The Guide to Designing and Building Luxury Two-Storey Homes

Luxury two-storey homes offer beautiful, expansive luxury living without needing hundreds of metres of land space. With the ability to provide stunning outdoor views and elegant balconies that elevate your space and improve indoor-outdoor flow, luxury two-storey homes offer a special sort of unmatched luxury.

With our own extensive library of double-storey luxury custom-built homes in Perth, paired with over two decades of experience, we’re confident in our knowledge of how to create stunning, luxurious two-storey houses. Making the most of our gorgeous Western Australian landscape, premium Australian materials and the latest and leading design principles, we know how to design and build a two-storey dream home that epitomises functional luxury.

As one of Perth’s leading luxury home builders, we love assisting local families and homeowners to bring their dream homes to life, and we want to do the same for you. In this article, we share our decades of expertise to help you understand how to build the best two-storey luxury home for you, covering everything from today’s leading design elements to your floor plan options and the start-to-finish building process.

5 Current Trends in Luxury Two-Storey Living

1. Cantilever elements

While originally associated with bridge construction, cantilevers, e.g., projected beams only supported at one end, have become increasingly popular in today’s luxury two-storey custom home designs. Thought of often as unsupported overhangs, the cantilever’s gravity-defying look is the perfect futuristic nod that contemporary home designers love. Quickly growing in popularity over the past few decades, their use in luxury two-storey homes provides an added interest and complexity to the building.

While only the most futuristic and cutting-edge homes will have dramatic cantilevers, smaller cantilevers are a beloved part of many two-storey luxury home designs.

In our Redmond Street design, the second storey slightly overhangs the beneath carpark in a subtle cantilever design.

2. Blurring the line between interior and exterior spaces

A trend that’s here to stay, the modern two-storey luxury home design emphasises the flow between indoor and outdoor spaces, utilising elements such as:

• Large sliding doors that open onto alfresco areas.
• Large balconies for the upper areas, helping them connect to the outside levels above the ground.
• Natural wood or stone finishes that complement the surrounding environment.
• Floor-to-ceiling windows which make the home feel like an extension of the outdoors.
• Skylights which flood the common areas of the home with natural light.
• Water features or potted plants surrounding or inside of the house, to bring the outside nature indoors.

3. Floating staircases

Say goodbye to the small room under the stairs, the modern double-storey luxury home opts for floating staircases that increase openness and flow between the upstairs and downstairs spaces. As a result of this move towards floating staircases, several other trending options have appeared with Perth homeowners repurposing the underneath of their staircase for:

• Floating bookshelves
• A reading nook
• A space for the TV or music station
• A studying desk

Floating “open tread” staircases inside our Mathieson Avenue luxury two-story home build.

4. Clerestory windows

Clerestory windows, a row of windows that sit high on the wall, have become increasingly popular as the trend towards natural lighting continues to gain pace. These windows allow beautiful natural light to flood the home while staying high enough that onlookers can’t see through into the room. These windows have become especially popular in loft-style luxury two-storey homes which see extremely tall ceilings and high walls, perfectly suited to this window design.

Seen here in our McCourt Street, the clerestory windows add interest to this single-storey portion of the home.

5. Mixed Exterior Materials

Two-storey homes provide the perfect opportunity to create interesting exteriors which mix and match materials. With a tall front canvas and two layers to work with, luxury two-storey homes benefit from being able to create visual interest between the floors of their home with differences in colour, material and texture.

Our Parramatta Road design uses wooden, brick and stone finishes to create visual interest between the home’s two levels.

Floor Plan Options and Layouts for Luxury Two-Storey Houses

Modern open-concept living

One of the most popular layouts for luxury two-storey homes is pairing downstairs open-concept living with upstairs bedrooms. This floor plan sees a luxurious and free-flowing combined kitchen, dining and living concept on the first floor to welcome guests into the home. While the bedrooms upstairs maintain their full privacy and are isolated away from the noise of downstairs gatherings.

The Lombardy Street first-floor demonstrates modern luxury with an open kitchen, dining and living area.

Dual living

For multigenerational families, a luxury dual-living concept can work wonders. This luxury two-storey home design features two separate living spaces within one house for dual occupancy. Common features of the dual living space are:

• An “apartment-style” downstairs and upstairs main residency and bedroom.
• Independent entries into the home, allowing all residents to come and go as they please.
• An additional kitchen or kitchenette on the second floor, possibly adjoined to the bedroom.

Open loft-living

If you love high ceilings and aren’t short on space, loft-living could be the bespoke luxury living option that works for you. These spaces have the upper floor partially open to the lower floor to create elegant mezzanine spaces that promote a sense of spaciousness and connectivity across any luxury two-storey home.

Beautiful high-ceilings show off in this loft-style arrangement inside The Grove luxury two-storey home.

Reverse living

The reverse living floor plan turns traditional luxury two-storey home designs on their head. While a traditional style home will typically place the common areas downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs, in a reverse living plan, some, or all, of the bedrooms are placed downstairs. While this may not be the mainstream approach, it offers some unique advantages:

• Aging in place – for a forever home, placing the master bedroom on the first floor is a great way to future-proof your luxury double-storey home as it is easy to access.
• Parents retreat – by placing the kid’s bedroom downstairs and the parent’s upstairs a “parents retreat” can be created, allowing busy parents to escape the hustle and bustle of the downstairs areas.
• A cool room – with the second storey of a home typically hotter than the first, placing bedrooms on the first floor can allow you to secure a cooler night’s sleep across the seasons.

The Building Process for Your Dream Luxury Two-Storey Home

Our straightforward and intuitive building process is part of what has made Trendsetter Homes one of Perth’s best custom luxury home builders. Our streamlined building process consists of only three straightforward steps, each one offering specialised support to help your dream home come to life.

1. Design

Have a home in mind? This is when you’re going to see your dreams start to transform into reality. We bring decades of expertise and experience to your preferences and lifestyle choices to create a truly bespoke luxury custom design that suits you.

Initial consultation

To make sure you’re home is exactly in your vision, we start with an in-depth consultation that helps our designers gain a comprehensive overview of who you are. Here, we discover your lifestyle, preferences and personal style and begin translating that into a luxury custom home design that we know you’ll love.

Drafting the floor plans

In the next stage, we show you the initial concepts for what will soon be your dream home and work with you to further perfect it. We’ll show you our initial custom home floor plan and work with any feedback you might have to tailor it perfectly to your liking.

Further consultation

As one of Perth’s best custom home builders, we’re not happy until you’re happy. We work closely with you throughout the entire consultation process to ensure that you’re completely satisfied with the final design.

2. Build

Once you’re happy with the vision for your new luxury two-story home, we get ready to turn that vision into a reality. A team of highly skilled craftsmen are brought in to bring your dream home to life, supervised closely by their on-site supervisor who ensures everything is just right at every stage of the building process. We build your home to the highest standard in every element, ensuring nothing gets overlooked, that’s our luxury home difference.

3. Interior architecture

Architecture isn’t just about the outside of your home. At Trendsetter Homes we make sure that you’re getting the most out of your internal space, with a group of interior designers dedicated to helping you maximise the internal luxury of your new home. From finding the right finishes and materials to perfecting the lighting, acoustics and ergonomics of the interior home, this step sees your home spring to life.

How Trendsetter Homes Excels in Luxury Two-Storey Home Building

Since 1997, Trendsetter Homes has been at the forefront of designing and building custom, luxury two-storey homes in Perth. As a family-owned enterprise, we’ve diligently preserved and built upon our wealth of experience over the decades, honing our expertise to craft award-winning custom home designs. Across these decades we’ve perfected how to choose and work with the best luxury materials, make the most of the local landscape and bring the luxury home dreams of Perth homeowners to life.

Our team is a carefully assembled collective of designers, builders, and interior architects who collaborate seamlessly across all phases of luxury home development. Our company-wide attention to detail, exceptional craftsmanship and comprehensive skillset is what makes us one of Perth’s leading luxury home builders and defines our Trendsetter Homes difference.

Ready to embark on your luxury single-storey home journey? Connect with one of our dedicated team members today to explore the possibilities.