Things To Consider When Exploring Built-Ins

Built-ins are custom made components that become a permanent part of your home. Essentially they are the opposite of detached, free-standing furniture. Main characteristics of built-ins are that they allow you to create that smooth transition between spaces and the décor that makes your home feel airy and light. Built-ins can enhance your living space in many forms. Some provide storage like bookshelves, dining room buffets, and media walls, while others provide unique resting or sitting areas such as a breakfast nook or Murphy bed.

To built-in, or not to built-in? That is the question! Or at least it’s one among many you’ll face when going through the process of customizing your home. Well chosen furniture can add form and function to any room, but built-ins can really enhance your current space. As well, because they blend in with the house itself, they allow for an overall more streamlined and minimalist vibe. If you are thinking about how to upgrade your home with built-ins, here are some things to consider:

ADVANTAGES

1. Customize Your Room

As far as storage goes, built-is can’t be beat. The ability to customize what sort of shelving, drawers and surfaces work best for your needs will help keep your home less cluttered and more organized. Built-ins bring character and personality to the entire area. Rather than measuring ready-made furniture to see if it fits your space, you can measure your space and have the furniture customized precisely for the room and your style preferences.

2. Space Saving

A sense of flow is essential to making a room feel spacious. Built-ins can help by saving space in a room as opposed to having bulky, free-standing furniture pieces. For example, a large shelving unit will project several inches into the room between it and the wall, whereas a built-in bookcase is part of the room’s structure and takes up much less of a visual footprint.

3. Smart Investment

Yes, built-ins are expensive, but it’s invaluable to be able to customize your home to suit your style as well as your family’s wants and needs. Built-ins can add excellent value to your house, so the bigger and the more intricate it is, the more worth you’re providing to your home. Therefore, should the time come that you ever have to move, the custom aspect of your built-ins speaks to the overall quality of your home, while serving to add increased merit to your property.

DISADVANTAGES

1. Permanence

One of the greatest challenges is that built-ins are fixed elements. Once created, they can’t be changed as easily as a free-standing piece of furniture. Another issue is depending on the type of built-in, they can sometimes feel outdated over time. Seeing as it becomes a more permanent part of the house, it could be a deterrent to potential buyers who want to purchase your home, yet have a different vision and design style than you.

2. Scale

Just as oversized furniture won’t work well in a small room, built-ins can also be overwhelming in small spaces. This is something you need to keep in mind as you decide on whether built-ins work for your intended area because you don’t want to limit the room’s usage.

3. Cost

For the most part, built-ins tend to be more expensive than furniture because you are customizing them for your unique needs and space dimensions. Develop a ‘built-in wish list’ for each room, ranking must-haves to wants, and then balance it against your overall budget.

As with all challenging decisions, compiling a list of pros and cons can be an enormous help – so ideally we have helped set you on that path by providing you with the advantages and disadvantages of built -ins! A perfect place to start is to buy some home design magazines, go on-line to peruse, and speak to a carpenter to get ideas and cost out your project(s).

Head over to see our fabulous collection of hardware where you are sure to find stunning knobs and pulls that will perfectly complement your built-ins’ drawers and cabinets!