Home Design Gallery
November 6, 2011 1:09 PM   Subscribe

Home Design Gallery

We are considering building a house and would like to start collecting ideas for the layout and look of the house, including the exterior look and kitchen, rooms, etc. Is there a website or magazine that we should be looking at to start our brain storming process?
posted by 2legit2quit to Home & Garden (6 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
houzz
posted by agenais at 1:14 PM on November 6, 2011 [2 favorites]


def look into passive heating/cooling...it wil save you an ever-living fortune on bills (as in i have neither heater nor airconditioner and am fine...in L.A. where the weather is mostly nice, but still...) mostly this involves situating the house properly with front and back facing east and west and having a nice big tree on the south side of the house (in the northern hemisphere, anyway ;) it works like so: in the summer, leave windows open front and back. the sun can't be on both sides of the house, so it sets up a temerature differential, driving a breeze through the house, while the heat of the sun is mostly blocked on the south side by the tree. at sunset, close windows: cool in the day, warm at night. in the winter, the leaves fall off the tree and it gets more sun and heat. my house was built in 1905 and situated like this and i love it. this kind of set-up def works well out here, but it's sound in basically any climate. there's generally one week in the late summer where i sleep with a fan on and one in the winter where i wear a sweater to bed...other than that it's nice all year 'round...and FREE.
posted by sexyrobot at 1:28 PM on November 6, 2011 [2 favorites]


Check out pinterest. I've been using it to collect ideas for decorating a new home, and in the process have also found great recipes, organizational tips, and crafts. Plus you can pin stuff there from anywhr on the web!
posted by dpx.mfx at 1:47 PM on November 6, 2011 [3 favorites]


Seconding houzz, great idea-book website, and you can filter by style which is very important. I also like Dwell magazine, because I prefer the modern look to the ever-present traditional stuff. HGTV has plenty of stuff on their website, in a variety of styles.
posted by Joh at 2:11 PM on November 6, 2011


Apartment Therapy is not just for apartments. Well, it is, but no one will arrest you if you use the ideas in a house. And seconding Pinterest.
posted by MexicanYenta at 3:17 PM on November 6, 2011


Your library will have a huge selection of home design books, including home plans. You may not find exactly what you are looking for, but it can help your ID your design direction.
posted by lstanley at 7:23 AM on November 7, 2011


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