A smaller room, designed to the scale of its occupants, is more comfortable and saves square footage, money, and wasted space. Adding a window at the end of a dark hallway or a lighted painting in a basement stairway transforms the experience for as little as it takes to install a recessed can.īuild to scale. But don’t make it too high: “A 40-foot-high ceiling is wonderful for a state capital but it’s not exactly what you want in the evenings in which to watch television,” she notes. “The commas break up the phrases into segments so you can understand the meaning a lot of times architects will use ceiling height in the same way.”Ī lower ceiling over a bed adds charm and character and a heightened one in the center of a living room makes the space feel larger. To avoid a large, amorphous area, differentiate ceiling and floor levels, and add a column, a beam, or an arch.Ĭeilings are like commas in a sentence, she said. Walls make homes feel smaller but removing them is not the only answer for creating a spacious feel. Susanka shared several other simple tricks for building and remodeling a right-sized house: For example, combining the dining room with the kitchen omits an entire room, while installing proper lighting can transform the space into an elegant dining area for entertaining. In her equation, homes built one-third smaller than the homeowner’s original design scheme routes square footage dollars into more purposeful space. “Oftentimes, when people hear the words ‘not so big,’ they assume I mean we should all be squeezed into little shoeboxes,” said Susanka during a webinar she recently conducted for the Journal of Light Construction, a sister publication of EcoHome.
Not So Big House book series, Susanka now advocates for “rightsizing” the American home.
Dream homes designed by noted architect Sarah Susanka used to include grand foyers and formal dining rooms-spaces often vacant but for the dusting of the cleaning lady and the rush of air conditioning.
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