From entry-level to luxury and everything in between, home buyers overwhelmingly favor a casual lifestyle plan, which highlights the living spaces used most daily such as the kitchen and family room.
A dearly departed friend, Charley Clark, went so far as to say that he could afford to fly his family to Paris for Thanksgiving dinner rather than having a formal dining room complete with fine china and silver place settings. As a result, we now eliminate redundant formal spaces in the home and instead focus the square footage and finishes on spaces that actually get used. Sounds simple enough, however, the last thing we want home buyers to think is that all of our floor plans are identical. There are two major layouts for the casual lifestyle floor plan, which I designate the Lifestyle Triangle and the Big Room.
Lifestyle Triangle
The Lifestyle Triangle is the more common layout in homes. There are many ways to arrange the three spaces to create the triangle, which influences how the spaces interact with each other. I believe it is important to explore a variety of room arrangements when developing a line of housing so your houses don’t all look and feel the same. Just as buyers appreciate a diverse streetscape, they also love to see diversity in plans.
The Big Room
The Big Room floor plan features the kitchen, café, and family room lined up in a row, with the kitchen island acting as the anchor. In wider floor plans (50’ or greater) this is a great way to accentuate that width. But even in a 30' and 40’ product, the Big Room makes a statement when it lives front-to-back. That way, we “arrive sooner” in a floor plan, allowing a shorter travel distance from the foyer into the kitchen, as opposed to 25’ or 30’ down a long entry corridor.
So, which plan is “right?” Both! Home buyers do not want to live in a community where if you’ve seen one floor plan, you’ve seen them all. A successful community embraces a variety of floor plans that offer a unique and memorable feel.
Embracing these casual lifestyle plans will pave the way to a maximum amount of diversity in your product line and give your buyers the opportunity to buy a plan that best fits how they live.
