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Customize Your House Command Center

Make organizing your family’s schedule simpler with a home control centre in the middle of this action. This really isn’t the home office — it’s in an open region of the home where all essential purposes of running a home occur: organizing email, invoices, keeping everyone up to date with calendars and schedules, messages, meal planning and other things and information your family shares. Take a peek at common features of a command centre and see how you can make it easy — even fun — to keep an eye on your family’s busy schedule.

When designing your household command centre:

Find the right spot. The very best place for the control centre is a high-traffic place where family members have access on a daily basis. A spot by the family’s hottest entrance door is perfect.

Determine what features you actually need. Sometimes all you need is a pc if everybody in your home is familiar with it.

Consider the look you want. Consider mixing storage designs, like using closed and open shelving, working together with the kind of your current cabinetry for a seamless appearance, or putting everything on the wall to save floorspace.

Read on for 13 useful features to consider. Which ones are right for your family?

Browse photos of household drop zones

Gast Architects

1. Calendar. In cases like this, the calendar is a chalkboard with space for notes to family members and magnetic letters for delegation of actions.

Rob Kane – Kitchen Interiors Inc..

2. Computer. Move the high-tech route if there’s space in your control centre. And if the sight of a cluttered computer channel bothers you, a concealed storage cupboard like this will help.

Andrea J. Little Design

3. Message board. Here, a chalkboard is at a high-traffic area of the home so family members may leave notes and keep everybody up to date.

4. Wall panels. Magnetic message boards, wire cups and baskets turn into a wall into a control centre.

Wood Wall Pocket – $119

5. Wall pockets. Wooden boxes are fantastic for coupons and mail.

Organize

Wall Mounted Magnetic Organizer in Espresso by Umbra® – $14.99

6. Key holder. You’ll need a place to stash the keys, whether it’s a small dish on the counter or a dual-function device like this.

Andre Rothblatt Architecture

7. Cubbies. This compact control centre makes smart use of a small market.

Rauser Design

8. Clock. A timepiece is almost always a good thing to get in the kitchen for the morning rush and when cooking. Here, a classic clock unit hangs in this farmhouse-style kitchen beside a compact control centre.

9. Desk. A counter top and place to sit a control centre into a place to get actual work done.This is a superb use of space inside this dining room location. The cabinetry provides contrast to the control centre.

Peregrine Design Build

10. Bulletin board. Here is another mudroom remodeling job that produces household organization a priority. This spot is perfectly situated for a fast test on important tasks before heading out the door.

Artisan Kitchens Inc..

11. Charging station. The key to this perfect charging station is easy accessibility a place to hide clutter. A cupboard such as this with open cubbies and drawers beneath is a fantastic installation.

Becker Architects Limited

12. Display space. This spacious control centre in the mudroom area is large enough to display family photographs and a full bulletin board for submitting letters, notes and invoices.

Sarah Susanka, FAIA

13. Hooks. This spot has enough space for everything a family on the go needs, such as hooks for jackets and bowls for the dog.

More: Corral Your Materials in a Makeshift Mudroom
Switch a Closet Into an Office

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Regional Modern: Boston

My collection of ideabooks focused on regional differences in modern and modern residential architecture continues with Boston, Mass.. One of the earliest cities in the United States, Boston has become known for its leading universities (Harvard and MIT, to name two), its biotech and medical centers, and of course its sports teams. It is apparent from the sampling below that houses calling the largest city in New England home cover a far larger area than the distinctive urban core and adjacent suburbs. Nevertheless, these houses illustrate something unique about this darkened corner of the U.S.

More regional modern architecture:
Chicago | Austin | NYC | New York Metro | Seattle | Oregon
Northern California | San Francisco | L.A. | Coastal L.A.

Hammer Architects

Cape Cod is to Boston as Long Island is to New York City: a method to leave town and get in touch with nature, especially the Atlantic Ocean. Houses on Cape Cod reflect the high property values of the peninsula, as well as a respect for the place. This house in Truro blends into its context via timber cladding and a generous trellis.

Cape Cod style across America

Hammer Architects

Hammer Architects is obviously taking the cold winters into account in their addition by minimizing the size of openings on certain exposures. In an environment of natural beauty and intense cold, houses must balance the desire for the two views and warmth.

Hammer Architects

Another residential addition on Cape Cod (Wellfleet) by Hammer Architects exemplifies these two considerations: a few predominantly solid exterior walls give way…

Hammer Architects

… to expansive glass along with a screened-in porch that takes advantage of opinions along with the generous outdoor area. The house also includes an indoor lap pool with sliding walls that open into the outdoors; Cape Cod is a park of sorts, after all.

Hammer Architects

Another Wellfleet house by Hammer Architects reveals a rustic flair at the weathered wood siding on those predominantly solid walls. Generous glazing on the other side of the house opens into a massive deck.

Maryann Thompson Architects

Martha’s Vineyard, an island south and west of Cape Cod, is yet another popular draw for New Englanders. This house by Maryann Thompson Architects also utilizes timber cladding and sliding walls to link inside and outside in warm weather. A great indoor-outdoor fireplace (observable in the middle of the photograph ) extends the use of this patio into the cooler months.

Maryann Thompson Architects

Moving nearer to Boston (Westport, to be precise) to a different house by Maryann Thompson Architects, we can observe how the design responds to the site, a meadow. Enormous glass walls bring in plenty of sunlight, but sunlight is reduced via large overhangs. Ringed by a porch, the house appears to be elevated on a plinth, as though it floats on the meadow.

Maryann Thompson Architects

By separating the interior spaces, breezes are allowed to funnel throughout the house.

Maryann Thompson Architects

And now we see how the generous porch is echoed at the roof, making sheltered outdoor spaces.

Hammer Architects

Arlington, northwest of Boston, is the place for another improvement by Hammer Architects. A neighboring house appears in the distance, meaning privacy is also an issue with the positioning and size of windows. The timber cladding works well alongside the brick first; it’s not only for Cape Cod.

Marcus Gleysteen Architects

This house is located at Lincoln, west of Boston. The landscaped grounds are stunning and well-framed by floor-to-ceiling windows that alternative with white brick cladding.

Chang + Sylligardos Architects

Also west of Boston is Newton, in which the past couple of houses in this collection are located. This impressively large and intricate house selectively locates and sizes that the windows, addressing both climate and privacy. The cantilevered top floor on the right is clad in timber, a recurring element in the area.

Chang + Sylligardos Architects

This smaller residence from the same architects is also covered in timber, however, the two volumes are treated distinctively: the grey box uses horizontal planks; the elevated red box is coated with vertical siding.

LDa Architecture & Interiors

Last, this house brings to the fore the history found in the Boston region: the wood-clad exterior that informs many of the prior designs. Here, an addition opts for comparison, with metal rather than wood and massive expanses of glass.

More regional modern architecture:
Chicago | Austin | NYC | New York Metro | Seattle | Oregon
Northern California | San Francisco | L.A. | Coastal L.A.

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