Chocolate, wine, gold and time. For most things in life, quality trumps quantity. You’ll make yourself sick (and gain some unwanted kilograms) if you gorge on numerous blocks of plain-label cooking chocolate; you’re much better off spending the same amount on the finest block of brown-gold and savour it. Similarly, you’ll never hear your family saying, ‘I just you’d spend more time scrolling Instagram, with us’, because what they crave is quality, focussed, one-on-one time.
We’re adamant the same is true when it comes to design. Sure, you could have the largest house in the world, but it’d be useless if you had to walk a kilometre to get from the kitchen to the dining room (extreme example, we know).
To give you a more relevant example, if you were taking the quantity approach to house design, you would want a room for every activity you could conceivably want to do. So of course there would be multiple bedrooms, for when the family all arrive at Christmas time. And all of the bedrooms would have an en-suite so there’s never a queue for the shower. There would have to be a separate study for the day a week you work from home. You’d have a separate lounge space and dining for when you have friends over and you need some adult time away from the kids. You’d also want to have a dedicated alfresco dining and entertaining spaces. And you’d follow the modern trend of having a whole separate kitchen tucked away in the Butler’s pantry.
Now, in principle there’s nothing wrong with any of this. You can have as much house as you like! But the problem is most of us don’t have an unlimited budget, which means we have to start sacrificing quality to attain the quantity of spaces we crave. This is when corners get cut and materials are poor quality and perhaps you hold off on the landscaping and buy the cheaper versions of everything because you’ve got so much space to fill and only so much money to spend.
Ultimately, a home that prioritises quantity over quality is not going to stand the test of time and you’ll find you’re constantly maintaining things and replacing broken appliances.
However, with a holistic approach to design and a focus on quality, you can design a home that has flexible, multi-functional spaces, that meet all your needs without so much redundant space. So while that room at the front of the house is the perfect study because it’s quiet and physically separated from the chaos of family life, it’s also the perfect quiet room to retreat to with friends after dinner while the kids tear up the living area. Or maybe your home is designed to open up to the outdoors so your regular lounge area feels like it’s an alfresco lounge once all the doors are opened up and you spend the savings on landscaping a lush garden. And maybe a simple screen can be used to hide away the mess of the kitchen from your dinner guests without the need for a whole set of additional appliances.
Now, designing like this isn’t easy, it requires a deep understanding of how you live and the lifestyle you want to achieve. It also takes experience to create spaces that are functional and fit for purpose. That’s why it’s worth spending extra money to get your design right, rather than spending all your budget on the physical space. You’ll end up with a high-quality home that will grow with you, rather than needing constant repairs and upgrades.