From "Mismatch plates and hang art low: 18 ways to create a more beautiful home" (The Guardian).
No one will do this, but it's a funny idea. Another way to get natural dark for sleeping is just do your sleeping at night. But that's too easy! I guess I can imagine a building where the upstairs could work as the main living area. I've lived on the ground floor of a 4-story brownstone where the owners occupied the middle 2 floors and there was a nice stairway up to the second floor. We had an entrance that went underneath that stairway. If the owners had taken the bottom 2 floors instead of the middle 2 floors, it would have made sense to put the bedrooms on the lower floor. But they did not make that choice! That's the thing. The bedrooms under the main floor would be weird. So how would that be better for sleeping?
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I've been in a home built into a hillside, with the master bedroom suite on the lower level, completely underground. Naps in that bedroom were more deep and refreshing than any I've ever had elsewhere. My wife described it as the silence of a tomb, but I prefer to think of sleeping underground as having bedrock as your shield against the rest of the waking world.
The sleeping thing isn't convincing. However, if nice views are available from a higher vantage point, I can see the allure of having the living area up top (and in fact lived that way in a 2-story single family home and loved it -- but not when bringing home groceries!).
Anyone who wants to sleep better needs to watch this.
Warning: Science, results, big words.
Episode #1 is also very good. I would start there. The first 4 episodes are mostly about sleep because it is so important to all other aspects of health. If your sleep patterns are off nothing else matters. Diet, exercise, nothing.
It was surprisingly easy to get on track knowing how it works.
I am actually getting a good nights sleep every night now. And yes it involves going outside and running a mile or so within 30 minutes of waking up. A walk or anything that gets you moving and the sun hitting your eyes from above the plane of the horizon within an hour of waking up is the biggest step.
Althouse's landlords didn't hear her feet going clomp-clomp-clomp, she heard theirs. And they got a winter benefit -- Tenant Althouse helped heat their floors.
Yes, it's a silly idea to use a reverse floor plan just for a sleep aid. But reverse plans are a common way maximize views in scenic areas. On our coastal island, for example, many second- and third-row houses, and some front-row ones as well, have the public rooms on the upper level because distance, vegetation, or other structures limit the view from the lower level. In those places reverse-plan houses have much higher market value than their standard-plan neighboring homes. Describing a home as "ocean view" rather than "a short walk from the beach" makes a lot of difference in sales.
If you have guests, you don't want to make them have to go up the stairs to your sitting room or living room or parlor.
It's convenient to have the first room they see be the room where you can sit with them.
You don't want them puzzling over where they should go or getting lost.
You also don't want your guests to see your unmade bed and dirty laundry on the floor when they come in.
My folks did this. We moved into a 60s style tri-level home when we first moved out of Detroit to the burbs...in the early 60's. They had a full basement added- making a sub-sub level basement and turning our tri-level into a quad-level. With three kids + our grandmother living with us and all of us staying in bedrooms on the top floor, my folks made their Master Bedroom the room off of the sub level family room. So...they looked out of their window and saw the ground level and base of the shrubs. It was always dark and cool down there. Plus, they got two floors between us and them. It was their sanctuary. Their peaceful place.
And we had our space. It worked for everyone.
I think this is more common in vacation homes like beach houses, etc...places with views.
But try converting your house by moving the kitchen upstairs.
You might as well tear it down and start over...
Inversion makes some sense in beach or mountain houses where the view is the primary feature.
Our large screen for movies and video games is in the basement, because having it completely dark during daytime enhances those activities. And allows the absolute black of the oled to look best.
We have the home office in a spare bedroom like most people I know do (if no windowed office on first floor).
I see no reason to have a movie spot that will have daytime glare on the screen, why move that to a sunny room?
Also, having natural light in the bathroom I always heard was better for doing makeup etc.
Not sure why you pick some of these articles as they're either not representative or hardly thought out.
I used to live in a house that had what they called "inverted living". It was across the street from a bay. The first floor was largely unused, due to flooding risks. The second floor had all the bedrooms. The third floor had the kitchen and living areas, completely open, with a beautiful view of the bay over the house on the other side of the street. It worked very well.
Sleeping upstairs is a security thing. One older house I lived in at a door- a locking door- at the top of the stairway.
Can't kidnap sleeping babies by reaching in from a second story window. Yes, it has been done from ground floor bedrooms.
This is a common layout in Nantucket. “Live” upstairs with views and have the bedrooms downstairs. Or at least my co-worker who has such a house there tells me.
The upside-down arrangement is common in places which are hilly and which offer views, say SF or Seattle. The living areas are topside to take advantage of the views, or to see over the neighbors.
Raccoons usually pick the attic.
I know folks in that brownstone duplex arrangement. Came with kitchen on higher floor, bathroom ground. They added a deck to access garden from higher floor. Never discussed if felt weird.
Actually, here in Southeast Alaska many homes are built on hillsides and this is a very common building method used to maximize views, and light which is at a premium in winter months.
I have thought of doing something similar when I lived in an apartment with a fireplace in the living room. I have always wanted a fireplace in my bedroom - something you only get with a massive, expensive house. Why NOT make the living room a bedroom? How nice it would be to cozy up in bed with a good book...and a roaring fire. The bedroom then becomes the TV, entertain, hang out space. Works fine for people like me that like small or one one one socializing
One could counter: just sleep on the couch? But I would simply counter: couches ruin the backs of people over 40! Can't do that anymore.
We have a finished basement bedroom in our house. I sometimes sleep down there because it is much cooler than the rest of the house year round.
If you want a dark room for sleeping, just completely cover the windows leaving no cracks for light.
Growing up, about 1960, my parents had a house built. Much of the design was my mother’s. It was garden level with the five boys living downstairs, with linoleum floors, etc, and my parents upstairs, where we ate meals and little else. Worked well. The older boys had rooms that had nice windows, but the best view was upstairs. But then, she discovered that the builder had inverted her design when building the house of a friend of theirs, with the kids (girls there) upstairs, and the parents on the main floor.
While I was in law school my wife and i lived in a townhouse. When you walked in the front door you immediately came a landing with stairs that went down and stairs that went up. Down took you to the bedrooms, a bathroom and a laundry closet. Up took you to a living room/dining room kitchen of an open concept design. It all made perfect sense.
I rented a beach house where most of the bedrooms were on the bottom floor and the living areas were on the top floor. The living areas had a wonderful view of the ocean. I wish I had done that with my lake house. My neighbor built a new boat hose and blocked much of my view.
I rented a beach house where most of the bedrooms were on the bottom floor and the living areas were on the top floor. The living areas had a wonderful view of the ocean. I wish I had done that with my lake house. My neighbor built a new boat hose and blocked much of my view.
Not necessarily better for sleeping but it can definitely be better for entertaining. I have family on a hillside by the lake where the elevation is such that access to the entrance and to the lake works better at the upper level. That's also where the deck is.
These are the Brits. 'Nuff said.
I visited a friend with at his home on Fire Island a few years ago. Many of the homes there, which are located just a few hundred yards from the beach, are known as upside down homes, with the kitchen, dining and living rooms on the second floor, and bedrooms on the first. Makes a lot of sense, particularly in a location with lots of sun and breeze, and where people want maximum access to same. Still remember how nice it was to cook breakfast and look out into the the tops of trees and beyond that the early morning sun. Bit like living in a tree house.
Back in the 80's I had a beautiful SF Bay view hillside townhouse in Tiburon. Both bedrooms, & their baths, were downstairs, as was the laundry room. I loved the layout!
BTW, having the laundry room adjacent to bedrooms seems like a no brainer as they are the source of close to 100% of all laundry items.
Some homes built on spectacular views reverse the living common area to take advantage of panoramic views of lake, countryside, or even the city. Bedroom areas don't need a great view when eyes are closed for most of the hours.
If I had a home with more than one level, I would totally consider doing this.
When we were first going out on the road we played a Holiday Inn in Thief River Falls, MN. The job came with housing, one big, windowless room in the hotel basement. Certainly not legal, but it's just the band. Each and everyone of us felt it was unsettling being in that room. We only used it to sleep.
A couple of years later, we started covering hotel windows with tinfoil. We read somewhere that Elvis did it to block out the sunlight and it does, which is great if you're someone who gets up each day just in time to watch Wheel of Fortune.
Foil on the windows was fine. No adverse psychological impact whatsoever. The human mind must have evolved with a dislike for the subterranean. I'm curious why.
A piano nobile is a good idea if you have a view or like sleeping cool and it's a safe neighborhood, but a bother to haul groceries upstairs. You'd have to gut the interior to pull it off.
I stayed in a VRBO on the Texas gulf shore last winter that was a block or two from the shoreline. Probably because of this, the first floor had the bedrooms for the kids and a living area for them. You had to go up one flight of stairs to get to the main living area, which is where the big kitchen was, and the bedrooms for adults. There were more bedrooms one more story up. This way, the 2nd and 3rd floors had a bit of a view of the shore.
But dragging the groceries up a flight of stairs to the 2nd floor kitchen -- that's a big drag, and it's also a big drag to run the trash downstairs before you can put it in the garage. Not workable for everyday, at all.
I want my kitchen to be as far as possible from the dining room. Downton Abbey had the right idea with stairs and hallways everywhere and nothing near anything.
'Not workable for everyday, at all.'
Our next house will either be single story or will have an elevator.
The one we're in now is a death trap for seniors : )
We had a condo like this. First floor was about about half a level above the street with the kitchen and living area. Lower floor was half below ground and had the "master" bedroom and bathroom. It's fine for sleeping, but having more natural light the rest of the time is so much more pleasant that I'm glad we've moved on to a more traditional layout in subsequent homes.
I don't see anything weird about this. We live in a quirky, many-level (three to six, depending how you count) home where the top level is presently my office and a bathroom and the place I sleep; then the next level down is the kitchen and dining room; then below that is the living room; then slightly below that is the master -- excuse me, "primary" bedroom and bath and laundry room, and below that is a little vestibule and a large room directly under the garage, and finally the bottom level is my husband's (very large) office and studio, a guest bedroom, an extra bath. These are not, naturally, all ten feet apart from one another, but more like six, staggered. And the entrance is on the top floor.
To me it seems perfectly natural. Though the place is pretty weird -- it was remodeled from its original state by an architect who built the room under the garage and the entire bottom floor out from under what was originally a home built into a steep hillside, "on stilts." I think the original house ended at the laundry room. But even the original house would've had the "primary" bed & bath below the entry, kitchen, dining, and living rooms. Apparently this wasn't radical even in '75, when the place was built.
We're currently looking for a retirement home, and one of the things we're seeing is that many high end new homes have 2 master suites, top and bottom. Makes sense for retirees to retreat downstairs (where the living areas are) as we get older, but also for renting out, guest facilities and even a mother-in-law. As a primary bedroom, though, there are more distractions downstairs than there are upstairs. Still, it's going to be an interesting decision to make if we get one.
Sorry, but the majority of commenters here are of the age where you should be living in a ranch style house -- unless you're rich enough to install elevators in a multi-level structure.
This is great advice for senior citizens looking to break their hips and suffer subdural hematomas climbing up and down stairs
Makes it easier for the secret police to come get you the middle of the night. There you are, right by the door.
Have you heard of Horace Gifford? Wonderful architect, did many mid-century modernist beach homes. Almost all of them have the bedrooms downstairs! This is a real thing.
I had a friend that built a new house. Lowest level was garage/shop/office, bathroom shower,next level up, bedrooms. Top was kitchen and family area. His idea was exactly this. The very best Natural light and views, on the top floor. He also installed an elevator of his own design and construction. His wife loved unloading groceries in the garage and with a touch of a button delivered to the kitchen.
Yancey Ward said...
We have a finished basement bedroom in our house. I sometimes sleep down there because it is much cooler than the rest of the house year round.
If you want a dark room for sleeping, just completely cover the windows leaving no cracks for light.
10/23/21, 12:31 PM
Using common sense and experience?! Inconceivable!
We live in an area where spectacular views are not common unless you're up high: sunset over Arkansas can be awesome from the Bluffs, or one of the few residential towers.
Our first house was a 1948 brick cottage, 2/1 w/attic room and a laundry room in an enclosed back porch. My youngest brother did a kitchen remodel to my wife the interior designer's design--we had the finest cabinetry, with sliding shelves and compartments, and much more.
That was '86 to '06. The place had been adequate but anything but spacious, so when we had the funds in '06 we started looking for a bigger house on one level, without big oak trees. (Those suckers can turn on you in an instant!)
My wife's hobby had been house-hunting for about five years, and I would see about 1/10th
of the things she saw. We kept all the handouts, and when we looked at this house--one owner 1954 ranch on foundation, 3BR (big), 2BA (big ones for the neighborhood), large kitchen we remodeled in '16, big LR, DR, and den.
I told my wife and the selling agent that it was a good price and would sell quickly, and wanted to make an offer. My wife was hesitant and I told her I'd seen 50 houses myself and this was the one (it has some features and details that I literally used to dream about).
We went through the pile of several hundred fact sheets and I found 38 that I had been in.
Close enough. We made a slight lowball offer but ended paying list when some other bids were made.
I don't think any of the properties either of us saw had any inverse arrangements . . . maybe some few condos or those with rare vistas. Memphis is generally too low-rolling and wooded for vistas.
The worst part of our house design is that the a/c and hot water are all way over at the west end of the house. It's about 50 feet and more to the master BR and en suite (and my game room) at the east end, which means those areas can be hard to cool in the summer and the hot water can take a long time to arrive in the shower.
First world problems!
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