ᐅ Floor Plan Design for a Single-Family Home of Approximately 150 m²
Created on: 12 Feb 2018 18:09
C
chrisw81
Hello,
After a long search, we signed the notarized contract for the land purchase at the end of December. We are now actively planning the floor plan. Unfortunately, the plot is somewhat awkwardly shaped (not rectangular), which creates some limitations for the layout from our perspective. We already have a first draft, but there are several areas we don’t like and are unsure how to improve. Maybe you have some ideas; we would appreciate your input.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 601 m² (6465 sq ft)
Building envelope, building line, boundary: Building line with the house on the west side
Peripheral setbacks: 7 m (23 ft) from the street (north), otherwise the usual 3 m (10 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 2 desired
Number of floors: 1 full story allowed
Roof style: Gable roof
Design style: open construction method
Orientation: South
Maximum heights / limits: Ridge height max. 8.5 m (28 ft)
Additional requirements: Max. 100 m² (1076 sq ft) of built-up area
Client Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: Solid construction house, rectangular, no bay windows, no projections, etc., gable roof
Basement, floors: no basement; 1.5 stories
Number and age of residents: 2 people, age between 30 and 40, possibly children later
Space needs on ground floor and upper floor: Ground floor – living/dining room, kitchen, guest toilet, utility room, office
Office: family use or home office?: family use
Guest stays per year: 20 days
Open or closed architecture: open living area, closed hallway
Conservative or modern style: conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen, island without cooktop
Number of dining seats: 2-4
Fireplace: yes, chimney planned
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Further wishes, special features, daily routine, and reasons for preferences:
- A wardrobe area on the ground floor is important where coats can be stored relatively out of sight.
- On the upper floor, it would be nice to have an open gallery with a desk or similar (not a must and not necessarily next to the stairs).
- A walk-in closet would be nice but not essential.
- A storage room on the upper floor is very important since we do not have a basement.
House Design
Who created the design:
- Basic design by the construction company (FIBAV Stadthaus Vision Studio)
- DIY modifications based on online floor plans (especially Viebrockhaus Maxime 330)
What do you particularly like? Why?:
- Layout of the living/dining area and the narrowing kitchen reduces the hallway effect a bit
- Many windows in the living/dining area
- Wide hallway on the ground floor
What do you dislike? Why?:
- Few options to place furniture (dresser, wardrobe) in the ground floor hallway due to many doors
- Very large hallway upstairs, considered wasted space
- Bedroom is quite small; should be the largest room upstairs (preferably 16 m² (172 sq ft), children’s rooms rather 14 m² (151 sq ft))
- Stair placement limited by chimney location
- Door placement upstairs limited by chimney
- A staircase rotated 90 degrees (entrance next to front door) would appeal more
- Difficult to align windows upstairs and downstairs on the gable end vertically
- Floor-to-ceiling windows upstairs; wider windows with a sill height around 100 cm (40 inches) would be preferred
Price estimate by architect/planner: 200,000 €
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: 210,000 €
Preferred heating technology: gas heating
What details or expansions could you give up?
- Can do without: gallery next to stairs upstairs. Living area could also be narrower (e.g., 4.20 m (14 ft) instead of 4.47 m (15 ft))
- Cannot do without: storage room upstairs, shower in guest toilet, extra natural light in the ground floor hallway (e.g., side panel on front door or window)
Why was the design made this way? For example, standard plan from planner?
- Since the house has very little space on the south side, the house should be very narrow in order not to waste more space to the south. It should be wider so that living, dining, and kitchen areas face south as much as possible.
Were corresponding wishes from the architect implemented? No architect meeting has taken place yet.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
How can the ground floor hallway be better designed to fit a wardrobe? Can the stairs be positioned better or replaced? Should the hallway be enlarged and living space reduced? How can the upstairs hallway be better utilized? Can the bedroom be enlarged? Is it possible to swap the bedroom with another room, e.g., move it to the southeast to allow a walk-in closet?
Thank you very much in advance for your criticism and suggestions!
After a long search, we signed the notarized contract for the land purchase at the end of December. We are now actively planning the floor plan. Unfortunately, the plot is somewhat awkwardly shaped (not rectangular), which creates some limitations for the layout from our perspective. We already have a first draft, but there are several areas we don’t like and are unsure how to improve. Maybe you have some ideas; we would appreciate your input.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 601 m² (6465 sq ft)
Building envelope, building line, boundary: Building line with the house on the west side
Peripheral setbacks: 7 m (23 ft) from the street (north), otherwise the usual 3 m (10 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 2 desired
Number of floors: 1 full story allowed
Roof style: Gable roof
Design style: open construction method
Orientation: South
Maximum heights / limits: Ridge height max. 8.5 m (28 ft)
Additional requirements: Max. 100 m² (1076 sq ft) of built-up area
Client Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: Solid construction house, rectangular, no bay windows, no projections, etc., gable roof
Basement, floors: no basement; 1.5 stories
Number and age of residents: 2 people, age between 30 and 40, possibly children later
Space needs on ground floor and upper floor: Ground floor – living/dining room, kitchen, guest toilet, utility room, office
Office: family use or home office?: family use
Guest stays per year: 20 days
Open or closed architecture: open living area, closed hallway
Conservative or modern style: conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen, island without cooktop
Number of dining seats: 2-4
Fireplace: yes, chimney planned
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Further wishes, special features, daily routine, and reasons for preferences:
- A wardrobe area on the ground floor is important where coats can be stored relatively out of sight.
- On the upper floor, it would be nice to have an open gallery with a desk or similar (not a must and not necessarily next to the stairs).
- A walk-in closet would be nice but not essential.
- A storage room on the upper floor is very important since we do not have a basement.
House Design
Who created the design:
- Basic design by the construction company (FIBAV Stadthaus Vision Studio)
- DIY modifications based on online floor plans (especially Viebrockhaus Maxime 330)
What do you particularly like? Why?:
- Layout of the living/dining area and the narrowing kitchen reduces the hallway effect a bit
- Many windows in the living/dining area
- Wide hallway on the ground floor
What do you dislike? Why?:
- Few options to place furniture (dresser, wardrobe) in the ground floor hallway due to many doors
- Very large hallway upstairs, considered wasted space
- Bedroom is quite small; should be the largest room upstairs (preferably 16 m² (172 sq ft), children’s rooms rather 14 m² (151 sq ft))
- Stair placement limited by chimney location
- Door placement upstairs limited by chimney
- A staircase rotated 90 degrees (entrance next to front door) would appeal more
- Difficult to align windows upstairs and downstairs on the gable end vertically
- Floor-to-ceiling windows upstairs; wider windows with a sill height around 100 cm (40 inches) would be preferred
Price estimate by architect/planner: 200,000 €
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: 210,000 €
Preferred heating technology: gas heating
What details or expansions could you give up?
- Can do without: gallery next to stairs upstairs. Living area could also be narrower (e.g., 4.20 m (14 ft) instead of 4.47 m (15 ft))
- Cannot do without: storage room upstairs, shower in guest toilet, extra natural light in the ground floor hallway (e.g., side panel on front door or window)
Why was the design made this way? For example, standard plan from planner?
- Since the house has very little space on the south side, the house should be very narrow in order not to waste more space to the south. It should be wider so that living, dining, and kitchen areas face south as much as possible.
Were corresponding wishes from the architect implemented? No architect meeting has taken place yet.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
How can the ground floor hallway be better designed to fit a wardrobe? Can the stairs be positioned better or replaced? Should the hallway be enlarged and living space reduced? How can the upstairs hallway be better utilized? Can the bedroom be enlarged? Is it possible to swap the bedroom with another room, e.g., move it to the southeast to allow a walk-in closet?
Thank you very much in advance for your criticism and suggestions!
haydee schrieb:
@11ant
Not every woman loves power-shopping for dust collectors.
@chrisw81
Move in properly first. It was already clear on page 2 or 3 that it wouldn’t be spacious. Well, that’s how it is. Other families with three or four members live in less than 80sqm (860 sq ft) and manage just fine.
As for your west-facing side, add greenery and it will look completely different. Very cheaply, you can buy a packet of hollyhock seeds for 3 euros and by autumn, you’ll have flowering plants up to 2m (6.5 ft) tall.
Climbing plants like ivy should be avoided on external thermal insulation composite systems (ETICS / external wall insulation). There are climbing supports for plants like honeysuckle. Whether you want that is entirely up to you.
You can also plant perennials and roses that grow upward without necessarily needing support from the wall.
Until those grow big, I’d really work with one- or two-year-old plants that grow taller, like hollyhocks or sunflowers. I’m not totally dissatisfied either, but sometimes I do get annoyed that everything was so limited by the plot and the neighbors. Still, in the end, I think something good came out of it that is comfortable to live in.
Thanks for the tips about the plants.
Yes, I definitely don’t want ivy. If anything, I would rather anchor a trellis in the ground and let honeysuckle or something similar climb on it.
But of course, roses are also very beautiful.
haydee schrieb:
Don't talk yourself down then.
Be proud of what you have and share your experience with newcomers. Exactly. Right now, the interior decoration is still missing. That’s why it feels a bit dull, in my opinion. You could, for example, consider curtains, drapes, or some kind of window treatment.
chrisw81 schrieb:
150mm (6 inches) units were not desired,But they were planned...chrisw81 schrieb:
You could have at most made a strip window along the west side, say 3x0.76m (3x2.5 feet), then the wall wouldn’t look so bare. But neither I nor others had that idea at the time.As I said before: back then there was a reason for everything being the way it is. And perfectionism is awful anyway, who wants that?Then you would have had to spend twice as much yourself.
chrisw81 schrieb:
Also, an extra meter (3 feet) in width would have made the living room even more narrow and elongated.chrisw81 schrieb:
One could havechrisw81 schrieb:
Would probably haveCoulda, woulda, shoulda.chrisw81 schrieb:
We explicitly wanted the parapetchrisw81 schrieb:
On the west side there could havechrisw81 schrieb:
could havechrisw81 schrieb:
I’m not completely dissatisfied either, but sometimes I do get annoyed that everything was so restricted by the plot and neighbors.Don’t be annoyed. There are compromises that others have to make even more. Everything has its time… almost everyone would plan differently now, since now you actually live the planned home. But that’s life: you should also be satisfied and look forward to other important events in the future. The house quickly becomes less important, whether the west side is symmetrical, bare, or animated with a bench.
chrisw81 schrieb:
But I think in the end something good came out of it that you can live well in.See?
kaho674 schrieb:
Yay! You’re a potential candidate to join our anonymous group of home building enthusiasts.
Are we allowed to tweak the plans for your new house a bit? A sunroom would be the first addition... I know a team from Romania who build sunrooms almost for free. Sorry for going off-topic, but since I’m a lazy writer with fewer than 100 posts, I can’t send you a private message: Do they travel across the country and possibly work in NRW?
ltenzer schrieb:
Sorry for going off-topic, but since I’m not allowed to send you a private message (being a lazy writer with less than 100 posts): Do you travel around the country and possibly also work in NRW? That was more of a joke. The team paved our driveway. At the end, the manager even offered to build a conservatory for us. The workers were very hardworking and didn’t shy away from heavy labor. However, they were not skilled tradespeople. Therefore, we politely declined.