A Home Should Work for the Way You Actually Live

One of the things I do when we are working on a floor plan is imagine the people who are actually going to live there.

Not just what the house will look like.

How are they going to live in it?

If it is a home that could work well for a family with younger children, where should the laundry room be? Sometimes it makes more sense to put it closer to the secondary bedrooms because that’s where most of the laundry is going to come from.

In other floor plans, we love connecting the laundry room directly to the primary closet when the layout allows it.

We also usually prefer an isolated primary bedroom. If the layout requires another bedroom nearby, we’ll try to use a bathroom or closet as separation rather than putting two bedroom walls directly against each other.

And then there is storage.

I’m always looking for somewhere to sneak in another closet, another cabinet or extra storage in a hallway.

Because I don’t think anyone has ever complained that their house had too much storage.

We also include a flex space or bonus room because we know the way you use your house today may not be the way you use it five years from now.

That room might start as a playroom, become a homeschool room, turn into a teen gaming or movie room, and eventually become a home office or second living area.

It flexes with whatever you need.

We’ have talked more about why that flexibility matters in Thoughtful Design That Adapts to Real Life⁠. 

And you can see a real example of this philosophy in 504 N 13th Street in Windsor Estates at Preston Manor⁠.

That floor plan has an isolated primary suite, an extra-large primary closet, laundry conveniently located near the bedrooms, plenty of kitchen storage, and a large flex space. 

Those are not necessarily the features that make someone stop scrolling when they see a picture of a beautiful new home.

They are the things that make you love living there six months later.

A floor plan should look good on paper.

But more importantly, it should work when you are actually living in it.