As American life continues changing, so too do American homes. Where homeowners once may have had just a grill, today they have the option of an outdoor kitchen with pellet smoker and pizza oven. In this post, we’ll look at how four rooms have changed, starting with the kitchen.
Perhaps no room has changed as much as the kitchen. Once a space homeowner’s preferred out of sight, today the kitchen is the heart of the home. How’d it happen?
Up through the early and even mid 20th century, kitchens were regarded as a space for working. Even if the kitchen connected directly to the dining room, it was often closed off by doors. That way, the work of cooking and cleaning stayed out of sight while entertaining. A butler’s staircase provides a great example. This narrow staircase ran behind the main stairs, providing a hidden path to and from the kitchen.
Today though, the kitchen is the most-frequented room in many homes. In fact, the kitchen’s popularity drove the shift to open-concept home plans, letting families integrate the warmth of the kitchen with their dining and great rooms. Also, by bringing kitchens more into the open, kitchen styles have evolved to work with the rest of the home. Now, kitchens drive some of the most innovative updates in home design, from messy kitchens to islands with hidden dishwashers.
Much like kitchens, bathrooms were largely valued for their utility. For instance, metal cabinets were once popular in American kitchens because they were easy to keep clean. The same logic applied to bathrooms, making easy-to-clean materials like tile and porcelain highly desirable.
According to Atlas Obscura, things changed in the 1950s and ’60s. One of the biggest factors were infrastructure improvements that made plumbing and water management much more efficient. Those changes, combined with increasing home size, made owner’s retreat bathrooms standard by the 1980s.
Since then, owner’s retreat baths have evolved into a sanctuary for homeowners, a place they can retreat to and relax. In fact, designing the perfect spa bath is a top priority for many when customizing their house plans. Today’s homeowners have choices such as bathtub and spa shower combinations, storage cabinetry, and even luxury toilets.
As for tile, it remains popular for floors and walls. New engineering techniques give homeowners a greater variety of tile to choose from than ever before, too.
The home office, like the garage, also descends from a room found in aristocratic homes of the 19th Century: the Victorian library. According to CityLab, home offices faded in popularity in the 1990s, but have made a resurgence as more people work from home. Today, homeowners aren’t just designing spaces to work, but entire remote-friendly homes where their kids can study remotely, too.
When designing a home office, lighting and acoustics are important considerations to combat the fatigue of frequent video meetings. Storage matters, too. Dedicated space for storing work materials helps homeowners compartmentalize their home and professional lives.
Offices these days can be non-traditional too. Pocket offices can be added to all house plans. These smaller, highly functional work areas typically sit right off of the kitchen or bedroom. With the addition of counter space and cabinets and drawers, pocket offices are great for when a smaller workspace is needed. They also come in handy when multiple people in the house need an office space at the same time.
Garages can be seen as an evolution of the carriage houses where wealthy homeowners once stabled their horses and carriage. As automobiles became staples of the American home throughout the 20th century, so too did the garage.
But whereas garages started as simple, unattached storage units, they’ve evolved considerably. Some reports estimate that almost 25% of new homes built in 2015 included a three-car garage. There are plenty of factors driving the demand for extra garage space, including the rise of multigenerational house plans that need more parking.
It’s not just a desire for more storage space, either. Garages offer homeowners the chance to add more living space. Guest bedrooms and even casitas with kitchens and bathrooms are often built in the loft space above the garage. Rooms like these can be rented out, or repurposed into studios or office spaces.
Schumacher Homes, based in Canton, Ohio, is America’s largest custom homebuilder, with operations in 32 markets in 14 states across the country. The National Housing Quality award winning company has built over 19,000 homes, customized to fit each family’s lifestyle, since its founding by Paul Schumacher in 1992. Schumacher Homes takes each customer’s inspiration and gives it a home. Each Schumacher Homes location includes a one-stop shopping design studio and model homes displaying the latest in architectural and product trends. Stop in today, be inspired and receive your no obligation price quote.