Families should have a place in their home they love to gather, unwind, and spend time together. If your family doesn’t have a location like this that comes to mind, a family room may be an excellent addition to your home!
Before building a family room home addition, think carefully about the following considerations to ensure your family room serves you, your spouse, and your children well for years to come.
How to Plan for My Family Room Addition?
1. Functionality
Before you get too far in the planning process for your family room, ask yourself: “How will my family use this space?”
Family rooms are multi-functional, so they can provide space for all your family’s unique hobbies, interests, and activities. Do you need a large seating area for board games and video games? What about comfortable seating where you can watch movies and sports? Would you like to incorporate a desk where you can work and your kids can do homework?
You can collaborate with a professional design team like VL Builders to create the perfect layout for your family room that is functional and fun!
2. Cohesiveness
Next, it’s essential to choose a cohesive location for your family room that seamlessly blends into the rest of your home’s layout.
You can convert an existing room into your new family room, like an attic or basement. Or you can build a brand-new first-story or second-story addition to create your new living room.
It’s wise to contact a home builder as soon as possible when considering a family room addition. They can identify potential hurdles in your project, like structural concerns, and provide creative ideas for maximizing your space with a seamless addition.
3. Children’s Ages
Before building your family room addition, it’s important to consider the age of your kids and how the space can serve their needs as they grow older.
For example, you may have young children now and desire lots of open space for them to play. However, it’s crucial to think about how you can effortlessly transform this space as your kids grow older. Maybe you can add comfortable seating, like beanbags, and mount a flat-screen television for them to have movie nights and play video games with their friends.
4. Storage
While storage is an essential factor for any room, it’s imperative when designing your family’s living area. You’ll need to create places to keep items you’ll use, like toys, books, games, electronics, and blankets, and items you’d like to display, like photos and collectibles.
Consider built-in shelves and closets that your home builder can incorporate into your family room design. You can also use storage ottomans and other creative furniture pieces for additional storage once your addition is complete.
5. Lighting
Lighting is an important aspect of your family’s living area, and the type of lighting you use can enhance the space in different ways.
You may prefer lots of natural light in your living area, which will require large windows. If your space doesn’t receive much sunlight, like a basement, you’ll need plenty of general lighting to illuminate the room. If you’re planning to watch movies in your family room and have lots of windows, you may want to add blackout shades to convert your space into a theater.
Suppose you’d like to add some atmospheric lighting to your family room. In that case, you may want to consider accent lighting over shelving, cabinets, or fireplaces, and you may even want to add a dimmer switch to control the amount of light in your room.
6. Seating
Comfortable seating is critical to creating a cozy living area your entire family will love.
Consider how you’ll use your space to determine what kind of seating you’ll need. If you’re planning to spend a lot of time watching television, you may want an oversized, plush couch to sit on. If your family plays many board games or cards games, you may want to incorporate a gaming table with chairs. Or, if you’re planning to use the family room as an office space, add a comfortable desk and office chair to the room’s configuration.
7. Electrical Needs
It’s crucial to consider the placement of outlets, phone charging stations, desks, and television cords when designing your family room addition.
Talk with a home builder about your technology needs for your family living space, and they can help you design a compatible layout.
Create the Perfect Family Room Addition with VL Builders
If you’ve been inspired by these creative ideas to expand your living space with a family room addition, we can help you start your new remodeling project today!
VL Builders is highly experienced at listening and working with Minneapolis and St. Paul homeowners to bring their dream projects to life. We will listen to your goals, interests, and desires to design a perfect family room for your family’s current and future needs. Schedule your appointment with our attentive, knowledgeable team to begin designing your new family room home addition today.
