When we built our first home, I thought choosing a house layout was mostly about making sure we had enough bedrooms, a decent kitchen and a good size living and outdoor area.
I was wrong.
What I didn’t consider was how we would actually use our home, and being pregnant with my first child, I also hadn’t thought much about how the space would function with children. I know, crazy, I was young and just too focused on having a home built before a baby arrived.
I didn’t think about how we would live, 5, 10 or 15 years later.
I didn’t think about where we’d dump school bags and endless pairs of shoes.
Or whether someone knocking on the front door would wake a sleeping child.
Looking back, there are quite a few things I would have done differently.
So, if you’re building or buying a home, here are some of the things I wish I had thought about before we settled on our floor plan, in case you haven’t thought about them yet either.
1. The location of rooms, not just how many and the size.
It is easy to look at a floor plan on paper and think in terms of numbers.
4 bedrooms, great!
2 Bathrooms, brilliant!
Enough space for a king size bed, perfect!
But the numbers won’t tell you if the relationship between the spaces actually make sense.
Think about how you will move through the house each day.
Where will you enter?
Where will you put bags and shoes?
How far are the kids’ rooms from yours?
Are they in a location that you feel comfortable with?
Do guests need to walk past bedrooms to get to main living areas?
How far do you need to carry groceries?
Can you see the children playing outside whilst you’re cooking?
These things sound obvious but are so often overlooked when looking at a floor plan on paper. It’s easy to look at the rooms by themselves, but don’t forget to look at what happens between them.
2. Natural light
One thing I completely overlooked was the orientation of our house on our block.
Living spaces ended up South facing, meaning during winter they were cold and without much natural light.
Our second bedroom had the prime spot in the house for light, heat, and cooling on the North side, and our master bedroom was on the hottest side of the house, luckily for us, the neighbours house that was built shortly after ours blocked out some of the harsh afternoon sun.
We also didn’t think through where we would actually place furniture until the build was almost complete, and the location of the TV had to go directly opposite a west-facing window at the times of the day when we would use it most.
Orientation matters more than you think, not only for function but it could end up saving you money on heating and cooling in the long run, so don’t overlook it.
3. Privacy and peace in the bedroom zone.
This one seems painfully obvious to me now. But it wasn’t then.
Our children’s bedrooms ended up right at the front of the house next to the entry.
Before having children, I didn’t see the problem. Then we had a baby.
Every door knock mattered.
Every sound outside on the street mattered.
Visitors having to walk past bedrooms mattered.
And the thought of them being near the entry at night was also uncomfortable.
Whilst we were limited due to block size, a simple switch of the second bedroom and master could have solved a few of these issues!
4. Make everyday storage part of your layout review.
Storage was another thing I didn’t think nearly enough about.
I’m not just talking about the bathroom and kitchen. At the time, I was more focused on how things looked rather than where we were going to put everyday items.
Our entry and hallway were narrow, with absolutely no storage and very limited space to add storage afterwards.
And there was no dedicated storage for things like vacuums, mops or brooms. These ended up in the garage at the opposite end of the house to where I actually needed them.
It taught me that good storage isn’t just about having lots of cupboards, it’s about having the right storage, in the right place, for the items we use every day.
Some items to think about:
- Shoes
- Bags
- Wallets
- Keys
- Hats
- Jackets
- Dog Leads
- Cleaning Equipment
- Ironing Boards and Laundry Baskets
- Shopping Bags
Function should win over looks every single time!
5. Plan furniture, windows and electrical at the same time.
One thing I understand much better now is that you can’t really make decisions about furniture, windows, lighting and electrical points independently.
They all affect each other. Looking back, I should have been thinking about each room as a whole.
Where will the sofa go?
Where will the TV go?
Which direction will people naturally face?
Where does the sun come from in the afternoon?
Where will the power points need to be?
Will you have to run extension cords across the room?
Issues that arise here are much easier to solve while you’re still working with a floor plan and electrical plan rather than once the house has been built.
6. Design for the life you might grow into
One of the biggest lessons I took from building our first home was that I was designing for the life we had at the time. We didn’t have children yet.
I hadn’t experienced the reality of school bags piling up at the front door, toys all over the living room or trying to keep an eye on children playing outside while getting dinner ready.
I hadn’t thought about how much storage we’d need or how important it would be for some parts of the house to feel calm and separate from the busier areas.
And yes, that’s difficult when you’re building your first home. You don’t know what you don’t know, but you can try to think beyond the immediate future, even talk to others that are really living it.
What might your family look like in five years?
How might room need to change?
Could a spare room become an office, nursery or teenager’s retreat?
Will you need more storage?
Could furniture arrangements change or are they limited?
You don’t need to predict every detail of your future life but you should consider whether or not your home will have flexibility to grow with you.
So if you’re building or buying a home, I encourage you not to just walk through rooms in your mind but walk through your life within those rooms.
Have a mistake or lesson that would help others when choosing a home or floor plan? We’d love to hear it below!