Hello everyone,
We are currently planning our single-family house – two full floors – a city villa. Unfortunately, we are not making much progress. We just can’t find any good ideas for where to cleverly place a utility room that should also serve as a small cellar substitute. Originally, we had planned to have a basement under the garage, but we have now abandoned this plan due to the cost. Do you possibly have any ideas that could help us move forward? What do you think of the floor plan in general?
We are currently planning our single-family house – two full floors – a city villa. Unfortunately, we are not making much progress. We just can’t find any good ideas for where to cleverly place a utility room that should also serve as a small cellar substitute. Originally, we had planned to have a basement under the garage, but we have now abandoned this plan due to the cost. Do you possibly have any ideas that could help us move forward? What do you think of the floor plan in general?
Utility room on the ground floor:
No passage between garage and house, with the building services located in the storage room instead.
Additional storage space:
or
Also, if I understand correctly, the top of your floor plan is south, right? That’s why a north arrow on the plans is so important. I would reconsider having the bedrooms facing south.
No passage between garage and house, with the building services located in the storage room instead.
Additional storage space:
- Eliminate the double-height space and create an additional storage room on the upper floor there.
or
- Eliminate the roof terrace and expand the storage space in that area.
Also, if I understand correctly, the top of your floor plan is south, right? That’s why a north arrow on the plans is so important. I would reconsider having the bedrooms facing south.
S
SofiaWegner5 Aug 2016 08:01The children's bedrooms face southwest... the garden is located in the northeast.
I find the entire design still very unfinished.
As previous commenters have already mentioned: you are wasting a lot of space on the upper floor with the gallery and open void. If you really want it, then (to borrow my favorite saying here: man’s will is his own paradise) go ahead. It’s not practical. If it were part of a harmonious overall concept, I might find it more acceptable, but unfortunately, that is not the case here.
My comments:
The angled walls have already been noted. What I don’t understand at all are the numerous corners and niches in the outer wall, for example on the ground floor in the top right? What is that niche supposed to be??? And then on the upper floor, it’s being built over??? Apart from the fact that such (unnecessary) ornamentation is quite costly and questionable from an energy-efficiency perspective, what is the purpose behind it???
Personally, I’m a fan of having direct access from the garage into the pantry, but your solution here is pointless. This small vestibule (that’s all it is) serves no real purpose. I would rather add a door from the niche (yes, another one!!!) in the garage into the obviously covered entrance area. If this storage room is meant to be useful at all, then please remove the door to the garage. Even so, it’s almost too small and can at best be used for some cleaning supplies. If it is supposed to function as a pantry, then it would make more sense to plan it closer to the kitchen.
The terrace niche (you really like niches, don’t you?), nice and all, but the terrace facing north? And in a niche? This will be more cool and damp than sunny and warm. It makes little sense. I know a family in my village who renovated an old house and had no choice but to position the terrace facing north. They now have a nice, large terrace with a fireplace and all the trimmings… but they always sit in front of the house on the south side because the terrace at the back stays cool except for the hottest days. Back there, they have about 10m² (100ft²) of lawn and the old garden pavilion, and now they have a camping table and chairs set up there.
Currently, the garage is on the south side. Do you have a requirement that it must be there? Otherwise, it would be better on the northwest side. Put the guest room where the kitchen is now, then the kitchen after that. I would remove the terrace niche and place the terrace on the southeast/southwest side. I’m not sure how busy the street is, but perhaps moving the terrace to the front could allow for some evening sun as well. Privacy isn’t only achieved by niches; hedges or privacy fences can also work.
In principle, I would sit down and start by roughly arranging the functional spaces in a logical way. At the moment you have the “living” area on the ground floor positioned to the northeast. That makes no sense to me.
I sketched out some ideas on how I would approach it. I’m sharing it here. As I said, it’s just scribbled on scrap paper to think about how best to position the house. If I’m correct, you have a rather elongated plot, right? The plan is already oriented properly with north on top?
You could generally consider placing the garage as close as possible to the street on the left side (northwest) and set the house back further. The advantage: you still have a lot of garden space to the southwest (street side, if I’m interpreting that correctly). As it is now, you have a lot of garden space to the northeast. That’s nice if you like growing moss, but otherwise, you probably prefer a sunny garden, right? Take a look at my second draft and maybe push the house even further back.
Enough has been said about the layout of the upper floor. I would consider converting the laundry room into a small second bathroom. This has advantages as the kids get older.
If you restructure the ground floor as I suggested in my second proposal, you could also roof the terrace, for example with a greened canopy. You will almost never use a balcony upstairs if you have a large garden downstairs. A greened canopy can be walked on and used for a drying rack, for example. That’s all you need and you can save on a balcony railing. Then put the master bedroom in the corner where the laundry room currently is, the dressing room as well, and the bathroom in the east corner (where the bedroom is now). The laundry room would move above the guest room on the ground floor, and the children’s room to the southwest. That would be my suggested layout.
Afterwards, you can plan details like the staircase (where and what shape), and if you really must: the gallery and open void.
But first, I would firmly establish the functional spaces and definitely (if permitted) move the garage to the other side.
As previous commenters have already mentioned: you are wasting a lot of space on the upper floor with the gallery and open void. If you really want it, then (to borrow my favorite saying here: man’s will is his own paradise) go ahead. It’s not practical. If it were part of a harmonious overall concept, I might find it more acceptable, but unfortunately, that is not the case here.
My comments:
The angled walls have already been noted. What I don’t understand at all are the numerous corners and niches in the outer wall, for example on the ground floor in the top right? What is that niche supposed to be??? And then on the upper floor, it’s being built over??? Apart from the fact that such (unnecessary) ornamentation is quite costly and questionable from an energy-efficiency perspective, what is the purpose behind it???
Personally, I’m a fan of having direct access from the garage into the pantry, but your solution here is pointless. This small vestibule (that’s all it is) serves no real purpose. I would rather add a door from the niche (yes, another one!!!) in the garage into the obviously covered entrance area. If this storage room is meant to be useful at all, then please remove the door to the garage. Even so, it’s almost too small and can at best be used for some cleaning supplies. If it is supposed to function as a pantry, then it would make more sense to plan it closer to the kitchen.
The terrace niche (you really like niches, don’t you?), nice and all, but the terrace facing north? And in a niche? This will be more cool and damp than sunny and warm. It makes little sense. I know a family in my village who renovated an old house and had no choice but to position the terrace facing north. They now have a nice, large terrace with a fireplace and all the trimmings… but they always sit in front of the house on the south side because the terrace at the back stays cool except for the hottest days. Back there, they have about 10m² (100ft²) of lawn and the old garden pavilion, and now they have a camping table and chairs set up there.
Currently, the garage is on the south side. Do you have a requirement that it must be there? Otherwise, it would be better on the northwest side. Put the guest room where the kitchen is now, then the kitchen after that. I would remove the terrace niche and place the terrace on the southeast/southwest side. I’m not sure how busy the street is, but perhaps moving the terrace to the front could allow for some evening sun as well. Privacy isn’t only achieved by niches; hedges or privacy fences can also work.
In principle, I would sit down and start by roughly arranging the functional spaces in a logical way. At the moment you have the “living” area on the ground floor positioned to the northeast. That makes no sense to me.
I sketched out some ideas on how I would approach it. I’m sharing it here. As I said, it’s just scribbled on scrap paper to think about how best to position the house. If I’m correct, you have a rather elongated plot, right? The plan is already oriented properly with north on top?
You could generally consider placing the garage as close as possible to the street on the left side (northwest) and set the house back further. The advantage: you still have a lot of garden space to the southwest (street side, if I’m interpreting that correctly). As it is now, you have a lot of garden space to the northeast. That’s nice if you like growing moss, but otherwise, you probably prefer a sunny garden, right? Take a look at my second draft and maybe push the house even further back.
Enough has been said about the layout of the upper floor. I would consider converting the laundry room into a small second bathroom. This has advantages as the kids get older.
If you restructure the ground floor as I suggested in my second proposal, you could also roof the terrace, for example with a greened canopy. You will almost never use a balcony upstairs if you have a large garden downstairs. A greened canopy can be walked on and used for a drying rack, for example. That’s all you need and you can save on a balcony railing. Then put the master bedroom in the corner where the laundry room currently is, the dressing room as well, and the bathroom in the east corner (where the bedroom is now). The laundry room would move above the guest room on the ground floor, and the children’s room to the southwest. That would be my suggested layout.
Afterwards, you can plan details like the staircase (where and what shape), and if you really must: the gallery and open void.
But first, I would firmly establish the functional spaces and definitely (if permitted) move the garage to the other side.
What were you thinking?
Without your information and a useful site plan showing the building area and dimensions, it’s unfortunately not possible to give good advice here.
It would basically be my house, but certainly not without orientation considering a sensible sun position. A garage on the south side and a mossy terrace on the north is really not well thought out.
What would the open space be good for in this case? Who would stand there and look down? Or are you hoping to get some light into the living room this way? I don’t think it will be enough for that.
And where is the technical equipment supposed to go?
Without your information and a useful site plan showing the building area and dimensions, it’s unfortunately not possible to give good advice here.
It would basically be my house, but certainly not without orientation considering a sensible sun position. A garage on the south side and a mossy terrace on the north is really not well thought out.
What would the open space be good for in this case? Who would stand there and look down? Or are you hoping to get some light into the living room this way? I don’t think it will be enough for that.
And where is the technical equipment supposed to go?
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