The first step in planning is to evaluate your needs. A survey of your indoor activities (beyond the basics of eating and sleeping) will help you arrive at a list of priorities that, ideally, includes something for everyone. An easy way to start your survey is to make a home activity chart with these eight headings: Activity, People Involved, Equipment, Furniture, Lighting, Storage, and Time Spent per Week, Permanent or Fad?
The last heading may cause some controversy your youngster may insist her devotion to playing drums is eternal and deserves a special platform in the center of the family room. But it’s wise to avoid built-ins for kids, since a desperate need for space to play drums can change overnight to an equally desperate need for a display area for skating trophies. Where youngster‘s activities are concerned, versatility is the word to live by.
After completing your chart, note which activities are group oriented and which need only semi privacy. Also note any pursuits –sculptural welding, for example- that require isolation because of noise, smell, or mess. The goal is to combine as many compatible activities as possible into one area.
Directing traffic
Few things are as annoying as the patter of feet trough the middle of a conversation of activity area. To avoid this, you must to establish good traffic patterns at an early stage in your planning.
How many different pathways do people follow when walking from one part of your house to another? Are you happy with the patterns that exist? If you rearrange a room, heat effect will that have on the traffic patterns? Ideally, traffic should flow to rooms, not trough them. Moving a door or channeling traffic by rearranging furniture may solve the problem. A rough sketch of the layout of your house, with doorways or traffic flow indicated, will help you plan traffic routes accommodate new uses of space.