How to Transform Your Home with a First-Floor Remodel

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Once you have opened your doors to a remodeling team, it pays to do as much as your time, budget, and patience allows. A larger home remodel may seem like a daunting task, but with careful planning and an experienced remodeling team by your side, you can transform your house into the home you always wanted. This is an ideal choice if you love the location of your existing home but find your layout, storage, and style are no longer suitable to your family’s needs.

Since the first floor of your home holds key living spaces where you gather with family and friends, this is an ideal place to start. Let’s look at the benefits of a multi-space first-floor home remodel.

Why Go for a First-Floor Remodel?

Updating key living spaces in your home’s first floor is an opportunity to improve your lifestyle by creating spaces that fit your family’s needs and enhance your home. From the kitchen to the family room, powder room, and more, the first floor is where you spend time with family and greet friends. Your first floor must balance functional spaces with room to relax and enjoy yourself. This means maximizing your storage and designating places for both work and relaxation.

A first-floor home remodel can help by allowing you to move or remove walls to change your layout, or even to extend your home to create a larger kitchen design or living space. It also allows you to install enhanced storage solutions, better lighting, and updated materials to create spaces where you can live, work, and relax.

Look at Your Layout

The layout is the foundation of any design and is especially important when planning a multi-space remodel. Start by examining the existing layout for your first floor. Look at what works and what does not and consider what changes you need to make to your layout.

Part of planning your layout includes looking at your family’s individual needs. Who lives in your household, what is their age profile, and mobility needs? Are you designing for a young, growing family or for aging in place? You should also consider your personal preferences including where you like to dine, whether you prefer an open plan layout, and how often you entertain guests.

The answers to these questions will help you determine the best layout to meet your needs. Do you prefer an open plan layout where kitchen, dining, and entertainment spaces flow easily from one area to the next? Or would you rather have an enclosed kitchen where you can focus on the food preparation with a separate dining area? Open plan is still popular as it connects these key living spaces and promotes togetherness, whether you are keeping an eye on the kids while you cook or hosting a gathering with friends.

If you decide your layout is unsuitable for your needs, now is the time to make those big changes! You could extend your kitchen by removing or moving a wall, bumping out an external wall to give you more room, or creating an open plan layout where you did not have one before. Depending on your needs and budget, you could move your kitchen to a new location. You might also add a bathroom, utility room, or walk-in pantry to your layout. If you are designing for aging in place, a full bathroom on the first floor is a must and could be added to your layout. With a first-floor remodel, the options are almost unlimited, depending on your budget, to allow you to create the home you always wanted.

Create a Cohesive Design Aesthetic

A first-floor home remodel also gives your home the style makeover it deserves. Whether you go for an open plan layout, semi-open, or enclosed rooms, creating a cohesive design aesthetic gives your home a look and feel that evokes your personal style. It also means your key living spaces are designed to fit your preferences for style and comfort, so you will love to spend time there.

This doesn’t mean that every room has to have the same color scheme or that the style of each room has to look completely uniform. By choosing clever ways to incorporate color, materials, and textures, you can link these spaces while also differentiating key zones in your first-floor design.

One way to create a simple flow from one room to another is by choosing the same flooring material. Remember that you are installing flooring in high-traffic areas, plus some rooms like the kitchen that are more exposed to moisture. If you choose a material like hardwood throughout the first floor, make sure you are happy with the care and maintenance of this material. Another option is to choose luxury vinyl plank, which is moisture-proof, durable, and easy-to-maintain and comes very close to the look and feel of natural hardwood.

Maximize Your Space with Storage

Storage is essential throughout the home, but the first floor has very particular storage needs. This is where everyone enters the home, from your kids coming into the house with sports equipment to guests visiting. Having designated storage for all your needs will transform your home and make life so much easier!

Start by fully decluttering your home before you plan your storage needs. Look at what you need to store and where. Get rid of anything you no longer need or move items that should be stored in another location. Next, examine the type of storage you require and where it should be located. Does your existing setup include sufficient and suitable storage for your needs? Take advantage of your first-floor remodel to create storage that will keep you organized, help your home run more efficiently, and allow your new design to be the focal point.

Here are a few areas to focus on when planning first floor storage:

  • Kitchen storage is especially important, as this is where you prepare meals daily, dine, and often entertain. The range of customized storage accessories available for today’s kitchen is the perfect antidote for modern-day clutter. Everything you need to store has a designated home in your kitchen cabinets and drawers; if it doesn’t fit, you probably don’t need it!

  • Pantry storage deserves special mention as an organized pantry can transform how you operate in your kitchen.

  • A mudroom is an ideal choice for a busy home. It provides space for the family to enter, with storage built in to hold school bags, sports equipment, dirty shoes, and pet accessories. This could be combined with a utility room or installed as a separate space depending on the layout of your home.

  • Even your powder room benefits from storage to hold spare rolls of toilet paper, soap, or towels.

  • Your living or family room can incorporate customized storage solutions to meet your needs. Consider a built-in entertainment center to host amazing movie nights. If you love music, include shelves for your vinyl collection and room to store musical instruments. Create a reading nook with shelves, cozy seating, and a reading lamp.

  • Look to nooks and crannies to maximize storage potential throughout your first floor. Install shelves in a forgotten nook or under your stairs to transform these spaces into useful storage.

Understand Your Lighting Needs

Family life on your home’s first floor takes you from an early morning cup of coffee to late-night reading or watching television. This means your lighting needs must be designed for a multi-functional space at all times of day or night. It also must meet the needs of a diverse range of activities, from home-working to cooking, relaxing, and more.

Start by maximizing natural light in your home. Installing new, large windows or glass doors brings in more natural light and helps make your home more energy efficient. Then create a layered lighting plan that takes you from targeted task lighting for your main work zones to relaxed lighting that sets the tone for a dinner party or cocktail evening. Introduce smart lighting controls so you can easily change light settings to fit your mood, and even store pre-sets to make it easier to recreate your favorite lighting levels.

Use lighting to mark your work and relaxation zones throughout your first floor and include decorative light fixtures to enhance your style and draw attention to a design focal point. Light fixtures can also connect spaces by choosing the same color, material, or finish for sconces, pendants, or chandeliers in different areas.

Design for Your Lifestyle

The first floor is where you spend a lot of time, especially during the day, so it is important to design spaces that fit your lifestyle. You may love the look of sleek, ultra-modern rooms, but do you find it comfortable? Just because you grew up with a formal dining room in your childhood home doesn’t mean it is the right choice for your house. Look at your family and your lifestyle and decide how you want to live and use your home.

First, consider your household's age profile for the remodel's duration. Will your kids be heading into their teen years soon? Or are you about to see your kids off to college and become empty nesters? Decide who will be using these spaces, how often, and how they will be used.

Next, focus on comfort when designing key living areas. Your home should be a safe haven, where you can relax after a long day. Create a kitchen, dining, and living room where you will be comfortable hanging out.  Look at how you entertain, including how frequently and your entertainment style. Enhance your entertainment spaces with soft lighting, comfortable seats, and built-in entertainment units that make home life more enjoyable. Incorporate a dining space that fits your preferences, whether that is an eat-in kitchen with a large table, a cozy breakfast nook, or a T-shaped island that replaces the dining table.

Create a Focal Point

Within a multi-space remodel, there tend to be key areas where everyone gathers. Adding stylish and functional features turns them into a design focal point and allows people to gravitate toward those areas naturally. The kitchen island is typically a central meeting point and serves as a multi-functional area where you cook, serve food, dine, help with homework, and more.

Give your island an extra wow factor with a unique countertop, stylish pendant lights, and comfortable seats. You could also incorporate a Galley Workstation into your island setup. This multi-functional kitchen tool takes you from food prep to serving to clean up with ease. Add a full-service beverage bar to your kitchen or adjacent living room, which will become the place to gather for a fresh cup of coffee or a drink refill. Draw attention to your island or dining table with a bold pendant or modern chandelier. There are many ways to create a focal point that enhances your room’s style and naturally brings people together in key spaces in your home.

Enhance Your Utility Spaces

A home remodel must balance style and functionality to create living spaces that support your family’s needs. Designated and organized utility spaces are just as important as a well-designed kitchen or a stylish living room. A first-floor remodel is the perfect time to update these utility areas or to add them. This could include the following:

  • A laundry room is a must-have in a busy home. Depending on your available space, you could include room to sort and fold laundry, a bar for hanging delicates, a utility sink, and storage for cleaning supplies, ironing board, and more.

  • A mudroom can be equipped with a boot bench, hooks for hanging coats or schoolbags, and cubbies and shelves for shoes, hats, sports equipment, and pet supplies.

  • Enhance your foyer with new flooring or even a new entry door. If you do not have a mudroom, you could incorporate an organized space for shoes, bags, and umbrellas in the foyer to keep everything organized and contained.

Connect to the Outdoors

Connecting your kitchen and living spaces to your outdoor entertainment areas opens up a world of possibilities. It extends your room for dining and entertainment, gives you a connection to nature, and brings natural light into your home.

Start by including large windows and doors that provide a natural connection to your outdoor living spaces. Use glass doors to open your kitchen, dining, and entertainment areas onto your patio or deck. When the weather is good, throw open those doors to create one spacious, open area for fun and relaxation. You could even install an outdoor kitchen with storage, refrigeration, a grill, and a smoker so you can host amazing barbecues. Consider adding a pergola, gazebo, or retractable awning to offer protection from the sun when needed.

Create the Home You Always Wanted with a First Floor Remodel!

A multi-space home remodel lets you update key living spaces in your home, enhance your storage, improve your layout, and elevate your style. With a first-floor home remodel you can give your home a unified style with interconnected spaces that make home life more enjoyable. Our experienced team can help with all your design and remodeling needs. Contact us today to get started!