ᐅ Floor plan of a single-family house with two unresolved issues – design inconsistency due to access through the children's bedroom?

Hello,

it’s usually the same pattern. As soon as one or more of these features appear in a house design, the plan is almost always flawed:

• A slanted wall (preferably in frequently used areas)
• A complicated room layout
• A poorly designed staircase

Typically, these floor plans also include the must-haves for social media fans: walk-in closet, sauna, gallery, gym, "wellness" area.

Such plans usually come from amateurs, the draftsmen employed by the developer, or from so-called "flat-rate architects" charging around 2000 euros. This plan is one of those. Far beyond the budget, a dreadful room layout, and absurdities like the toilet or that hallway extension worm.

I agree with the previous posters. Discard this design and start over.

Best regards

baustei schrieb:
The 900,000 includes:
- planning
- earthworks
- kitchen, sauna, fireplace, terrace
- no landscaping

Hmm. The house size might be tight. Everything "outside" the house (earthworks, terrace, etc.) is much harder to estimate accurately than you might think.

Just based on my gut feeling, I would expect the total cost to be more like 1,000,000 - 1,100,000 all in.

Reducing the house size a bit, removing the fireplace, would feel more reasonable to me.

baustei schrieb:
What do you mean by accident?
We are currently considering making the staircase a U-shape... then:
- you don’t walk into a wall when coming upstairs
- the toilet can be placed between the staircase and the bathroom or integrated into the bathroom

Accident:
The door swings outward. It will be a room used by 4 people. Sooner or later, someone will get hit by the door. It’s not a question of if, but when and how often.

Doors that open into traffic areas should generally be used with caution. Typically, this is okay for rooms that are hardly used and where people don’t linger much, like small storage closets. That’s not the case here. There are ways to reduce the risk (e.g., glass panels in or next to the door). But that doesn’t work so well for a toilet. And at night, someone could still get hit by the door.

“Making the staircase a U-shape”:

There are two key points in house design. Only these two:
- Location of the front door
- The staircase

These are the main factors that shape the entire floor plan.

You can see this quickly by taking any standard floor plan and trying to move the staircase shape or front door location. This usually triggers a domino effect, causing countless other changes throughout the house.

I repeat my advice: start again from scratch. Changing the staircase shape in the current floor plan will be a very tricky game of Jenga.

baustei schrieb:
Could you explain what you mean by that?

This might not come out nicely. It’s not meant as criticism, but rewriting it gently would take too long:
- Ground floor utility/technical room: barely usable, basically just a passage area, wall space only for equipment that doesn’t need much depth. Equipment requiring depth blocks circulation space.
- Kitchen/pantry offers hardly any room for 60cm (24 inch) cabinets. Using the pantry daily as a kitchen extension (since the kitchen itself is rather small) will likely be difficult due to the limited room dimensions.
- Fireplace/wall in the living room will make furnishing “interesting.” Where to put the sofa (size? shape?)? Where a TV if desired? Removing the fireplace alone would probably simplify furnishing considerably.
- Utility room under the stairs: a significant portion of the usable area will be circulation space (passage from garage to living area). It gets lower under the stairs quickly.
- Ground floor hallway: seems to have a lot of pure circulation space; if the “optional” wall gets built, you will have another awkward corner.
- Upper floor: enclosed toilet with door opening into a circulation area.
- Upper floor: shower is a completely dark corner. (Of course, there should be no window in or next to the shower, but this feels like a cave.)
- Upper floor: lighting at the sink/bathroom is probably insufficient.
- Upper floor is full of awkward corners! Access to the kids’ rooms (no matter the design), access to the master bedroom (as far as I can tell, the door is planned to open sideways only from inside because of cabinets directly behind the door), then a narrow corridor with cabinets along the way to the bed. It’s a very tight, convoluted hallway. The toilet door will also swing into the kids and fitness room users’ path.

baustei schrieb:
What actually is the case: we often have guests staying for a week for example. At the same time, one or two people sometimes need to work from home.
What also often happens: one is working, another is exercising... the idea would be to combine office and guest room and turn the fitness room into a “makeshift office.” How would you use the freed-up room upstairs then?

Fundamentally: if you need these rooms, then build them. You know your life best. But in the process of planning from scratch, I would also recommend considering how to integrate these spaces sensibly, including which floor to place them on.

Currently, the floor plan has an excessive amount of circulation space and awkward corners. If this were tidied up, better locations for these rooms might be found. But these are not small tweaks here and there.

This is where you (I can’t draw...) should start working on the upper floor and create a nice, non-convoluted layout. That will then define the staircase and ground floor.

Hello,

Solid wood construction is a very expensive choice. In my opinion, the house measures about 13 x 8.5 m (43 x 28 feet), which is not even particularly large for 2 adults and 2 children. Without the requirement for solid wood (why exactly?), costs are considerably lower. Have you seen any architectural designs that were executed in solid wood?

Papierturm schrieb:
Access to the bedroom (as far as I can see, the door is planned to open only sideways from the inside, because there are cupboards directly behind the door), then a narrow corridor along cupboards leading to the bed.

If you have at least “recognized” that much, you managed to “read” the vague drawing better than I did. I only see unexplained, completely confusing colored areas.

Papierturm schrieb:
You should start by sitting down with the upper floor (I can’t draw...) and create a nice, uncomplicated upper floor plan. That will then determine the staircase and the ground floor.

More precisely: create, qualify, and distribute a room programme for the entire house (the search term “load-bearing axis” should lead to posts where I recently explained this in detail), which is explicitly a non-drawing task; only when starting the drawing work do you begin with the upper floor (to derive the simpler parts from the more complex ones, since even the best professionals cannot work the other way around). It is best to think about staircases from the point where you exit onto the upper floor, as their location is largely dictated by the shape of the house. And usually, it is better to design them with a landing joint rather than as a straight run.

Papierturm schrieb:
Slightly reduce the house dimensions,

That is why I suggested showing the “initial” plan once. I strongly suspect that the previously shown interim result stems from (and mainly suffers due to) accidentally strangling the original set of floor plans during the course of extensive cutbacks.

We know very little about the plot, and nothing about the family that would cast any initial doubt on being suitably served by a tried-and-tested standard design. Apart from the 1980s-style seating nook by a fireplace, which is absolutely pointless and disruptive in today’s homes, I read nothing about “special” requirements.

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https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Papierturm schrieb:
Slightly reduce the house dimensions,

11ant schrieb:
That’s why I suggested showing the "initial" design. I strongly suspect that the intermediate result shown so far is due to (and mainly suffers from) unintentionally constricting the original floor plan set during the course of the downsizing process.

Reducing dimensions MUST ABSOLUTELY be done during the conceptual phase before moving into the drawing stage!
If the downsizing is applied only to the drawn plan, it inevitably leads to bottlenecks, misalignments, even crushing of the layout, and other "life-threatening" complications!

11ant schrieb:
(the search term "axle load" should lead to posts where I recently explained this extensively), which is explicitly a non-drawing task;

https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/grundrissplanung-einfamilienhaus-massivholzbauweise-140qm-in-niedersachsen.g5l5t7/page-8/#z8h2s2
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/fehler-beim-zweiten-haus-vermeiden-hausbaufirma-oder-architekt.b6p8i8/page-12/#x0o1k1
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/einfamilienhaus-stadtvilla-wohnzimmer-l-oder-i-form.z9z5s1/page-3/#c8l5i2
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/erster-grundriss-entwurf-vom-eg-inkl-doppelgarage.g3g4q3/page-3/#g5i4g0
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/fertighaus-erst-architektenplanung-und-dann-auswahl-fh-anbieter-oder-andersrum.q1m8v5/page-5/#u1x7g1
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/einfamilienhaus-barrierefrei-erste-entwuerfe.u9b6o2/page-4/#g1b2x3

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

So – now that we are quite a bit unsettled, we have taken two steps back and are honestly questioning ourselves again.

Papierturm schrieb:
Reduce house dimensions a bit, remove the fireplace, and it would feel better for my gut feeling.

I can’t do that to my wife – it’s on our “must-have” list to see an open fireplace. Instagram aside – at friends’ and family’s places, the fireplace is regularly lit…

11ant schrieb:
Reducing dimensions absolutely must be done!

That’s certainly part of the challenge.
We started with an architect who included every idea in an initial draft (internal gutters, photovoltaics integrated into the roof, Audi R8 in front of the garage, talking about a 70k kitchen) without keeping the previously communicated budget in mind.
Now we are elsewhere – and of course we ended up with the initial sketches that weren’t feasible (but freed us from the development plan restrictions).

Papierturm schrieb:
This won’t read nicely now. Not intended as an attack, just that rewriting it nicely would take too long.

I can live with that – at least I’m not reading any polemics or sarcasm from you. Thank you for that.

Papierturm schrieb:
Ground floor utility/technical room: barely usable as it is basically just circulation space; wall space mostly taken by equipment that doesn't need much depth.

The planner is also the contractor and assures us that the dimensions will be sufficient for the technical installations.
We have to be able to rely on that.

Papierturm schrieb:
Kitchen/pantry offers barely enough space for 60cm (24 inch) cabinets. Using the pantry daily as a kitchen extension (since the kitchen itself is rather small) will hardly work due to the limited room dimensions.

The kitchen seems fine to us.
In fact, we’ve seen similar dimensions at the kitchen studio and have also had a quote prepared.
The rear run is about 4.20m (14 feet) with a back door. The area at the back is basically the pantry, raclette, drink crates, etc.
The kitchen island is about 2.30 x 1.20m (7.5 x 4 feet).
Rarely used appliances are placed at the back; on the front side there’s only the coffee machine, we don’t have a toaster.
Cookies are baked on the island, and since baking and cooking pasta don’t happen simultaneously, the island should be sufficient for us.

Papierturm schrieb:
Fireplace/wall in the living room will make furnishing “interesting.” Where will the sofa go (size? shape)? Where will a TV go, if desired?

Yes – removing the fireplace, see above.
The sofa will probably have to go on the left wall.
There will be no TV and none planned – at most a projector that will be used only occasionally.

Papierturm schrieb:
Utility room under the stairs: a significant part of the usable area will just be circulation space (passage from garage to living area). Below the stairs, the ceiling height drops quickly.

Thanks for the note – because of this and the children’s rooms issue upstairs, we have revised it again.
Will share shortly.

Papierturm schrieb:
Upper floor: enclosed WC with door opening into a circulation path

Thanks for pointing this out. We hadn’t considered the risk – it was suggested to us as well.

Papierturm schrieb:
Upper floor: completely full of corners! Access to the children’s rooms (no matter the plan), access to the bedroom (as far as I can see, the door is planned so it can only open sideways from inside because there are wardrobes directly behind it), then a narrow corridor along the wardrobes up to the bed. It’s a very narrow, awkward hallway. The WC door might also hit the children and the fitness room users right in the head.

We have attempted to resolve this (somewhat).
What we don’t know – regarding load bearing – is whether it makes sense / is possible to carry the load on the black-colored walls shown.
The children’s rooms now get more light and a less awkward entrance.
However, the entrance to the bedroom is more awkward.
The toilet is back in the bathroom. Possible solution for the collision problem.

On the ground floor, this would mean the living room gains space from the guest room.
The kitchen setup stays the same.
The utility room loses garden access via the technical room (fewer doors → more space).
Utility room access is from in front of the vestibule, not from the living area.
The technical room stays where originally shown.