architecture tips

A floor plan is very important. It will largely determine how your house will turn out. While hiring an architect is required in some states prior to the construction of a house, you may still want try to design a house floor plan yourself. You will find lots of software programs on the market that can help you with designing a plan layout. Once you have finished your design, you can seek the services of an architect or building designer to help you improve on the beginning stages of your concept.

First and foremost, you should first consider how big your house is going to be. Determine what square footage you plan to max out at. Big houses used to be trendy; but ever since Sarah Susanka started a trend with small houses, homeowners are now choosing smaller houses over big ones. The key is maximizing the available space within your set amount of total square feet. Even if your house is small, you can still make it comfortable and cozy. You just have plan traffic flow and know about correct furniture placement. Position your things in a way that they do not hog space.

Next, you should consider your geographic location. A busy street or the size of your lot may put limitations to your options. Nevertheless, you should also consider any features that you would be able to take advantage of such as trees. Do not forget to consider the shape of your house as well. Keep in mind that more square footage can be achieved with a square shape than with a rectangle. Although you can have the most square footage with a circle, building a circular home may be difficult.

In addition, you should also consider how long you plan to live in your house. You should design a floor plan based on your current or future plans. For instance, if you plan to stay in your house for decades, you may want to add extra bedrooms for future children. If you intend to use it as a vacation place, you may want to choose a simpler design. If you are currently suffering from health conditions, perhaps you may want to avoid adding stairs to your floor plan.

Finally, you should determine whether you prefer to design a floor plan that is closed or open. With a closed floor plan, the kitchen, dining room, living room, and family room are all separated from one another. With an open floor plan, the kitchen, dining room, and living room occupy one huge space. If you want to have a more flexible option, however, you may choose to use room dividers so you can easily switch from a closed plan to a open room plan.

With a very basic floor plan design, you can move to interviewing and eventually hiring an architect or building designer to take your initial design concept and expand upon those ideas. Other options to designing your home may include modifying a pre-designed house plans or working with a builder who may have plans that you can modify. In the end, go with what's best for your design needs.

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