Are you in the process of creating your custom floor plan and you wanna learn from others’ experiences so you can avoid making any ‘mistakes’? You’re in luck because I’m sharing five things I wish I included in my own custom floor plan that I created nearly 10 years ago.

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Honestly, there is very little I would change about my custom home.  Our floor plan is cozy, functional, and perfect for the way my family lives, and I’m still happy with my timeless design decisions NINE years later.

However, you’re here to find out what I WOULD change if I were to build again … so let’s talk about it. Do keep in mind that these are ALL things I can certainly live without BUT I do plan to incorporate some (or all) of these in my next home build.

Let’s get started and go right down the list …

5 THINGS I WISH I INCLUDED IN MY CUSTOM FLOOR PLAN

1. SLOPED CEILINGS

I SO wish I had added sloped ceilings in my daughters’ bedrooms on the second floor.

My girls’ bedrooms are a great size, but I love how even a small bedroom can look more open and spacious with a sloped ceiling that follows the roofline. Not to mention, all the character that it adds to the room.

I will 99.99% include sloped ceilings in all of our bedrooms (hopefully) the next time around (i.e. the next time we build).

2. SEPARATE PRIMARY CLOSETS

My husband and I currently share a closet that is large and completely adequate, AND we each have our own side (although I’ve crept into some of his drawer space). However, I want my own closet in our next home! And I’m pretty sure he wants his own closet too.

Not only will my future closet be a little cleaner (because it’ll be the only one using it), but it’ll also be beautiful (hello, wallpaper-obsessed girl here), it’ll have at least one window (for natural light), and it’ll have plenty of enclosed storage to avoid dust settling on my hanging clothes.

3. SEPARATE MUDROOM + LAUNDRY ROOM

Our current home has a combined mudroom and laundry room. It seemed like a good idea when I created my floor plan.

However, I don’t love it so much anymore because this is legit the hardest working room in our house. It’s always a disaster (which guests love because they comment on how happy they are to see a messy room in my house) and it’s always full of a mixture of clean clothes and dirty clothes and shoes and backpacks. It’s a mess!

Next time around, I will have a separate laundry room with plenty of dedicated space for our drying racks AND my future separate(!) mudroom will have plenty of closed cubbies to hide the mess.

Plus, we need larger shoe drawers (than we currently have). I didn’t realize one of my daughters would grow up to be 6’ tall and wear size 11/12 shoes. This is something to think about if you’re creating a floor plan with young children … they do get bigger (and so do their feet)!

4. LARGER SCREENED-IN PORCH

We love to be outside on summer evenings (especially when we have friends over), but the bugs can get really annoying.

I prefer to hang out on our screened-in porch but, unfortunately, it’s only big enough for either a small sectional and a chair OR a dining table with dining chairs. 

My ideal screened-in porch would be large enough to fit a full-size dining table plus a cozy seating area :).

5. BONUS ROOM ABOVE GARAGE

A bonus room was definitely NOT in our budget, BUT it’s something we could have roughed out and then finished later (which is exactly what we did with our basement … we waited two years to finish it after moving in).

We have a massive garage and could have roughed out the coolest playroom/teen room! But nope … I didn’t think to do this back in 2013 when we created our floor plan :(. I’m a little jealous of my floor plan customers who have purchased my custom plan and tweaked it to add a bonus room above the garage.

NEXT STEPS

There you go … five things I wish I included in my custom floor plan.

Please understand that I truly don’t have any ‘regrets’ or feel like I made any ‘mistakes’ with my custom home. There are just a *few* things I will do differently in my future home and that’s what we talked about in this episode. It’s all good!

Hopefully learning from my experience will help you to create the perfect floor plan for your family :). If you want to dive deeper into really considering how to design your perfect floor plan, download a copy of my *FREE* Guided Floor Plan Creation Workbook.