Remodeling Guides
Live the High Life With Upside-Down Floor Plans
A couple of Minnesota homes highlight the benefits of reverse floor plans
“Flipping” a house takes on new meaning when it refers to an upside-down floor plan. In other words, rather than programming the most-used areas of the house — the kitchen and living areas — on the ground level, some architects and their clients are instead placing these rooms on the upper level. Flipping the traditional floor plan in this way can solve all kinds of issues. Living upstairs means lots of privacy, as well as lots of daylight and panoramic views through large windows. Combine upstairs living areas with outdoor living spaces for a thoroughly regal lifestyle. Call it living the high life.
Form follows function in the modern upstairs living room. Custom-designed cabinetry does double duty by housing the fireplace and storage while also separating the living and kitchen areas. Natural materials like wood and stone bring the outdoors inside in this cozy, private space.
In addition to optimal natural light, refreshing breezes and expansive views, the modern upstairs kitchen “gives the owners a sense of prospect and refuge,” architect Michael Roehr says. “They have visual command of the environment, as they can see out more than people can see in.”
A kitchen like this may mean a bit of extra work, as groceries need to be brought upstairs. But for these homeowners, the privacy as well as the expansive views made the decision to elevate worthwhile. Wood cabinets hide appliances as well as storage, adding to the sleek, modern design. Stone countertops and steel cabinets complete a palette of textures with contemporary ruggedness.
The age-old ideas of prospect and refuge are further realized in the upper-level deck. A solid wood barrier with black rail, designed with angles that mimic the waves on the nearby lake, offers safety and additional privacy. Adjacent to the kitchen and living areas, it brings a bit of California-style outdoor living to this Minneapolis house.
Photos by Chad Holder
Life Among the Trees
Designed by architect John Dwyer of D/O in Minneapolis, this modern, 1,750-square-foot house on a tiny infill lot in St. Paul also has its living areas upstairs. Dwyer carefully sited the house amid the lot’s mature oak trees and placed the living areas and deck on the upper level to maximize the homeowners’ enjoyment of the trees.
Life Among the Trees
Designed by architect John Dwyer of D/O in Minneapolis, this modern, 1,750-square-foot house on a tiny infill lot in St. Paul also has its living areas upstairs. Dwyer carefully sited the house amid the lot’s mature oak trees and placed the living areas and deck on the upper level to maximize the homeowners’ enjoyment of the trees.
A serene stairway beckons enticingly. Because the house is on a busy street, placing the living areas upstairs also provided quiet, privacy, light and the opportunity to enjoy the gnarled limbs and leafy elegance of the oaks, which have a natural synergy with the oak flooring inside.
The main living area connects to the deck on the roof of the garage. “The clients really wanted to live up in the air, with views of the oaks and the Minneapolis skyline,” Dwyer says. Bands of windows and floor-to-ceiling glass doors let in plenty of light.
Conjoining the living areas with the deck enhances the upside-down lifestyle and expands the possibilities for entertaining and socializing — or, conversely, solitary napping, reading or working, with a spectacular view. The deck’s light flooring and black privacy barrier are the inverse of the upper living area’s white walls and black floor — design decisions that further connect the two spaces.
Architect Roehr also designed a flipped house plan for his own home in St. Paul. While transforming his family’s 1926 bungalow on a narrow lot into a modern home, he placed the open living area on the upper floor for light, views and privacy. A mix of industrial and natural materials gives it a sense of modernism, which Roehr describes as “modern less as a style and more a form-follows-function method of working that generally results in something that we’d call modern.”
More
How to Read a Floor Plan
Good Spaces: Mastering the Open Floor Plan
More
How to Read a Floor Plan
Good Spaces: Mastering the Open Floor Plan
Skybox Style
This house on an urban lake in Minneapolis, designed by RoehrSchmitt Architecture,
has a flipped floor plan with kitchen, living area and deck on the upper level. Because the house is sited on a triangular hilltop, the family enjoys fantastic views of the urban greenspace, activity on the nearby lakes and the city lights.