Modern Design Homes

Modern home designs are hugely popular among homeowners, first-home buyers as well as investors. This is because their designs are very simple and practical, making them perfect for people who want a no-fuss lifestyle.

However, the effectiveness of a modern home design can be difficult to achieve. This is due to many factors, including architecture, colour, functionality, sustainability, and lighting. These are only a few of the components of a good modern home design.

If you want to build a modern home, it’s essential to understand modern design and what makes it successful. Our design team at Forme Homes will be able to discuss everything you need to know during your custom home consultation. However, this article will provide helpful information to get the ball rolling.

The best place to start when envisioning your modern home is by researching popular and past architecture for inspiration. The term “modern” often lumps together a heap of different design trends. Since everyone has a slightly different idea of what modern is, it’s essential to know exactly which major type you’re picturing.

Understanding the basics will help you communicate your vision when planning your custom home. There are five popular types of modern design:

Mid-Century Modern

Mid-century modern homes are easy to spot thanks to their natural tones, large windows, and simple house exteriors. These homes became popular during the 20th century modern movement. Mid-century modern serves as an excellent example of indoor-outdoor design, which fuses outdoor areas with family rooms. This combination creates cozy outdoor living areas with hardwearing furnishings and outdoor amenities.

Minimalist

These homes feature monochromatic colour schemes and minimal decoration, pushing the mid-century modern aesthetic to its absolute limit. Where decoration is necessary, minimalist homes lean towards features that create minimal texture, such as large rectangular cladding. Minimalist design is often blended with mid-century modern due to their similar simplicity.

Modern Coastal

These designs are extremely popular in Australia due to our love of everything beach-related. Modern coastal designs create a gorgeous and relaxed aesthetic through all-white colour palettes and natural textures. These homes typically include indoor-outdoor areas, coastal tones, and horizontal weatherboards.

Scandi Barn

This design style is also taking off in Australia. Scandi Barn is a design style that combines elements of Scandinavian design with a rustic, barn-like aesthetic. This style is characterised by steeply pitched roofs, light natural woods, and naturally lit spaces.

Mixed Material

Compared to the other styles, mixed material homes are a little more self-explanatory. These houses use a variety of colours and textures to highlight their use of natural materials. This style of home can be beautiful, but it demands attention to detail to avoid looking cluttered or unplanned.

Collect a few images or designs you’re interested in and think critically about what you like. Custom home designs allow you to mix and match different styles to create a space that is completely unique to you.

Choosing a colour scheme for your home’s exterior and interior can be strongly tied to the style you select. However, mixing and matching to fit your dream home is always encouraged when building your custom home. Some common colour schemes include:

Monochromatic

Monochromatic colour schemes consist of multiple shades of the same colour and are especially suited to minimalist designs. You can also have fun with monochromatic schemes by using different prints, patterns, and textures to create visual interest and depth.

Complementary

Complementary schemes are typically very bold, with contrasting colours coming from the opposite sides of the colour wheel. This colour scheme is not suited to most modern styles. However, it can be used to create pops of colour to draw visual interest.

Analogous

Analogous colour schemes focus on harmony and are best suited for adding colour to a home’s interior without overpowering the senses.

You can play with all of these colour schemes here to get an idea of how your favourite colours would appear.

Once you have a palette style, you can choose your colours. The best way to select an exterior colour for your home is to see it in person in natural light. When choosing an interior colour, it’s essential to consider the meaning and effects of colours.

For example, warm colours are typically ideal for dining and entertaining due to their vibrant, welcoming appearance. Cooler colours create a more calm and relaxed environment, which may be preferable in bedrooms or bathrooms. Popular modern colours include:

Matte black

Often used in Scandinavian designs, deep matte black combines well with natural materials and white. This colour often features strongly as a statement colour in complementary, analogous or monochromatic colour schemes.

Charcoal

Popularly used in modern exterior designs, charcoal offers a safe midway between bold blacks and whites while giving a modern appearance. This colour can be used in any colour scheme, though it is most often featured in analogous or monochromatic colour schemes.

Soft greens

A gentle sage can create a natural feel while providing a sophisticated and soothing appearance to your home. This colour pairs well with natural wood materials. Soft green is often seen in analogous colour schemes when chosen for a home’s exterior.

Viva Magenta

This rich, powerful magenta was chosen as one of Pantone’s 2023 Colors of the Year. It works well as a statement colour pairing well with lilacs, khaki and grey. Viva magenta can be used in various materials, textures and surfaces.

Pastels

Light pastel blues combine well with whites and greys when building a Scandi Barn, modern coastal or farmhouse style home. This colour can be used effectively in analogous colour schemes.

Brown

Earthy and neutral tones combined with natural materials can help create a more organic appearance. This colour works well in analogous and complementary colour schemes and can be combined with charcoal.

Soft whites

Like pastels, soft whites work well for Scandi Barn, farmhouse, and modern coastal styles. This colour often appears in analogous colour schemes.

Balancing the colours of your home is key to making your modern home design work. Forme Homes’ team can walk you through the process to ensure your home has a beautiful and harmonious colour scheme.

When people think modern, one of the first things that come to mind is high-tech smart homes. Smart home technology includes smart lighting, assistant interfaces, appliances, security, smart speakers and more. Smart technology provides home automation and can help reduce visual clutter by camouflaging bulky appliances and power outlets.

Smart home technology is also an exceptional opportunity for extra accessibility for people with disabilities. Many smart systems offer voice command control over numerous home aspects, such as entertainment, lighting, and even your front door.

Some exciting smart home devices you might consider including in your custom build include:

Smart switches

Turn any device into a smart appliance using a smart switch. Smart switches can be plugged into an outlet and connected to an older appliance. This device allows the appliance to interface with your phone.

This means you can use your phone to control any appliance in your home. Smart switches can reduce energy consumption and ensure that appliances are safely turned off when leaving your home.

Lighting

Smart lights let you quickly achieve ambient lighting throughout your home using customisable options to adjust colour and brightness. These lights are typically highly efficient LEDs and can last up to 25 times longer than traditional bulbs.

Home security

Smart cameras, most well-known due to the Ring device, allow you 24/7 monitoring of your home. These devices typically include customisable notification systems that will alert you of any motion on your smartphone.

Smart security systems also extend to video doorbells and smart locks. Video doorbells work similarly to smart cameras, allowing you the ability to greet visitors and accept deliveries from your phone. Finally, smart locks allow you to unlock your door using a phone application.

Wireless chargers

With wireless chargers, you can eliminate the need for cables running across your furniture. You can attach wireless chargers to various types of furniture to create wireless charging surfaces. This means you can simply set your phone down on the chosen surface point, and your phone will start charging.

Smart home technology can cost anywhere from $100 to $5000, depending on how connected you’d like your home to be. These devices can be a fun and convenient addition to your home!

To create a sustainable home, careful planning goes into the choice of initial layout, materials and appliances. Sustainable design is also typically combined with passive design. Passive design can optimise your home’s build through thoughtful positioning, airtightness, insulation and energy efficient glass, reducing the cost spent on heating and cooling.

Sustainable materials such as reclaimed timber, polyester, and green steel can help lower the ecological impact of your home’s construction.

High-energy star appliances can reduce energy bills and improve your home’s overall star rating. A high overall star rating has been shown to positively impact property value.

Overall, sustainably designed homes are chosen by many home builders due to the ongoing financial efficiencies, resale value and environmental benefits. If you’d like to read more about sustainable homes, check out our informative article here.

Finally, we have lighting design. Lighting design can impact how your entire home looks and encompasses both artificial and natural lighting.

Artificial lighting

Lighting installations such as pendant lighting, strip lights, or recessed lights are all included under artificial lights. Well-planned artificial lighting is essential for the kitchen, as this area needs high visibility for hygiene and functionality. In your kitchen, you can use minimalistic LED strip lighting under kitchen cabinets to make food preparation and cooking easier.

The bathroom is another important area where you can benefit from more ambient artificial lighting. This can include subtle motion lighting for nighttime trips to the bathroom.

Try placing lamps in strategic locations around the room to brighten up your home and create an inviting atmosphere. This will help reduce dark corners and create a more open feel. It’s also better to use softer lighting from pendant or globe fixtures instead of harsh overhead lighting.

Natural lighting

Natural light is crucial to modern styles. Designers can capitalise on natural light to improve your home’s mood, energy efficiency, and visibility. This can be done using optimum orientation placement and large floor-to-ceiling windows.

Well-planned natural light can reduce the need for artificial lighting and even heating and cooling. Additionally, gorgeous window features such as thoughtfully placed skylights can bring more sunlight and style into your home design.

Modern home designs are straightforward, functional, and incredibly popular. With the information from this article, you can confidently start planning your custom home with the Forme Homes team.

With an in-depth consultation on the build, colour design, electrical appliances, materials, and lighting that you desire for your dream home, our team can help guide you through every aspect of its design. Contact us today to begin designing your house.