One of the most exciting parts of a renovation is getting the floor plan schematics back and finally seeing all the ideas on paper.
But we’ve learned that this is also the point where you really have to slow down.
A floor plan can look great and still not work for the way your family actually lives.
As we reviewed the latest plans for our Building at the Beach renovation, we kept coming back to a few key questions.
Will the rooms actually work for us?
The first thing we’ve learned is to look beyond the drawing and study the dimensions.
Will the furniture fit? Is there enough room to comfortably move around? Does the placement of doors and windows give you usable wall space?
That came up for us with one of the upstairs bedrooms, where we want to make sure the new dimensions will still work well with the furniture. It also comes up in the outdoor living area, where the reduced plan brings the space down to about 11 feet wide.
A room can look perfectly proportioned on paper and still feel tight once the furniture is in it.
Does the plan reflect how you really live?
This may be the most important question.
We realized we needed locker space for kids’ backpacks, shoes and coats- or more bathing suits, wet towels and fishing gear- here! Currently, they are strewn all over the kitchen- not ideal!
Since we live at the beach, where so many of our friends and family want to visit, we want a guest room that can also include a coffee bar and mini fridge to make people feel at home and have an extra layer of privacy.
We want fewer unnecessary entrances into our bedroom and more separation between the office and laundry room.
Those aren’t necessarily the “pretty” parts of a renovation, but they’re the things that will make the house function better every day.
The best floor plan isn’t just beautiful. It supports your routines.
Are you paying attention to sunlight, views and orientation?
Where a room sits matters. Especially in our case where the front has a view of the water.
Our plans identify the front of the house as north, looking out over the bay, which helps us think more carefully about sunlight, views and where windows really add value.
Upstairs, for example, we decided we could remove a west-facing window because the room already gets plenty of northern light. In that case, the extra wall space was more useful to us than another window.
Especially at the beach, we want the house to take advantage of the outdoors and the view, so orientation has been key to our decision making.
Where do you want to spend the money?
This is where the renovation feels strategic for us.
When we remodeled our kitchen in a previous home we knew we wanted most of our budget to go towards appliances and custom cabinets.
When we renovated our most recent flip home, we knew we wanted to spend money bringing in light to a rather dark, dated home.
Simplifying a footprint without necessarily losing the things we care about the most is what we always lean into.
For example, making decisions upstairs that should save money- like nixing one bathroom- so we can put more of the budget into the first floor.
We’d rather spend on the spaces we’ll enjoy every day—great cabinetry, lighting, tile, fireplaces and other details—than spend money adding square footage or features we don’t really need.
What does one change trigger?
This has become one of our favorite questions to ask.
If we add a porch, does it require another pylon? Pylons are a whole new cost we are encountering here and they cost A LOT!
For example, we love the idea of the small prayer porch shown on the plans- we had one off our bedroom in our previous home- but if keeping it adds substantial structural cost, it may not be worth it when we already have plenty of other outdoor living space.
Sometimes a small design decision has a much bigger budget impact than you expect.
Our Biggest Takeaway
Reviewing floor plans has become less about asking, “Do we like this?” and more about asking:
“Will this work for the way we live?”
Measure the rooms. Think about your furniture. Follow the sun. Protect your views and your storage. Look at how people move through the house. Understand what changes cost. And decide where you want to put the jewelry.
That’s what we’re learning through Building at the Beach: the best renovation isn’t about adding the most.
It’s about making every square foot work harder for you.
Stay tuned for the next set of drawings from our fabulous architect incorporating our feedback based on the items in this post!
