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Welcome to 2025! Another year, another barrage of “Top Trends for the New Year”. And why not? It’s always fun to see the latest and greatest innovations in design. Let’s face it; no one wants to feel like they are missing out or that they’re stuck in the previous decade.

But before you get lost in the latest design trends, let’s take a step back and talk about some design basics and principles. These are the things that you should get right before the personalization and trends come in. I got together with my team and here’s are our non-negotiables in residential design.

Open Floor Plans

Long live the open floor plan – done correctly. I’m not talking about living in a glorified warehouse. To me, an open floor plan integrates the common spaces: kitchen, cafe, and family room/gathering space. There are a variety of room configurations that accomplish this, including the Lifestyle Triangle and the linear Big Room.

While these three rooms work well as a unified and open space, there are several rooms that need a buffer. Consider adding a vestibule entry to the primary suite and other rooms that demand privacy.

visually expand the space

Combining rooms (like the kitchen, café, and gathering room) is one way to expand the space, but so are sight lines. Think of the view from the front door to the gathering room – or to the outdoor living beyond.

Window placement also visually expands the space, allowing the eyes to see beyond the confines of the house and bring light inside. Natural and artificial lighting are both great ways to visually expand a space.

Protect the Path (Consider Paths of Travel)

As we combine our rooms together, we must be conscious of the various paths of travel throughout the home. It starts with how we enter the home. Instead of entering through the laundry room, create a thoughtful owner’s entry or family foyer.

The path to the primary suite should also be protected.

As a working mom, I didn’t want to walk past my kids’ rooms with the constant reminder that I was raising slobs! We’re trying to keep the peace here! Take a look at the plan below and tell me why the parents must walk past every mess bed and bathroom before making it to their own?

The path from the secondary bedrooms to the bath that serves them should be as short as possible. And never cross the streams – between the kids’ rooms to their bath and the owners to the primary as shown below. These paths should not be crossing!

Room Placement

Room placement and paths of travel work together. Here are some basics:

• The primary suite should be away from the secondary bedrooms for privacy.
• The secondary bedrooms should be clustered around their bathroom.
• Make the most of natural light with room placement.
• Avoid an interior dining room without windows and a kitchen on an outside wall with upper cabinets covering up what should be window walls.
  

  

Acoustical Separation and Privacy

Following up on the idea of room placement – make sure there is privacy for key rooms. For example – you may have placed the entrance to the primary suite away from the secondary bedrooms, but failed to consider that the bed wall of the primary is shared with a kid’s bedroom. Major party foul. Or that your bed backs up to a wall with noisy plumbing – especially from the laundry room.

Speaking of laundry rooms – always try to have a swing door into the laundry room vs bifold doors (laundry closet) or acoustically useless barns doors – the same holds true when designing that cute little pocket office.

Lastly, let’s not forget critical sight lines to avoid. Can we avoid the sight line to the toilet from the entry foyer please? I’m begging you.

Furnishable Floor Plans

This sounds obvious – but you’d be surprised how often I see plans that don’t furnish well. The great room may be large, but if the furniture must float away from the walls because of circulation, windows, or TV viewing – it becomes too small. The same is true for bedrooms. It may be a nicely sized room, but is there an adequate bed wall? Is there a dresser wall – preferably across from the bed?

Thoughtful Storage

Finding places for all our stuff in our homes shouldn’t be like a reverse scavenger hunt. Kitchen storage needs to make up for the lack of cabinets over the large kitchen island. Walk-in pantries are a great way to achieve this. Walk-in closets for the primary suite are always a huge focus for buyers – specially woman. The amount of hanging should follow the size of the home. For example, a 2,000 sq. ft. house should have at least 20’ lineal feet of hanging – before double hanging.

Ah – but let us not forget linen closets – one for the primary bath and one for the secondary bathrooms. Coat closets are especially important in cold climates and should accommodate the residence’s coats and their guest. Lasty – let’s not forget to make our garages large enough for cars, trash cans and more storage.

Minimize Circulation

No one wants to pay for a lot of hallways. Effective room placement goes a long way toward minimizing circulation. Instead of long hallways, travel through rooms – if it is done thoughtfully.

Stair placement is critical for minimizing circulation. Stairs should arrive to the middle of the second floor – to minimize halls.

Be Cost Effective

Cost effectiveness never goes out of style. Examine the number of exterior corners on the house. Can they be reduced? Each corner effects the foundation and the roof. In two story houses – avoid long beams – especially one’s over the garage. Can you add a front porch instead to break up the front elevation rather than a beam? Minimize door and window sizes and design in common building components. Consider exterior dimensions in 2’ increments since trusses are 2’ on center. If building in frame, consider designing in 4’ increments for plywood – or if in CMU be mindful of the 8” block size.

Armed with an understanding of timeless design principles, you can now work on creating a good, livable floor plan. Only then should you start to consider what trends would add value to the lifestyle of your buyers.

Did I miss any timeless design principles? Reply to this email and let me know.