See the ideal as an extension of reality

When I'm working through a house plan with a client, I'm often made to think about how we frame ideals versus reality.

Take, for example, a study space for the children. Some people imagine that if they build it, the children will study there. Calmly considered, the logic falls apart — it's no different from the logic that says "buy a desk and the child will study at it."

Take the living room. Thinking about it again, it's a mysterious space. Is it an audio room? A guest room? A nap space? On lower-budget projects I don't dig into that conversation because it would drag on, but without thinking it through, you can easily end up with the biggest area of the house being a room that's never used.

People's lives don't change all that suddenly. I'd like clients to imagine a house starting from the realistic level of change that's an extension of their current life.

If there's a habit you're currently unhappy with, you're probably already making some effort to fix it. If, at the end of that effort, the problem turns out to be in the layout of the house, that's a good design problem to solve.

But thinking "my desk is always cluttered — if I had more storage, that would tidy up" without first making the effort is a little odd. If you can't change your current habits today, you won't suddenly do so just because the house changed.

If you propose a house with abundant storage to that kind of person, the storage will fill with unidentifiable things, the tabletop will still be cluttered, and life will go on much the same. So is storage unnecessary for those people? Well, you do need it after all, and so the plan settles into something safe and uneventful…