Photography by Alise O’Brien
Informal dining rooms offer a practical alternative for many families.
1. Defined Spaces: Open floor plans have been hot for years, but for the sake of coziness, privacy, or safety (fires travel faster without walls), a few designers are daring to reverse the trend. Troy Duncan, owner of PK Construction, says he’s still getting requests for open plans, just not wide open: “People want the spaces defined, whether it’s with case goods openings or different ceiling treatments.”
2. Urban Farmhouses: NJL Custom Homes owner Nick Liuzza is doing a ton of them: “White exterior with a mix of vertical and lap siding, black metal roof, black windows and doors and gutters.”
3. Informal Dining Rooms: Such spaces, with tables seating six, are often used far more frequently than formal dining rooms with large tables or small breakfast rooms with minimal seating.
4. Smaller Bedrooms: Just bed and nightstands, with the rest of the furniture in an adjoining sitting room and a combined walk-in closet and dressing room. That way you’re less likely to disturb your partner and the bedroom’s (almost) exclusively for sleep.
5. Large Kitchen Islands: Some are as long as 10 feet. “We’re still doing the white kitchens,” Liuzza says, “but we do the island, in a dark blue or black or gray, as a real centerpiece.”
6. Floating Vanities: They’re often illuminated from below and suspended away from the wall.
7. Blown-in Fiberglass Insulation: It doesn’t settle the way cellulose does.
8. Large Porcelain Tile: These tiles might be as large as 9 feet by 4 feet. “The technology is there now,” says Vince Mannino, president of the R.G. Ross construction firm. “They’re no thicker than a regular tile, but they have to be cut with special templates and tools.”
9. Hickory Floors: “It’s very blond, mottled, with a lot of dark features in the grain, so it hides the dirt very well,” says Mannino. “It’s also very hard—it doesn’t scratch easily, and if it does, you don’t see it.”
10. Faux Materials: “Today’s imitation really does give the look of marble but with a lot more durability,” says Duncan. PK is also installing a lot of vinyl “wood” floors in basement exercise rooms and wood-tile floors in bathrooms and high-traffic mudrooms.
