Take Advantage of a Property's Full Square Footage With These 4 Additions
Underutilized space is a pet peeve of most home design professionals. It's a crime to waste precious real estate, so consider these four additions in your next project to maximize square footage.
Growing vegetables, herbs and fruits is a productive way to use yard space. Consult horticultural knowledge to determine which crops will thrive on your client’s property. Consider the placement and layout to allow for the necessary amount of sun exposure and access to water. Think about seasonal precipitation levels to choose suitable softscaping materials.
If your client’s property is urban, you may have to assess the yard’s soil health. Urban soils can be unhealthy due to contamination and compaction. Your client’s outdoor space may need rehabilitation. You can also use raised beds filled with store-bought soil. This strategy makes city farming feasible.
Keyhole gardening is another solid idea — especially if your client prefers a more manageable backyard farm. Keyhole gardens are small, making them perfect in places with limited outdoor space. You can be as creative as you want with a keyhole garden’s sidewall design. Turn it into an interesting outdoor focal point with stonework, minimalist woodwork or sleek galvanized steel.
A taller garden bed means less bending. Keep your client’s physical comfort in mind by including vertical garden structures like trellises so gardening won’t be hard on the back.
A fire pit extends the comforts of indoor living to the outside, allowing your client to enjoy their outdoor space during chilly months. A permanent pit at the center of a patio is a natural social destination. It’s a toasty venue for relieving stress through fire gazing, roasting marshmallows with kids, and having fun chitchat with friends.
Portable fire pits are convenient and versatile. Your clients can use one as an outdoor fireplace to lend warmth to a cold patio or deck.
Vessel-style fire pits can serve as fancy coolers for alcoholic beverages during special occasions. They can also double as stylish planters for stonecrops, mesmerizing mirror ponds and spacious bird baths during warmer months.
Permanent or portable, fire pits are open flames. Situating one 10 feet away from the house is a good rule of thumb. However, familiarize yourself with local regulations and relevant HOA rules to comply with all restrictions.
A game court is a wonderful home addition for anyone who leads a healthy lifestyle, has energetic children or loves hosting friends — the more available square footage, the greater the possibilities.
A standard pickleball court for single and double play is 20 feet wide by 44 feet long — only a quarter the size of a tennis court. A four-square court is narrower and shorter, making it easier to squeeze into a space-constrained yard. A shuffleboard court can fit in a lengthy, rectangular sideyard.
If you have more room to operate, consider adding a multisport game court to turn a humble yard into the ultimate recreational area. Snap-on plastic is your best bet out of all athletic surfaces on the market. This material doesn’t confine your client to a single sport. Players can conveniently modify the court’s dimensions as they please to enjoy different games.
Court resurfacing may be necessary to improve playability and safety. Installing lighting fixtures is a nice touch, extending the court’s utility after the sun goes down.
An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a worthwhile addition in terms of property appreciation. Building a tiny home on the same lot as a detached primary residence optimizes the property for multigenerational living.
ADUs don’t have to be outbuildings. An attached ADU can be a bump-out or appear above a garage to maximize the clear space above its roof. Interior ADU additions can include garage, basement, and attic conversions or remodeling projects.
ADU construction doesn’t have to be disruptive. Manufactured homes are viable options in ADU-friendly states. Prefabricated housing units are generally more affordable than traditionally built properties, although only some lenders finance them.
This dwelling represents a new source of steady income in jurisdictions that permit homeowners to rent out ADUs. However, treating an ADU as a rental can be challenging in some neighborhoods. A HOA can stand in the way of this real estate investing strategy — even when the surrounding town permits the practice. HOAs tend to oppose these plans to curb population density and all the perceived negatives associated with it, so let your client know about this potential pushback.
Make Every Square Foot Count
These recommendations represent only a few of the many ways to maximize any property’s square footage. Keep them in your back pocket to pitch ingenious ideas and impress clients.
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