BEAUTIFUL ON THE INSIDE

By Mike Lochridge

Space is king when it comes to new-home design: Large kitchens with walk-in pantries, three-car garages, expansive living areas, oversized showers and plenty of storage areas. Builders and designers know that buyers are looking for comfortable and functional living spaces. Open floorplans, high-tech gadgets and upgraded kitchens are di rigueur these days.

“Buyers prefer floorplans with expansive, open living spaces that flow together with the kitchen, dining and living rooms,” says Tony Weremeichik, principal with the Architectural Design Studio at Canin Associates.

“Then they want to combine those interior living spaces with the exterior living spaces.”

He adds that buyers also like home offices that can double as secondary bedrooms and drop zones, as well as areas that function as laundry rooms, pet suites, storage spaces and hobby niches, all in one space.

“In master bathrooms, buyers seem to appreciate larger showers over garden tubs that they seldom use,” adds Weremeichik. Also popular are walk-in pantries, private water closets in the master bathroom and — as if it bore repeating — storage galore.

A number of Central Florida builders offer lavish features in their homes — the kinds of features that are now often standard but would once have been considered add-ons in the world of production building.

AV Homes, for example, offers the following goodies in its homes, according to Matt Orosz, the company’s co-division president for Central Florida:

• Gourmet kitchens with granite and upgraded cabinetry.
• Stone accents on the facades.
• Sink and cabinets in the laundry room.
• Tray ceilings.
• Three-car garages.
• Walk-in closets.
• Walk-in pantries.
• Oversized showers.

• Just check out AV Homes’ models in Bellalago in Kissimmee, where prices start in the $200s. Royal Oak Homes, a division of AV Homes, offers equally well outfitted homes in Underwood Estates in St. Cloud and Black Lake Preserve in Winter Garden, where prices start in the $300s. That’s a lot of luxury for the buyer’s buck.

Another Central Florida builder, Minto Communities, piles on the perks in Lake Nona’s Laureate Park, where its homes — which start in the $400s — boast high-ceilings and open floorplans that provide a seamless transition from indoors to outdoors, says Minto Senior Vice President William Bullock.

“Buyers, particularly those who enjoy entertaining, like spacious designer kitchens with large service and seating islands that open onto great rooms and outdoor living spaces,” Bullock says. “Luxurious baths with both soaking tubs and large, glass-enclosed showers and walk-in designer closets are high on the list of desired features.”

Among other popular features, Bullock says, are the following:

• Open great rooms with 10- to-12-foot-high ceilings and disappearing sliding glass doors.
• Three-car garages to accommodate multigenerational family living, hobby workspace and extra storage for golf carts, boats and other grown-up toys.

Valerie Wagoner, division marketing coordinator for David Weekley Homes, says her buyers, too, are looking for open floorplans and upgraded kitchens.

Depending on the floorplan and community, Wagoner notes, kitchen upgrade options can include floor-to-ceiling cabinets, big eat-in islands, walk-in pantries, gourmet cooktops and designer vent hoods.

She adds that “most of our homes provide an open-concept flow from the kitchen to dining and family rooms — and from those spaces into outdoor living areas for seamless indoor-outdoor dining and entertaining.”

Weekley’s architecturally intriguing Laureate Park homes start in the $300s. The company also has homes at John’s Lake Landing Manor in Clermont, also starting in the $300s.

Architect Phil Kean, a custom builder and president of the Phil Kean Design Group, reels off a number of indoor amenities that he’s found to be popular with clients.

• Automation to control music, screens, pool lighting, home lighting, sliding glass doors, draperies and more.
• TVs in mirrors, kitchens, outdoors, bathrooms, hidden in consoles.
• Wine storage, including climate-controlled wine rooms and refrigeration towers.
• Double islands in kitchens.
• Built-in coffee systems in kitchens and master bedrooms.
• Elevators or elevator shafts currently used as closet space that can be converted to facilitate aging in place.
• Groupings of pendant lights.
• Art niches.
• Bathtubs inside shower rooms.

Home automation has captured the attention of both builders and buyers. “Technology is more accessible and affordable to homeowners now,” Kean says.

Other designers and architects see the same trend.

“Smart-home integration is upon us,” says Thomas R. Lamar, president of Lamar Design. “More and more electronics are entering the home, so we’re finding that whole-home connectivity to the Internet is pivotal.”

Automatic lighting, heating and cooling systems, security systems, locking door systems, computer systems, audio and video systems and more are being tied to home networks, Lamar adds.

Seizing on the high-tech demands for home appliances, Samsung Electronics America provides ovens and cooktops that operate with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.

“The home market continues to evolve as remodeling and customization drive new trends in kitchen appliances,” says David Bernardino, the company’s marketing director for home appliances. “Built-in appliances are becoming easier to install and providing homeowners with more cooking flexibility and greater efficiencies.”

Using Wi-Fi, home cooks can control the cooktop and the range hood using Samsung’s Smart Home app to monitor what’s in the oven, and to adjust time and temperature remotely.

Bluetooth autoconnectivity between the cooktop and the range hood allows the hood to automatically turn on when the cooktop is in use, adds Bernardino.

“Older millennials are starting to reach their peak homebuying years,” he says. “They’re accustomed to leading connected lives. So they want appliances that deliver that same level of smart connectivity, wrapped in a beautiful design.”

Such attention to the kitchen — and what it can add to the desirability of a new home — comes as no surprise.

“Kitchens have become the hearth again, and the home can be centered around that hearth,” says Lamar. “We try to integrate those activities and provide opportunities for people to comfortably come together themselves and enjoy the amenities in their homes.”