What I’d Put in a Family Compound, If I Were Designing It

Every so often a design trend comes along that isn’t really about design at all — it’s about how we want to live. The family compound is one of those.

If you’ve been hearing the term “multigenerational living” everywhere lately, you’re not imagining it. It’s the fastest-rising trend in luxury residential right now: a recent National Association of Realtors report found that multigenerational homes made up roughly 17% of purchases last year — the highest share ever recorded. At the high end, that’s translating into something the old-money families have quietly understood for generations: the family compound. Not one enormous house, but a primary home surrounded by smaller structures — casitas, guest cottages, a pool house with real bedrooms — all designed for the whole family to gather under one (sprawling) roofline.

The why is the interesting part. Some of it is financial — land holds its value, and a “forever home” the next generation can grow into is a kind of legacy. But mostly? People simply want to be together. After a few years of screens, distance, and a world that pulls everyone in different directions, families are craving the opposite: long tables, full houses, and the kind of memories you can only make in person. As a Sarasota interior designer, I find that the most beautiful brief a client can hand me isn’t a square footage — it’s “I want everyone here.”

So naturally, I started dreaming. Here’s what I’d put in a family compound if it were mine to design.

A village, not a mega-mansion

The instinct is always to build one giant house. I’d resist it. There’s something so much warmer about a cluster of smaller structures — a main house, a couple of cottages, a pool house — connected by courtyards, shaded paths, and outdoor rooms. It nestles into the landscape instead of overwhelming it, and there’s a quiet magic to walking between buildings: the morning stroll to the main house for coffee, the lantern-lit path back to your cottage at night. Very Amalfi hillside, very come stay a while.

The heart: one big, generous kitchen and a table that never ends

Every great gathering ends up in the kitchen anyway, so I’d build for it. A proper communal kitchen that can absorb a crowd, and a long, scarred-in-the-best-way dining table that seats twenty without flinching. Call it nonna energy — the table is the altar of an Italian home, and in a family compound it’s where the whole thing lives. Everything else is just rooms around it.

Spaces designed to grow up

Here’s the part designers love and homeowners rarely think about: you’re not just designing for the family that exists today, but for the one that will. The toddler becomes a teenager. The college kid comes home with a partner. Eventually there are grandchildren no one’s even met yet. So I’d build in flexibility — a playroom that reads as sweet for a three-year-old with a tea set and equally cool for a twelve-year-old with a book; bunk rooms that sleep a pile of cousins now and overflow guests later. Rooms that quietly transition into whatever the family becomes.

Privacy, built right in

A house full of people you love is heaven — for about ten hours. Then everyone needs a minute. The genius of the compound is that it builds in escape hatches: separate entrances so no one has to perform at 7 a.m., a little coffee-and-beverage bar in each guest suite so you can caffeinate before facing a table of twenty, and tucked-away window seats and daybeds for the introverts (and the new daughter-in-law who just wants her coffee in peace). Togetherness works best when alone-time is designed in.

Resort amenities — with the volume turned down

Yes to the spa moments: a sauna, a cold plunge, an outdoor shower you’ll never want to leave. Yes to a screening room and a proper wine room. However, the fastest way to make a home cold is to make it impressive. So here’s my one rule — every “amenity” gets warmed up: natural materials, soft light, a few imperfect handmade things. Luxury you can put your bare feet on.

Outdoor living as the connective tissue

This is where the Gulf Coast does the heavy lifting. The whole compound should flow outside — a shaded loggia for long lunches, a pool that’s the daytime gravitational center, a fire feature for after dark. On the water, the view does most of the decorating; my job is to frame it and then get out of the way.

Materials that can actually take it

None of this matters if it can’t survive real life. Sandy feet, spilled rosé, sticky little hands, a dog with opinions. So everything would be beautiful and unbothered: performance fabrics in forgiving textures and patterns, surfaces that age into character rather than out of it, finishes chosen to look better in ten years, not worse. Quiet luxury isn’t fragile. The best pieces practically dare the grandkids to try.

The real assignment

Strip away the saunas and the wine rooms and a family compound is really just one wish, scaled up: let everyone be together, comfortably, for years to come. That’s the most human design brief there is — and honestly, my favorite kind. Whether it’s a true multi-structure compound or simply a forever home built to hold a growing family, the goal is the same: a place that pulls everyone in and makes them want to stay.

If you’ve been dreaming about a home built for the whole family — now and the generations still to come — that’s exactly the kind of project I love most.

Trovate la pace in mezzo al caos. Find peace in the chaos.

Dreaming of a home built to gather everyone you love? Book a Discovery call and let’s design something that lasts for generations.

---

Sarasota Interior Design by Scarlett J Designs

Scarlett J Designs is a Sarasota-based boutique interior design studio specializing in luxury residential interiors, holiday styling, and elevated event experiences throughout Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch, Longboat Key, Siesta Key, and Lido Key.

Through a highly personalized, concierge-style approach, we help clients create homes that feel intentional, refined, and effortlessly livable—while guiding every detail along the way.

One studio. Endless creativity. Impeccable execution. Start your project →