How much room do you need at the bottom of the stairs? How big should your Foyer be? I received this question the other day.

Jackie asked: 

“We are reconfiguring our stairs and would like to know what is an adequate space to have from the last step to front door?  It is currently 74 inches – w/ the new configuration it would decrease to 60.  Is that enough room?  Thanks for your time.”

My Answer:

“In average-sized houses, 60 inches should be adequate. If the stairs are offset (off to the side) a bit from the front door, as they commonly are, this is even better. Either way, 60 inches is enough to greet your guests without having to stand on the stairs to do so. If your house is quite large in its other aspects, then this might seem like too small a space relative to everything else. 

You might try mocking this up. Lay a box or something the size of the first step in the position the new steps will occupy. Then try coming in the front door and see how it feels. Also try going to the front door to answer it as someone enters. This will give you a good feel for the appropriateness of the space. If that feels right, then it will work fine.”

Selecting interior trim for your house can be a challenging task. But there’s a good trick you can use to help you make the right choices.

Trim is known as “casing” and “crown molding” in the business of construction and architecture. It includes the pieces of wood around windows and doors, baseboards, chair-rails, and crown molding. Modern style houses usually have a minimum of casing or trim. But more traditional style homes might have quite a lot of casing and crown molding. Sooner or later, you will have to select and/or approve these items. (more…)

It’s freezing cold across much of the United States. Are you wearing passive solar clothes to stay warm?

I know it sounds like an odd question. We tend to think of using solar design for houses, not clothes. I’ll explain.

If you know it’s a cold day, do you think about what you’re going to wear? Of course you do. You might wear several layers. The layering forms more tiny air spaces around you and increases the insulating effectiveness of your clothing. You might pick out dark colors. Even if you don’t think of this as “passive solar dressing,” it is. dark colors absorb the radiant energy from the sun better than light colors. I’m sure when you’re outside on a cold, but sunny day, you walk on the sunny side of the street to stay warmer than you’d be on the shaded side. Ah! Passive solar principles, again. It’s nothing more than proper insulation and receiving the free energy benefit from the sun. (more…)

Your Family Room or Great Room may be difficult to design if you want to arrange furniture to view television and your fireplace at the same time. You are presented with what I call the Television and Fireplace Location Dilemma.

Traditionally, fireplaces were placed in the center of the wall. The furniture was then grouped around it. When television first entered the American home, the screens were small and the television was simply another piece of furniture. Today, television screens are large and arguably the most prominent feature in the room. Usually the television is placed on another wall, so it has enough space. But this means your furniture arrangement must “aim” at both the fireplace and television at the same time. This is pretty hard to do. One poor solution that often is presented is to place the television above the fireplace. This helps with the furniture arrangement, but placing the television at this height only works if you are lying in bed while watching. If you are seated in a sofa or a chair, this is too high and puts an uncomfortable strain on your neck. Are there any other solutions to this dilemma? (more…)

It’s the holiday season and that means your house must adapt to accommodate a different number of occupants than normal. When design your new house or design your remodeling project, consider making your house flexible by thinking through how your house will live during the holidays.

I know that in our house, with four adult children and their family and friends visiting, we often have a packed house. We wanted a house that was not too big, but would be able to adapt to different needs. We wanted a house that was flexible. (more…)

Here’s an interesting question I got the other day. It seems this person had a very tall ceiling in a small room. This produces the “elevator shaft” effect and can make a small room, like a bathroom, feel out of proportion.

“Curious what you might recommend for a tall (10 ft) loft bathroom to make the room feel a bit less huge and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I can’t frame down the ceiling because of a building sprinkler system.  Thanks! Steven”

In the years before air conditioning, especially in warmer climates, rooms often had high ceilings to let the heat rise and make the rooms feel more comfortable in the summer months. These days, high end houses often have high ceilings.

We often deal with the “too high” ceiling in small rooms by simply framing down a lower ceiling just in those spaces. But Steven can’t do that because of the sprinkler. So I suggested that he employ an architectural trick from days gone by. (more…)

I’m very pleased to hear that my book, Designing Your Perfect House, is proving to be valuable to people who are building or remodeling. When I wrote it, I really hoped it would become an important resource for people and help them feel more “in control” of the building process. So it heartens me to receive questions like this one concerning the wood floors shown in the book photos.

We are starting to select the different materials around the house.  Your beautiful pictures have been a great inspiration…  I particularly like your wooden floors on pages 114

Page 114 Photo from "Designing Your Perfect House"

(more…)

What are the current trends in house design when it comes to the design of luxury bathrooms? Well, bathrooms are not just a utilitarian room anymore. It’s all about the “spa” experience. Let me run through a few bathroom design and amenity requests I hear more and more.

This soaking tub set in a secluded alcove gives a spa feel to this luxury bathroom

The bath is now the oasis, the place to retreat from the hectic world. soaking tubs are still there, altough more people claim they don’t have time to use them. But those people who do like them to be an experience. Reading, meditating, and just zoning out are the attraction. Plus spa tubs add to the look of the room, giving you the sensation of being somewhere you could relax, even if you don’t have the time right now. (more…)

Good house design is something we can feel, but often we have trouble putting into words. When I set out to write Designing Your Perfect House, I was presented with this challenge of putting feelings and impressions in written form. I wasn’t sure how well I could do it, so you can imagine how gratifying it was to receive this comment from a reader recently:

“Mr. Hirsch, I love your book, it puts into words all the things I couldn’t when viewing houses!” Cathy B.

Thanks, Cathy. You made my day.

House design is very intangible. Many times we can feel that things are not right in one house and comfortably perfect in another, but it is hard to explain why. However, there are principles architects employ to make a design cohesive, flowing, and appropriate. Architects deal with scale and composition. Good house design is about much more than putting one room next to another. It’s about balance, proportions and sequencing of spaces. It’s about optimizing space and making spaces fit their purpose. These are things architects study and understand.

In my book, Designing Your Perfect House, I explore these concepts and try to explain them in plain English. I’m delighted that Cathy felt I managed to do that. You can download a few chapters, for free, on my website. Just click here.

Take a look and let me know what you think.

When you get dressed in the morning, do you consider passive solar design principles? Probably not. At least not conciously. But I’ll bet you consider the weather as you choose what to wear? I do. If it’s going to be hot and sunny, I usually choose a light colored shirt that is made from a fabric that breathes.  Experience tells me to avoid black because it will soak up the sun’s heat and avoid a tightly woven fabric because it will trap air next to my skin and make me feel hotter. This is a principle of passive solar design that we use without even labeling it or thinking about it. And you can use these principles in your house design.

Metal roofs, now often referred to as “cool roofs,” can act like your light colored, open weave shirt and keep your house cooler in hot weather. They do this “passively”, that is they use no electricity in the process. Here’s why they work. In an article posted at Classic Metal Roofing Systems website, they list four energy benefits you’ll get with a metal roof. (more…)