• Shopping Cart Shopping Cart
    0Shopping Cart
Insighed Designs
  • Home
  • About
  • The Collection
  • Interior Design Services
    • Online Interior Design
    • Interior Design in Madison
    • Kitchen + Bathroom Design
    • Airbnb Interior Design
    • Virtual Consultation
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Account
  • Menu Menu
Blog
Insighed

A Four-Square for a Family of Four

Did you know the layout for an early 1900s American farmhouse is commonly called a “four-square” because each floor has four square rooms? I’m generally a fan of anything from this era but particularly enjoy their streamlined but interesting wood trim. So I was really excited when a friend asked me to help her with a couple rooms on the main floor of her family’s four-square!

historical ad for four-square home

Before we get too far into the details, it should be noted that we deeply respect the individuality of our clients’ projects. Unless they have provided an after photo with the intention to share, we will always keep the products sourced for clients private. In this instance, we will share the actual space plan but the renderings of the rooms do not reflect the client’s design.
Insighed Designs - affordable space planning - four square
Okay, let’s get into it. This family of four came to us because their space simply wasn’t working for them. The main floor of their four-square houses the kitchen, dining room, living room, and a pass through room to the stairs.  This pass-through room presented a particular challenge for them as the furniture they had didn’t allow for much other than to just pass through the room, but they needed it to do more for their two young boys. They wanted to focus on this room and the adjacent living room; they were even considering removing the partition wall between the two rooms if it would help. In order for the space to function ideally for them, we needed to find room for the following items:
      • Seating for everyone to watch tv together
      • A desk / office area
      • An area to play games
      • Storage for books and games
      • Allllllll the plants
      • A record player
      • A keyboard, if it fits

As with all space plans, we started with the biggest pieces. Here, that was the seating for the tv area. In addition to the stairs creating a challenge, these rooms also have fairly limited wall space due to windows and openings into adjacent rooms. We found that their current living room area did, in fact, present the best space for this. We placed a sofa along the left side wall and rounded it out with a side table and chair in the corner by the door. We then placed a console across from the sofa, on the longer section of the partition wall. This allows for unobstructed movement into the room from outside and also from the pass through room into the dining room.

With one whole room down, we have only taken the first item off the list. Yikes! Thankfully, we had a feels there was a ton of potential within the pass-through room. Through shared inspiration photos, we knew the client liked the look of a wall-to-wall bookcase that extends overtop a doorway. We thought that the opening between these two rooms was the perfect spot for this! Not only does it fit the era of the home, but it also creates ample closed and open storage. We then placed a desk in the corner opposite the stairs with a small chair for reading to the side. The wall along the stairwell would be a great spot to house a keyboard; if not, a larger chair or chaise lounge would be great here, too.

But wait – what about the games and a record player?! Don’t worry, we did not forget. We recommended a sizeable coffee table for game play and offset the tv atop the console in order to fit a record player. This was a real win-win because now the tv is better aligned with the sofa!

So that means . . . we did it! We managed to get everything they wanted into their current space. And without having to move any walls, too. Hooray! Here’s their 2D space plan:

 

Insighed Designs - 2D space plan for two of four squares

 

 

You know what time it is, right? We’ve made the room work better . . . now we get to make it look better! First, we have a 3D view of the 2D floor plan. We kept the walls and woodwork light in order to bring an overall calming feel to the rooms. Then we strategically placed saturated accent colors around the room for interest. The beautiful green color that ties both rooms together was inspired by the client’s love of plants.

 

Insighed Designs - 3D floor plan

 

For your viewing pleasure . . . here’s a few different views of the re-designed pass through room! In this version we switched out the desk for a round game table in the corner.  Do you love these bookshelves as much as we do?!

Insighed Designs - redesigned pass thru

 

Insighed Designs - corner game table

 

Insighed Designs - pass thru library

And a couple views of the living room, too! Like in the pass thru room, we aimed to balance staying true to the era of the home with the client’s love of mid-century modern furniture. How do you think we did?

Insighed Designs - living room

 

Insighed Designs - living room

 

Why should you look to Insighed Designs for virtual interior design? We have options!

Do you want our opinion on how to rearrange your current furniture? Our 30 minute virtual consultation would be great for that!

Do you want our opinion on the best floor plan but you want to find your own pieces? Contact us for a custom estimate to design you 2D floor plan like the one above!

Do you want us to source furniture and accessories with photorealistic 3D drawings of your room? Sure, we can do that too!

February 12, 2024/0 Comments/by Nancy Higgs
Tags: library design, living room design, space planning, virtual floor plan, virtual interior design, virtual interior designer
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on X
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Share on Vk
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Insighed-Designs-Logo-Madison-WI-300x157.jpg 0 0 Nancy Higgs /wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Insighed-Designs-Logo-Madison-WI-300x157.jpg Nancy Higgs2024-02-12 13:00:392024-02-12 13:00:39A Four-Square for a Family of Four
You might also like
Cabin Interior Design: Tips to Create Your Ideal Getaway
Kitchen + Bathroom Design
our house remodel: the primary bedroom
Our house remodel: the floor plan
our house remodel: the bathroom
our house remodel: the office
0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Search Search

Categories

  • Airbnb Interior Design Ideas
  • Cabin Interior Design
  • Insighed

Recent Posts

  • our house remodel: the bathroom
  • Kitchen + Bathroom Design
  • Cabin Interior Design: Tips to Create Your Ideal Getaway
  • our house remodel: the office
  • Airbnb Interior Design

Archives

  • February 2025
  • September 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • February 2024
  • December 2023
Insighed Designs logo

Let’s Connect

nancy@insigheddesigns.com

608-509-2488

Based in Madison, WI. Serving the world!

Stay in the Loop

Sign up for our emails to get inspo and design tips in your inbox!

Sign up
© 2025 All rights reserved. | 1 Day Website by Bizzy Bizzy | Terms
Link to: THE BASICS Link to: THE BASICS THE BASICSNancy Higgs - Professional Interior Designer Link to: Our house remodel: the floor plan Link to: Our house remodel: the floor plan Our house remodel: the floor plan
Scroll to top Scroll to top Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more×

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Terms and Conditions
Accept settingsHide notification only

Stay in the Loop

Sign up for our newsletter to get inspiration and design tips in your inbox!

Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.