Home Interior Remodeling

Circulation Flow of the Interior

When you’re planning your home interior remodeling project, find ideas that will help to improve the circulation flow of the interior.

While efficient circulation is the goal, it should also be enjoyable and a way to experience easy movement and clear definition of each space.

Poor Flow Impedes The Traffic Flow

With more and more open concept homes, creating these "invisible" lines and defining the different space becomes even more important. And it's really important to get it right.

Maybe the help of a professional designer will help you to define space from one area from the other.

It can be irritating when there is poor flow from room to room. If kids are walking straight through a room and Mom and Dad are trying to watch TV or visiting with friends, it can impede how the room is functioning.

Well thought out traffic flow patterns reduces any problems.

I might be sounding like city traffic planners and I guess in some homes it would feel like there is an expressway running through the house!

Doorways & Arches in the Traffic Flow

Older kitchens were commonly the center of the home. Therefore a lot of kitchens had 3 to 5 doorways and a set of stairs to boot - coming off from just this one room. Then add insult to injury, they placed the kitchen table in the middle of the room.

You can solve that situation by eliminating some doorways and moving circulation to one side of the kitchen.

You can provide more wall area for cabinetry and an undisturbed work area for the cook.

By improving circulation in these types of situations, you will add more value and help to modernize the space.

Best of all, better traffic flow in the home improves the quality of life for everyone.

Defining Space Between Public and Private

The layout of the home should define the spaces between private and public.

For instance, what if traffic needs to flow from the front entrance to the kitchen but there is a living room in between.

Find a way to create an invisible but definitive line. You need to form a clearly defined walkway.

Build your access areas that will allow the space of a "invisible" and "natural" pathway to the kitchen.

In other words, home interior remodeling should clearly define where everyone will walk.

It flows naturally; it follows an open, unobstructed walkway to the kitchen.

This might mean pulling the living room furniture into the room so that traffic naturally walks behind the sofa to get to the kitchen.

Furniture Placement Affects Traffic Flow

I find that when I am planning for a home interior remodeling project and the customer has this new large room when once they had a tiny space, they have an inclination to push the furniture up against the wall and have the traffic walk through the middle of the sitting space.

But sometimes this can impede traffic flow. This is where magazines are great at giving ideas about how to ensemble furniture in a grouping.

A general rule of thumb is that the longer a corridor, the wider the hallway should be.

Widening the corridor eliminates the look of a "bowling alley". I always call it a bowling alley because it looks like you can bowl in that long corridor.

By placing in your through-room a pathway along walls and behind furniture, instead of through the center of rooms, you create a better circulation flow for traffic.