Why I’m Keeping Our Family Home Small

I’m a dad with five children. We live in a small house, we share one bathroom as a family, and I’m not planning on growing the size of the house. I like living in a small home.

I’m still getting used to what I call the “collisions” that come with it. Sharing a bathroom is part of that daily life. When I talk about what an ideal home might be, those ideas come from a home I’m living in, with my own family.

I’m not living in a big mansion while designing small homes for other people. My convictions about design belong in my own life, too.

Our television stays in a storage room in the basement. On a rare occasion, we bring it out because there’s a particular film we want to watch. We don’t pay for cable, and I don’t intend to.

These are personal choices, but they’re closely connected to the values I bring to design. Family is very much the center and the focus. When I think about the kind of home I want to design, I start there.