Living "lightly" (practicing an environmentally conscious lifestyle), offers freedom and independence, promotes health and contributes toward a more sustainable future. When you're ready to take the plunge, a great place to begin is by "greening" your home. You can do this by remodeling or by building from scratch.

small really is beautiful!
When designing sustainable homes, the most far reaching, positive environmental impact is made by reducing the overall size of the structure. From the single decision to downsize comes a cascading effect. A smaller home disturbs less land, uses fewer materials, consumes less energy, requires less maintenance, and costs less overall!

Designing small homes carries a unique set of challenges so the first step in thinking small is thinking positive. When space is at a premium, the allocation of that space to the most useful places becomes very important. These decisions are personal and depend on your individual lifestyle. We use the following design strategies when designing small homes to make the best use of space, give the illusion of spaciousness and make the rooms feel more comfortable:

Natural day lighting: Rooms with a lot of natural light feel much more spacious and comfortable. We work hard to arrange the rooms of our homes so that there is light coming in from at least two, and often three, sides of every room. This is usually easy in the more public rooms and becomes a bit more challenging in bedrooms and bathrooms.To accomplish this, we have used interior windows to transfer light from a south facing hall into a north facing room, for example. Skylights can bring in natural light where it might not otherwise be possible. Designing a home where natural light comes in from two or more sides is one of our favorite patterns from the wonderful book, A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander.

Vaulted or high ceilings: With panelized construction, the pitch of the roof outside becomes the ceiling pitch inside since there are no trusses. This adds volume inside the home which makes small rooms feel larger and gives the possibility for lofts. A room with natural daylight and vaulted ceilings can be small in square foot size but feel spacious and cheery to the occupant. Vaulted ceilings, of course, need to be designed in the correct proportions to make a room feel cozy and not cavernous.

Light colors: Spaces with light colors feel more open and larger. Dark colors are nice when used sparingly in a small home; primarily as accents.

Dual purpose space: This is a real efficiency trick. If you give it some thought, you can probably come up ways to use your spaces for more than one purpose. We often add built in book shelves to our hallways for interest, to utilize space better and to buffer sound. Combine your study with your exercise room, or your sewing room with the laundry, or your workshop with your mud room and you will increase the efficiency of the rooms.

Logical flow from inside to outside: Comfortable outdoor spaces connected conveniently from the inside expand your living area; especially in temperate climates. A porch or patio connected to the living or dining room will be used often if it is convenient and inviting.

Well utilized space: Typically, bedrooms are used only at night. Why give extra space to a room in which you are usually asleep? We suggest trimming down the bedrooms and using that space in rooms where you spend awake time. If you are really brave, reduce the size of your closets while you're at it. You'll probably have to give away some clothes, but come on. Do you really wear all those clothes?

Open up your rooms: The great room concept is great for several reasons. When rooms are open to one another, it gives the whole area a feeling of spaciousness. Differing ceiling heights can help to define the spaces, as can the use of different colors, partial walls and furniture arrangement.

Use smaller furniture: You'll be surprised if you go furniture shopping with a tape measure; the range of sizes is interesting! Typically, Scandinavian furniture is smaller than American furniture and comfort isn't sacrificed. Unless your current furniture has sentimental value, consider new, smaller pieces. The difference in size could change your space needs significantly.

Designing a sustainable home takes a different mind set and, usually, a change in lifestyle. Follow the link below to learn about the other aspects of designing a small, sustainable home.