EYE ON DESIGN BY DAN GREGORY

Modern Living for May Day

Modernity in home design is growing more popular as people look for simple, efficient layouts that still feel airy and bright. And with good reason: modern plans are all about creating a feeling of spaciousness by opening up rooms to the outdoors. For example, a good modern plan should have comfortable patios and terraces just steps away from the family room and kitchen. Here’s one of Houseplans.com’s newest modern designs, Plan 64-167,

which celebrates easy indoor-outdoor living.  (For more such plans click on Modern.)

Disappearing Walls

If I were building this house I would replace the wall of fixed glass in the living room facing the pool terrace with Nanawall folding doors in order to open up the room still more. Nanawall is an exceptionally well-engineered accordion window wall system that provides flexible openings up to 36 feet so you could easily turn a living room like this one into a summer lanai. Here’s a Nanawall photo to demonstrate.

If you visit the Nanawall website click on the Gallery tab and see the simple animations that illustrate standard folding configuations, they’re addictive. Something to whet your appetite as the home building season gets under way.