be 99% white lol. May dabble with some wall paper or maybe something fun in Isla’s room again, but nothing too far from my reg neutral loving ways. 

+ black hardware for common areas – on that note, will likely repeat black for window frames, knobs, curtain rods and such bc I like the contrast and that it’s something that will look nice for the foreseeable future (IMO). 

+ big windows! We have been so spoiled with the great natural light in all our homes thus far, so you can bet we’re going to maximize that with big ass mf’in windows lol. 

+ arches! I’m slightly obsessed with arched things lol (mirrors, doors, walkways, you name it), so you can definitely expect to see that in design elements of the new place. The archway in our current house from the entry to the living space was one of the few original things we kept, and I love it! 

+ smart home features – we really upgraded the tech in our house and everything from our thermostat, A/C, alarm, garage door, and lights are controlled from our phones and there’s no going back now lol.

What We’ll Be Doing Differently: 
+ kitchen colour scheme – I’ve mentioned before that while I definitely see the appeal of an all white kitchen, we mainly went that route in our current home for resale appeal. In this kitchen, I’m definitely going to be incorporating some colour (still neutral), and likely going a different route with hardware as well. That’s all I’m saying for now!!  

+ intricate tiles – ok this is prob a bit unexpected bc if you watched our home tour, you’ll see me gush over all our tiles. Thing is, I love them but this home is going to be more than double our current sq. footage and I really don’t want to spend my life scrubbing floors and grout lines. SO, I will be incorporating more stone, larger slabs and a few other ideas J I may still sprinkle in some fun stuff for smaller/lower traffic areas, but it’s something I’m very mindful of for our own forever home. 

+ fireplaces – the one that’s original to our current home is wood burning, and while I think it’s SO charming, it’s just not practical with babies and pets. So far, we’re leaning to electric since they don’t get hot to the touch. They also are energy and cost efficient which is helpful since, spoiler (!), we are planning to have 3!!! 

+ more storage – this isn’t really something we’re doing different bc we would have loved to add more here but were working with the existing footprint and I think did a great job considering! However, given we will have more room, we’re definitely going to maximize function and storage everywhere. Separate mudroom, laundry room, linen closets, etc. are what my dreams are made of lol. 

+ no gables! – as you’ll see with the rendering, we still wanted a peaked roof for our design, but inside there will be no slanted ceilings in sight lol. It just makes furniture placement harder and when your husband is 6’6, it’s not ideal lol. 

I hope you’re enjoying these updates so far, and I would love for you to comment below what posts you want to see about the new build so I can make sure I’m delivering 🙂 LMK! x