I wonder if there is one ultimate floor plan that would satisfy 90% of all homeowners. As you know, must houses are laid out inconveniently. You have your “never use” rooms by the front door, your laundry room on a different floor from the bedrooms, and your dining room down the hall from your kitchen. Crazy.
So I’ve been thinking about a better design, conceptually. I don’t have the details worked out, but tell me what you think so far.
On the first floor, imagine the kitchen is the center, surrounded by a family room, dining area, bathroom, small TV/reading area, and storage.
The family room would be next to a storage room, so you can easily change the furnishings. If you want to watch a movie with friends on the big screen, just push some extra chairs in from the storage room. If you want to have a party with lots of dance space, push all the furniture into storage. Want to exercise? Push the recumbent exercise bike from storage into the main room. With hard wood or tile floors, and pads under furniture legs, things push easily. (I use this concept now, including the recumbent bike. It moves easily.)
The dining area would be casual enough for regular use, but nice enough for having friends over – like a funky restaurant look. No need to have both a breakfast nook and a formal dining room. One is always wasted. If you plan to entertain anyone fancy, go to a nice restaurant. Your friends and family will be fine with casual.
The upstairs would feature the laundry room in the center, directly above the kitchen. That makes the plumbing less expensive. Surrounding the laundry room would be the bedrooms. But here’s my real innovation: All the bedroom closets would have a door that opens to the laundry room but could be locked from inside the bedroom. On laundry day, you just unlock the bedroom closet doors and everything is a few steps away.
The laundry room would be totally tricked out with a flat panel screen, surround sound, folding tables, and an ironing board. Doing laundry will seem like a fun escape.
Anything wrong with that floor plan?