Designing my future home

has been one of the most fun and challenging projects I have ever worked on. I started working on the design many years ago when I was in the "dreaming phase" and just thinking about what I really want in a home. I'm not a fancy person, and I appreciate a practical use of space. So I figured sketching up some ideas would be a piece of cake. Ha!

After several years of working on my plan, here is what I have:

My Plan

I'm kidding. I have more than that.. I really do.. but even the exterior has been a challenge because I want to keep rooflines simple-ish for cost, and still get a quaint cottage-style vibe. I discovered I have an obsession with symmetry, which is pretty difficult to work with when you are trying to minimize square footage. And the interior floor plan has presented its own challenges, because I started from scratch instead of modifying something already drawn up.

But I learned a few things while working on this plan for the last few years, and have some key points you may want to consider if you are thinking about designing your own home plan. Here are my top considerations:

THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU WILL PLACE FURNITURE.

If you have, say, a piano, make sure you have a wall for that. If you want to place a dresser in the corner of a room, make sure the window is far enough away from the corner that the dresser wont be blocking it. Are walkways wide enough to accommodate your 22 inch deep English secretary? I actually sketched furniture into my designs on graph paper (like 100 times and different ways) to get an idea of movement flow through the little house.

WHERE WILL ALL THOSE PLANTS GO?

One of the biggest downfalls of my current home is lack of sunny windows and literally nowhere to bring in delicate plants during cold snaps. So in creating my new plan, I made sure that I have windows facing in from as many directions as possible and created a few spaces where I'll have some extra floor space for overwintering. If you can create a few spaces that have both a window and room for a little table in front of it, that's even better.

PAY ATTENTION TO LINE OF SIGHT.

I drew so many floor plans that seemed very practical, but when I sat back to study them, I knew I wouldn't be happy with certain views. Like the interior of the powder room should not be in a direct line of sight from the dining table. I also wanted to make sure that my line of sight from the prep area in the kitchen didn't have me facing a wall away from where family or guests would be hanging out. I'm in the kitchen quite a bit, and I just don't have the neck for constant over-the-shoulder conversation. One other thing that was important to me was the view from the front door. Our design is very simple so I wanted to use that opportunity to create an inviting and interesting view, so I worked to have the front door line up perfectly with the fireplace in the main room, with a pretty doorway between the entry and main room to frame it. Its a detail I think I can have a lot of decorating fun with.

KEEP YOUR DIRTY BOOTS TO YOURSELF

Right now our main door opens up straight into the dining room.. so, guess where all the muddy boots and coats are? It's pretty unaesthetic. After thinking about the way we live with outdoor activities, animals, and seemingly endless piles of shoes I evolved my plan to allow a space to organize these coats, boots, bags, balls, leashes, etc. in a place where dirt can be contained and is not in direct line of sight to the main living area. I'm just so over it.

DON'T SKIMP ON STORAGE

Trying to keep the floor plan smallish made it difficult to find areas to use for storage. But I know one of my main complaints in the old Victorian I'm currently in is that there's nowhere to put anything. I don't need a giant primary closet because I'm not a clothes person, but I do have a lot stuff that I don't want just hanging out all over the place. I added a nice deep storage area under the stairs and found a spot to add a little pass through pantry to keep all the stock-up supplies, dog food, etc. and I made sure each bedroom has ample space to keep the kids stuff contained. It can be tempting to save square footage by leaving out extra storage space, but I think its pretty important to have it for long term organization.

So in a week or so I am taking my little drawings up to the architects to have an official floor plan finalized. It will be pretty fun to see my drawing become an actual rendering.. one step closer to becoming a real house!