Multiroom Home Additions

Multiple-Room Additions

Bumping out or adding a new room can give your house an extra dimension of livability and help create a fresh look inside and out, but adding several rooms can trigger a whole different magnitude of change. For instance, there are limits to the problems you can solve with a one-room project, whereas a multiroom strategy may let you address every one of your home's current drawbacks or shortcomings, especially if your game plan includes revamping some of the existing spaces.

A new family room gives a house extra stretch; a new family room/kitchen wing that includes a full-size laundry area, a mudroom, a first-floor powder room, and a home office makes a home function as if it's a different house altogether. Some large scale home additions do much more than simply overcome shortcomings; they shift a house's focus to a new area or type of space and change its personality inside and out. This is particularly likely if you're expanding and revamping the active areas of the house—main-floor spaces that set the tone of the household and provide a backdrop for various types of gatherings. It's common for a multiroom addition to dramatically alter a home's main axis, shifting everyday activities from the front rooms to the new spaces in back, and maybe even relocating the formal entrance to put it more in sync with the home's restructured traffic pattern and the family's new lifestyle.