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Danley Portfolio - Summer 2015

FUNCTION TRUMPS SIZE The jury is still out on home sizes, but consumers are looking at square footage and space differently. Peterson explains: “Part of that is people have gotten smarter in saying exactly what they need to live. They realize they don’t need these extra rooms that they only use once in a while and they’ve gotten smarter about how they spend their money. Now they are saying, ‘This is what we need to live in; this is what is comfortable for us and we are just going to be real about it.’” “People are not as afraid to be more creative with how they utilize the square footage in their homes. There is much more flexibility in how spaces are used,” observes Tony Sutton, president of interior design firm Est Est Inc. “Design trends today are about layout, space usage, wide open spaces, large rooms, white, bright. That is all becoming a mainstay in terms of the design of homes right now. Traditionally, a house will have 18 to 20 percent of the livable square footage as hallways, but now people are just going through rooms rather than having hallways which creates a nice flow,” shares Jerry Meek, president of Desert Start Construction. MODERN, ON THE RISE Contemporary has become a major influence, which in the design world is a big change. Historically in Arizona, contemporary accounted for only a small portion, maybe 10 percent, of new construction. Now that num-


Danley Portfolio - Summer 2015
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