How about a Barndo?

BY HERB LAGOIS

As your life evolves, what’s no longer working with your home?

Not enough space? Too much space? Kids growing up? Empty nest looming? Downsizing but still need a place for your hobbies and projects?

A dream I have is building a barndominium, or “barndo”. Have you heard of the concept?

A barndo can be a perfect solution if you want to downsize your living area but maintain your hobbies (or start one). It can also be a good way to host guests (but not right there with you).

It’s a combination of “barn” and “home”, with all the comforts of stylized living but with the added luxury of big open spaces for entertaining or storing your passions: antique cars, for example, or motorcycles, boats, or ATVs.

Open barndo spaces make great workshops, retreats, studios, home offices, home gyms or light-filled greenhouses. They can include fireplaces, saunas, kitchens, bathrooms, and showers. They can serve as a party venue, an entertainment hub, or an indoor facility for anything from badminton to basketball or bowling.

When you’ve had enough of the big space, you simply return to the quiet coziness of home, all within the same building.

A job for professionals

It’s the kind of structure that can be built from scratch, or it can be a beautiful restoration and renovation of an existing building on your property ‒ a lovely old barn, for example.

Of course, a barndo takes expert planning and design, especially if it means restoration of an old building. In that case it’s like building something from the ground up, but with extra care taken for its structural integrity. This is a serious job for serious professionals.

Whatever you’re planning on doing, whether it’s fixing something about your home that irks you or going flat out with a barndo, you’ll need to think long term. It’s not a project to sign up for tomorrow.

The first step is to speak to an expert, someone who is right for you. (See The Right Fit: How to Choose a Renovator.)

Once you have your best experts on your side (hint: you’ll have them with the Lagois team), it will be time for discussion, ideas, vision, possibilities, budget and timing. You’ll move on to the design phase: conceptual and design development, and finally to construction.

If you’d like to consider a barndo in your life, or any lifestyle updates for your home, let the Lagois team know. Do it soon, however. The design process is a substantial and critical undertaking, as it must be. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it could happen next year if you get into the construction or renovation queue now.

It begins with your dreams and ideas.

After that, there’s no limit to the possibilities!

Herb Lagois is the founder of Lagois Design∙Build∙Renovate and the author of “The Right Fit: How to Choose a Renovator”. Read or download a copy here.