Less than 30% of actual custom home realizations come from pre-conceived plans that the buyer had prior to searching for a lot. On average, the custom home buyer modifies their floor plan design about 2-3 times during the design process. Custom home design involves more than just browsing online for ideas. Deciding on the appropriate design requires and in-depth understanding of how you and your family members behave, what your daily routines are like, and typical habits.
Analyze Your Current Living Patterns
When searching for a floor plan for your home, it helps to know how your household operates. For a week, make note of the path that your household takes on an average day. Which areas of the home are really used and which are dormant? What are the common pain points or bottlenecks in the home? Most importantly, what is the morning routine like and where are the members of the household heading in the morning? Understanding these details will help you find the perfect open floor plan for your household.
When designing your dream bathroom, consider your current morning routine. With multiple people living in the house, does everyone’s routine revolve around trying to get in the bathroom at the same time? Or when considering potential dining spaces in the house, does everyone formal dine or casually eat in front of the TV. A designer can use your habits and routines to create an initial space allocation plan for your floor plan. A generic base plan does not usually take these specific needs into consideration.
The challenge of storage needs is often underestimated by 30-40% because most people use their current storage capacity as a basis for what they need in a new home. However, in addition to their normal storage needs, most people have an overage of things that they have accumulated and must find a place for in their new home. In order to calculate storage needs, you must first determine how you are currently using storage space in your home and then add a 30-40% overage to that for growth in storage needs in your new home. Measure all closets, shelves in pantry, and storage racks in garage.
Decisions regarding floor plan configuration are affected by working styles. For 42% of employees who work from home some of the time, their remote work may require an office or a space that serves multiple purposes. These remote work spaces will also require specifications for sound absorption, lighting, and technology.
Future-proof Your Design Decisions
We design smart homes with the next 10 to 15 years in mind, taking into consideration the future lifestyles of the residents.
Aging in Place is often thought of in relation to the elderly, but many of those same features are beneficial to younger home owners. Many of these beneficial features can be incorporated into the design and construction of a new home saving the homeowner thousands of dollars not having to do costly remodeling to their home as they age. Examples of such features include HardiePlank siding, a single story home, a 36′ wide center hall, and a walk in shower. These features can not only enhance the function of the home to a younger homeowner, but they can also help save thousands as they age in that same home.
In fact, 83% of buyers report that they want to age in place. So why not design your home to allow for that from the beginning?
When a family grows, a home too can change dramatically as one bedroom is converted into an office, or a bonus room is transformed into a media room. Whatever your needs, the cost to expand a home is often too expensive up front; however, with a few renovations, a home can be given a new life. The rapid evolution of technology has forced homes to upgrade from simple electrical systems to robust and high quality structured wiring that can accommodate today’s and tomorrow’s communication needs in home offices, game rooms, or additional bedrooms.
Balance Open Concept With Defined Spaces
The Open Floor Plan, often espoused as a more recent innovation in housing, is only effective when combined with spaces that provide both acoustic separation and strong programmatic definition.
An open plan is most effective when there are “sight lines” through the space, but also activity zones or “spaces” created by a kitchen island, partial walls, or a change in ceiling height. Most discussions about open plan spaces consider complete openness to be the hallmark of the style. However, open plan areas can also present a number of problems. For example, there is increased noise in open plan areas (i.e. the sound of kids doing their homework while you are cooking fish for dinner). The smells of cooking in an open plan area also tend to permeate other activity areas.
Alternative approaches to open plans include “broken plans,” which combine open areas with enclosed spaces or “bays” to create flexible, efficient spaces that offer some of the benefits of enclosed spaces that are lacking in typical open plans.
Traffic Flow Matters More Than You Think
Use “s Scenario” s to test how people move through your design, while you test interior “furniture” configurations and daily routines created by plans.
Primary pathways should generally not travel through active areas. For example, in a kitchen, work spaces should be protected from through traffic as would recreational spaces, social areas, and traffic lanes leading to bedrooms.
Choosing a floor plan for your custom home can be very rewarding when built by an experienced custom home builder in Morrow County Ohio. Not only can there be many plans to choose from, but many plans can also be modified to fit a specific building lot or need. A professional builder can help you identify potential problems with traffic flow and sight lines which can be corrected before these costly mistakes are built into the home. What could cost a few hundred dollars to correct during construction can cost thousands of dollars to correct after the home is completed.
Site Integration and Natural Light
Our choice of floor plan also must take into account many site specific factors such as the site itself and the general characteristics of the neighborhood. How will these characteristics affect issues of solar orientation, prevailing wind, views, and privacy? For example, a south facing wall could capture winter’s free heat, and strategically placed openings could mitigate or address peak summer cooling loads.
As a designer, one must consider how light will travel through your home. In order to bring comfort and value to a floor plan, areas that would normally receive natural light during the day should be avoided. Instead of creating underutilized spaces that serve no purpose and cost to build, it is better to illuminate these areas with artificial light.
Budget Reality Check
Our most cost effective models for large exhibits are our standard building models with rectangular floor plans and standard 9 1/2 foot ceilings. While still offering the opportunity for interior finishes to contribute to overall design, they are less expensive than spaces with intricate floor plans that include multiple angles, steps or other custom details.
A highly designed floor plan that is too expensive to build is worthless at inception. Developing a plan that pairs your needs and wants with spaces and elements to be completed in future renovation phases is smart.
One of the hidden pitfalls for the custom home buyer is making major changes to the floor plan AFTER construction has begun. That risk can be greatly diminished by reviewing your family’s lifestyle and habits before ever finalizing the design for your new home.