Building your own home takes planning

You searched all over town for a new home, but you couldn’t find one that suited your needs, so you decided to build one. You found an architect and you’re in the process of designing your home plans. So far you like what you see. The rooms are exactly where you want them and you seem to have enough space for everything, don’t you?

Before you answer that question, consider how your current furniture will fit into the rooms. There is nothing worse than moving into a new home and discovering that your extra-long couch will not fit on the wall you planned or that your dining room table is too wide for the room. Before you finalize any plans, pre-arrange your furniture and make sure it will fit into your rooms.

There are four areas you need to take into consideration when pre-arranging your furniture: room size, scale, wall space and ceiling height. Let’s look at each in more detail.

Room Size

Bigger rooms are not necessarily better. While you may have plenty of room for your existing furniture, you may have to buy several more pieces to fill up the room. If you tend to buy oversized furniture and you have several pieces, bigger rooms may work well for you. However, if you are a minimalist and opt for a few nice pieces for each room, smaller rooms might be a better fit. Get a copy of your home plans, pencil in your furniture and make sure you can fill up the rooms.

Scale

When it comes to pre-arranging furniture, room size and scale go hand in hand. Large furniture pieces can dwarf small rooms, while small furniture pieces can look even smaller in large rooms. An oversized canopy bed, for example, will dominate a 10-foot-by-10-foot guest room and make it look crowded. Make certain the scale of your furniture is in proportion to the room size.

Wall Space

Wall space can make or break a furniture arrangement. If you’re planning to make a focal point out of an heirloom chest by placing it in a bay window, then you’ll want to make sure it is going to fit within that space. Decide what’s going into each room, measure each piece and make sure it will fit on the wall where you want it.

Ceiling Height

Study the dimensions of your current furniture. If you’ve got some really tall pieces, you’ll want to make sure they will fit into the room and be easy to move there. If you have a bedroom with 10-foot ceilings and a 9-foot armoire, the armoire will fit, but it may be tough to actually get the piece in there. Make certain the ceiling height in each room provides ample space to move in and place taller pieces.

In addition to room size, scale, wall space and ceiling height, you will also have to take these factors into consideration.

•Outlets. Don’t forget about the placement of outlets when you’re pre-arranging your furniture. If you plan to place your sofa in the middle of the room, you’ll want some outlets in the floor next to it for lamps.

•Windows. Pre-arranging your furniture will give you insight into the proper window size and positioning. You may have to adjust window sizes and placement for certain pieces of furniture.

•Wiring. Wiring during construction is often easier than after, so figure out where you’re going to put your home theater system, TV and other electronics and have the wiring done during construction.

After taking all of these factors into consideration, you may discover that your furniture does not fit the design. If this occurs, you have one of several options. You could rearrange some furniture, buy new furniture or ask the architect to make some modifications. If the problem is severe, you may have to ask the architect to do a major overhaul of the plans.

However, keep in mind that a complete redo will cost you more and take more time.

Save yourself a lot of headaches. Pre-arrange your furniture before finalizing your home plans.