A house plan also referred to as a floor plan, refers to a scaled diagram of your home, viewed from above. This includes important aspects like the scale ratio, measurements or size, layout, furniture, fixed features, and appliances that are to be placed.
The house plan is more than just a diagram that dictates how your home is going to look, physically. This is the foundation of the very first steps that come into building your own home. With the house plan, the layout, wiring, and plumbing systems can also be in place. Because of the very important role a house plan plays in your construction, it’s very important to ensure you get this right.
With that said, here’s an outline of four steps to making successful house plans.
1. Start Simple
Even if you’re working with a software or an engineering contractor, like Boutique Home Plans, in the construction of your floor plan, it’s very important to start simply. There’s no need for you to overdo anything. Otherwise, your floor plan might only be challenging to interpret by your tradesmen and construction team.
A good floor plan is clear, clean, and basic. Even rough sketches are enough to get your ideas out from your head and into the paper. That way, it’ll also be easier for your construction team to visualize what you want to have in your home.
2. Understand The Key Features Your House Plan Should Have
There are certain features that’ll shape your house plan to make it effective. When your house plan is able to meet those features, you’re certain to build a home that truly matches your needs and preferences.
These features include:
- Architectural Details and Practical Considerations. Your house plan should be able to strike that balance between an architecturally-sound structure and a practical or useful one. For instance, the style should never be at the expense of kids’ safety, utility bill, and even ease of cleaning.
- Versatility. Create areas or rooms in your home that can easily be converted into multiple-use spaces. That way, your home can grow and adapt to changes in your family. For instance, you can have a guest room, for now, that can easily be converted into a nursery or a child’s room or storage space which can easily be renovated into a home office.
- Matches Your Priorities and Lifestyle. Your house plan should reflect you, the homeowner of the property. This is very important to ensure your home can work efficiently for your needs. For example, a family of parents who work from home absolutely needs to have a quiet and closed office space than a family that doesn’t.
3. Understand All The Inclusions Of A House Plan
Now that you’re aware of what the features of a good house plan are, it’s important to also touch on what the inclusions should be. A good house plan should have more than just room measurements. It should also include:
- All The Doors and Windows, as these are permanent features. Fixing the location and position of your doors and windows can help shape other decisions later on like where the major furniture and appliances will be positioned.
- All of Your Living and Working Spaces. This includes indicating the location and setup of your bedroom, kitchen, dining area, living room, bathrooms, office, storage, garage, pantry, and other rooms you wish to have in your home.
- Room Features. This includes the permanent fixtures or appliances you’re going to have built-in. These have to be included in the house plan so the provision for proper electrical wirings can also be in place.
- Room Layouts. This refers to the specific inclusions of each room, like where the walk-in closet will be, or where your breakfast nook is going to be in.
4. Showcase Your Lot
When making your floor plan, don’t forget also to showcase your lot. This means maximizing all the inherent features that may come along with your lot’s specifications. For example, what’s the topography of your entire property like? Is it flat? Or do you need to put steps in certain areas?
Different properties will also have their respective strengths. Does yours look over to the city? Then your house plan should be positioned such that guests inside your home will be able to enjoy the views you’re trying to showcase.
Conclusion
With the steps above, now you get to enjoy the higher likelihood or guarantee of having a successful house plan. Especially because it’s your home you’re building, it’s very important to get this right. If anything, there should only be a very small margin of error. Otherwise, your home construction is going to take so much more time and may cost more than you may have initially intended.