Dear forum community,
I would like to share our floor plan here for discussion. This is the first draft from our architect, developed based on our specifications and wishes. The basic structure comes from us, while the architect worked out the details. It should be mentioned that building our house has been planned for a long time, and we have been considering floor plans extensively during this period. Over time, I have become quite "picky" about this and have very clear ideas about the layout that I do not want to change. I know this is not always ideal, but it is the result of the long phase of information gathering before planning started. Therefore, I hope the floor plan will not be completely torn apart here, but of course, please don’t hesitate to give criticism—that’s why I’m posting this.
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Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 632 m² (approx. 20.5 m x 30.5 m (67 ft x 100 ft)); street on the east side, a 3 m (10 ft) wide footpath to the north, neighboring plot to the south, fields/meadow stretching for kilometers to the west behind the plot
Slope: The plot slopes down about 1.20 m (4 ft) at the street front (from north to south); leveling/filling of the plot is planned, therefore this does not affect the floor plan
Site coverage ratio: 0.3
Floor area ratio: none
Building envelope, building line and boundary: No building line or boundary, building envelope covers almost entire plot, so not relevant for the floor plan
Setback requirements: standard, house must be 3 m (10 ft) from boundaries, garage may be built on the boundary
Parking spaces: no specifications
Number of storeys: II (two)
Roof type: open
Architectural style: no preference
Orientation: no preference
Maximum height limits: ridge height 9.50 m (31 ft), no other details
Additional regulations: none
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: 2-story design without sloping ceilings, hip roof, 'urban villa' type
Basement, number of floors: no basement
Number of occupants, age: 2 people (both mid/late 20s), 1 child planned (want 2 children’s rooms as we are still young and a second child might be wished for in the future)
Room requirements on ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF): GF: guest WC with shower, cloakroom, utility room, open kitchen-living-dining area; UF: bedroom with walk-in closet, bathroom with large shower and discreet WC, 2 children’s rooms. Additionally, one home office is desired, location on GF or UF is secondary for us. Initially, we will use one of the children’s rooms as a workspace; the official office is a “reserve” in case a second child comes and until then can be used as storage, hobby room, etc.
Office: Intended only for our personal PC and about a 2 m (6.5 ft) wide cabinet for files and documents, so it can be quite small
Overnight guests per year: very rare, max. 1-2
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern design: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen arranged in L-shape along living room, peninsular island with sink approx. 2.0 - 2.50 m x 1 m (6.5 - 8 ft x 3 ft) preferred
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: undecided, but unsure where to place the stove in the current layout; any ideas?
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double garage with storage room behind
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no
House Design
Architect: freelance engineer, building with single contracts
What do you like? basically everything except what I mention under dislikes
What do you dislike?
- Arrangement of sanitary fixtures in the bathroom: toilet is directly by the door, shower rather small; generally, we prefer T-shaped layouts or the L-shaped solution I found here in the forum, but this is difficult due to the narrow bathroom. The “must” is a slightly hidden toilet and a large shower (preferably with a shallow/slightly recessed shower tray (I’m not a fan of tiled showers) and glass door on one side, other sides with half-walls)
- The walk-in closet is very spacious with about 7 m (23 ft) of wardrobe space, but due to the window in the closet, only narrow cabinets can be placed on the 4 m (13 ft) side, although I’m not sure this is really bad... 3 m (10 ft) of normal width cabinets for hanging clothes plus 4 m (13 ft) of narrow cabinets for shelves, underwear, bed linen should fit fine
- The biggest issue in our design is actually the exterior views, I will write more on that below
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump
If you had to give up features or extras: hard to say... some of the windows are really huge, they can be reduced if needed
- What you can’t give up: two full stories, large walk-in closet with at least 5 m (16 ft) of wardrobe space, half-landing staircase even if it takes up space, peninsula or island in the kitchen, storage under the stairs, shower in the guest WC (we want a second shower in the house so two people can shower at the same time if needed, especially with teenage children)
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A few words of explanation about the drafts:
Everything highlighted in color in the draft indicates things that will definitely be changed or that we don’t like.
These are:
- Ground floor:
1. The doors to the living room and kitchen will probably be sliding doors, mainly because it is awkward otherwise to enter the kitchen and the door would hit the kitchen cabinet behind. Accordingly, the wall extension between living room and kitchen will be removed as it won’t be needed, creating more space in the dining area.
2. The peninsula will be made wider and possibly a little longer; the sink will be placed there, the cooktop will remain somewhere along the long kitchen countertop.
3. The windows in the living-dining area will probably all be floor-to-ceiling because otherwise, it looks unattractive from the outside. It’s not ideal that the sofa will be right in front of the right-hand floor-to-ceiling window, but it can’t be helped. Since the patio door used daily will be the one in the middle, this is bearable.
- Upper floor:
1. The door to the bedroom will of course be as wide as the others; no idea if this is a mistake on the architect’s drawing, we haven’t discussed it with him yet.
2. The bathroom layout definitely needs to be changed. We like T-shaped solutions, but a toilet right next to the door is a no-go, plus we want a larger shower. Recently, I found a bathroom floor plan here in the forum with dimensions similar to ours and adapted their bathroom design *shame* into our bathroom. It looks like this:
We actually like it; spacious shower (approx. 1 x 1.80 m (3 ft x 6 ft)), unsure if a glass door is needed since the wall is under the shower and there is no long side wall; hidden toilet (niche approx. 95 cm (3 ft) wide, should be sufficient?); just need to check whether that works with the window by the toilet or if we have to shift it (and consequently also the ones in the utility room and possibly child’s room 2 and guest WC).
3. Our biggest concern is the window in the walk-in closet... it spoils the west exterior view, and because of the window, only narrow cabinets seem possible on the left side of the closet (which I could live with).
- West elevation:
Speaking of which... the ground floor windows will be floor-to-ceiling for a uniform look. But I find the middle window upstairs (in the walk-in closet) spoils the view. What do you think, is the view bad? I tried making all windows uniform—floor-to-ceiling on the ground floor and with sills on the top floor. It would look like this:
Can it be left like this, or is it a no-go? I don’t know... the west elevation really gives me a headache... and seems to be the only seemingly insurmountable problem in the design.
- South elevation:
We don’t like that the windows on the ground and upper floors are not aligned, but unfortunately, it can’t be changed. That’s why I had the idea not to make the kitchen window (bottom right window) floor-to-ceiling but rather a "light strip," which of course gives us more design freedom in the kitchen (distance between kitchen units, width of island, etc.). It would look like this:
And I can live with that. Or what do you think? The south side is not so important to us anyway because the neighbor’s garage stands at the property boundary, and our house will have only about 3.50 m (11 ft) space to the boundary but will sit considerably higher than the neighbor’s due to the filled plot.
Finally, I apologize for writing so much . I hope you’ll forgive me. The floor plan is very important to me, and I have put a lot of thought into it. I’m afraid of overlooking something and regretting it when the house is built. A floor plan is difficult to change later.
Many thanks if anyone has managed to read through all my details!
I would like to share our floor plan here for discussion. This is the first draft from our architect, developed based on our specifications and wishes. The basic structure comes from us, while the architect worked out the details. It should be mentioned that building our house has been planned for a long time, and we have been considering floor plans extensively during this period. Over time, I have become quite "picky" about this and have very clear ideas about the layout that I do not want to change. I know this is not always ideal, but it is the result of the long phase of information gathering before planning started. Therefore, I hope the floor plan will not be completely torn apart here, but of course, please don’t hesitate to give criticism—that’s why I’m posting this.
---------------------------------------------
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 632 m² (approx. 20.5 m x 30.5 m (67 ft x 100 ft)); street on the east side, a 3 m (10 ft) wide footpath to the north, neighboring plot to the south, fields/meadow stretching for kilometers to the west behind the plot
Slope: The plot slopes down about 1.20 m (4 ft) at the street front (from north to south); leveling/filling of the plot is planned, therefore this does not affect the floor plan
Site coverage ratio: 0.3
Floor area ratio: none
Building envelope, building line and boundary: No building line or boundary, building envelope covers almost entire plot, so not relevant for the floor plan
Setback requirements: standard, house must be 3 m (10 ft) from boundaries, garage may be built on the boundary
Parking spaces: no specifications
Number of storeys: II (two)
Roof type: open
Architectural style: no preference
Orientation: no preference
Maximum height limits: ridge height 9.50 m (31 ft), no other details
Additional regulations: none
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: 2-story design without sloping ceilings, hip roof, 'urban villa' type
Basement, number of floors: no basement
Number of occupants, age: 2 people (both mid/late 20s), 1 child planned (want 2 children’s rooms as we are still young and a second child might be wished for in the future)
Room requirements on ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF): GF: guest WC with shower, cloakroom, utility room, open kitchen-living-dining area; UF: bedroom with walk-in closet, bathroom with large shower and discreet WC, 2 children’s rooms. Additionally, one home office is desired, location on GF or UF is secondary for us. Initially, we will use one of the children’s rooms as a workspace; the official office is a “reserve” in case a second child comes and until then can be used as storage, hobby room, etc.
Office: Intended only for our personal PC and about a 2 m (6.5 ft) wide cabinet for files and documents, so it can be quite small
Overnight guests per year: very rare, max. 1-2
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern design: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen arranged in L-shape along living room, peninsular island with sink approx. 2.0 - 2.50 m x 1 m (6.5 - 8 ft x 3 ft) preferred
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: undecided, but unsure where to place the stove in the current layout; any ideas?
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double garage with storage room behind
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no
House Design
Architect: freelance engineer, building with single contracts
What do you like? basically everything except what I mention under dislikes
What do you dislike?
- Arrangement of sanitary fixtures in the bathroom: toilet is directly by the door, shower rather small; generally, we prefer T-shaped layouts or the L-shaped solution I found here in the forum, but this is difficult due to the narrow bathroom. The “must” is a slightly hidden toilet and a large shower (preferably with a shallow/slightly recessed shower tray (I’m not a fan of tiled showers) and glass door on one side, other sides with half-walls)
- The walk-in closet is very spacious with about 7 m (23 ft) of wardrobe space, but due to the window in the closet, only narrow cabinets can be placed on the 4 m (13 ft) side, although I’m not sure this is really bad... 3 m (10 ft) of normal width cabinets for hanging clothes plus 4 m (13 ft) of narrow cabinets for shelves, underwear, bed linen should fit fine
- The biggest issue in our design is actually the exterior views, I will write more on that below
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump
If you had to give up features or extras: hard to say... some of the windows are really huge, they can be reduced if needed
- What you can’t give up: two full stories, large walk-in closet with at least 5 m (16 ft) of wardrobe space, half-landing staircase even if it takes up space, peninsula or island in the kitchen, storage under the stairs, shower in the guest WC (we want a second shower in the house so two people can shower at the same time if needed, especially with teenage children)
---------------------------------------------
A few words of explanation about the drafts:
Everything highlighted in color in the draft indicates things that will definitely be changed or that we don’t like.
These are:
- Ground floor:
1. The doors to the living room and kitchen will probably be sliding doors, mainly because it is awkward otherwise to enter the kitchen and the door would hit the kitchen cabinet behind. Accordingly, the wall extension between living room and kitchen will be removed as it won’t be needed, creating more space in the dining area.
2. The peninsula will be made wider and possibly a little longer; the sink will be placed there, the cooktop will remain somewhere along the long kitchen countertop.
3. The windows in the living-dining area will probably all be floor-to-ceiling because otherwise, it looks unattractive from the outside. It’s not ideal that the sofa will be right in front of the right-hand floor-to-ceiling window, but it can’t be helped. Since the patio door used daily will be the one in the middle, this is bearable.
- Upper floor:
1. The door to the bedroom will of course be as wide as the others; no idea if this is a mistake on the architect’s drawing, we haven’t discussed it with him yet.
2. The bathroom layout definitely needs to be changed. We like T-shaped solutions, but a toilet right next to the door is a no-go, plus we want a larger shower. Recently, I found a bathroom floor plan here in the forum with dimensions similar to ours and adapted their bathroom design *shame* into our bathroom. It looks like this:
We actually like it; spacious shower (approx. 1 x 1.80 m (3 ft x 6 ft)), unsure if a glass door is needed since the wall is under the shower and there is no long side wall; hidden toilet (niche approx. 95 cm (3 ft) wide, should be sufficient?); just need to check whether that works with the window by the toilet or if we have to shift it (and consequently also the ones in the utility room and possibly child’s room 2 and guest WC).
3. Our biggest concern is the window in the walk-in closet... it spoils the west exterior view, and because of the window, only narrow cabinets seem possible on the left side of the closet (which I could live with).
- West elevation:
Speaking of which... the ground floor windows will be floor-to-ceiling for a uniform look. But I find the middle window upstairs (in the walk-in closet) spoils the view. What do you think, is the view bad? I tried making all windows uniform—floor-to-ceiling on the ground floor and with sills on the top floor. It would look like this:
Can it be left like this, or is it a no-go? I don’t know... the west elevation really gives me a headache... and seems to be the only seemingly insurmountable problem in the design.
- South elevation:
We don’t like that the windows on the ground and upper floors are not aligned, but unfortunately, it can’t be changed. That’s why I had the idea not to make the kitchen window (bottom right window) floor-to-ceiling but rather a "light strip," which of course gives us more design freedom in the kitchen (distance between kitchen units, width of island, etc.). It would look like this:
And I can live with that. Or what do you think? The south side is not so important to us anyway because the neighbor’s garage stands at the property boundary, and our house will have only about 3.50 m (11 ft) space to the boundary but will sit considerably higher than the neighbor’s due to the filled plot.
Finally, I apologize for writing so much . I hope you’ll forgive me. The floor plan is very important to me, and I have put a lot of thought into it. I’m afraid of overlooking something and regretting it when the house is built. A floor plan is difficult to change later.
Many thanks if anyone has managed to read through all my details!
Thank you all very much for your replies!
Regarding the dressing room topic: Ideally, I would prefer 60cm (24 inches) wardrobes on both sides. But if that’s not possible, it’s not a disaster for me—I could live with it because 7 meters (23 feet) of wardrobe space is quite a lot anyway. So, this is not my top priority. More important to me is the west-facing exterior. No matter how I look at it, I always find it looks strange. In my opinion, the window in the dressing room should be roughly the same size as the other windows on that side of the upper floor. But that’s not possible. I’m just a fan of symmetry. I also have a hard time imagining what both of you mean about the window. If I just move it a few centimeters (inches) so that 60cm (24 inches) wardrobes fit on both sides, to me it looks even worse than before. It could also be that I’ve lost perspective because I’ve been staring at this view so much over the past few days that everything now looks strange to me.
At the moment, I’m also a bit “afraid” that we might have to almost completely discard the floor plan because we can’t get the west view to work. I really like the floor plan itself, so I’d prefer to at least keep the main layout. All my wishes have been incorporated, the distances work for me, and all the furniture I want fits... we’ve been working on floor plans for a long time, and I know I’m very picky. This is the first plan that fully satisfies me—if only the exterior views weren’t an issue.
Regarding the south elevation/kitchen window: kbt09, do you really think there’s a big difference in light and feel between a long, not floor-to-ceiling window (it could still be large, for example 2 meters by 1 meter [6.5 feet by 3 feet]) versus a narrower floor-to-ceiling window? Off the top of my head, I would say it probably doesn’t make much difference, but I find it hard to judge.
As for the wall near the study/child’s room 1, it might be worth thinking about. Thanks for the suggestion.
The bathroom—I admit it’s not perfect as I’ve designed it. However, I don’t see how I could do it better, but I think that will probably be one of the smaller issues with this floor plan (the main problem remains the west elevation). I believe you can manage a bathroom of this size in a reasonable way, so I’m not too worried. Even though the room is rather narrow and long.
Regarding the dressing room topic: Ideally, I would prefer 60cm (24 inches) wardrobes on both sides. But if that’s not possible, it’s not a disaster for me—I could live with it because 7 meters (23 feet) of wardrobe space is quite a lot anyway. So, this is not my top priority. More important to me is the west-facing exterior. No matter how I look at it, I always find it looks strange. In my opinion, the window in the dressing room should be roughly the same size as the other windows on that side of the upper floor. But that’s not possible. I’m just a fan of symmetry. I also have a hard time imagining what both of you mean about the window. If I just move it a few centimeters (inches) so that 60cm (24 inches) wardrobes fit on both sides, to me it looks even worse than before. It could also be that I’ve lost perspective because I’ve been staring at this view so much over the past few days that everything now looks strange to me.
At the moment, I’m also a bit “afraid” that we might have to almost completely discard the floor plan because we can’t get the west view to work. I really like the floor plan itself, so I’d prefer to at least keep the main layout. All my wishes have been incorporated, the distances work for me, and all the furniture I want fits... we’ve been working on floor plans for a long time, and I know I’m very picky. This is the first plan that fully satisfies me—if only the exterior views weren’t an issue.
Regarding the south elevation/kitchen window: kbt09, do you really think there’s a big difference in light and feel between a long, not floor-to-ceiling window (it could still be large, for example 2 meters by 1 meter [6.5 feet by 3 feet]) versus a narrower floor-to-ceiling window? Off the top of my head, I would say it probably doesn’t make much difference, but I find it hard to judge.
As for the wall near the study/child’s room 1, it might be worth thinking about. Thanks for the suggestion.
The bathroom—I admit it’s not perfect as I’ve designed it. However, I don’t see how I could do it better, but I think that will probably be one of the smaller issues with this floor plan (the main problem remains the west elevation). I believe you can manage a bathroom of this size in a reasonable way, so I’m not too worried. Even though the room is rather narrow and long.
Lanini schrieb:
What matters more to me is the west exterior view. No matter how I look at it, I always find it looks strange. In my opinion, the window in the dressing room should have roughly the same dimensions as the other windows on the upper floor on that side. But that’s not possible. I’m just a fan of symmetry. .Lanini schrieb:
It could also be that I’ve simply lost the perspective, since I’ve been staring at this view so much over the last few days that everything now somehow looks strange to me. .Yes, I think the problem is that you think symmetrically.
I did that too for the first 30 years of my life but have learned better. Asymmetry brings dynamics. Look at nature: straight, man-made lines like an avenue or entranceway are interesting and attractive because of their intentional design, but a flower bed or cluster of bushes lives from balanced dynamics. Tall and thin on the left, medium-height and thick on the right, with connecting elements in between...
Looking at your views without floor plans, I notice that a wide variety of window sizes are used.
For the north elevation, no major issues except there is one window size that doesn’t appear anywhere else on the house. You could replace that with a window size from the east facade.
For the east elevation: 4 different window sizes! At least I would match the two on the left. Why is the toilet window lower than the one above it?
The bathroom’s exterior view doesn’t correspond well with the floor plan anyway, and there is potential there: swapping the bathtub with the washbasin and removing the middle window. Are the horizontal windows on the ground floor single casement windows sized like the left window on the upper floor? Try sketching that out.
South elevation: move the upper left window outward to have the same spacing between the windows above and below. I would keep the kitchen door since it provides direct access to the garden.
Looking again: perhaps it makes more sense to move the single dining room window further out and position the two upper windows between the lower ones.
The south side doesn’t work for me at all: it looks cramped. The proportion between wall and windows is off; the window area is too large. The outer edges (walls) should frame the facade, not feel like they’re falling apart.
Either three meters (about 10 feet) of wall on both left and right with nothing in the middle, or one meter (about 3 feet) of windows on each side with the sliding door in the middle.
Use the roughly 50cm (20 inches) at the top to maximize space for the dressing room and shift it accordingly.
Personally, I think there are too many different window sizes. I would try how a set of triple windows on the upper floor east side would look: a three-panel window with a high sill, and below a two-panel window with the same sill height.
Draw out the facades and use templates to compare different options. Phone photos can help with comparisons.
Otherwise: everything is great (except the kitchen, which seems a bit dull to me ).
Thank you very much again for your response, ypg. This is already very helpful for me here. My husband and I will spend the next few days/weeks thinking it over, sketching, painting, reflecting... there has to be a way to make it look decent.
On the east side, we will try to reduce the variety of window sizes to make it look more uniform. Of course, the bathroom windows will need to be adjusted to the new plumbing layout. Giving the north window a size that is repeated elsewhere in the house is a good idea and certainly easy to do. For the south side, we will try to implement your suggestions; otherwise, it will probably come down to a kitchen window with a sill height. Of course, it’s hard to say in theory, but I don’t think I would miss the door in everyday life, so it's not a big deal to me if there isn’t a floor-to-ceiling window there. However, I would try to match the window size to the other south-facing windows, meaning the same dimensions but rotated (height of floor-to-ceiling window = width of window with sill, or width of floor-to-ceiling window = height of window with sill) so it doesn’t look too chaotic. From an aesthetic point of view, I actually liked that better in my sketch. It looks better than the original, in my opinion. Regarding the west elevation: yes, you’re right, the ground-floor windows are too much. I would prefer to keep it at three windows because the middle one (sliding door) would be a nice main access to the terrace since neither the living room furniture nor the dining table would be in the way here. There is plenty of space to comfortably get into the garden, so I’d rather have three windows than two, where we would probably have to squeeze around the dining table every day. Therefore, I think we will reduce the size of the left and right windows to about 1–1.5 meters (3–5 feet) and adjust the width of the windows in the children’s room and bedroom on the upper floor accordingly. Regarding the main concern about the walk-in closet window, we’ll have to see... I had already considered arranging the three large windows on the ground floor asymmetrically (spacing from the external wall and relative to each other) by shifting them so that the edge of the large terrace window lines up with the edge of the walk-in closet window. But I still need to work this out in more detail and then see whether it looks good or not. Or is it a no-go if the left and right windows don’t have exactly the same distance from the outer wall?
Thanks, it’s already worth a lot that the floor plan itself is not bad. We also spent a long time working on this floor plan; as I said, the basic structure came from us, and the structural engineer just made a few adjustments (wall thickness, etc.). Our mistake was that we first drew the floor plan without windows because we wanted to make sure the dimensions and layout were right first, and I always thought that the windows wouldn’t be so difficult and would just fall into place once everything else was set. Well, that was wrong: now the floor plan fits well, but the windows don’t quite integrate.
By the way, we like simple kitchens – our current kitchen is terrible, so I’m quite happy to have a nice, straightforward, “boring” kitchen in the house.
Thanks again. I’ll get back to you when we’ve experimented a bit more with the windows. Our designer is currently on annual leave, so we won’t have a chance to discuss the draft in detail with him for a few weeks. Maybe he’ll have some ideas then as well.
On the east side, we will try to reduce the variety of window sizes to make it look more uniform. Of course, the bathroom windows will need to be adjusted to the new plumbing layout. Giving the north window a size that is repeated elsewhere in the house is a good idea and certainly easy to do. For the south side, we will try to implement your suggestions; otherwise, it will probably come down to a kitchen window with a sill height. Of course, it’s hard to say in theory, but I don’t think I would miss the door in everyday life, so it's not a big deal to me if there isn’t a floor-to-ceiling window there. However, I would try to match the window size to the other south-facing windows, meaning the same dimensions but rotated (height of floor-to-ceiling window = width of window with sill, or width of floor-to-ceiling window = height of window with sill) so it doesn’t look too chaotic. From an aesthetic point of view, I actually liked that better in my sketch. It looks better than the original, in my opinion. Regarding the west elevation: yes, you’re right, the ground-floor windows are too much. I would prefer to keep it at three windows because the middle one (sliding door) would be a nice main access to the terrace since neither the living room furniture nor the dining table would be in the way here. There is plenty of space to comfortably get into the garden, so I’d rather have three windows than two, where we would probably have to squeeze around the dining table every day. Therefore, I think we will reduce the size of the left and right windows to about 1–1.5 meters (3–5 feet) and adjust the width of the windows in the children’s room and bedroom on the upper floor accordingly. Regarding the main concern about the walk-in closet window, we’ll have to see... I had already considered arranging the three large windows on the ground floor asymmetrically (spacing from the external wall and relative to each other) by shifting them so that the edge of the large terrace window lines up with the edge of the walk-in closet window. But I still need to work this out in more detail and then see whether it looks good or not. Or is it a no-go if the left and right windows don’t have exactly the same distance from the outer wall?
ypg schrieb:
Otherwise: all great (except the kitchen, which is too boring for me )
Thanks, it’s already worth a lot that the floor plan itself is not bad. We also spent a long time working on this floor plan; as I said, the basic structure came from us, and the structural engineer just made a few adjustments (wall thickness, etc.). Our mistake was that we first drew the floor plan without windows because we wanted to make sure the dimensions and layout were right first, and I always thought that the windows wouldn’t be so difficult and would just fall into place once everything else was set. Well, that was wrong: now the floor plan fits well, but the windows don’t quite integrate.
By the way, we like simple kitchens – our current kitchen is terrible, so I’m quite happy to have a nice, straightforward, “boring” kitchen in the house.
Thanks again. I’ll get back to you when we’ve experimented a bit more with the windows. Our designer is currently on annual leave, so we won’t have a chance to discuss the draft in detail with him for a few weeks. Maybe he’ll have some ideas then as well.
Hello!
Your house plan somehow reminds me of ours.
Here are a few things I would change:
- All living room windows should be floor-to-ceiling and only 2.01m (6.6 feet) wide. We did the same. That’s more than enough. I don’t see why one should be wider.
- Remove the short wall section in the living room.
- I would even skip the door to the kitchen. We preferred to place kitchen cabinets along the right wall of the plan. Otherwise, you will have little to no space for tall cabinets.
- Overall, I’m not happy with the layout upstairs. It looks like the study room is just squeezed in between the two kids’ rooms. Both kids’ rooms are quite small and planned with only narrow wardrobes. The upstairs bathroom is relatively large but also very difficult to furnish.
The dressing room window shouldn’t be a problem, though. We have a narrow window there (children’s bathroom), and all the others are 2m (6.6 feet) wide. Maybe a real photo will help you visualize it better:
Edit: Looking again at our design, I would definitely add a window to the garage/storage room.
Your house plan somehow reminds me of ours.
Here are a few things I would change:
- All living room windows should be floor-to-ceiling and only 2.01m (6.6 feet) wide. We did the same. That’s more than enough. I don’t see why one should be wider.
- Remove the short wall section in the living room.
- I would even skip the door to the kitchen. We preferred to place kitchen cabinets along the right wall of the plan. Otherwise, you will have little to no space for tall cabinets.
- Overall, I’m not happy with the layout upstairs. It looks like the study room is just squeezed in between the two kids’ rooms. Both kids’ rooms are quite small and planned with only narrow wardrobes. The upstairs bathroom is relatively large but also very difficult to furnish.
The dressing room window shouldn’t be a problem, though. We have a narrow window there (children’s bathroom), and all the others are 2m (6.6 feet) wide. Maybe a real photo will help you visualize it better:
Edit: Looking again at our design, I would definitely add a window to the garage/storage room.
Jochen, thank you for your response as well.
Jochen104 schrieb:All floor-to-ceiling windows are already on our list; we will definitely do that. Regarding the width, you might be right, and it’s something worth considering. It would also contribute to a more uniform appearance.
- All the living room windows are floor-to-ceiling and all only 2.01 m (6 ft 7 in) wide. We have the same. That’s more than enough. I don’t see why one should be wider.
Jochen104 schrieb:Yes, definitely. That’s already on our list as well. We will have sliding doors in the kitchen and living room, so this wall extension doesn’t make sense anymore.
- Remove the short wall in the living room.
Jochen104 schrieb:That’s not an option for us. It’s important for us to have a door to the kitchen and a door to the living room. I have already roughly planned the kitchen, and there should be enough space for everything even with the door.
- I would even omit the door to the kitchen. We prefer to place kitchen cabinets on the right-hand wall of the plan. Otherwise, you have little to no space for tall cabinets.
Jochen104 schrieb:Your criticisms are not unfounded, of course, but even if it makes me seem a bit stubborn, none of these issues really bother us. The home office ended up like this because we didn’t see where else to put it. Originally, we considered it on the ground floor, but then the large kitchen-dining area would have been too small. Upstairs, the office only fits where it is now, and we are very happy with that location. Everything basically depends on the landing staircase in the center of the house – but that is very important to us and ranks high on our “must-have” list. We already visited a show home with a very similar arrangement regarding the staircase, kids’ rooms, and the office, and we liked it a lot. So for us, this is completely acceptable. We might also follow kbt09’s suggestion and leave out the door between the kids’ room and the home office for now, as the office is just a “reserve” room in case we decide on a second child. The kids’ rooms are not very big, that’s true, but in our opinion, they aren’t too small. We’ve seen similarly sized rooms in new builds among acquaintances and find them perfectly acceptable. Of course, bigger is always nicer, but since we also want a large walk-in closet and a reasonably sized bathroom, that’s the trade-off. But even that doesn’t really bother us; nowadays, many houses have kids’ rooms around 12–14 m² (130–150 sq ft). The fact that the wardrobes in the kids’ rooms are actually rather narrow (somewhere between the two wardrobe widths in the walk-in closet) only occurred to me because of your remark, thanks for that. But that should be fixable by shifting the door in kid 2’s room a few centimeters (in line with the door to kid 1’s room) and moving the window in kid 1’s room slightly (we’re still working on the south elevation anyway). Arranging the bathroom is not so easy, that’s true, because it is rather narrow – but that is also due to the landing staircase, which, as I said, is a must-have for us. Still, I think it can work well. My revision of the bathroom layout already looks very good to us; a little more fine-tuning (and possibly swapping the bathtub and washbasin) and it should be perfect.
- In general, I don’t like the layout upstairs. It looks like the home office was just squeezed in between the two kids’ rooms. The two kids’ rooms are very small and are only planned with narrow wardrobes. The bathroom upstairs is relatively large but also very difficult to arrange.
Jochen104 schrieb:Thank you so much for the photo; it really helps me visualize it much better, and I have to say, it doesn’t look bad. However, you also have floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere upstairs, which I should consider for our design; I’m worried about kid 1’s room, which isn’t very big and would then have floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides, which of course reduces options for furniture placement (e.g., a desk)… we’ll see. Regarding a window in the storage room, we also thought about it but then felt it might take up useful space and might not be necessary. Do you think we should install the window? We’re still undecided and will reconsider. The advantage would be that the storage room wouldn’t be so pitch dark.
The walk-in closet window shouldn’t be a problem. We have a narrow window there as well (children’s bathroom) and the others are all 2 m (6 ft 7 in) wide. Maybe you can imagine it better with an actual picture:
I find it quite practical when part of a wardrobe is only 40cm (16 inches) deep. You should keep in mind how much you hang (for that you need 60cm (24 inches) depth) and how much you store in drawers or shelves. Personally, it annoys me when wardrobes where I keep T-shirts, sweaters, socks, underwear, etc., are that deep. You never really need it. I’d rather have more running meters of wardrobe with only 40cm (16 inches) depth. That way, you can easily reach the items. Looking at it now: we have 4m (13 feet) of wardrobe, no walk-in closet yet (planned for the new build), and a continuous depth of 60cm (24 inches). That works great for hanging clothes, but for everything else, I would personally prefer shallower shelves that are not too high—more boards or, even better, drawers. Right now I pile up high stacks of T-shirts because with 60cm (24 inches) depth, the shelf height can’t be too low (otherwise it’s hard to reach items at the back), yet I have about 25cm (10 inches) of free space in front of the unstable piles. Eventually, you start stacking in a second row. Not ideal. I’d rather have shallower shelves where everything is easy to reach at the front.
But if you prefer to hang a lot and fold less, the ratio of 60cm to 40cm depth should reflect that.
My T-shirts are folded, so I need shelves accordingly. Those who prefer to hang them need more 60cm (24 inches) deep wardrobes.
In the kitchen, I would leave out the door and instead make the patio door at the dining area double-sized—or even larger. I think that would also improve the exterior appearance on the south side. In return, this side could be fitted with kitchen cabinets (this was mentioned here before, I believe). Instead of the door, for example, you could have windows or a strip of daylight above the countertop, possibly wider than the planned patio door (I would extend it across the entire length of the countertop). This would provide more light and be more useful.
Home office: I also find the rooms upstairs not particularly spacious. How often do you use the office? If it's only used occasionally and mostly for paperwork storage, you might consider moving it to the basement (do you have one? Not sure now) and giving more space to the children's rooms.
Bathroom: T-shaped layouts are usually great but not always the best solution. Here, compared to the currently planned sinks, you have an entire wall free that is not being utilized. I would include that space. Either put the sinks there or the toilet, etc. I personally wouldn’t like the toilet as it is now, right next to the door.
But if you prefer to hang a lot and fold less, the ratio of 60cm to 40cm depth should reflect that.
My T-shirts are folded, so I need shelves accordingly. Those who prefer to hang them need more 60cm (24 inches) deep wardrobes.
In the kitchen, I would leave out the door and instead make the patio door at the dining area double-sized—or even larger. I think that would also improve the exterior appearance on the south side. In return, this side could be fitted with kitchen cabinets (this was mentioned here before, I believe). Instead of the door, for example, you could have windows or a strip of daylight above the countertop, possibly wider than the planned patio door (I would extend it across the entire length of the countertop). This would provide more light and be more useful.
Home office: I also find the rooms upstairs not particularly spacious. How often do you use the office? If it's only used occasionally and mostly for paperwork storage, you might consider moving it to the basement (do you have one? Not sure now) and giving more space to the children's rooms.
Bathroom: T-shaped layouts are usually great but not always the best solution. Here, compared to the currently planned sinks, you have an entire wall free that is not being utilized. I would include that space. Either put the sinks there or the toilet, etc. I personally wouldn’t like the toilet as it is now, right next to the door.
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