The American Foursquare home has a distinct architectural style on both the outside and inside.
In order to come up with the very specific design ideas, we create most designs with the assistance of state-of-the-art AI interior design software.
If you’re interested in foursquare home exteriors, check out our massive gallery and guide on 38 American Foursquare homes here.
This gallery showcases the interiors of 2 fabulously restored/renovated American Foursquare homes in the United States.
Key interior design features of American Foursquare Homes:
Floors: 2.5 stories typically. The first floor contains the living areas – living room, dining room, foyer (often large), and a kitchen. Renovated Foursquares often add a bathroom on the first floor.
The second floor is made up of bedrooms – usually 3 large bedrooms and a bathroom. However, depending on the scope of the renovation, larger four-square homes can accommodate 4 bedrooms and/or 3 plus a den on the second floor.
The uppermost floor is a large open area. It can be turned into pretty much any type of room. It’s a fantastic bonus space.
Layout: Layouts can vary depending on the size of the home, but typically the on one side of the front door is a large foyer with stairs. On the other side is a large living room in the front with the dining room in the rear. Adjacent to the dining room is the kitchen.
Many renovated foursquare homes make extensive renovations to the kitchen because the original kitchens were small and today we like large kitchens.
Here’s a classic foursquare layout:
Upstairs: 3 corners are 3 bedrooms. Closets are side-by-side between the bedrooms. The fourth corner is a bathroom. It’s an efficient layout for bedrooms and often the bedrooms are large.
Woodwork: While foursquare exteriors are often plain, the woodwork inside is amazing. The first home featured in this gallery exemplifies this. The custom woodwork is amazing.
Staircase: Often four square houses have a 1/2 landing staircase. The stairs are often wide with massive banisters. The staircase alone is often a showpiece in these homes.
Foyer: Another spectacular room in four square homes is the foyer. They are often large and square and make for a terrific entryway for guests and family since there’s plenty of room to remove and store shoes, coats, and hats.
Photo Gallery of 2 American Foursquare Interiors
The first four-square home in this gallery is a magnificently restored home in Bellingham, Washington (source: Zillow). It’s a little on the ornate side. Much of the original interior woodwork was retained. It’s absolutely stunning.
1. Refurbished Foursquare Home Retaining Original Woodwork
The porch is the first “room” one enters when approaching this home. The porch spans the entire width of this home.
Due to its size, this home’s entryway is enormous. Notice the spectacular woodwork throughout. Also, notice how large and grand the staircase is. This is an above-average foyer size. Most don’t extend the full depth of the home. Perhaps this was used as a ballroom of sorts back in the day.
The staircase in this foursquare home is gorgeous and is a showpiece on its own.
This home’s interior is definitely fairly ornamental with large wooden columns.
While foursquare homes often don’t have as many rooms as other Victorian homes, the rooms it does have are large. Dining rooms are usually spacious and can accommodate wonderfully large dining room furniture sets.
Bedrooms are large and often the bedroom windows are large too.
It’s hard to tell if this is the original size of the bathroom. It’s possible. It was upgraded but definitely retains much of the old-style bathroom decor.
Probably the biggest issue with four square homes for today’s modern families is the kitchen. Kitchen space isn’t big and so renovating/updating kitchens in foursquare homes is a huge job and often is still not an ideal layout.
Again notice how large the bedroom is.
Above is a photo of the 3rd floor “bonus” room which is one large space. These are great spaces because you can do so much with them.
2. American Foursquare Updated to a Contemporary Interior Design
The foursquare home below is a terrific example of how you can really update this type of home to make it a contemporary interior. You’ll notice it doesn’t have the original woodwork like the one above. I like how the one below was renovated. It’s beautiful throughout.
Source: Zillow
One unusual aspect of this American foursquare home is it doesn’t have a porch railing. The pro of this of course is an unobstructed view. The con is safety.
Spacious foyer which is typical of American Foursquare homes.
Fully updated living room. The woodwork was painted white which looks good. Foursquare homes often had built-in shelving in the living rooms.
Notice how large the living room is… it easily accommodates a grand piano.
Large formal dining room with a large window that lets in plenty of light. This is a very common dining room layout except in this case the woodwork was painted white.
The kitchen isn’t terribly large although the reno here is nicely done. It’s a small kitchen to accommodate an in-kitchen eating area.
The stairs in this home are much less grand than the one above. However, as is typical in foursquare homes. the stairs are nice and wide.
Massive primary bedroom with plenty of windows and a balcony.
Kid’s bedroom with built-in shelves.
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