Custom Home Design Explained – Designing A Home Around Your Life

Designing a home isn’t about choosing a façade and filling rooms until it works. It’s about understanding how you live, how the site performs, and how current regulations shape what can be approved and built. A well-considered custom home design brings these elements together early, reducing wasted space, unnecessary cost, and future compromises.

At North Coast Design, we approach residential design with a strong focus on functionality, compliance, and long-term comfort — not just how a home looks on paper. This approach is particularly valuable for homeowners and owner-builders who want clarity early, realistic outcomes, and fewer surprises during approvals and construction.

Start With People, Not Rooms

Every good design begins with lifestyle. Before drawing walls, we look at how the home will actually be used — now and into the future.

Consider: - Who will live in the home today, and whether that may change over time - Daily routines, work-from-home needs, and privacy requirements - Whether multi-generational living, guests, or ageing-in-place should be accommodated

For example, future-proofing may mean including a ground-floor bedroom with an ensuite, or separating quieter zones from active living areas — considerations that are especially important for owner-builders planning staged construction or long-term occupancy. Circulation should feel natural, not forced — doorways aligned with movement patterns, and spaces connected logically.

Good orientation and window placement are just as important. North-facing living areas, reduced western bedroom exposure, and planned cross-ventilation significantly improve comfort and energy performance without increasing construction cost.

Read The Site And Its Constraints Early

The site dictates more than most people realise. Block size, orientation, slope, neighbouring buildings, and local planning controls all influence what is achievable.

Early considerations should include: - Setbacks, building height limits and site cover requirements - Bushfire-prone, flood-prone or coastal zones - Overshadowing, overlooking and prevailing winds

In Western Australia, councils often request shadow diagrams, energy assessments and justification against the Residential Design Codes (R-Codes). Identifying constraints early avoids redesign later — particularly for narrow, corner or irregular lots.

Design To Today’s Standards – And Tomorrow’s Running Costs

Energy efficiency standards have already increased under NCC 2022. In Western Australia, the minimum NatHERS requirement for new homes is now 7 stars, along with a Whole of Home energy assessment covering fixed appliances, water heating and on-site generation.

These changes place greater emphasis on: - Building fabric performance (insulation, glazing, sealing) - Orientation and shading - Reducing reliance on mechanical heating and cooling

Designing with these requirements from the outset reduces approval delays and costly amendments later in the process — an important factor for homeowners and owner-builders managing budgets, timelines and consultant coordination themselves.

Fabric First, Then Technology

A comfortable home starts with the envelope. Before adding systems, the structure itself must perform.

Key principles include: - Appropriate glazing sizes and locations - Effective shading to eastern and western elevations - Insulation levels suited to the local climate zone - Sensible window placement to encourage natural ventilation.

Once the building fabric is optimised, efficient systems can be layered in — such as heat-pump hot water systems, ceiling fans, solar-ready electrical layouts, and provision for future battery or EV charging.

Plan Services With Intent

Well-coordinated services save money during construction and over the life of the home.

Good design practice includes: - Grouping wet areas to reduce pipe runs - Allowing dedicated service cavities or risers - Providing spare conduits from the switchboard to roof and garage spaces

These details are often invisible once built, but they significantly reduce maintenance issues and make future upgrades far easier.

Drawings That Support Decision-Making

Clear documentation is essential. At a minimum, drawings should allow clients, builders and consultants to clearly understand how the home functions and performs.

Useful documentation includes: - Site plans showing orientation and overshadowing - Floor plans that demonstrate ventilation paths - Sections and details that clarify construction intent.

3D modelling can also play a valuable role, helping identify design issues early — such as tight circulation, glare, or furniture conflicts — before construction begins.

Budget With Clarity

A realistic budget relies on knowing where to invest and where to simplify.

Prioritising durable external materials, quality windows, and insulation generally delivers the greatest long-term value. Internally, selecting finishes that can be renewed or updated — rather than replaced — provides flexibility as needs change.

Where appropriate, prefabricated elements can reduce build time and waste, provided they are considered early and aligned with the builder’s capabilities.

A Practical Step-By-Step Approach

1. Client brief – define must-haves, nice-to-haves and constraints

2. Site review – assess sun, wind, noise and neighbouring conditions

3. Concept design – test room adjacencies and building massing

4. Thermal strategy – lock orientation, shading and glazing early

5. Preliminary cost planning – based on measured areas and selections

6. Consultant coordination – structure, energy and services aligned

7. Approvals – planning, energy and compliance documentation

8. Construction documentation – detailed, coordinated drawings

Working With The Right Professionals

A good designer balances lifestyle, compliance and buildability. For general homeowners and owner-builders alike, this balance is critical to achieving approvals efficiently and moving into construction with confidence. Look for a clear, staged process and experience navigating local planning requirements, energy standards and consultant coordination.

At North Coast Design, our integrated approach allows us to address feasibility, compliance and documentation early — helping clients move into construction with confidence.

The Outcome

A home designed around how you live, where you build, and how regulations apply will feel calm, efficient and adaptable. The goal isn’t complexity — it’s clarity. When decisions are made early and supported by clear documentation, construction becomes a process of delivery rather than discovery.