Design should focus on flow of public, private spaces

There are places in your house meant to be public, and there are places meant to be private.

When thinking architecturally, there are three levels of interaction in your home, and they need to be identified and appropriately designed in your remodel.

The first is public spaces. These are spaces where anyone (including strangers but not burglars) is welcome. These spaces, for example, would be your front porch or your entry hall.

Here you would interact with the FedEx delivery person or your next-door neighbor. It is not restricted and is the appropriate place for strangers and acquaintances to approach your house.

But seldom do you invite the FedEx person into the living room or family room.

The living/family room, dining room or guest bathroom could all be considered semiprivate spaces, along with outdoor spaces for entertaining, such as decks and patios. These are gathering areas, but only for those you consider friends, family or invited guests.

Then there are the rooms your guests rarely see — or maybe the ones you hope they don't see!

These are your private spaces. Only family or close friends are invited into these spaces, which include bedrooms, personal baths and back-of-the-house areas, such as laundry rooms, mechanical rooms and storage rooms.

You may notice that we haven't included the kitchen in either category.

Historically, the kitchen was a private space, never to be seen by guests. In fact, in some of our great historical homes, the kitchen was seldom viewed, even by the family, as it was a place for servants and household help. (Those were the days, huh?)

The kitchen moved up to a semiprivate space somewhere in the 1950s or '60s, when either a dining area or a family room was opened up to the kitchen. This meant guests were privy to a room that was formerly hidden away.

With the current penchant for opening spaces to each other (i.e., the "great room") the kitchen is now often included in the most public of spaces.

In a well-designed home, these areas are arranged in a logical sequence, from the most public to the most private. For instance, you would not want guests to go through a private space, such as a bedroom, to get to a semiprivate space, such as a TV room. Or you may prefer to provide a powder room rather than have guests use a personal bath.