Designing a small house to 'live large'

Experts share ideas about kitchens, hallways, room sizes
By: Katherine Salant: Inman News
Any home builder or developer with his or her ear to the ground knows there are more than a few homeowners out there who are ready to downsize. Empty nesters with grown children, professional couples with no kids, single parents, and those who are urbanists at heart have had it with yard maintenance, long commutes and owning so many rooms that are only used for special occasions.

This group is ready to walk the walk and talk the talk. They want a much smaller house and are eager for specifics. What would a 1,200-square-foot house – about half the size or less of the one they own now – look like? In downsizing, what should be eliminated? And, cutting to the chase, can you move from a big house to a much smaller one without undue compromise and without feeling like you're perennially on a domicile diet?

Boston architect Jeremiah Eck said yes. While acknowledging that a segue from the excesses of the 1990s to the essentials of the aughts is quite a leap, Eck said that when a house is thoughtfully designed, the owners will feel comfortable in it, regardless of the size. Eck also stressed that such a downsizing is not merely a matter of lopping off rooms, though he agreed that some of those McMansion mainstays, such as the music room, the home theater, the sunroom and the six and seventh bedroom and bath, could be excised with little debate.

The best way to determine what downsizing is right for you, Eck said, is to catalogue where each household activity occurs, even the prosaic ones like where you read a newspaper – at the breakfast table, on the sofa or online in your home office.

Most households that carry out this exercise find that they spend most of their time in an eat-in kitchen/family-room type of space, Eck said. The differences lie in "all the other activities they have dragged in there" that need to be accommodated. Because this main living area will be much smaller in a 1,200-square-foot house, some households might decide to move some activities to a separate room nearby. Examples of relocated activities might include television watching, piano playing, and tasks that require concentration such as homework. The smaller room could also serve as an adult-decompression chamber after a long workday or as an office for someone who works at home. With a full bath, the "other" room could also be a bedroom. The second floor could include two reasonably sized bedrooms and a single bath.

The perfect archetype for such a house, Eck said, is the simple English-style cottage that was common throughout New England in the 17th and 18th centuries. That house was two rooms deep with two large back-to-back fireplaces sharing a single central chimney. The household spent most of its time in the larger "keeping room" where food was prepared. The smaller, formal "parlor" often doubled as a master bedroom. Two small bedrooms, up a very steep set of stairs, were tucked under the roof on the second floor. The 2005 version would certainly be bigger, but schematically this house type lends itself to the long and narrow lots found in most new subdivisions now.

Another source of inspiration when designing small houses is boats, Eck said. In those constricted spaces, every nook and cranny is utilized. Adapting this approach to a house could mean running cabinets up to the ceiling and around a corner or, when there's no basement stair, tucking a powder room under the stairs.

Sarah Susanka, author of the best selling "The Not So Big House" and a number of other books, said the archetype she would draw upon in designing a small, 1,200-square-foot house is the bungalow, which was built all over the United States about 100 years ago. One or two stories high, with one or two-bedrooms, the bungalow was typically longer than it was wide with a front porch that usually ran the full width of the house. Geared to a modest, informal lifestyle, the front door usually opened directly into the living room. In adapting the bungalow for the aughts, Susanka said the most obvious modification would be removing the walls that separated the small kitchen, dining and living rooms.

Santa Barbara, Calif., architect Barry Berkus looks to another American Classic, the country kitchen, when designing small houses. He favors a "one-wall kitchen" with all the appliances and food prep area along one wall and a large dining table that can be used for food prep as necessary. Agreeing that the eat-in kitchen family room is the heart of most households now, he would use the table to demarcate the eating and sitting areas.

Though some might balk at his kitchen layout proposal, Berkus said that you can be very comfortable with a well-designed, one-wall kitchen despite what homeowners who have always had bigger kitchens might believe, and "you pick up 6 feet of floor space." Another space-saving economy that Berkus recommends – eliminating the hallways that typify older houses and having bedrooms open directly off the main living area. When a budget allows, Berkus would enhance the living area with features such as a generously sized window seat that has storage below and bookshelves at each end. It can be a cozy spot for reading and a great sleeping arrangement for visiting grandchildren.

While excising hallways would seem to be an easy way to pare down, Susanka cautioned that you still need to leave room for getting from one area to another, preferably about a 3-foot-wide swath behind a furniture grouping. She observed that when you routinely walk through the middle of a sitting area, it often divides the space into two awkward halves. Another issue when downsizing to a smaller house is furniture size – many people discover that theirs is too big. The overstuffed couches and arm chairs that look great in a big room with high ceilings can overwhelm a smaller space; even worse, the bigger pieces often won't fit. Susanka said that Scandinavian furniture, including Ikea's, which is designed for the smaller living spaces that typify European housing, works well in smaller houses.

Susanka also offered a word of caution about room sizes. While you expect them to be smaller in a small house, they can only go down so far before the occupants will feel uncomfortable. For example, a bedroom that's less than 10 by 10 feet will feel cramped unless you build in some of the furniture like a loft bed with a desk below. She said that the differences between too small and just right can also be subtle. Many people balk at the idea of a master bedroom that's only 12 feet wide, but she's found it works well if you can incorporate a window seat into one end of the room.

A community of small houses

How do you design a small house so that it "lives large"? When your living areas have big windows and you overlook a sweeping vista without another house is sight – the solution offered in any number of books on small houses – your rooms will definitely feel spacious. The books show that it also helps if you have a Zen-like lifestyle and live simply, or live in your small house only on weekends. But for real people in real-life suburbia or real cities, these aren't very realistic solutions.

A community of 50 cottages in Poulsbo, Wash., near Seattle, provides some interesting possibilities, however. Designed by the Mithun architectural firm in Seattle for the Dwelling Company and completed in 2002, the cottages were built on a tight urban site with a project density of 15 units per acre. Though the houses are only 8 feet apart, each one has a vista by virtue of clever land planning – almost every house overlooks a sizeable communal area in the middle of each block.

The units feature 2 bedrooms (one floor and 870 square feet) or 3 bedrooms (two floors and 1,270 square feet), and each one has both a front porch close to the sidewalk and a back porch and small yard that overlook the commons.

Bob Trahan, an architect with the Mithun firm and a current Poulsbo Place resident, said the community layout promotes knowing your neighbors, though he actually lives in one of the few houses that does not overlook the greens. He shares a cul de sac with five other households; during the warmer months they frequently socialize outside.

Most of the residents are empty nesters like Trahan and his wife or first-time buyers without children. The Trahans moved there from a 2,500-square-foot townhouse on three floors because they didn't want to maintain space they never used and they wanted an informal living area that was all on one floor. Though the main living area is relatively modest, Trahan said the back wall is "all windows," which makes the space feel larger.

Paring down their possessions to what would fit in their much smaller house that is only half as big was an arduous process that included four garage sales, Trahan said. They brought only what would fit, but some families have rented a storage unit for the things they couldn't bear to part with.

After they moved in, the Trahans discovered an upside to small-house living that the books on small houses never mention – keeping it tidy is a lot less work.

Questions? Katherine Salant can be contacted at http://www.katherinesalant.com/.