Ask a Designer
Why 45-Degree-Angled Walls in Floor Plans Are Bad
Angles in a floor plan are not inherently bad, however, they should be there for a reason, to solve a problem creatively. They should be beautiful, functional, and helpful. I can respect a good angle in the right situation. Here's why the random angle walls you see everywhere in the suburbs are just plain scary.
February 7, 2012
Let's just get this out there, I'm not a fan of 45-degree angles in floor plans. They're typically there gratuitously and laid out by a Contractor or some designer working on plan books. More than most anything in a floor plan, they SCREAM cheap to me. I think they are often the mark of an inexperienced designer trying to cram things together that just shouldn't be there.
Let me breathe for a second. I don't think I fully realized how much I hate these bad angles until I started typing out this blog. So, let me clarify a few things.
Angles in a floor plan are not inherently bad. Angles, however, should be there for a reason. They should solve a problem creatively and should make sense as to why there are there. They should be beautiful, functional, and helpful. I can respect a good angle in the right situation.
When I think they are inappropriate is when they're thrown into the mix to "create interest" in a perfectly normal floor plan. The homes that dot our suburbs and were built in the last 20 years are the biggest perpetrators on this front. It is almost like the designer thinks they're laying out a grand city and are throwing in random avenues across a street grid. This isn't the formation of Washington D.C., this is your house!
Spend a few minutes looking for single family home floor plans online and you'll see that pretty much every one of them has an angle thrown in here or there. I love it when rooms just have the corner clipped off of them for no reason. They look "smoother" on paper and help sell a plan. But they will look sad and miserable in person. I'd love to post a slew of images but that's just a plea for someone to tell me to take them down. Trust me, they're bad, they exist, and they're everywhere.
Random angles make a home hard to furnish, confusing, and end up wasting a bunch of space. They're often the easiest solution which makes them so common. Can't get into a bedroom easily from a hall? Throw an angle up! The island in the kitchen is in a weird spot and not really meant for the kitchen? Angle it and slice the corners off! The entry to the bedroom is in a silly spot because the time wasn't taken to organize the floor plan? Provide a dramatic, angled hallway into the space at 45-degree angle! Problem solved!
No. Problem created. A far better solution would be to look at the layout carefully and get that damn angle out of there. It is pretty much always feasible and going to be a better looking and feeling solution. And when a 45-degree angle is drawn on the floor plan, you can know that it really is an appropriate solution and actually going to make the space more interesting. They shouldn't be the go-to tool to solve poor creativity and skill.
Trust me. There's a better way.
