Little boxes made of ticky-tacky

Friends of mine have just moved into a brand new home in a growing community northwest of Toronto. They are fortunate, their lot is beautiful and it backs onto ravine parkland.

Unfortunately, this is the only distinguishing feature of their house. Like many new homeowners, my friends face the challenge of finding a way to personalize their house that is identical in design to most of the rest of the neighbourhood. They have chosen furniture with the “Mission look” reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts era of the late 19th century and have managed to find modern lighting fixtures with similar design details.

Although I think having a design theme can be a useful way to unify a decorating scheme, I like a home that reflects the owner’s life, past and present. Like the richness of a William Morris tapestry design, personal details give a home a heart and a feeling of being lived in.

It is forced conformity that I object to. Mass production has infiltrated the building industry, as a matter of economy. Planned communities ensure the maximum number of homes in the least amount of space with no time wasted worrying about the landscape they will inhabit or the originality of design.

In addition to the savings gained from purchasing building supplies in bulk, other cost cutting measures have become the standard. The traditional two by four wall stud no longer measures up to its name and contractors expect this. Uniformity ensures that inferior workmanship will not stand out – it will be the norm. Sadly, this type of thinking has governed most of the large community developments in the last 60 years. New ideas in home designs of the last 10 years have not resulted in improvements.

There are two new aspects of “planned community” home designs that make me crazy with frustration and against which I cannot seem to turn a blind eye.

First, I will never understand the concept of function before beauty, which is what I see in all the looming garage doors that overpower the entranceways into new homes The reality of life for most of us in Canada is that vehicles are a necessity. It is a misguided notion to think that drivers want homes to look like additions to their garage! There is no practical purpose in putting the garage a few feet closer to the road and requiring all those who do not park in the driveway to walk around the garage to the front door as if that was the secondary entrance. As someone who likes to look out on my neighbourhood from my living room window, I do not want a garage door dominating the view. Yet I never tire of the sight of a charming porch in the style of century-old homes; they exude warmth and welcome in the way a garage door never will.

My second frustration lies with the interior finishing details of these new homes. I suspect in an attempt to lure buyers into believing that they will have homes that feel larger in spite of the minimal floor space, builders are including features that are out of scale to the floor plans. Townhouses with cathedral ceilings are perfect examples of this. Instead of creating a feeling of spaciousness in the living quarters these ceilings are usually situated in the hallways giving a feeling of emptiness. They tend to over-emphasize the height of these already too-tall structures, and are incongruous with the rest of the house.

Another common selling feature in new homes is a fireplace. I will never understand why they insist on placing them in the corner of a room, I suspect that it is based on a cost-saving measure. Corner fireplaces in narrow living rooms make furniture placement almost impossible. At the most a couple of chairs are all that will fit in front of the fireplace and then the rest of the room appears disjointed.

These rooms are designed with the idea that the television will have primary importance and this is a sad statement about the demise of the living room – it is no longer a room for conversation and social interaction. The fireplace needs to be the central focus in the room so that all can enjoy it, or why bother having one? Perhaps it is time to rethink our priorities.

Faced with the challenges presented by modern home designs decorating can be a daunting task. Follow your heart and break “the rules,” whatever you perceive them to be, as it is non-conformity that is the stamp of originality and innovation.

Image courtesy of stock.xchng.