People make a lot of mistakes, avoidable mistakes, when they're building or renovating a home. Those mistakes begin at the planning phase – when the homeowners are developing the layout with a designer or architect.
I recently looked over several floor plans for next spring's reno and construction season, and I have to tell you, some things continue to pop up that make me grind my eyeteeth in frustration. Here are five things that I would ban from all blueprints.
Corner fireplaces
Oh, they rake the eyes. Why would anyone put a fireplace in the corner of a room? This rookie mistake starts a domino effect of ugliness that's nearly impossible to stop. Developers are fond of doing it because it's an easy way to parachute in a prominent feature they haven't adequately planned for.
The problem is focal points. A fireplace is a natural centre of attention, and a room is most comfortable when the furniture aims at it. But when you put the fire in the corner of a room it's almost impossible to do anything but place the furnishings at odd angles to the walls, which misaligns the room with the structure of the home. (Conversely, if you ignore the fireplace as a focus, people in the room become disoriented and don't know where to put their eyes.) Fireplaces are best located on a long run of wall. There, they're easy to centre in the room, making them an effortless focal point around which to plan.
Spiral staircases
Cinematic grandeur is what people have in mind when they attempt to shoehorn a spiral staircase into their floor plan. But more often than not, the stairs come off like clumsy plotting – superfluous of detail and disruptive of flow.
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