Since downsizing to our 1400 sq. foot home three and a half years in the past (as a refresher, our earlier home was greater than twice as massive – clocking in at 3150 sq. toes), you’ve most likely heard us proclaim that good storage is vital. It definitely makes residing in a smaller dwelling much more sustainable and pleasing, however there are additionally particular format options of our home that make sharing much less sq. footage go much more easily for us.
So whether or not you’re considering of downsizing, contemplating a brand new dwelling with any of those format particulars, constructing a brand new dwelling, or are simply interested by what a few of our favourite “living-larger-in-a-smaller-home” options are, we’ve put collectively the next record. Plus, we’re ending with one caveat that’s undoubtedly good to think about in the event you’re considering any format choices or modifications.
#1: Separation Between Bedrooms
This function is #1 on our record for a motive, and after residing this manner I feel it could truly be tough for us to return to a format with out this function. The factor that we love is that none of our 3 bedrooms share partitions with one another. The youngsters have a hallway between theirs, and our bed room is on your complete reverse facet of the home (all of our bedrooms are on the primary ground).
This separation helps everybody really feel a bit much less more likely to be woke up by another person banging round (we will watch some night TV and erupt in laughter with out worrying that we’ll get up the children) and every of our children typically have a pleasant personal feeling whereas they’re in their very own rooms (they’ll every hearken to totally different music or a podcast with out listening to it by means of a shared wall for instance).
Folks typically fear about being “on prime of each other” in a small home, and this little element actually helps us really feel like that isn’t the case right here (contrasted for instance by our first home’s format, which was an analogous quantity of sq. footage, however all three bedrooms emptied into the identical finish of a shared hallway). Even in our final home, which was greater than twice the dimensions, we shared a wall with our son’s room – so this format replace actually appears like we’re residing massive.
#2: Two Distinct Residing Areas (One On Every Degree)
This one stunned us as a result of our unique thought was to make our downstairs widespread space (it’s a giant 22′ room, about the identical dimension as our final home’s very massive kitchen) into only a kitchen & eating house with a pleasant massive lounge upstairs. In brief, we didn’t initially consider using half of it for a first-floor hangout space with legit sofas and a espresso desk – however that’s the place we’ve ended up. And let me inform you, it’s a large motive that we really feel like this home works so a lot better for us and we don’t really feel on prime of one another – even after we’re entertaining and have 10+ folks over.
Once we lastly renovated the kitchen final 12 months, we cemented half of the room’s perform as a hangout zone (since we used the informal sitting space on that facet of the room so closely for the earlier two years). And this 12 months we ordered two bigger sofas to make it much more lounge-y and comfy. And let me inform you, it was the very best factor we ever may have completed.
It’s nice to have a giant informal TV room/artwork house/hangout zone upstairs (we’ll cowl what that room provides to this home within the subsequent bullet). And because it seems, our informal sitting space downstairs will get used closely day-after-day by our whole household – and anybody who stops in for a go to. It’s an awesome place to loosen up/learn/chat that’s not upstairs in entrance of a TV and, as a result of it’s centrally positioned, we spend MOST of our time as a household there each morning earlier than college (and on weekends) and each night earlier than and after dinner.
It’s fascinating as a result of one factor you may take into consideration a smaller dwelling is perhaps: don’t repeat zones like two sitting areas as a result of two might be a waste of your treasured house – however after residing with this setup for years, we couldn’t disagree extra. Since every of those residing zones are on totally different flooring, adults can hang around downstairs within the kitchen/sitting room whereas a complete gaggle of children are upstairs enjoying some very loud recreation or music or watching a film and no one in both zone is concerned by the opposite one.
Even when it’s simply the 4 of us at dwelling, this format Is nice for permitting us to unfold out. It’s extraordinarily useful that one child may be upstairs watching TV whereas the opposite is down on the kitchen desk doing homework or studying with out being disturbed or distracted by the TV. We will’t think about our home with out the downstairs sitting space and are so glad we didn’t simply stick a eating desk in that spot or one thing.
#3: One Massive Versatile Multi-Use Space
Whereas we’ve by no means had basements as grownup householders, each of us grew up with basements as children, and so they’re simply so nice for all the pieces from sleepovers and film nights to a spot for teenagers to do massive messy artwork initiatives and have pillow fights or construct a large blanket fort (all of which have been completed in our massive upstairs household room). Our whole second ground is only one massive room (it’s about 22′ lengthy, like our kitchen beneath) so it’s mainly… an upstairs basement of kinds… perhaps?
The purpose is that having a giant house like this that fills a bunch of various features for us has been extremely helpful. In actual fact, it does all the pieces that three totally different rooms in our final home did (plus one added factor we didn’t even have in our final home!).
We name it our “household room” but it surely’s actually an area that fulfills all of those descriptions:
- an workplace (we each use laptops that we will simply place on that desk within the window (and ALL of our work paperwork is saved within the bookcases with 8 whole drawers that flank the desk on both sides)
- a children’ craft room with a double desk for them (full with 12 drawers for craft provides & a giant 8′ lengthy counter)
- a TV hangout house / sleepover spot (because of the additional lengthy couch, massive space rug, and movable ottoman – it’s a brilliant versatile facet of the room)
- a spot for piano apply (one in every of our children takes classes, and we have now a keyboard up there at a desk with a bench – it is a bonus zone that our final home didn’t even have)
In brief, this one massive room simply accommodates loud or messy actions – like training piano, making artwork on the ground, the aforementioned large blanket fort, watching a film with mates, and so forth. And because of this room being tucked upstairs, all of that may occur with out spilling over into the remainder of the home. At any time when we have now mates over, the children all run upstairs whereas the adults congregate within the kitchen & sitting space, so as soon as once more these two separate zones are key to feeling like we’re not all on prime of one another.
#4: Ample Out of doors House
Though this lot is one-tenth of the dimensions of our final home’s lot (sure, that’s not a typo, this lot is round 1/tenth of an acre and our final home was on a complete acre) we squeezed as a lot perform out of it as we may! So one other factor that undoubtedly contributes to feeling like we have now room to unfold out right here is the truth that we have now PLENTY of exterior areas for a wide range of issues, like:
We’ve had as many as 20 folks in our pool space (there’s truly seating for 19!) so it’s protected to say that these areas give us extra choices for spreading out. I can go learn within the hammock if it’s too loud inside or take my laptop computer out on the deck upstairs for a change of surroundings – or perhaps a convention name. We’re additionally in a position to offload a few of our inside features into these outside areas, because of the climate being hotter right here than after we lived additional north. As an illustration, we hold our footwear outdoors on our kitchen porch’s outside cupboards, releasing up cupboard space inside.
We additionally beforehand had a big water heater in a closet off of the kitchen, that we had been in a position to transfer outdoors on the again of our home (by changing to a tankless system) which freed up an inside closet for lots extra perform.
Once we purchased this home, I don’t suppose we totally appreciated the distinction that a wide range of outside areas with a wide range of features may make (and in a wide range of places – off the entrance, facet, again, and second ground of the home!). It undoubtedly contributes to feeling like we dwell in an even bigger home than we truly do because of all these spots we will broaden into outdoors.
#5: Heaps And Heaps Of Glass
For its dimension, our home has a loopy quantity of home windows and exterior doorways (all of which have full glass panes in them as well). In actual fact, there are FOUR TIMES as many exterior doorways right here in comparison with our final home (12 vs 3) although our home is lower than half the dimensions. The profit to all that tumbler right here is two-fold. To start with, we get a ridiculous quantity of pure mild, which makes all of our rooms really feel brighter and fewer cramped than they could really feel in any other case.
Moreover, all of those home windows carry your gaze outdoors, past the partitions – which additional contributes to the ethereal feeling that our rooms are bigger than they really are… as a result of the surface feels extra like an extension of the ground plan. It’s one of many causes we’ve opted to not put any window coverings on something aside from the good blinds and blackout curtains within the bedrooms.
This so-much-glass-letting-in-so-much-light phenomenon was truly a nice shock to us after transferring in. It was wet and overcast after we purchased this home, plus there have been numerous janky blinds on the home windows. We truly anticipated the home to be fairly darkish based mostly on the day we purchased it – so this was a really good discovery that we actually made on our move-in day!
#6: Prioritizing “House To Dwell In” Over “House To Cross By”
Hear me out on this one, as a result of it is perhaps onerous to articulate – and it would sound counterintuitive at first. Aside from the quick hallway between our children’ room and the slender stairs to the upstairs household room, our home has little or no sq. footage devoted to only getting from one room to a different.
Possibly that’s certain to occur in any smaller dwelling, however I can consider a number of modest properties I’ve been in with lengthy hallways, outlined foyers, or winding open staircases. I’m not saying these aren’t needed or stunning in lots of conditions, however in a smaller dwelling it could possibly shortly eat up in any other case helpful sq. footage.
For instance, if we had a extra grand staircase that opened to our kitchen on the best and neglected that room, it could really feel breezy however we’d lose a complete 10′ run of kitchen cabinetry and a spot for the fridge. So on this case, we’d a lot somewhat have our floor-to-ceiling pantry cupboard and our built-in fridge than ethereal open stairs.
We’d additionally somewhat have room for a sitting space within the kitchen downstairs than have an outlined lobby (similar to we’d hand over a protracted hallway for just about some other house we may all use as a household). You could bear in mind our final home had a looooooong hallway upstairs and a generously-sized lobby. They made good sense for that home, however we’re grateful that many of the sq. footage right here is extra multi-functional than merely being an entry zone or a protracted hallway that you just move by means of.
In order that’s what I imply after I say that minimizing these in favor of gaining extra precise house to hang around versus move by means of can undoubtedly be a perk in a smaller home.
One Format Warning: A First Ground Bed room Off The Principal Residing House
As a lot as we love the format of the bedrooms on this home (it’s #1 above for a motive!) there may be one factor that stunned us in how all of us use this home – and whereas it really works properly for us (I repeat: we don’t wish to change this factor), it definitely might be a downside for different folks, relying in your preferences. So the format caveat is: since our bed room is positioned proper off the downstairs residing space, it sees much more household exercise than our previous bed room ever did.
Our bed room in our final home was upstairs on the far finish of a corridor, so we actually solely used it for sleeping and preparing within the morning. We awakened in there and went to mattress in there, however had been rarely present in there at some other time of the day (we had been normally downstairs on the principle degree). It wasn’t off-limits to our children or something, however there wasn’t a lot motive for them (and even us) to go in there all through the day.
Against this, since our present bed room right here is downstairs and positioned proper off of the principle residing space (the place we have now our kitchen and often-used sitting space), all of us simply find yourself in our bed room much more all through the day. We’ll discover the children in there sprawled on our mattress petting the canine or studying within the swivel chair by the hearth. Sherry and I each have been identified to work in there occasionally (on the desk or within the swivel chair since we will shut the door for privateness on a name or zoom assembly) and we typically do puzzles on the desk with the children. Our son even ranked the swivel chair in our bed room as his favourite summer time studying spot of all. Actually, it received your complete bracket.
These aren’t unhealthy issues to us – it appears like an environment friendly and versatile solution to share the biggest three rooms on this home as an alternative of holding one all to ourselves – but it surely’s 100% appropriate to say that the bed room typically feels extra like a communal house than a non-public house besides on the finish of the day when the children are tucked into mattress on the opposite facet of the home (which is when it truly feels good and personal – see level #1 of this record).
So in the event you’re somebody who treasures that feeling of getting a bed room sanctuary or a kid-free zone to flee to all through the day (once more: no points after darkish – however through the hangout hours ours undoubtedly sees some site visitors), I’d warning you that this format simply appears to attract folks into the room all day lengthy. Though you would argue that a few of that might be furniture-related… maybe if there wasn’t a swivel chair or a puzzle desk by the hearth (or a candy canine in there to cuddle), the end result is perhaps totally different.
And naturally, you would publish a kind of KEEP OUT indicators that sitcom children placed on their doorways after they’re feeling angsty and even make some type of rule to discourage anybody else from coming into the room. In distinction, we simply bought a brand new puzzle for the puzzle desk…
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