What I'm about to say is going to be a tad controversial to some; huge master bedroom suites are stupid. There, I said it! Clearly the master needs to be more spacious than most bedrooms in your home to accommodate larger furniture pieces, bureaus for two, etc. but the masters I've seen in most newly built homes are a complete waste of square footage. If your home is over 10,000 square feet (which according to some constitutes "mansion"), great, have a huge master, but when it is under 2,000 and occupies more than 20% of that square footage, quite honestly, that's just poor planning. Take me into a home with a huge master where someone has created a seating area, gym section, or office nook and you know what you'll find 99.9% of the time? Nope, not the matriarch of the family perched on a fainting couch reading a novel, you'll find CLOTHES resting on everything from the ottoman to the treadmill. WASTED SPACE! When planning additions or helping clients design new homes, I incorporate a larger footprint for the master bedroom but I don't go overboard. Instead, I use that valuable space (and budget) for creating private baths, large closets and portals to secret hideaways like adding french doors to a quiet section of the yard. THOSE are valuable ways to create an escape, not trying to accommodate a sofa and two chairs. It sounds so trite, but creating a perfect master escape has less to do with size and more with the quality of pieces you put in it. Beautiful, comfortable bedding, great lighting, soothing wall colors, and lovely floors are far more appealing than a large, cavernous space. While it seems like today everyone wants large, open floor plans, give me a comfy cottage any day to turn into a lovely little jewel box!
