If you’re building a new custom home with a full-service general contractor, you have the freedom to choose unique features to bring your dream home to life. There are countless spaces and opportunities in a home for personalization – and it can be difficult to prioritize what will make the biggest difference for you.
We’ve gone ahead and compiled a list of our favorite custom home must-haves for your new construction property. We’ll cover the following inspiration topics:
- Kitchen must-haves
- Bathroom must-haves
- Bedroom must-haves
- Utility must-haves
- Unique must-haves
- Green & sustainable features
- Other features to consider
- Getting started for a custom build home
Kitchen Must-Haves
Customized Drawers & Cabinets
Do you prefer cabinets? Drawers? Both? Customized cabinetry allows you to choose exactly where everything goes. You can even opt for custom types like knife drawers, glass spice cabinet displays, accessible Lazy Susan cabinets to fill tricky corners and built-in wine racks for your champagne flutes.
Under-Cabinet Lighting
Brighten up your kitchen with stylish and functional under-cabinet lighting. Illuminate your food prep spaces and prevent shadowed workspaces caused by only using overhead lighting.
Prep Kitchen or Butler’s Pantry
If you love entertaining and parties, a second food preparation space can double your counter space. A prep kitchen hidden away in your walk-in pantry gives you room to complete “messy” tasks well away from guests, or simply double your usable space during everyday tasks.
How this works: A butler’s pantry usually features a countertop for food preparation, storage cabinets for dishes, and shelves or racks for pantry items such as canned goods, spices, and beverages. It serves as a transitional space and could host small appliances like coffee makers, mixers, etc.
Custom Trash Solutions
Let’s admit it: trash cans just aren’t stylish. Even sleek designs can change the flow of a room. We recommend building a specialized pull-out for your trash. Or, get bold – ask your design team if they can build a customized trash chute into your kitchen so you don’t have to take out the trash at all.
Honorable Mentions
If your kitchen is the hearth of your home, we have a few more recommendations to customize the space. Consider these team favorites:
- Double kitchen islands: If you have an expansive kitchen and need lots of space for preparation or seating, two kitchen islands might be ideal for you. They provide places to provide extra kitchen appliance storage, and allow you to build in more custom ranges and sinks.
- Dual wall ovens: If you do a lot of food preparation, two ovens can double your productivity and make juggling dishes at dinnertime simple.
Bathroom Must-Haves
Layered Lighting
Overhead lighting just won’t cut it anymore. Brighten up your space by adding customized lights behind your mirror. Ideal for a makeup-lover, and great for avoiding missing a spot while you’re working through your morning routine.
Don’t forget to add a dedicated alcove light for your shower, too – nobody wants to relax in a shower that feels like a dark cave!
Built-In Shelves
Bathrooms always need storage for towels and other necessities. Create custom alcoves to aesthetically arrange your items as needed, or get the perfect cabinetry to stash away items you won’t need on the daily.
Built-in bathroom storage is a must to us! You can even add built-in shelves into the showers and bath areas to hold all of your essentials like shampoo, conditioner and more.
Think Mobility-Forward
We recommend ensuring that your first-floor bathroom is handicap-accessible. You never know how your mobility needs may change as you age, or if you’ll host a guest with an unexpected injury or accommodation need.
Consider items like a walk-in shower, grab bars, a built-in shower bench, and adding an easy-to-grab handheld shower wand that can be reached from a sitting position. Not only could this be useful for, say, kids bathing, but it could also double for dog-washing if you’re not adding a dedicated station or mudroom.
Honorable Mentions
We wanted to give a quick shout-out to a few custom bathroom features that we love, but just didn’t make the cut:
- Hidden outlets in your drawers: By adding concealed outlets into your bathroom drawers, you can plug in items like hair dryers, electric toothbrushes and razors without leaving them lying around to clutter up your counter space.
- Heated towel racks: Stay cozy after your wash routine with warm towels, providing a luxurious spa experience in your very own bathroom.
Bedroom Must-Haves
First-Floor Suite
We always recommend adding a first-floor bedroom suite to your home. Whether it will serve as the master bedroom or a guest suite, having an accessible bedroom that doesn’t require stairs will appreciate the value of your home and accommodate you as you age in your home.
Walk-In Closet
Every master bedroom deserves a walk-in closet, ideally with built-in storage. Providing premade storage cubbies and cabinetry allows you to organize your space with ease.
Extra Outlets
In today’s modern world, a variety of devices need to be charged, and if you don’t have a dedicated home office then those devices might all live in your bedroom. Plug in all your smart watches, tablets, phones, gaming consoles and laptops with ease by adding extra outlets to your bedrooms. Don’t buy more power strips – just build in better outlets.
Honorable Mentions
Your bedroom is your own personal sanctuary to relax and unwind in. Stay cozy in bed by adding a:
- Headboard light switch: Adding a light switch by the intended head of your bed will simplify your evening routine. All you have to do is reach to turn off the lights.
Utility Must-Haves
Tankless Water Heater
These efficient heaters are increasingly more popular amongst homeowners.
A tankless water heater offers on-demand hot water, saving energy by heating water only when needed. It occupies less space, lasts longer than traditional tanks, and provides continuous hot water without the risk of running out. A fan favorite for sure!
Fully Wired Outdoor Space
If you’re interested in hosting outside or taking your devices outdoors, we recommend ensuring that your outdoor space has available outlets for power. Whether you’re going to put up Christmas lights or want an outdoor television for patio movie screenings, outdoor outlets are a must-have.
Pre-Wire For Generators
Pre-wiring for a generator allows for easier installation in the future, saving time and money. It also ensures compatibility with various generator models, providing flexibility for potential upgrades or changes in power needs.
Honorable Mentions
We had one more idea for you to roll around in your mind:
- Pre-wire for speakers: If you’re a music buff and want to be able to surround-sound your entire home, consider getting your custom build pre-wired for a music or sound system. This simplifies installation and makes it a breeze to integrate speakers into your home.
Unique Must-Haves
Smart Home Automation
Smart lighting systems, security systems, and other automated processes are growing increasingly popular as their capabilities expand. Ensure your new build is ready to keep up with technology’s growth by outfitting your new home with the infrastructure for a smart home system.
Dedicated Mudroom
Catch all the grime from the outdoors with a dedicated mudroom in your new custom built home. Add extra utility by integrating a dog-washing station for your favorite pooch, or install custom cubbies for each member of the household to contain jackets, dirty shoes and other extras from outside. A must-have for lovers of the outdoors.
Secure Delivery Space
As grocery delivery and package delivery become more common, package theft is a new concern on the rise. Mitigate the threat of your packages going missing by installing a dedicated secure delivery space that your mail can be placed within.
Honorable Mentions
While our previous recommendations are great items to consider, we also recommend:
- Heated floors, garages & driveways: For chilly days and snowy weather, you’ll love this feature. Heated floors help keep away drafts from lower levels of your home, and heated driveways ensure you’ll be safe from slipping on ice on your way in and out of your home.
- Soundproofing: A classic feature that can be more vital than you’d expect. Especially if you have a musician in the household, investing in quality soundproofing can improve your new home experience greatly.
Green & Sustainable Features
Solar Panels
Save money and time on installation by building in solar panel mounts and wiring for your custom home. Solar panels are a great choice for your wallet and the environment, adding efficiency and sustainability to your home.
EV Ready
Electric cars are becoming more and more popular as car manufacturers attempt to cut down on harmful emissions. Prepare your home for the future by ensuring your home is EV ready, or even go ahead and install a custom charging station to plug your car into.
Home Batteries
Another trending feature of new homes, home batteries provide backup power during outages, reduce reliance on the grid, and can store excess solar energy for use at night or during peak demand periods. This can save you money in the long run.
Honorable Mentions
We also thought the following ideas might be worth considering if you have the budget and room for them:
- Geothermal systems: Upgrade your heating and cooling systems by adding a geothermal system to support them. Geothermal systems use underground loops to transfer heat between the earth and a heat pump. In heating mode, the heat pump extracts warmth from the ground and delivers it into the home. In cooling mode, it removes heat from the home and deposits it into the ground. This process provides efficient heating and cooling by leveraging the relatively stable temperature of the earth’s crust.
- Improved windows: Choosing high quality windows can reduce your energy bill by regulating interior temperatures, reflect damaging UV rays, and even reduce noise pollution. High-quality windows should be double-glazed or ideally triple-glazed for the best experience.
- Roof insulation: You don’t just lose heating and cooling through your windows or doors. You can also lose energy through your roof if it isn’t insulated. By investing in roof insulation, you can ensure that your home stays warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
Other Features To Consider
While we’ve covered all the highlights already in this custom home features list, we wanted to mention a few last points of consideration for your new build.
- At least one ramp entryway into the home to ensure it’s accessible to wheelchairs and people with mobility issues. This also lets you wheel things in and out of your home like personal grocery carts and move in furniture with ease.
- Keypad entry into the garage: This feature can help if you’re a forgetful type, or have regular guests who may not always be with a keyholder when they swing by.
- Gas line to a grill: Providing a convenient gas line for a grill will save you time on installation.
- Include a drain in the garage: This can help you redirect rainwater brought in by your vehicles and provides a convenient place to rinse off items if you don’t want to bring them in your home first.
- Outdoor kitchen: Do you love cooking and entertaining outdoors? A complete outdoor kitchen might be the perfect match for you. Build in cabinetry, appliances and design seating spaces with your team.
Get Your Custom Build Home Started Today
Building your dream home can be a delightful yet daunting task. Bring your visions to life without a hassle by hiring a team of professional general contractors to build a custom home. They can guide you through the process of design and construction to ensure your home is built by quality craftsmanship with the utmost care.
If you’re based in Boulder, CO or the surrounding areas and want a custom home, contact Tamiev Construction today to discuss your dream home. Our full-service general contractors will collaborate with you to envision, design and construct your perfect sanctuary from the ground up. We’re delighted to offer extensive custom home building services for our neighboring communities of Boulder, Gunbarrel, Niwot, Longmont, Superior, Louisville, Lyons, and Nederland.
Give us a call to start your custom home journey in Colorado.
As a full-service team, we’re also happy to discuss adding these customized features to your existing home if you’re not ready to start over with a clean slate yet. Talk to us about our home remodeling and renovation services in Boulder and beyond.
