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A floorplan shouldn’t be judged while you’re seated or standing in one spot. What makes a floorplan great is the way it allows you to navigate through it.  Today it’s unusual to connect spaces together with hallways that take up valuable space and are pretty dismal looking.

Instead of hallways, rooms connected to other rooms have become a much more pleasant walkway.  This helps to make smaller rooms look larger, and of course the sight lines provide a much nicer view.

But do you want to walk from the master suite to the kitchen?  Do you want to go between the T.V. and the sofa?  If your master suite is upstairs to you want to walk down the stairs and through the front entry way in your pyjamas to get that midnight snack or glass of water?

Horizontal banding is a technique that’s used to create the best floorplans that accommodate traffic flow in a way that makes sense.  If the family room sits between the master suite and the kitchen the doors should be all kept on the same side of the home.  If you don’t do this, you’ll create a traffic flow that forces you to navigate diagonally through another room; in this example, the family room.

This can make placement of your furniture more difficult.  Another example might the the stairway that meets the entry way.  You might prefer to have it meet the family room or kitchen which is further toward the heart of the home.  This gives you better access and a better use of space.  You’ll also likely want to consider more than one entrance into the kitchen which truly is the main meeting place in a home.  Consider how the traffic will flow during family get togethers and parties.  A rule of thumb is 3 to 5 ways to get to the kitchen.  The more the merrier.