The Home Front: A breath of fresh air

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“The house I’m designing and building right now has massive windows. Even in wintertime, I don’t think I’m going to have a lot of lights on; there’s so much light in the house,” he says.

In this design, they’ve taken the open concept to the next level, he says, with living, dining, kitchen, office and gym all open plan, flooding the home with natural light.

“You see the windows up in the gym from the lower level. And on the other side of the house is our master bedroom. The light up top here is incredible because it is such an open space,” he says.

Dividing rooms off from each other cuts the natural light, he says, and often people will create dining rooms that are hardly ever used — so you’re wasting the space you have.

Outdoor furniture is now just as comfortable as indoor furniture.”

“We see it a lot, big massive houses, that end up being all these small rooms,” he says.

Just as rooms are blurring into each other, so too are furniture categories, says Bonetti, choosing to furnish his home with furniture by European designer Paola Lenti, whose outdoor collection works just as well indoors.

“Outdoor furniture is now just as comfortable as indoor furniture,” he says.

You can really play with the element of light in your outdoor spaces, says Reinier Van de Poll, of Van de Poll Gardens, by choosing plants that change colour when the breeze hits them — and their leaves turn over. Trees like honey locus, venerated grasses and some narrow poplar varieties are all good examples, he says.

“These types of trees and grasses are remarkably different and play wonderfully with the light and shadow in the garden,” says Van de Poll.