ᐅ Optimizing the Floor Plan for a New Single-Family Home Build

Hello everyone,

I would appreciate feedback on the following floor plan. I’m completely new to the forum but have read comments on various other designs here. Before receiving feedback suggesting a complete redesign, I prefer to put this unfinished draft up for discussion.

What is still unfinished: window positions and sizes, furniture arrangement in the living room, separation between the utility room and the adjacent pantry, acoustic optimization of the home office.

Development plan/restrictions: driveway on the left, not allowed on the same side as the house
Plot size: 650 sqm (about 7,000 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.35
Floor space ratio: unknown
Building envelope, setback line and boundary: 3 m (10 ft)
Edge development:
Number of parking spaces: 1
Number of stories: 2–3
Roof type: no hip roofs allowed
Architectural style: no preference
Orientation: fixed due to road location
Maximum height/limits: 11 m (36 ft) for 3 floors
Other requirements: open building style

Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof, building type: Bauhaus, flat roof
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 stories
Number of occupants, ages: 5 people, including 3 children aged 2 to 8 years
Room requirements on ground and upper floors: not defined, based on required rooms
Office: separate room needed for a home office
Overnight guests per year: at least 2, sometimes several weeks at a time
Open or closed architecture: closed, for acoustic reasons
Traditional or modern construction: modern, minimalist, efficient
Open kitchen, island: island desired, open kitchen preferred
Number of dining seats: usually 5, more when hosting guests
Fireplace: no
Music/sound system wall: no, but a good idea
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport directly adjacent
Utility garden, greenhouse: small garden accessible from the terrace, which should be accessible from the living room
Other wishes/considerations/daily routine, including reasons why some things should or shouldn’t be:
- Ground floor should be as age-appropriate as possible (older guests, so guest room and shower on ground floor)
- Morning sun should shine into the bedroom for natural waking
- Terrace not southwest-facing to avoid overheating
- Home office should be located to minimize disturbances to others when starting early or working late
- The home office needs good acoustic separation from the rest of the house for calls (children should not be overheard; the “worker” ideally not heard outside the room)
- Children’s rooms can be relatively small, as bunk beds with space underneath are planned
- There should be enough space in front of the TV in the living room for children to join in activities (dancing, etc.)
- Quietness is important due to current noisy and stressful living conditions (loud street, poor door seals, noisy children)
- The layout should be efficient and functional: short distances, easy to clean, robot vacuum should be able to reach most areas
- Smart home requirements and space needs for equipment are still unclear
- The house should be bright but able to be quickly darkened in the evening (blinds or similar)
- An electric piano must fit somewhere (probably upstairs, in a gallery above the front door)

House design
Origin of the design: based on a standard plan with many DIY modifications

What you like: it seems quite efficient already
What you dislike: possibly too little storage (no basement, so likely need a shed somewhere)
Price estimate from architect/planner: not yet known
Personal budget including equipment: approx. 450,000
Preferred heating system: district heating, as this is standard there

If you had to give up certain details/features:
- Can be omitted: kitchen island, kitchen does not have to be open, one of the children’s rooms if necessary (another would have to be larger)
- Cannot give up: separation of guest and home office, must be two separate rooms

Why is the design the way it is now?
We reviewed many standard plans and then used one as a base for various modifications through many iterations.
What do you think is especially good or bad about it? /

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters or less?
What can be improved and why? Unfiltered feedback is very welcome.

Thank you very much

Hello,
Here are a few immediate observations:
I find the kitchen layout a bit unusual. Is it meant to be two parallel counters with a small cooking island in the middle? With a depth of 80cm (31.5 inches), you’re likely to splash grease all over the floor while cooking.
I would swap the sofa and TV area with the furniture on the left side of the plan. This way, there will be more space between the dining table and the seating area, avoiding that awkward empty space along the wall.
I also think there isn’t enough wardrobe or coat storage space for 5 people plus guests.
Otherwise, it’s hard to judge whether the furniture and staircase are drawn to scale since there are no dimensions indicated. Have you included your current furniture in the plan?

For a first draft, I think it is very well done.

Are there reasons for the significantly larger Child 1? You apparently transferred the walls from the ground floor to the upper floor. Generally a good idea, but I would gladly pay for a few reinforcement bars if Child 3 gets bigger, Child 2 has one less corner in the room (corners also cost money), and Child 2 then expands at the expense of Child 1…

Pinky0301 schrieb:

I find the kitchen layout a bit odd. Is it supposed to be two parallel countertops with a small island in the middle? With a depth of 80cm (31.5 inches), you’ll probably end up spilling around on the floor while frying.

Cooking island in the middle, the rest around it (not detailed yet).
Do you mean 80cm (31.5 inches) is too little for a cooking island?

Pinky0301 schrieb:

I would swap the sofa/TV with the furniture on the left side of the plan. This way, you get more space from the dining table and avoid that awkward empty area by the wall.

Okay, maybe a corner sofa will end up there after all.

Pinky0301 schrieb:

I think there isn’t enough closet space for 5 people plus guests.

Okay, I’ll have to check that.

Pinky0301 schrieb:

Otherwise, it’s hard to judge whether the furniture and stairs are realistically drawn since there are no dimensions. Did you include your current furniture?

I haven’t detailed the stair dimensions yet.
The dining table and chairs (which we’d like to keep), the sofa, and two cabinets (which can be replaced) are from our current furniture.

Osnabruecker schrieb:

For a first draft, I think it’s very successful.

Thank you

Osnabruecker schrieb:

Are there reasons for the significantly larger Child 1 room?

No, it just happened. Such a “corridor entrance” only increases the room size on paper; in practice, there’s hardly any usable space there. We would have preferred all three rooms to be similar in size.

Osnabruecker schrieb:

You apparently transferred the walls from the ground floor to the upper floor.

Exactly.

Osnabruecker schrieb:

Basically a good idea, but I’d be willing to pay for the few reinforcement bars if that means Child 3’s room becomes larger, Child 2’s room has one corner less (corners also cost money), and Child 2 then expands at the expense of Child 1...

Do you mean shifting the upper walls shown in the picture for Child 3 and Child 2 slightly upwards?

Hallway of about 11 m² (120 sq ft) with just under 4 meters (13 ft) in width.
The room is roughly 4 x 5.5 meters (13 x 18 ft) plus a 2-meter (6.5 ft) landing.
That adds up to 24 m² (258 sq ft)... maybe a bit too much space, which cannot be properly furnished because of the centrally located staircase.
The dining area feels somewhat squeezed in.
And the children's rooms: not great, unfortunately, due to the troublesome staircase layout.