ᐅ Ground Floor Layout Planning – Kitchen, Utility Room, and Guest Area

Hello!

We are currently in the final planning stages for our house. Attached is the ground floor layout as initially planned. However, we have a few ideas for changes, see below. What do you think?

Plot size 600sqm
Slope no
Site coverage ratio 0.3
Floor area ratio 0.3
Building envelope, building line and boundary? 3m (10 feet)
Number of parking spaces no requirement
Number of floors 1.5
Roof style
Architectural style rear captain’s gable
Orientation house entrance north
Maximum heights/limits
Other requirements?

Homeowner requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type
– Mix of country and modern
– Basement, 1.5 floors without basement
– Number of occupants currently 2, planned 4
– Guest room/office downstairs mainly used as office, sofa bed only for occasional guests
– Preferably a closed kitchen with sliding door


House design
Who designed the plan?
– General contractor and us

What do you particularly like? Why?

All rooms are accommodated, small corner where the TV is located, kitchen with sliding door, double doors to the living room.
Bathroom above utility room, laundry chute possible and all plumbing on one side of the house. No bedroom above utility room (noise?). Bedroom at the rear (currently above guest room).

What do you dislike? Why?
Utility room currently faces the street and therefore has no door to the outside, which might be inconvenient having to carry groceries through the cloakroom to get to the utility room.

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters

Downstairs:
Does it make sense to swap the utility room and guest/office rooms to add a door leading to the garden? The utility room would then be much larger and could accommodate a drying rack, stroller, etc.

– Is the kitchen size sufficient for a closed kitchen with sliding door? I would like to put a small table in the kitchen. Or will it feel too cramped? I am not a fan of open kitchens :/

– Is a guest/office of just over 8 sqm (about 86 sq ft) large enough if the utility room and guest spaces are swapped?

Upstairs (I don’t have a floor plan here at the moment):
Currently, the bedroom is above the guest room and the bathroom is above the utility room. Is an air heat pump noisy enough that the utility room should not be planned under the bedroom?

What do you think?

Best regards!

Well, some dimensions would really help the floor plan. I currently estimate the kitchen to be about 350x350cm (115x115 inches). Where will the garage, carport, or parking space be located?

Toffifee88 schrieb:

The utility room is currently facing the street and therefore has no door to the outside; this could be annoying when you have to carry all groceries through the hallway to get into the utility room.

Won’t most of the groceries be carried straight into the kitchen?

I find placing a sofa in front of a floor-to-ceiling window more likely to cause splashes on the window surface.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the exact measurements yet. But the kitchen is roughly 3.5 x 3.5 meters (11.5 x 11.5 feet).

I agree about the window by the sofa. However, from the outside, the house looks quite asymmetrical with two floor-to-ceiling windows at the kitchen and gable, and only one regular window in the living room. That’s why we decided on this layout. I also considered not having a floor-to-ceiling window in the kitchen, but I do want to be able to go outside from there :/

The carport and courtyard are right next to the front door.

I think a lot of groceries will go into the kitchen, that’s true. But many will also be stored in the utility room. Since we won’t have a pantry, there will be shelves for food and also a refrigerator in there.

Toffifee88 schrieb:

I agree about the window by the sofa. However, the house exterior is otherwise quite asymmetrical, with two floor-to-ceiling windows by the kitchen and gable, and only one standard window in the living room.

Well, then you should consider moving away from a wall unit, place the sofa against the upper wall, and arrange the TV and other furniture separately.

That's correct. That is also an option. We will also install connections on both sides to stay flexible. But that's a good point.

My husband prefers the furniture layout as shown in the floor plan, while I lean towards the other option. We'll see how it turns out in the end.