ᐅ Floor Plan Optimization for a Single-Family Home with a Secondary Suite
Created on: 19 Jan 2026 10:26
D
DieHnnH
Hello everyone,
We are a couple (both 34 years old) looking to build our home in a rural area of Baden-Württemberg. Important preliminary information: no children planned, but a dog. A separate apartment (granny flat) is mandatory with at least 23sqm (250 sq ft).
We would appreciate your input to help us avoid making major mistakes.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 494sqm (5314 sq ft)
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio: 0.32
Edge building allowance: garage permitted
Number of parking spaces: 3
Number of stories: 2 full stories required
Roof style: gable roof with a pitch of 25–38°
Orientation: see plan
Additional requirement: separate apartment
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style: country house / modern Swedish style
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of occupants, age: 2 adults (34), 1 planned dog, 1 person in separate apartment
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: 120sqm (1292 sq ft) for us plus at least 23sqm (250 sq ft) for the separate apartment
Office: home office, 1 person working fully from home
Guest stays per year: total about 5–15 nights
Open or closed layout: open
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with kitchen island or U-shape preferred
Number of dining seats: 4–6
Fireplace: desired for coziness, small in size, probably not really necessary
Garage, carport: carport plus 2 additional parking spaces
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: small greenhouse plus kitchen garden
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be: the most important space to us is the kitchen and living room combined as an open area. We want it to be cozy, which is very important. The building plot faces east on the edge of the village, with no further development planned in that direction. We really like this view, but we would also like the terrace to face south.
In general, we want to make the best possible use of the remaining garden and are looking for ideas on how to place the house on the plot to maximize garden usability. We understand the garden won’t be very large.
We both have home-centered hobbies that require space: my husband plays drums, I play piano—space needed upstairs. I enjoy baking, he enjoys cooking—space needed in the kitchen. I like to read—books require space too. We both enjoy gardening.
House Design
Designed by: architect (BU)
What do you like especially and why?
- Layout of the open space and size of the kitchen
- Location of the separate apartment
- Additional space gained upstairs. We originally considered a single-story extension for the separate apartment, but the architect said it’s more expensive than enlarging the whole house. This way, we can keep the technical room small downstairs and move the utility room completely upstairs. We would swap room usage upstairs: bedroom → utility room in the northeast, office → bedroom (this also allows a nice built-in wardrobe niche).
What do you dislike and why?
- The separate apartment has no room for a closet
- Unsure if the size of the open space is sufficient
- The bathroom is very large—like a ballroom. We considered extending the hallway to create a small extra storage room. However, this would reduce western light in the bathroom.
- We don’t like the windows and terrace doors at all yet
- Carport location: needs to be rotated and, in our opinion, moved to the boundary
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: €600,000 including secondary construction costs
Tasks we will do ourselves: roofing, purchase and installation of photovoltaic system & battery, wall and ceiling boarding, filling, painting, flooring, bathrooms
Preferred heating system: air-water heat pump with underfloor heating
If you have to give up some details / expansions
- Can give up: fireplace, so much space upstairs
- Cannot give up: separate apartment, large kitchen
Why has the design turned out this way?
Because this reflects our wishes, the separate apartment, and respects the development plan. We tried ourselves to design a squarer house to create space on the south side, but that didn’t work with the separate apartment.
We’re happy for you to roast the floor plan and welcome any improvement suggestions—thanks in advance.
Circled in green and oriented to north.
Sunny regards
We are a couple (both 34 years old) looking to build our home in a rural area of Baden-Württemberg. Important preliminary information: no children planned, but a dog. A separate apartment (granny flat) is mandatory with at least 23sqm (250 sq ft).
We would appreciate your input to help us avoid making major mistakes.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 494sqm (5314 sq ft)
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio: 0.32
Edge building allowance: garage permitted
Number of parking spaces: 3
Number of stories: 2 full stories required
Roof style: gable roof with a pitch of 25–38°
Orientation: see plan
Additional requirement: separate apartment
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style: country house / modern Swedish style
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of occupants, age: 2 adults (34), 1 planned dog, 1 person in separate apartment
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: 120sqm (1292 sq ft) for us plus at least 23sqm (250 sq ft) for the separate apartment
Office: home office, 1 person working fully from home
Guest stays per year: total about 5–15 nights
Open or closed layout: open
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with kitchen island or U-shape preferred
Number of dining seats: 4–6
Fireplace: desired for coziness, small in size, probably not really necessary
Garage, carport: carport plus 2 additional parking spaces
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: small greenhouse plus kitchen garden
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be: the most important space to us is the kitchen and living room combined as an open area. We want it to be cozy, which is very important. The building plot faces east on the edge of the village, with no further development planned in that direction. We really like this view, but we would also like the terrace to face south.
In general, we want to make the best possible use of the remaining garden and are looking for ideas on how to place the house on the plot to maximize garden usability. We understand the garden won’t be very large.
We both have home-centered hobbies that require space: my husband plays drums, I play piano—space needed upstairs. I enjoy baking, he enjoys cooking—space needed in the kitchen. I like to read—books require space too. We both enjoy gardening.
House Design
Designed by: architect (BU)
What do you like especially and why?
- Layout of the open space and size of the kitchen
- Location of the separate apartment
- Additional space gained upstairs. We originally considered a single-story extension for the separate apartment, but the architect said it’s more expensive than enlarging the whole house. This way, we can keep the technical room small downstairs and move the utility room completely upstairs. We would swap room usage upstairs: bedroom → utility room in the northeast, office → bedroom (this also allows a nice built-in wardrobe niche).
What do you dislike and why?
- The separate apartment has no room for a closet
- Unsure if the size of the open space is sufficient
- The bathroom is very large—like a ballroom. We considered extending the hallway to create a small extra storage room. However, this would reduce western light in the bathroom.
- We don’t like the windows and terrace doors at all yet
- Carport location: needs to be rotated and, in our opinion, moved to the boundary
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: €600,000 including secondary construction costs
Tasks we will do ourselves: roofing, purchase and installation of photovoltaic system & battery, wall and ceiling boarding, filling, painting, flooring, bathrooms
Preferred heating system: air-water heat pump with underfloor heating
If you have to give up some details / expansions
- Can give up: fireplace, so much space upstairs
- Cannot give up: separate apartment, large kitchen
Why has the design turned out this way?
Because this reflects our wishes, the separate apartment, and respects the development plan. We tried ourselves to design a squarer house to create space on the south side, but that didn’t work with the separate apartment.
We’re happy for you to roast the floor plan and welcome any improvement suggestions—thanks in advance.
Circled in green and oriented to north.
Sunny regards
DieHnnH
> We have looked at Fjorborg. However, we want to come with a basic concept of how it could roughly work.
haydee
> Come without a concept. Don’t limit the planner. [...] A room program and the building permit/planning permission should be enough for them.
Absolutely. Building design (obviously, with blinders on *LOL*) is not your core competence. Sales back-office draftsmen already know too little about it, but if customers also mislead them, the result is surely going to be awful. The objection that the room program allocation wasn’t correct was valid. But trying to turn the joke granny flat into a maisonette tower just makes the nonsense even worse. No offense – but one more stunt like that and I’ll need heart medication straight away. No, going to the “architect meeting” empty-handed is really by far the lesser evil.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
> We have looked at Fjorborg. However, we want to come with a basic concept of how it could roughly work.
haydee
> Come without a concept. Don’t limit the planner. [...] A room program and the building permit/planning permission should be enough for them.
Absolutely. Building design (obviously, with blinders on *LOL*) is not your core competence. Sales back-office draftsmen already know too little about it, but if customers also mislead them, the result is surely going to be awful. The objection that the room program allocation wasn’t correct was valid. But trying to turn the joke granny flat into a maisonette tower just makes the nonsense even worse. No offense – but one more stunt like that and I’ll need heart medication straight away. No, going to the “architect meeting” empty-handed is really by far the lesser evil.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
So, to sum it up: our own designs were so poor that it wasn’t even worth editing them 😀
Well, we gave it a try.
What do you think was our approach? We deliberately went to the planner (not to Fjorborg) WITHOUT any preliminary design, only with a room program and a building permit / planning permission, who then forwarded it to the architect. What you see on page 1 is the result. Obviously, it didn’t work out that way, hence the DIY enthusiasm.
I would have liked to send back some feedback that fits better, so the planner/architect can get an idea of the direction we’re aiming for.
Anyway. We are still considering the next steps. Thanks to you all nonetheless.
Well, we gave it a try.
What do you think was our approach? We deliberately went to the planner (not to Fjorborg) WITHOUT any preliminary design, only with a room program and a building permit / planning permission, who then forwarded it to the architect. What you see on page 1 is the result. Obviously, it didn’t work out that way, hence the DIY enthusiasm.
I would have liked to send back some feedback that fits better, so the planner/architect can get an idea of the direction we’re aiming for.
Anyway. We are still considering the next steps. Thanks to you all nonetheless.
DieHnnH schrieb:
Anyway. We are considering the next steps. Thanks to everyone anyway. In any case: I would start by seeing how you manage the building footprint and the three parking spaces on the plot. The architect’s draft shows only one parking space.
The required three parking spaces essentially affect the shape of the house’s footprint, which in turn influences whether a townhouse-style design is better or perhaps a rectangular shape with a nice pitched roof.
An architect should mediate between the best design and the budget.
However, for me, the main priority would be the living experience with good functionality, not having the access to the secondary apartment through a hallway that overly strains the ground floor and turns the main apartment into a poor joke. On the upper floor, you don’t have to combine the utility room and guest room, but it is certainly possible for two people to have a guest or workout room next to a separate office that can also be used as a dressing area.
There is no need to design a puzzle of cramped rooms or corridors. That works better with a conventional layout.
A two-story house rarely results in a cozy atmosphere.
I would probably prefer to keep the garden clear and opt for a single-story house, where the secondary apartment shares the northern third with the technical room, and place a pitched roof with a knee wall of about 120 cm (47 inches) or similar on top. This creates storage space but also enough room to place a sofa bed, bed, or washing machine under the slant, while still maintaining good living quality.
House with a central entrance to the utility area, a square or rectangular hallway with stairs. North side the technical room, northeast corner the secondary apartment. On the edge of the site, northeast, a parking space for the secondary apartment with access to the unit.
Be open to the process and see what unfolds.
We also received some really poor suggestions, some were good but not what we wanted, and others were acceptable enough. It all helps you figure out what you want, what is possible, and what you don’t want. It’s a process.
Take every floor plan, be open-minded, and mark in each proposal your desired or existing furniture to scale, considering circulation space and so on.
We also received some really poor suggestions, some were good but not what we wanted, and others were acceptable enough. It all helps you figure out what you want, what is possible, and what you don’t want. It’s a process.
Take every floor plan, be open-minded, and mark in each proposal your desired or existing furniture to scale, considering circulation space and so on.
ypg schrieb:
Anyway: I would start by checking how you can fit the house footprint and three parking spaces on the property. The architect’s design only shows one parking space. Thanks for all the great advice! We will compile everything and pass it on to the planner again. Alternatively, we might go with an independent architect for the planning.
haydee schrieb:
Take every floor plan, be open-minded, and sketch in your desired or existing furniture to scale for each option, considering movement spaces, etc. We will do that, thank you.
I will get back with a new floor plan for feedback once everything is more developed and suitable.
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