The luxury of the moment in today’s housing market is space, wide-open space with soaring ceilings and generously proportioned rooms. Where once 5,000 square feet was considered large, now 7,500 is the norm. Even 10,000- and 15,000-square-foot houses are quite common. How does one make a mega-residence feel like “home sweet home”? According to area professionals, turning cavernous into cozy is a matter of strategy: up-sizing the furnishings to scale down the architecture.
“These days, a lot of young people are buying huge houses, moving in and then realizing something is missing,” says Beverly Ellsley, a designer in Westport. She says that the typical “new build” is often a lot of raw space without the architectural details to make it interesting. “It’s essential,” she says, “to add character and a sense of history through color, texture and the right furnishings.”
“A lot of people come to me and they just want big,” says Linda Heinzelman, of the Heinzelman & Lawrence design firm in Westport. She advises clients to consider how they want to use the finished space. “An ambassador who gives grand parties might need a ballroom. The rest of us don’t,” she says. “There’s a big difference between spacious and overwhelming.”
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