Tips for Maximizing Your Space
Rising urban density, high property costs and a desire for a shorter commute all combine to create a strong interest in narrow lot house plans. House plans for narrow lots can feel spacious and comfortable, especially if you follow the design tips listed below.
Add a sunroom or covered patio. Adding a covered outdoor area will boost your livable space without exceeding the site boundaries.
Vertical building 101. As the exponential growth rate of the world’s human population continues, smart city planners are favoring height over sprawl. In condominium skyscrapers, higher urban density is paired with comfortable living arrangements.
Likewise, if you want to maximize the space in your narrow house plans, favor designs that make creative use of multiple stories. As an example, an architect designing plans for narrow lots may opt to locate a den and garage on the ground level. Main doors at the top of a set of stairs would lead to the second story, consisting of a great room complete with kitchen and living area. Finally, the third floor would contain bedrooms. There are many other possible multi-story arrangements.
Carefully place your garage. For architects, the garage is a major challenge to creating beautiful house plans. Garages are enormous and unsightly. Your garage will suck up all of your prime space if it isn’t wisely located. One way to add a garage to narrow house plans is to locate the car park in the rear, accessible via an alleyway. Or a detached garage may be installed at a slight angle to the house. Lastly, as described earlier, you can keep a ground-level garage but relocate the main living area to the second floor. (This creates a lovely tree house feeling that many people who live in narrow lot house plans enjoy.)
Add interior windows. Does the kitchen in your narrow home plan feel cut off from the dining area? If so, you can cut out a section of the dividing wall to create the illusion of added space. Similarly, any space will seem larger if you add more light via interior windows. To keep rooms private, fill interior windows with glass blocks.
Remove unnecessary walls. Rooms with four full walls are unwise in narrow lot home plans. Rather, create airy, open spaces by combining several rooms into one. For example, many house plans for narrow lots do not have walls between the dining room, living room and kitchen.
Maximize long sight lines. It may seem counterintuitive to purposely accentuate the long, stacked feeling of narrow home plans. However, by aligning wide entrances between rooms, you can create the experience of a larger overall space. Unbroken sight lines take advantage of long, narrow lots.
Add comfort in upper stories by adding side gables. A side gable can transform an unusable attic space into a charming bedroom. Basically, gables are roof cutouts that add livable space. Dormer and eyebrow windows are different styles of roof gables. Side gables compliment nearly any architectural style. For narrow lot home plans, side gables can create cozy, usable upper-story rooms.
All of these design elements combine to create comfortable house plans for narrow lots. Look for these techniques in the narrow lot house plans you’re considering.
