Adding on to your home is exciting, and no room addition begins without home addition floor plans. The new space is fun to imagine, and getting all those ideas down on paper in a logical way is a crucial part of the process.
You’ll want to make your floor plan that incorporates your ideas, works well, and that will aid your contractor in setting up complete blueprints. There are a lot of sources for information and inspiration out there.
Let’s look at some tips on how you can create the best home addition floor plans to make your dream home a reality.
1. Include the Family when creating home addition floor plans
Don’t put yourself in the position of making all the decisions, when you are considering floor plans.
If you are lucky enough to visit a model home to explore a floor plan in real space, take everyone along.
What seems perfectly logical to a 6-foot tall teenager may fall short of expectations for his 4-foot tall younger sister. Ergonomics can be very important to a functional room.
Aesthetically, one person may love the idea of a window, another may think it needs to be on an opposite wall.
Including everyone in the process assures that the floor plan will work for everyone who uses the new addition, from accessibility to just personal preferences.
2. Get out there and explore your options
Inspiration for your home addition floor plans are everywhere!
Pinterest, model homes, perhaps the vacation home you rented last summer.
It’s even possible to find detailed floor plans for your favorite TV show rooms online.
Keep a pad of graph paper handy, and sketch out ideas when a good thought presents itself.
3. Really think about your lifestyle
Do you have an active household? Are pets a part of your life? Do you want something that will be low maintenance? Who will be using the room?
Questions like these may seem simple, but they will tell you a lot about determining things like room size, flooring, entrances to the outside, and accessibility.
With a new addition to your home, you can have a fresh start and a solution to old problems.
Features such as extra entries, the type of floor, and even the way doors are installed can all be thought through at this time and can make a huge difference in the way you use and enjoy your home.
4. Don’t be afraid to ask questions about what’s on the floor plan
Home addition floor plans and blueprints tend to use their own language.
When you’re exploring all those options out there, you will encounter some symbols and abbreviations that may very well be unfamiliar to you.
You won’t be the first person to ask, and it’s better to understand that what you first thought was a window is actually a door.
5. Don’t assume that the floor plan sizes are set in stone
It’s easy to fall in love with a floor plan based on the drawing and some photos.
Workable home addition floor plans need to incorporate your current furniture, and not create unpleasant surprises.
The last thing you’d want to happen is to find that your couch that you’ve just brought out of storage is actually a few inches too long to fit on the wall that you’d envisioned it on. Your measuring tape is your friend when creating home addition floor plans.
Get accurate measurements of the furniture you’ll be using, and compare it to your plan’s dimensions. There are even kits that will allow you to use a small representation of your furniture on a floor plan grid, to ensure that everything fits.
And, don’t forget you’ll need space to walk around the furniture, once it’s placed.
6. Imagine the space fully occupied
Once you’ve placed all your furniture on the floor plan, think about what your house is like when it’s at peak capacity.
It may seem like you’ve added a lot of space to your home, and provided a place to have a beverage by the fireplace with friends, for example – or extra room off the kitchen for when your children have their friends over for a snack and study session.
This is average use, but consider other times.
Think ahead to your big Christmas party or when family is visiting.
If you consider where the traffic is going, and where people will gather. Once you do this, you may realize that you’ve created a bottleneck.
A little imagination now can convince you that moving that doorway was the best decision you made in the process of building that addition.
7. Take a walk outside
Chances are that your room addition will be creating a new exterior wall. After you’ve come up with your basic ideas for your floor plan, now is the time to head outside and think about how it all comes together.
You’ll want to consider such things as current garden beds or trees, the direction of the sun, what the windows will look out on, your own privacy, and how these will relate to the new addition.
Imagine what the new exterior will look like, and don’t forget to take note of immovable items such as property boundaries and utility lines.
The last thing you’ll want to encounter on your path to a new addition is something like a costly plumbing pipe move or a dispute over property lines.
Conclusion
Planning for your home addition always starts with a floor plan.
Good home addition floor plans will help you visualize your project, work through possible design problems, and provide a valuable way to communicate with your contractor as blueprints are prepared.
As you work on your plan, be sure to include all the members of your family, explore all the many sources of room addition ideas, and really think about your lifestyle and how it impacts how you use your home.
Imagine what it will be like to be both inside and outside this addition to your current floor plan.
By thinking ahead and really immersing yourself into the planning, unpleasant surprises and issues can be prevented.
