Posted August 28 in Customer Homes

Customer home: Steph & Michael’s modern coastal Barcelona 27

 

Building a new home gives you the freedom to create an abode that suits your lifestyle – and often at a lower cost than renovating. At least, that was the experience for married couple, Steph and Michael @sixteenonthepark, who built the Barcelona 27 with Modern façade in Melbourne’s West.

‘We absolutely love everything about interior design, so it was always our plan to build a home to suit our lifestyle,’ says Steph, a qualified make-up artist that uses the home office space as a freelance studio.

‘A home is one of the biggest financial investments you’ll ever make, so the most obvious benefit of building is that you can tailor your home design to meet your needs – both now and for the future!’

The pair took full advantage of this when planning their new home, particularly when selecting their ideal floorplan. Block size and shape, functionality, and the couple’s entertainers’ lifestyle were all considered, with the pair looking to create a light-filled, open space complete with soaring ceilings. The Barcelona 27 floorplan offered all that – and more.

‘We were blown away when we first walked into the display home. The stunning open plan provided beautiful flow throughout the home, and we could envision bringing our whole family together for gatherings,’ says Steph.

‘We loved that the master bedroom was located at the front of the home, offering a retreat-like space separate from the rest of the house. Then we saw the raked ceilings and it was game over! We looked at each other and knew that this was ‘The One,’ says Steph.

Upgrading the features that matter

For Steph and Michael, managing their budget meant upgrading the more permanent features of their home. Given the high-quality standard inclusions, elements such as flooring and carpets were included in their initial costs. This meant more money to invest in making each space feel bigger and optimising flow.

The couple included a raked ceiling in their living and dining space and increased their ceiling heights across the board to 2.7m and their internal doors to 2.34m. The pair also extended their alfresco stacker doors, added floor to ceiling tiles in their wet areas, and removed the window transom in their living spaces to provide the illusion of additional window height.

‘The kitchen and living areas are no doubt the heart of every home, so we really wanted to get this area right! We added an induction cooktop, concealed rangehood, and an undermounted double bowl sink,’ explains Steph.

‘We also invested in our stunning Caesarstone island bench, adding waterfall ends and a matching splashback to the rear bench to add continuity.’

How did the couple afford such high-end interiors? By saving on their exteriors.

‘We selected the Modern façade because it was included as standard, and then brightened it up with landscaping after handover – we love our crazy paving at the entrance!’ says Steph.

‘Michael also built a rendered white wall in the backyard, and we added a pizza oven, James Hardie decking, and an exposed pergola. It’s a great entertaining space for family and friends during all seasons!’

Creating a modern coastal interior design

Steph and Michael have mixed the beautiful natural light of the Barcelona floorplan with soft hues and a simple, clean aesthetic to create the beachy abode of their dreams.

‘There is something about celebrating the ocean, sunshine, and mother nature that we adore,’ says Steph.

‘The crisp white interiors, big windows, and raked ceilings work beautifully together to create a timeless interior that remains contemporary and on-trend.’

Both Steph and Michael say that creating their interior design and stamping their personalities on the space was one of their favourite parts of the build process. Their copious research included trawling through the Boutique Homes hashtags on Instagram, driving the display home routes, and visiting showrooms to see fixtures and fittings up close. This all meant the couple went into their Interior Design Consultation fully prepared.

‘We created a Pinterest mood board that reflected what we wanted to achieve and came to our appointment with a list of must-haves and nice-to-haves,’ adds Steph.

‘Our Interior Designer, Nadija, was very attentive and listened carefully to our vision for our home. It’s great to receive advice from someone with so much knowledge and experience – Nadija opened our eyes to selections we hadn’t thought about. It took the guess work out of our decision making and gave us confidence that our style would come together,’ explains Steph.

Our advice for budding new home builders

In short: choose the right builder, says Steph and Michael.

‘Finding the right builder was crucial to a stress-free and seamless build. We wanted to find a builder with a great reputation who would build a home that stood the test of time,’ says Steph.

‘We did our research and found that Boutique Homes had the best standard inclusions, used quality suppliers and that, overall, their customers had a great building experience. A few of our friends had also built with Boutique Homes so we could see their amazing craftsmanship up close.’

A quality build was even more important given Michael’s trade. As a qualified carpenter, he has a wealth of experience in Melbourne’s building industry and wanted to ensure the builder they chose met his high standards.

‘This was our first building experience and we’re over the moon with the result. And that says a lot given how fussy Michael is about workmanship,’ says Steph.

‘Our New Homes Consultant was phenomenal – she was very attentive and had so much knowledge about the building industry. Our Site Supervisor was also fantastic and regularly called us with updates and photos throughout the build.’

 

 

Are you ready to build your dream home like Steph and Michael?

Reach out to one of our friendly New Homes Consultants today for an obligation-free chat.

Discover other customer stories and design ideas on the Boutique Life blog.

 

Have you found ‘The One?’

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