Many of us will tend to tour different homes and browse through the various room layouts while dreaming about the day when we can build our own home. In can be beneficial to know what some of the most common flaws in house plans are that can be detrimental to living in a building and what you can do about them.
- The most frequently seen design flaw is in spaces that have a single use and are a dead end. These spaces can block a natural flow of traffic in the home and essentially create a bottleneck. How to Fix: Open up a wall or even just add a doorway so that you can get through this space without needing to turn around.
- Not enough integration from the inside to outside. How to Fix: Add doors that open onto a porch or patio. This connection will connect the building to the landscape and keep it from feeling utilitarian.
- Front porches that are too small for sitting on. How to Fix: Make sure that the front porch has at least eight feet of depth so as to allow space for furniture.
- An island in the kitchen is great but it can also be too big to work around. How to Fix: Determine the amount of space that is necessary for your normal food prep and eating and plan accordingly.
- Room size is not proportional to the height of the ceiling. How to fix: Large, airy rooms should have a ceiling that is a bit higher that will add to the open feel of the room. Lower ceilings can definitely make a room feel smaller and more cramped.
- Lack of natural light because of not enough windows or all of the windows being on a single wall. How to Fix: Don’t make a room that has a single window. You might also consider expanding it in order to make a bay window. Another fix is to add a skylight.
- Poor progression from the garage to the kitchen. How to Fix: Shorten and straighten the path that goes from the kitchen to the garage.
- Sculptural sinks in the bathroom that have many nooks and crannies that will make cleaning tough while they also leave little space for a counter. How to Fix: Use integral or under-mounted sinks in order to get the most counter space possible.
- Cheap glass or plastic doors on showers that can induce a claustrophobic feeling. How to Fix: Trade in the bath/tub combination for a walk in shower or replace the doors with shower curtains.
- Roof configurations that are complex or too high and have too many bumps, hips and gables. This is not only aesthetically unpleasing it can also lead to leaks. How to Fix: Keep the roofline and the silhouette simple.
Hopefully by reading these common flaws and how to fix them you can avoid making these mistakes in your own house plans and end up with a home that feels and looks right.