Floorplan and function……..
I’ve recently started watching the TV renovation show Selling Houses Australia. I enjoy watching the transformations — I mean, who doesn’t? They do an amazing job.
One of the main issues many of these homes have is the floor plan or layout of the spaces, and it really got me thinking about how important that is. I truly believe a floor plan can make or break a home and completely affect how functional and comfortable it feels to live in.
Some of the homes struggling to sell on this program honestly have terrible floor plans. The mind boggles with some of them, and you find yourself wondering what the designer, builder, or homeowner who created it was thinking. I’m not trying to poo-poo my own industry, but wow… some of them really are quite bad. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way in that regard.
To put things into context, many of these homes were built a long time ago, and the way people lived back then was completely different to how we live now. Homes often had lots of tiny, separate rooms — definitely no open-plan living.
I own a mid-century modern home built in 1968, with an addition added later on. As far as floor plans go, it’s not the worst, but it definitely has its issues. The kitchen is quite separate from the living area, and there’s no real connection to the outdoor space. The later addition of a rumpus room also created some awkward problems. The bathroom in the middle of the house now has privacy glass facing this room because the original external window no longer connects to outside. They did add a skylight, so at least there’s some natural light, but it suffers badly from mould issues. You also have to walk through the laundry to get to the rumpus room.
This is exactly what I mean when I talk about poor floor plans. In the past, there often wasn’t as much thought given to the flow of a home, how it functioned, or how people would actually live within the space.
Thankfully, things have changed. Another issue with my family home is that it wasn’t designed to take advantage of the north-facing aspect. These days, that’s one of the very first things designers think about when planning a home, closely followed by the floor plan itself. Designers now carefully consider flow, airflow, sunlight, how spaces connect, and how people will use those spaces day to day.
When building from scratch, all of these things are considered long before tiles are chosen or colours are decided. If a home is being renovated, this is when a designer really puts their thinking cap on to create a much better floor plan. In some cases, it might even mean completely flipping the layout, moving walls, or opening up spaces by removing them altogether.
Obviously, budget plays a huge role in how much can realistically be changed, but investing in better flow and functionality can be a complete game changer. It can totally transform how a home feels — and, more importantly, how it functions for the people living in it.
