Pros and Cons of a First Floor Master Suite

The master bedroom is arguably the most important room in your home, besides your kitchen. It’s the room where you’ll spend a large portion of your time to sleep, dress, work and relax. It may be easy to picture exactly how you want your master bedroom to look, including the layout, color scheme and special features. The more challenging question to answer is whether to put the master on the first floor of your Cedar Valley home or on a second or third story.

First-floor master suites are growing in popularity, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best fit for you. Ultimately, there are pros and cons to both options, and choosing the right one for your home depends on your lifestyle needs, family dynamic and personal habits.

Pros and Cons of Master Bedroom on the Main Floor

If your master bedroom is already located on the first floor, or main level, of your home in Northern Iowa then you may automatically be thinking of keeping it there and potentially remodeling the space or expanding it into a master suite. However, you also could convert an upstairs bedroom into your master. Either way, there are advantages and disadvantages to a first-floor master suite that you should be aware of before making your decision.

Master Bedroom on Main Floor Pros

One of the main pros of a first-floor master is accessibility. Whether the master suite is for you or you’re using it as a guest room or in-law suite, having the room situated on the main level mitigates any challenges posed by the stairs. If you are planning to stay in your house for the foreseeable future, or even age in place during your golden years, it makes sense to think ahead and plan for potential future needs. Preemptively putting your master on the main level will likely enable you to stay in your Cedar Falls home as long as possible, even if climbing stairs eventually becomes an obstacle. The same goes for homeowners who are caring for an aging parent. Your master suite on the main level is the ideal spot for them to live comfortably and semi-privately at your home. Also, if you “downsize” in the future, or start to primarily use your main level, you don’t have to bother with cooling and heating both levels.

Another benefit of a first-floor master is that you gain a desirable sense of privacy—especially not having to share a family bathroom with other household members—but you’re also not too secluded from other activity taking place elsewhere in the house. If you have older kids or teenagers still living at home, you both may appreciate a bit of distance. It gives you a noise buffer when they invite their friends for sleepovers and also supports their growing sense of independence.

If you’re working remotely full-time or part-time or you simply want to have a home office, the master suite can be remodeled to double as your home office. In that case, you’ll be spending even more time in the space, which is a good reason to have it centrally located. You are easy to find when you’re needed and you can keep an ear on what else is happening in the house, or shut the door for peace and quiet.

Finally, positioning your master suite on the first floor gives you better access to your outdoor living spaces, like the deck, patio or backyard. You can even remodel your master bedroom to enhance this connection and create a seamless transition to a secluded patio or garden from your personal room. If the master bedroom is located upstairs, you may find it more challenging to connect to or add an outdoor space, such as a balcony.

Master Bedroom on Main Floor Cons

There are some situations where building your master bedroom downstairs is not ideal. For example, if your household is big on entertaining guests—and using the common rooms to do so—the occupants of the master suite will be closer to that noise and activity. This can be difficult if you, your partner or your guests wish to retire earlier than the rest of the party. Some couples also keep odd hours because of work, or your teenagers may like to stay up with their friends on the weekend. Unless you have a designated game room or attic for the night owls to use, they’ll be in the common rooms, which may interfere with your sleep schedule.

If the other bedrooms in your Cedar Falls home are located upstairs and you have younger children, you also may appreciate being on the same level as them. Even with the help of baby monitors, it can grow tiring if you have to frequently run up the stairs to attend to their needs, especially late at night. Being next to their bedroom or down the hall from it gives you easy access for taking care of them at all hours of the day.

Planning a Master Suite Remodel in Cedar Valley

Deciding on the location, as well as the size and layout, of your master suite depends entirely on your particular lifestyle and personal preferences. Some households may want the master upstairs, whereas others need it downstairs. In either case, our team at Home Indeed can help you remodel your current master suite or even work to convert an existing bedroom into a more luxurious space with a private bathroom. Our design-build process enables each professional who is critical to your project to be involved early on, which means our whole team can get a good sense of your space and your needs during the planning and design phase, allowing us to create an upgraded sense tailored specifically to you.