Top 3 Home Plan Mistakes to Avoid

Whether you are building a custom home, a spec home, or designing your own, there are a few things that are often overlooked during the design phase. While many people focus on the appearance, they tend to forget about important interior aspects that can be challenging to address once the construction is complete. Before discussing your plans with a designer, let's talk about the top 3 mistakes I see so you can avoid them!

• Lack of Storage

• Wasted space in Circulation Paths

• Weird Window & Door locations

Storage

I've worked on many single family homes and multi-family homes and they always fail to plan enough storage space. Clients prefer spacious areas and builders bank on this because its cheaper to build no walls, but the client doesn’t realize they don't realize until they move in that they have no storage! The things I find many homes fail to plan storage for are coats and shoes (primary and secondary), Vacuums, linens, Garbage cans in kitchen, pantry foods, Seasonal Decor, & Surplus Items in garage.

When you are going through the process of either selecting a home design or designing it with a planner or yourself, think of all the items you actually plan on storing. Are the kids really going to keep their shoes, coats, and backpacks in their room everyday after school? What about you and your coats? Where is the seasonal Decor gonna fit? How much dry food do you need on a weekly, monthly, or annual basis? Surplus items, by this I mean all those odd’s and end’s that get forgotten like wd-40? cleaning supplies? bikes? power tools? drills? kids seasonal toys? These won’t all fit in the garage when you only have enough room to fit cars and walking space. So take a good hard look at what you actually have and then plan for it! It can seem overwhelming but I promise this will pay off big time when you live there.

Circulation Paths

Take a look at the plan below and see if you can pick out wasted space areas…

This is so common, space gets drawn for “circulation” and then never actually used for anything functional. The other mistake with circulation is that people do not plan for furnishings when planning paths and the furniture ends up being extremely cumbersome in the path that would actually be used for walking.

Look at this bathroom 2, It is spacious with nothing to show for it. Or what about the dining space… there is a whole lot of nothing happening. The sitting room has an area that is totally separate from the sitting space for storage? Is the sitting space hemorrhaging into the dining or was it just empty and people filled it with a couch? These are all too common mistakes and you need to have a sharp critical eye to make sure your plans are efficient and not just “spacious”. The kitchens could be so much larger, the dining space shouldn’t be an obstacle and just because a second couch fits doesn’t mean anyone will use it.

Windows & Door Placement

Looking at the plan above, we can see several doors that are swinging into a space they shouldn’t. The entry should open inward to allow guests to step in invitingly. The bathrooms should also swing inward; not into the hallway which can inadvertently hit someone walking. The walk- in closet absolutely has space to swing the door into the closet rather than into the bedroom creating a weird pinch point for your significant other who sleeps on that side of the bed. The window in the walk-in closet has been placed prioritizing the exteriors looks and the interior came second for function. Form should always follow function! We want your home to be more than just a box you put your stuff in, it should be a place that you thrive.

Many home plans won’t be as bad as the example above, and are usually the result of innocent mistakes. However, taking a closer look or even having a second pair of eyes on the plans can help avoid these simple mistakes! Now that you know what to watch for, you can make sure your home doesn’t make these mistakes either.

We would love to help you avoid these mistakes and plan a home that is luxurious live in.