ᐅ Floor plan of a single-family home designed as an urban villa
Created on: 20 Apr 2026 23:13
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xDorix
Hello everyone,
Our project is about to start soon. Before all the masonry work begins, I would appreciate your feedback.
We more or less designed the floor plan ourselves after looking at various houses and layouts. We took the elements we liked from different plans and combined them to create our house design, which we have gradually refined with our structural engineer.
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: approx. 2500m² (0.62 acres)
Slope: No
Floor area ratio: ?
Plot ratio/building coverage ratio: ?
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: ?
Edge development: ?
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: Hipped roof 24°
Style: Modern
Orientation: Living/dining area facing east
Maximum height/limits: ?
Other regulations: unknown
Homeowner requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Modern city villa with a hipped roof, 24°
Basement, floors: No basement, 2 full floors
Number of occupants, age: Currently 2 adults (two children’s bedrooms planned)
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor: Living/dining/kitchen area, utility room, guest WC, office
Upper floor: Master bathroom, children’s bathroom, master bedroom including walk-in closet, child 1, child 2
Office: Family use or home office? Family use
Number of guests per year: ?
Open or closed architecture: ?
Conservative or modern construction method: Modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Open kitchen with kitchen island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: Yes
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: Terrace accessible via lift-and-slide door
Garage, carport: Double garage
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: No
Additional wishes/particulars/daily routine, including reasons why certain things are or are not wanted: We definitely wanted a double-height space centrally located above the living/dining/kitchen area. On the upper floor, this space has a fixed window element overlooking our large plot and future garden. On the ground floor, the dining table is located directly under this double-height space.
House design
Who designed it:
- Own design based on many different floor plans
What do you like most? Why?
- The symmetry of the house’s exterior façade, the living/dining/kitchen area flooded with light through large windows including the double-height space, the open staircase with a large window, the bright and open hallway on the upper floor thanks to the double-height space.
What don’t you like? Why?
- /
Estimated price according to architect/planner: /
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: /
Preferred heating technology: Air-to-water heat pump
If you have to give up something, which details/features
- Can you live without: /
- Can’t you live without: Double-height space, staircase, living room including kitchen
We are quite satisfied with the floor plan but would like to know if we might have overlooked something or if anything could be improved.
Regarding the kitchen, the door shown in the drawing will be removed. The kitchen unit will extend along the entire wall, and the indicated window is relatively large, facing south to allow afternoon sunlight.
Unfortunately, we do not have 3D views of the rooms like some others here have been able to share.
Ground floor:
Upper floor:
Our project is about to start soon. Before all the masonry work begins, I would appreciate your feedback.
We more or less designed the floor plan ourselves after looking at various houses and layouts. We took the elements we liked from different plans and combined them to create our house design, which we have gradually refined with our structural engineer.
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: approx. 2500m² (0.62 acres)
Slope: No
Floor area ratio: ?
Plot ratio/building coverage ratio: ?
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: ?
Edge development: ?
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: Hipped roof 24°
Style: Modern
Orientation: Living/dining area facing east
Maximum height/limits: ?
Other regulations: unknown
Homeowner requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Modern city villa with a hipped roof, 24°
Basement, floors: No basement, 2 full floors
Number of occupants, age: Currently 2 adults (two children’s bedrooms planned)
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Ground floor: Living/dining/kitchen area, utility room, guest WC, office
Upper floor: Master bathroom, children’s bathroom, master bedroom including walk-in closet, child 1, child 2
Office: Family use or home office? Family use
Number of guests per year: ?
Open or closed architecture: ?
Conservative or modern construction method: Modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Open kitchen with kitchen island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: Yes
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: Terrace accessible via lift-and-slide door
Garage, carport: Double garage
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: No
Additional wishes/particulars/daily routine, including reasons why certain things are or are not wanted: We definitely wanted a double-height space centrally located above the living/dining/kitchen area. On the upper floor, this space has a fixed window element overlooking our large plot and future garden. On the ground floor, the dining table is located directly under this double-height space.
House design
Who designed it:
- Own design based on many different floor plans
What do you like most? Why?
- The symmetry of the house’s exterior façade, the living/dining/kitchen area flooded with light through large windows including the double-height space, the open staircase with a large window, the bright and open hallway on the upper floor thanks to the double-height space.
What don’t you like? Why?
- /
Estimated price according to architect/planner: /
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: /
Preferred heating technology: Air-to-water heat pump
If you have to give up something, which details/features
- Can you live without: /
- Can’t you live without: Double-height space, staircase, living room including kitchen
We are quite satisfied with the floor plan but would like to know if we might have overlooked something or if anything could be improved.
Regarding the kitchen, the door shown in the drawing will be removed. The kitchen unit will extend along the entire wall, and the indicated window is relatively large, facing south to allow afternoon sunlight.
Unfortunately, we do not have 3D views of the rooms like some others here have been able to share.
Ground floor:
Upper floor:
I know, and yet it can’t be said enough. We entered the construction phase with a solid budget, but the first $20,000 from the contingency fund was gone before the first digger even arrived. And in the end, despite all discipline and what seemed like a well-planned budget, so many invoices came in that it became extremely tight financially. Friends of ours missed exactly one item in their budget: the removal of excavated material. It’s needed for the landscaping. In hindsight, it was clear that this wouldn’t work as planned. Almost $30,000 gone. It’s not always large items, but also things like temporary power supply, porta-potties, insurance, waste containers, etc., all cost money and add up without much room for control. For us, all additional construction-related costs were underestimated across the board.
haydee schrieb:
Have you also considered the clearance areas? The clearance areas should be fine. I’m not an expert, of course, but maybe you can say more based on the to-scale sketch.
haydee schrieb:
The two doors in the utility room take up a lot of space. The door to the kitchen is fixed. To the left of it, there is a cabinet and the refrigerator. How would you possibly move the door to the garage to optimize this?
haydee schrieb:
Maybe let the walk-in closet have some natural light The views include a window in the walk-in closet. It is not yet shown on the floor plan. But the walk-in closet should get a window.
Here is the to-scale sketch of the furniture layout. Of course, it is only a sketch, but it has already helped us tremendously, and we clearly understood why this was considered so important in some areas. The changes we would accept or considered necessary are already included.
The upper floor should be clearly visible; unfortunately, the ground floor ended up a bit small.
Ground floor:
Upper floor:
The upper floor should be clearly visible; unfortunately, the ground floor ended up a bit small.
Ground floor:
Upper floor:
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Noxmortana23 Apr 2026 13:36Nice to see that you took the advice to heart!
I don’t fully understand some of the labels or abbreviations, but overall, I can now get an idea of your house...
What caught my eye at a glance:
The wardrobe space is still quite limited; I believe the recommendation is about 50cm to 60cm (20 to 24 inches) deep closet space per person. Personally, considering small children and depending on hobbies, fashion awareness, or the number of jackets, I think the need might be higher—but of course, this really depends on individual lifestyle…
The office chairs have very little room to move. You have to really squeeze onto the chair on the left side of the plan, right? The other desk also doesn’t have much space behind it. Yet, there is somehow just empty space in the opposite corner…
In the open-plan living area, the distance between the dining table and chairs and the couch is about 1m (3 feet), is that correct? Do you find that comfortable, or does the proximity bother you? The wider passage on the other side of the table is naturally more important since it’s the way to the terrace, right?
Regarding the children’s bathroom, I still think you will mainly use the larger bathroom with the small kids. Later on, as teenagers, they will probably find your main bathroom so much more comfortable that they won’t be happy with the small bathroom! 🙂
Did you also account for the plaster or wall finishes when drawing the plans? Especially in the utility room, everything looks very tight and exact. I hope you don’t end up missing those crucial 2-3 cm (1 inch) in the end?
I don’t fully understand some of the labels or abbreviations, but overall, I can now get an idea of your house...
What caught my eye at a glance:
The wardrobe space is still quite limited; I believe the recommendation is about 50cm to 60cm (20 to 24 inches) deep closet space per person. Personally, considering small children and depending on hobbies, fashion awareness, or the number of jackets, I think the need might be higher—but of course, this really depends on individual lifestyle…
The office chairs have very little room to move. You have to really squeeze onto the chair on the left side of the plan, right? The other desk also doesn’t have much space behind it. Yet, there is somehow just empty space in the opposite corner…
In the open-plan living area, the distance between the dining table and chairs and the couch is about 1m (3 feet), is that correct? Do you find that comfortable, or does the proximity bother you? The wider passage on the other side of the table is naturally more important since it’s the way to the terrace, right?
Regarding the children’s bathroom, I still think you will mainly use the larger bathroom with the small kids. Later on, as teenagers, they will probably find your main bathroom so much more comfortable that they won’t be happy with the small bathroom! 🙂
Did you also account for the plaster or wall finishes when drawing the plans? Especially in the utility room, everything looks very tight and exact. I hope you don’t end up missing those crucial 2-3 cm (1 inch) in the end?
If your dining table is one meter wide, you need at least 3 meters (10 feet) of width.
Some furniture seems very small to me, like the desks and sofa on the ground floor. How little space is there between the desk and the wall?
Where will the building services go? Where do you want to store suitcases, decorations, and so on?
The bathtub upstairs is just a placeholder, right?
The bedroom is a good example: the floor plan is livable but has tight spots and wasted space elsewhere. There is little room on either side of the bed. No space for a baby monitor, phone, book, or tea cup. The bed should never have a bed frame. Behind the headboard is a second hallway that serves only as empty space.
Some furniture seems very small to me, like the desks and sofa on the ground floor. How little space is there between the desk and the wall?
Where will the building services go? Where do you want to store suitcases, decorations, and so on?
The bathtub upstairs is just a placeholder, right?
The bedroom is a good example: the floor plan is livable but has tight spots and wasted space elsewhere. There is little room on either side of the bed. No space for a baby monitor, phone, book, or tea cup. The bed should never have a bed frame. Behind the headboard is a second hallway that serves only as empty space.
Noxmortana schrieb:
I don’t fully understand some of the labeling/abbreviations, but overall I can get an idea of your house now... If you need any more information on specific things to better evaluate, I can add more details.
Noxmortana schrieb:
The wardrobe space is still limited; I believe the recommendation is 50cm to 60cm (20 to 24 inches) deep cabinet per person. For me personally, especially with toddlers and depending on hobbies, fashion awareness, or coat collection, the need tends to be higher – but of course, it really depends on individual lifestyle... I just had the full floor plan in hand, and it already includes a 2-meter (6.6 feet) wide wardrobe area. We will definitely pay close attention to that again.
Noxmortana schrieb:
The office chairs have very, very limited space to move. You really have to squeeze onto the chair on the left side of the plan, don’t you? The other desk also doesn’t have much room behind it. And then in the opposite corner, there’s just empty space... That’s true. We also had to fit a few things in the office. In the lower right corner there is a TV and a dartboard or dart cabinet or similar.
We’re quite flexible here. Actually, one desk would be enough for us. If we want to keep both, we could add storage space for files etc. under the TV. Then maybe one cabinet would suffice and both desks could stay.
Noxmortana schrieb:
In the open-plan living space, the distance between dining table and chairs and the sofa is about 1 meter (3.3 feet), am I seeing that right? Is that comfortable for you, or does the proximity bother you? The wider passage on the other side of the table is obviously more important, as it leads to the terrace, right? The access to the terrace is planned through the central window, which will be a lift-and-slide door. We have a generous 1.20 meters (3.9 feet) clearance around the kitchen island. That might give us some room to create more space in the center of the room. We’ll look at that again once we can better imagine the space.
Noxmortana schrieb:
Regarding the kids' bathroom, I still think you’ll mostly use the large bathroom with the toddlers, and later the teenagers will probably find your main bathroom so much more comfortable that they won’t be satisfied with the small bathroom. If we move the wall a bit further and reduce the corridor size, the kids' bathroom could become a bit larger. I see potential there. Do you have any other suggestions? I’ve definitely made a note of it.
Noxmortana schrieb:
Did you also consider plaster or wall finishes in your measurements? The utility room looks very tight and precisely fitted; I hope you don’t end up missing those crucial 2-3 cm (around 1 inch)? We definitely need to clarify this with the planner regarding the utility room. We don’t know yet which walls will be occupied by technical installations and so on. For now, we placed the widest cabinet or shelving unit that would fit. If it ends up a bit smaller, it’s not a big issue.
Thanks a lot for your feedback 🙂
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