"For the last few months, my husband and I have been searching for our new home in Los Angeles - and the process has been tedious, to say the least. Homes that looked great on paper, with seemingly good layouts and photos, turned out to be disastrous in person. We've seen homes that have railroad-style layouts, kitchenettes (not kitchens) next to makeshift home offices, and living areas separated by oddly shaped walkways. After many failed showings we realized that a home's layout on paper can look great, but real life is lived in 3D. That's when we came up with a simple strategy to quickly figure out a home's practical flow. We call it the "floor plan reality check.""
"This is a hands-on exercise that forces you to interact with the space as you would in daily life. It helps you see past the showing and envision your own life unfolding within its walls to reveal whether the home truly supports your lifestyle. The strategy includes two simple tests that can help you determine a future home's practical flow and whether it's truly a good fit for you and your family."
"Here's what I do. During every home tour, I physically act out or picture two realistic scenarios: a dinner party and morning rush scene. For the "dinner party" test, I imagine hosting a few friends for dinner. For the "morning rush" test, I imagine how difficult (or not) it would be for my me and husband to get ready for work in the morning at the same time. These hands-on tests have helped me discover how a space will truly function for my daily routines and social life."
Floor plans and photos can mislead because two-dimensional layouts often fail to reflect three-dimensional daily use. The floor plan reality check is a hands-on method to evaluate practical flow by interacting with the space and imagining real-life scenarios. The approach uses two tests: a dinner-party scenario to assess hosting circulation, kitchen adjacency, and social flow, and a morning-rush scenario to evaluate simultaneous use of bathrooms, closets, and transition paths. These tests reveal awkward corridors, pinch points, and impractical adjacencies, enabling faster, clearer decisions about whether a home supports routines and social needs.
Read at Apartment Therapy
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