7 Tips for Choosing the Perfect Home Floor Plan

 

7 Tips for Choosing the Perfect Home Floor Plan

The architecture of your home is likely to be one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The layout of the rooms and how they flow will primarily rely on your lifestyle, whether you live in an apartment, a condominium, or a home. If you want a single-story home or a multi-story home with all of the bedrooms on the first floor, picking the right floor plan can be difficult. Here are some points which you should look at least one time. It will be helpful to make your floor plan much better.

 

1.    Choose a floor plan that suits your lifestyle.

Regardless of how accessible you are, there are several things to consider. It is important to understand factors such as room layout when taking into account the size of the family and the ages of the children. Many families with small children tend to have their private spaces – bedrooms and bathrooms – clustered together in one section of the building.

2.    Do you entertain often or infrequently?

Many home floor plans are centered on entertaining and welcoming guests the minute they step through the front door. A wide foyer opening into an open floor plan living and dining room and meandering to the outdoors would be perfect for guests visiting. Although, if you and your family are more private and don’t like your full home on display every time the front door is opened, you may opt for a formal living room adjacent to the front door. This will allow guests a place to immediately sit and feel comfortable while leaving the rest of your house private.

3.    Single story or multistory?

Many families enjoy single-story homes for the quietness of no overhead foot traffic noise.  Some single-story homes or ‘Ranch’ style homes tend to group public rooms in the center and bedrooms and baths are located on the “wings” of the floor plan.  Multistory homes give the added benefit of views to the outside instead of looking directly into a neighbor’s window. Multistory homes also give each family member their own space and room to have privacy over single-story floor plans.

 

4.    Do certain functions of your home need special accessibility?

Whether you have a live-in family member that needs extra space to maneuver or children who need extra-wide hallways to run around, consider this factor when choosing a floor plan.  Older homes tend to have narrower hallways, doorways, and often door head heights. Remember renovating or altering non-load-bearing wall locations in the future is an option.  Consider this if you fall in love with a floor plan but your family needs change over the years.

 How much outdoor living do you wish to have?

Your floor plan will most likely include an outdoor leisure area. Whether that is a porch, lanai, swimming pool, or other amenities.  When choosing a floor plan, assess how much your family will use these outdoor leisure amenities. Similar to a large yard, it looks beautiful when you keep up with it, but can look terrible if you don’t.  Ensure you want the added responsibility of keeping up with the outdoor plan AND the indoors at the same time. Deciding on a floor plan can be fun and frustrating at the same time.  Assess your family’s lifestyle and your preferences to how you enjoy living.  With patience, your dream home floor plan will be easier to find than you think! Freshome reader’s how did you choose the floor plan of your current home? Do you like it, or would you change it? Share with us your thoughts.

6.    Follow the flow.

When you’re looking at a floor plan, imagine yourself walking through the home. Go from the laundry room to putting the clothes away. Is it convenient? Does the flow of the kitchen to the dining area feel right? Will the bedrooms afford privacy for the occupants? When you’re coming in with an armload of groceries, will you have an easy path to the kitchen?

7.    Consider the wide, open spaces.

Many floor plans feature the open concept. It’s a popular layout because the lack of walls between the kitchen, living room, and dining area allow for more socializing. The cook is no longer cut off from the activity outside the kitchen. As you look at the open floor plan in the home designs, think about how the rooms connect. It might be one big space—long, square, or rectangular—or an L-shape with the kitchen as the pivotal point. Do you prefer one style over the other? How will your furniture fit in the layout? With an open floor plan, you can create separate spaces, like a reading area or study space. Envision how you will use the main living area so you choose a floor plan that fits your family’s lifestyle.