Window Designs That Would Prevail Home Construction in 2017

Whether you are on a mission to re-do your home exterior or are constructing a home from the scratch, choosing the right windows is always crucial. It’s not about selecting the classic arch windows over the modern horizontal sliders, it’s about picking the design that is in line with the latest home construction trends.

According to architects in Pakistan and around the world, windows are among the key elements that make up your home’s elevation. Although every window design comes with its unique set of advantages, the front windows of a home need to be selected carefully.

Here we have listed 3 window design trends that will be the hot picks of 2017.

• Horizontal Sliding Windows

These windows have been popular since the start of twenty first century and are likely to top the list of architects and property owners throughout 2017. An overview of today’s modern homes will reveal to you that over ninety percent of the dwellings have used horizontal sliding windows.

Owing to the fact that they can seamlessly merge with any home exterior design. These windows open with the sash sliding. Another major reason behind their popularity is they are easy to open and close.

• Jalousie Windows

Jalousie windows are among the most popular choices, especially when it comes to luxury homes in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. Apart from their popularity in homes, the jalousie windows are also highly appreciated in commercial settings.

According to architects, these windows are best suited for cities with mild winters. One can install them with cedar slats and with the multiple glass options. Another good thing about these windows is the louvers of Jalousie windows open and closes conveniently.

• Bow Windows

This home window design is works well for bungalows and helps to add a dramatic extension to a home’s elevation. For all those who highly appreciate classic architecture and want to add an architectural accent to their home’s exterior, the bow windows, also known as bay windows, can be an excellent choice for your abode.

These windows are constructed out of wood or metal frames. If you want to ensure your windows can withstand direct exposure to all kinds of weather, you should opt for the aluminium frame.

What is the Importance of Veranda in a House?

Veranda is not something new in the architectural history as it has long been a part of the residential buildings. However, in the past few years its importance got a bit diminished. Earlier, in the Mughal era, the use of verandas in the buildings and palaces was common where people used to enjoy family and friends gatherings.

Though, it is still being created in some of the residential buildings in one form or the other but now the trend has changed to a greater extent. Verandas provide you an open air environment with all the comfort of an indoor. In short, verandas are covered outdoor spaces which are furnished and decorated in a way that the family members can enjoy a good time here, especially when the outside weather is just overwhelmingly good.

These are not totally separate entities; rather verandas are covered extension of your building with no walls around. After entering your home’s territory the first place you come across is your veranda. The trend of this outdoor living space is mostly common in the houses built in the hilly areas.

Some of the verandas are partially walled as these have half walls all around ultimately giving you a clearer view of the outside. Such terraces are preferred in the houses which have a direct opening from verandas to outdoors. Usually, houses with such design layout are seen in the hilly areas of Pakistan. Most of the time the roof of the verandas is supported by wooden pillars, which enhance the natural feel of this outdoor living space.

Here you can place chairs, sofas and even a dining table to enjoy an outdoor meal, when the weather outside is good enough. The space can even be utilized at the time of parties when you have invited guests on dinners, meals or on a birthday party.

If you are planning to go for a veranda in your house, do take the advice of an architect in Pakistan, so that getting a best design could become easier. The professional architect will prepare a design layout of it, while keeping the space available, the outside view and off-course your budget.

Advantages of Having a Loft in your House

Advantages of having a loft in your house are unlimited. The most evident benefit of having this additional zone in a house is to extend the area and maximize its utilization. However, constructing a loft in your house requires you to use some special tricks for which you have to hire the services of a renowned architect in Pakistan.

Let’s get into some of the advantages of loft conversion in a house.

Extension without External Changes

The biggest advantage of having a loft extension in your house is that it does not require you to alter or extend the exterior of your house. You just need to use an existing place or area where there is enough space available to build a smaller room above.

Enhances the Interior of a House

As this is a topmost story in a building that shares the main roof of an area; therefore, it not only serves as an additional zone but also enhances the interior of a house by making it look more functional. There are hundreds of ways and techniques of constructing a loft and if prepared by a professional, it can become a center of attention in an area.

Increases Value of your home

It has been proved from different researches that adding a loft in your house can increase its market value up to 40%. Thus, whenever you are going to sale out your house, the chances of getting good profit are high because its construction does not costs much.

Multiple Uses

It can either be used as a study room, a library or as an additional bedroom. It is all up to you how you use it, even if it is bigger enough, you can use it as a multipurpose area.

It saves your time, money and Effort

If your family members are increasing and you are in dire need of having a bit extra space, then you have to consider various solutions such as – getting some renovation work done, doing some alteration in the existing structure and spending more money and time. However, loft provides you the best alternative because it does not require too much budget or time, nor does it need any considerable changes in the structure of your house.

Besides these, there are multiple other advantages of having a loft in a house as it serves as a magic place to extend your house usability.

Creating Innovative Storage Spaces in Your Laundry Room

It is not just kitchen, living room or a dining area, which is most important or least significant in a house. Instead in a perfectly designed house, every area and room is given equal value. Let’s take the example of laundry room, people hardly pay attention to this room even some don’t bother to create this. However, the modern house construction in Pakistan is done while keeping every single perspective in view, so that a dweller could enjoy a comfortable and luxurious living style. Therefore, the modern houses do have a laundry rooms so that you could get everything at your home and there is created no mess of washable clothes.

Like every other room, laundry room has its own specific style interior according to its usage. While designing this specific zone, professionals keep the storage factor above all. They want to create as much storage spaces in it as possible so that it could encompass maximum clothes and washing accessories.

Reference: How to Design a Fully Functional Laundry Room?

Get Smart Cabinetry

You have to keep several accessories and items and clothes here therefore, create storage spaces in different styles. A built-in wooden cabinetry, with drawers of different lengths and shapes and also a separate hanging area is the best. The shelves should be larger enough so that here you could place baskets, either of plastic or traditional style bamboo baskets. Also install hooks so that you could hang the items of immediate use such as brush and washing powder. For towels, you can have separate hangers or even the back of main door can also be used to hang items but if overloaded, it can give a messy look.

The space under the countertops can be used to have different kinds of drawers and shells, where you can either hang clothes or can place other necessary items, such as tissues, soaps, detergents, or hangers.
You need to make the segregation of space for tidy and untidy clothes so that, doing work here could become easier and comfortable. Add a basket with wheel and place it under the countertops in a corner, where it is not visible but don’t place it in a closed place.

Creating storage spaces in your house, also depends upon the overall length and width of the room; however, being creative can help you make the most of a small space.

Where you can Add Fireplaces in Your House?

Do you think that fireplace is something which only needs to be in one area of your house? Usually, it is made only in one area, typically in the living room of a house, where you enjoy a family get-together and chit-chat. However, with the passage of time, the residential interior designing and constructions trends are getting changed. Now, the modern architects in Pakistan and all across the globe are coming up with new innovative home designing ideas, which not only add a style but also provide maximum functionality.

Reference: Fireplaces that are really on Fire

For instance, the idea of fireplace in a house is centuries-old but with the passage of time, its place, style and various other things kept on changing, or you can say that there has been seen a consistent improvement in the way of adding a fireplace in a house. For a long time, it has been designed inside a dinning or living room but now, you can watch this typical heating also in other parts of your home, such as in your bedroom, in an outdoor kitchen and a dining area.

The outdoor areas of your house, such as a kitchen or a dinning, being directly exposed to outside climate, are likely to be colder; therefore, cooking or dining here could become a little problematic. Therefore, to keep the inside a little cozier, you can add a typical-style or a traditional style fireplace in it. This will not only prove helpful in keeping a particular area cozier but till will also add a style and contemporary touch.

Building a fireplace in the outdoor of your house even becomes a necessity if your house is located in Northern or hilly areas of Pakistan, where there is seen heavy a snowfall in winters.

You can even take the services of an interior designer in Pakistan, who could design you an ideal hearth inside your house in various designs. Moreover, he will make a design not only by keeping the look but also its functionality.

Suppose if you want to make a fireplace in your outdoor dining area, you need to keep the design of your hearth in compatible with the overall design of your dinning space. For instance, if you have chosen a traditional style, then go for inglenook with typical stone arrangement all around it. This will not only look traditional and stylish but it will be more durable and long-lasting.

Why Maintaining Proper kitchen Ventilation is Necessary?

Kitchen is perhaps the most frequently used place of your house, especially in Pakistan, where the trend of eating home-made food is popular. On the special occasions, like, invitations, Eids and other special moments, people enjoy having family get togethers where they can enjoy home-made foods.

Although, people in Pakistan spend a lot in decorating their kitchen’s interior but one thing they might ignore is the arrangement of proper ventilation. Most of the people have a misconception that ventilation is only needed in narrow or congested kitchens because too much of smoke or aroma makes it difficult for a person to prepare a meal. Others might think that aeration is necessary to take away smoke and aroma from the kitchen.

A proper kitchen venting throws all the aroma, steam and smoke directly outside of your house. By hiring a top Architect in Pakistan, you can make kitchen more airy and ventilated.

Why Ventilation is Necessary?

No doubt, the food aroma is good to increase your appetite but you would surely not go for it at the cost of your expensive home’s look. Do you know the gas, aroma, steam and grease, generated while cooking food, if not passed outside, can ruin your house interior? Some of the foods generate more smoke and aroma during preparation which ultimately gets trapped into the window sills, cabinets, furniture and other things. Moreover, if not properly expelled, the smoke and grease can also dim the look of your paint by making a layer of fumes on it.

Poor Ventilation Damages Health

Moreover, when you cook food on gas, carbon monoxide is released in the air due to flame. The accumulation of carbon monoxide can cause a variety of problems, which may include headaches and nausea. Even the aroma of some foods can cause severe sneezing.

You have to decide about the ventilation of your kitchen while constructing your home, because once you have completed the construction, then it becomes difficult for you to add a vent hood of your choice.

Thus, with every aspect, proper ventilation of kitchen is highly important. You are not necessarily to go for expensive ventilation systems for your kitchen; rather a top Architect in Lahore can suggest you the best aeration within your allocated budget. Moreover, he can also suggest you the best places in your area, where you can buy quality products at reasonable prices.

Advantages of building a brick house

Red brick is the most popular building material in Pakistan. In fact, the majority of buildings in Lahore are made up of red bricks. Not only does the brick look beautiful, it gives a traditional and classic look to the building and has numerous other advantages. According to many architecture companies in Pakistan, brick serves to be an ideal building material in many ways, some of the main advantages of a brick house are:

Fire resistance:

Brick is composed of clay- a material that can withstand extremely high temperatures and is highly resistant to fires. It has been proven through various experiments that houses built of bricks are least likely to burn down with fire as compared to other building materials.

Termite resistant:

A huge advantage of brick is that it is resistant to termites. As compared to wooden houses, which attract termites, brick is free of these tiny woes. The reason for this is, yet again, the composition of brick. Termites cannot thrive on clay.

Insulating and energy efficient:

One of the reasons why architects in Pakistan prefer using brick as a building material is that it acts as a natural insulator hence proving to be highly energy efficient. It keeps the house cool during the summer and warm during the winter. This reduces the need of air conditioners during the summer hence cutting down electricity bills. It also reduces the need for gas heaters during winters, cutting out the natural gas bills.

Moisture control:

Another advantage of brick over other building materials is that is can withstand moisture. And, it is because of its character that brick is resistant to rot, mold and insect infestation. In a city like Lahore, where there is heavy rainfall during the monsoon season, it is very important that the building materials are highly resistant to moisture. Otherwise, there is an increased chance of mold infestation.

Noise insulation:

Apart from being resistant to heat and temperature, brick also provides sound insulation. It creates a calm environment in your house by protecting against all the background noises from the outside. As compared to other building materials, brick can protect your house from sound shock.

Cost efficient:

Last but not the least, another advantage of brick is that it is highly cost efficient. It is cheaper than many building materials such as wood, and its advantages make it a wise investment. Many architecture companies in Pakistan also use brick because it costs less.

Brick is considered by many architects in Pakistan as their favorite building material because of the above stated advantages.

Eating Out in the Garden – Creative Architectural Design Idea

Now wouldn’t it be remarkable if we all had place in our homes where we all could enjoy the sunset and an evening meal? Well, to be honest I do not know what we all Pakistani’s look for or are thinking because our first reaction is “It’s going to be expensive and time consuming”.

My point here is if people all across the world can do these projects themselves than what stops us, what it takes is to hire services of a reliable Interior designer in Pakistan who provides you with the ideas to fix this up. We all are capable of doing it. Let me explain how.

All those gardens at the front or at the back we have are not just for sitting and relaxing with an evening or morning tea. We can redecorate them with just a few minimum items and be done with it. They can turn out to be proper settings for evening informal dinners with family and friends. There are certain things that you might need like fluorescent lightings. These are available at all our local Shadi shops in Lahore that arrange the fireworks and lightings on mehndi’s and barats. You can just go and purchase a set from them for no more than PKR 2000- PKR 3000. They can serve not just as interior décor but can be used anywhere in the house for later celebrations as well. Second important thing is the furniture, rather than the plastic table set we all have a wooden bench would be just perfect. The wooden bench is a table which has the bench connected to it. All local furniture shops can have this made roughly, in the most rustic form for the same price you would get the set of 6 chairs and a table. The third thing that can help to finalize this all is a wooden frame. Yes, these can be made by the furniture guys from your local shops or you can even purchase them from stores. An artificial grape vine or a plant that sticks to furniture, lots of them are available at the local nursery, will finish it all up.

Set up the frame and the bench in a corner or in the middle of the garden and cover the frame work with the vine and the lights. Arrange them in any way you want and then stand back to see the glory of it all. In no time, you will have a perfect setting for an informal dinner with your in-laws, family, friends or you could even hold a bbq at your place.