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)
---------------------------------------------
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 for your feedback.
I assume you mean the west side (garden side)? We actually like it because it helps to mask the fact that the window in the dressing room is very narrow and off-center. That was the idea behind it. Whether we ultimately go with it remains to be decided when the time comes – and that will be quite a while. For now, we’ll see how the windows look in reality.
We have thought about that, and we actually saw something similar in a show home and liked it. However, we’re not yet sure whether there will be tall wardrobes or just chests of drawers on that side of the dressing room, so we left it out for now.
We actually really like the peninsula. It’s the kitchen layout we like best, so we’ll probably stick with it. A smaller island (not a peninsula) would mean less storage space, and our kitchen isn’t very large anyway. But everyone has their own taste. For example, I don’t like U- or L-shaped kitchens, but they have plenty of fans. Everyone has their preferences.
Thanks again.
Karlstraße schrieb:
But please remove that gray box around the windows on the south side – what is that supposed to be? Trying to suggest some kind of light band? It’s neither here nor there, I would skip it.
I assume you mean the west side (garden side)? We actually like it because it helps to mask the fact that the window in the dressing room is very narrow and off-center. That was the idea behind it. Whether we ultimately go with it remains to be decided when the time comes – and that will be quite a while. For now, we’ll see how the windows look in reality.
Karlstraße schrieb:
Maybe add a small wall in the dressing room right inside the entrance, so you don’t look straight at a wardrobe wall but could, for example, hang a mirror there. Unless you don’t plan to put any tall wardrobes there, then it’s a different matter.
We have thought about that, and we actually saw something similar in a show home and liked it. However, we’re not yet sure whether there will be tall wardrobes or just chests of drawers on that side of the dressing room, so we left it out for now.
Karlstraße schrieb:
Oh, and regarding the kitchen, I would maybe consider a freestanding kitchen island, more square-shaped and placed in the middle. I find that nicer than the layout you drew. That’s exactly what we have now in our rental, and I don’t find it practical or attractive.
We actually really like the peninsula. It’s the kitchen layout we like best, so we’ll probably stick with it. A smaller island (not a peninsula) would mean less storage space, and our kitchen isn’t very large anyway. But everyone has their own taste. For example, I don’t like U- or L-shaped kitchens, but they have plenty of fans. Everyone has their preferences.
Thanks again.
@ypg
Look, this is very similar...
The bathroom is about the same size, but in my floor plan, the drywall partition of the shower wasn’t taken into account or deducted.
That alone would save just a little bit of floor area and maybe gain a few centimeters more for the bedroom... just a small amount, but gradually, perhaps.
Look, this is very similar...
The bathroom is about the same size, but in my floor plan, the drywall partition of the shower wasn’t taken into account or deducted.
That alone would save just a little bit of floor area and maybe gain a few centimeters more for the bedroom... just a small amount, but gradually, perhaps.
VIVS.29 schrieb:
a bit less floor spaceOuch. I hadn’t heard of a spelling reform for Ancient Greek until now ;-)https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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