ᐅ House floor plan, improvements / suggestions for a 1.5-story building

Hello everyone,

Attached is the floor plan for our planned house. The meeting with the architect is still to come. What do you think? Does it look good as it is? An open-concept living area is desired.
The south side is at the entrance of the house, so we didn’t want a utility room or similar there in order to make full use of the sunlight.

Best regards

Please fill out the questionnaire
Please provide dimensions on the floor plan

The upper floor feels like a Tetris puzzle
Parents are very tall, but where should the wardrobes go?
The bathroom on the ground floor is too narrow
The hallway is too large

I like the basic concept of a simple, compact house. Having the kitchen as a central place reflects a clear lifestyle preference. However, I have a few questions about the design:

• The ceiling height in the passage from the entrance area to the living space poses a risk of bumping heads for taller people. Overall, the passage is very narrow.
• The upstairs bathroom will be very tight. Depending on the knee wall height, it will probably be better to position the bathtub so that its head end faces toward the center of the house. Only slim people will be able to pass by the sink.
• I don’t understand the bedroom section next to the bathroom. How is this area intended to be used? Assigning this very cramped space to the bathroom could alleviate the tightness.
• The entrance area is very small for a family of four. Some of the coats and shoes will need to be stored elsewhere. (Am I correct in assuming that children are planned but not yet present?)

hampshire schrieb:

I like the basic concept of a simple, compact house. Having the kitchen as a central space reflects a certain lifestyle preference. However, I have a few questions about the execution:

• The stair height in the passage from the entrance area to the living space poses a risk of head bumping for taller people. Overall, the passage is very narrow.
• The upstairs bathroom is very tight. Depending on the knee wall height, you’ll probably want to position the bathtub with its head end toward the center of the house. Only slim people can pass by the sink comfortably.
• I don’t understand the bedroom section next to the bathroom. How is this area intended to be used? It could ease the very cramped bathroom situation if the room were allocated to the bathroom instead.
• The entrance area is quite small for a family of four. Some jackets and shoes will need to be stored elsewhere. (Am I correct in assuming that children are planned but not yet present?)

Thanks for your thoughts.
- The upstairs bathroom is exactly the same size as mine, or even 0.5m² (5.4 sq ft) larger, with the same layout. It works well there, so we based it on that.

- The hallway is a dead space for us; we only wanted it as large as necessary. The area next to the stairs can be reduced slightly, but the staircase is already high enough to allow comfortable passage. We want to create an open, spacious floor plan.

- The section in the bedroom next to the bathroom is about 8m² (86 sq ft) and can be used as a workspace or arranged with a flexible room divider. We initially had the workspace as a separate room, but that resulted in too many small rooms. Instead, we wanted to maintain a spacious feeling upstairs. Secretly, I want to create a fitness corner there and move the workspace into one of the children’s rooms for now, as we don’t need both yet. It will be a while before both are required. We are currently 26 and 27 years old.

The house dimensions are 8.54m by 10.75m (28 ft by 35 ft).

haydee schrieb:

Please complete the questionnaire
Please add dimensions to the floor plan

The upper floor feels like Tetris
Parents are very tall but where should the wardrobes go?
The ground floor bathroom is too narrow
The hallway is too large

We planned the upper floor along with the staircase first to make sure the room layout makes sense. And it actually does. I don’t get a Tetris feeling from it, except that I find purely rectangular rooms somewhat boring.
The ground floor bathroom is 6m2 (65 sq ft). I consider that relatively large for a guest bathroom. The shower niche in it is actual size.

Richooo schrieb:

The hallway is dead space for us; we only wanted it as big as necessary.

I understand the wish to minimize the entry area. Regarding "only what is necessary," I would consider: Where will coats, shoes, and scarves be stored? How will you get past a stroller when the time comes?

Richooo schrieb:

The part in the bedroom next to the bathroom is about 8m² (86 sq ft) and can be used as a workspace or, prospectively, arranged so it can be separated by a flexible room divider.

I see that as a home office reserve in case you have two children. An office right next to the bed— not everyone can sleep well with that.