Top 10 Floorplan Mistakes You Should Avoid

Whether you’re renovating your house or searching for your next home, a floorplan with a good flow should be one of your top priorities. An awkward or poorly designed layout could take away from your everyday enjoyment and it could also be wasting precious space, which is something nobody wants. When you’re paying good money for a house, every square footage needs to count, so here are the floor plan layouts you should try to avoid.

1. Lack of entryway

When you walk in through your front door, you shouldn’t already be standing in the family room. A good floorplan should include an ample amount of space in the entryway so that people can take off their shoes and hang up their coats.

2. Staircases that are complicated to get to

The passage to the stairway should be pretty straightforward. You shouldn’t have to walk through multiple rooms or get to the other end of the house just to reach the stairs. The ideal location for a staircase should be near the front entrance.

3. Kitchens that are far away from the family area

Kitchens and family rooms are some of the most high-terrific room, with residents frequently travelling back and forth between those two spaces. To ensure maximum fluidity, these rooms should be right beside each other. This is especially important for people who entertain or parents who want to keep a close eye on their children when they’re busy in the kitchen.

4. Bathrooms that open directly into a public room

You have to admit, it’s a little uncomfortable watching TV or eating dinner when the bathroom is right beside you. A good floorplan should not have bathrooms open directly into the public room. They should instead be strategically placed in more private corridors.

5. Front doorways that are uncovered

The front entrance should be covered so that visitors will be protected from bad weather as they wait for you to answer the door. It’ll also ensure that your front steps are not covered in sleet, which is dangerous, or snow, which could get inside your home each time you open the door.

6. Rooms so small the furniture doesn’t fit

When a basic couch or bed doesn’t fit in the space it’s meant to be, then you’ve got yourself a poorly designed floorplan.

7. Insufficient storage

A good floorplan should take into consideration the necessity of adequate storage. Storage areas, whether it’s a linen closet or extra cabinets, should not be an afterthought but instead integrated into the overall layout.

8. Diagonal walls

Walls that are angular or diagonal may look cool and creative, but they’re a pain to furnish and design around. Floorplans with clean, straight lines are much easier to work with.

9. Garages that are not close to the kitchen

Many people enter their house through their garage. And very often they carry in bags and bags of groceries through the garage. That’s why the placement of the garage is so crucial. When there’s direct access to the kitchen form the garage, it just makes for more seamless living.

10. Bedrooms connected by one door

Adjoining bedrooms may be a nice feature in a hotel, but it makes it very inconvenient for everyday living when you have to access a bedroom by walking through another bedroom. Some parents may want this feature when they have a newborn, but it can reduce everyone’s sense of privacy when the child grows up.