Space planning done correctly, will make the difference between harmony and conflict.

Our space planning guidelines below highlight some important key points to consider before stepping in and redesigning a space.

So often ReDress is contracted to provide people with space planning guidelines to help them rearrange their homes. Either the existing layout and flow are not satisfying their requirements for the space or the space is not aesthetically pleasing. Although they know that it needs to change or feels uncomfortable, they don’t know why and they find it difficult to take a birds eye view to visualise their space any differently from the way it is currently laid out.

Look at your home from a birds eye view

If you have the luxury of building a new home from scratch you can save yourself time and cost by getting the space planning right from the very beginning. Likewise if you have the opportunity of renovating your existing home or a home you have just bought take some time to plan the space properly.

Don’t skip this vital exercise by using our space planning guidelines laid out below.

1. When it comes to re-organising your home or even just a room in your home, for that matter it is recommended that you spend some time thinking carefully about the function of the room. Start by deciding what the exact uses for the room are to be. Because space planning is all about satisfying a whole bunch of different criteria for a particular space (and it is rare that one room needs to cater for just one task), you often find that compromises need to be made and therefore the criteria for the particular space need to be listed in priority order. In the ongoing trend of open-plan spaces, this becomes even more apparent. You will need to think about creating different zones in the room. One area of the living room might be intended for reading and quiet time requiring a feeling of refuge. This will require different lighting, shelving and specific positioning of furniture. Another area might need to be sectioned off for watching TV, whilst another corner might need to be geared up for traffic leading off to a corridor or cloakroom. Think about these different tasks for a room and which of these opposing conflicts between them:

• • Individual vs. community
  • Invitation vs. rejection
  • Openness vs. enclosure
  • Integration vs. segregation
  • Combination vs. dispersion

1. Once you have determined exactly what activities will take place in that room you need to consider your focal points and how to take best advantage of them. These could be windows, fireplaces, doors or built in units.  Are they balanced in the room? If not, think about what you can add to the space to help balance the structure of the space. Remember that the human eye is drawn to focal points, and will scan a space when entering it. How do you want the room to feel, space-wise – open and airy, cozy, minimal, serene? How much natural light is available and what kinds of lighting will be needed? Do you need to create focal points? Do you like balance and symmetry, the unexpected, or a combination?

2. Finally think about the traffic flow and circulation in and out of the room. Think about the paths that will most commonly be taken by those that are using the room. In this example the main flow of traffic will be from the door to either side of the bed or to the dresser or occasional chair, to the window or into the bathroom. Make sure nothing blocks this flow. Try to avoid having a bed by a window or on the same wall as the door if you want the feng shui of the room to be right for a peaceful night’s sleep. Borrow space from outside by ensuring an uninterrupted view of the outside world. You can also ‘borrow’ space from adjoining rooms by using the same flooring materials.

3. Then decide about how to position the furniture. If it is an existing room with existing furniture and a complete renovation is not in the pipeline, the next best thing to do is to ask your interior designer to draw you two room plans to scale; one of an empty birds eye view of your room with all the windows and doors in the right places and the other, with all your furniture for that room drawn to scale. Then cut out out each piece of furniture and drop them into your empty plan and move them around until you feel comfortable with the space. Familiarise yourself with clustered, radial, linear or centralised furniture layouts.

If on the other hand you are planning a complete renovation, bear in mind that the flow around the whole house may not have been implemented correctly from the start and that you might need to knock down walls in some places and build up others. As a general rule of thumb any walls that are 110 mms thick can probably be knocked down without any structural support issues. Anything thicker than that will require extra structural support before they can be knocked through.

On a final note, don’t live with something the way it is, if you don’t like it. Your home is your sanctuary. It’s where everything that happens in your life revolves around and it doesn’t cost a thing to move your furniture around regularly to see if it works better another way. Try something different and if it doesn’t work, try something else. This is the beauty with open plan living.

If however you would like us to provide you with some space planning guidelines and advice on rearranging a room or even on renovating your entire home, give us a shout; that’s what we do.