ᐅ New single-family house, 140 m² floor plan. What do you think about the layout?

Hello everyone,

We have now made a final decision on this floor plan.
It will be a single-family house (gable roof) with 142m² (1,528 sq ft) of living space, without a basement.
Before we proceed, I would like to ask for your opinion.
Do you think the layout is practical as it is, or would you suggest any improvements?
We will handle the interior finishing ourselves.

Basement:

- The furniture looks quite small to me. The passage areas inside the house will probably be significantly smaller than they appear in the picture.

- A table for 4 people in the kitchen at that size. Here too, I think it’s somewhat overly optimistic.

Upper floor:

- The window in the walk-in closet? How much wardrobe space will fit in there without blocking it?

- The bathtub placed in the corner? How large is the clearance between it and the sink?

- The children’s room with the bay window section. Although it has over 14sqm (150 sq ft), which is a usable size, the bay window turns it into a “narrow corridor.” Where is the wardrobe supposed to go without bumping into it?
The other children’s room is fine. The space there is usable.

..

The bay window does add square meters but, according to this plan, it is not really functional anywhere. Neither on the ground floor nor on the upper floor.

Just my opinion.

Ground Floor:

In my opinion, the utility room is much too large. I would remove the window there and move the wall adjoining the kitchen slightly down to make the kitchen bigger. Additionally, I would remove the kitchen wall leading to the living room so you have a nice large open-plan living and dining area. The door from the hallway to the living room can remain if you want to avoid being disturbed while eating when children come home with their friends and retreat to the kids’ room.

Top Floor:

The window in the dressing room definitely needs to be removed. Otherwise, only a 2-meter (6.5 feet) wardrobe can fit inside, and there is no space to change clothes.

If you want a freestanding bathtub, I would place it accordingly. However, cleaning behind the tub might be tricky.

The bay window in the children’s room is also questionable. In general, this room lacks space for both a wardrobe and a desk if the child wants to do homework. Overall, the top floor is somewhat oddly designed.

Where should the wardrobe go? Unfortunately, I don’t see any space for it.
I would remove or straighten the angled doors on the ground floor.
Remove the door from the hallway to the living room and ideally the wall to the kitchen. If the wall is desired, there should be access to the kitchen from the living room. The door will usually remain open anyway.

Upstairs, the walk-in closet is very tight. How many cabinets can actually fit there?
Also, I would be interested in seeing a view of this bay window.
And definitely straighten the bathtub in the bathroom. Otherwise, it becomes difficult to get to the toilet once someone is standing at the sink, and everything feels cramped.

We have now made a final decision on this floor plan.

Have you made a final decision now, or is there still room for changes? If changes are still possible, I would definitely recommend making some.

This looks like a typical Frisian gable catalog floor plan, doesn’t it?

I definitely agree with the previous commenters: the furniture sizes are way too small, which doesn’t help at all. For example, the sofas in the living room are ridiculously small in terms of dimensions.
Overall, I’m not very impressed with the layout. It starts right at the entrance. You open the door and have to squeeze past the stairs just to be able to close the front door again. The staircase situation upstairs is even worse. The hallway space is practically cut in half by the unfortunate central placement of the stairs. What are you planning to do with the unused space on the lower side of the stairs on the upper floor?
As Italiano already mentioned, the wall between the kitchen and living room is actually unnecessary. It would be better to have a counter or breakfast bar there that also provides additional cabinet space for the kitchen, since the existing storage is quite limited.

I don’t find the utility room too large. However, it really depends on what kind of heating system you will install. For example, if you have a gas heating system, where will the boiler be located? From experience, the attic is often not the best place due to noise and pump issues.

The bathroom layout is not really to my taste, but that is a matter of personal preference. You should ask yourself how often you take a bath versus a shower, and therefore how to design it for convenience. How often do you use the sinks (usually very often)? Why are both sinks squeezed together, and where do you keep towels when you are standing at the sink?

Oh, and where exactly is north (left side?) and what’s the rest of the plot and surroundings like? What needs to be considered? Is it a sloping lot? Where is the street? Trees, sunlight, carport, annoying neighbors 🙂 and so on?

I believe having a bathtub is a must. We mostly shower ourselves, but a bathtub is essential, especially with small children. Even when selling the house, I would say it’s difficult to find a buyer without a bathtub. Additionally, having a shower on the ground floor is also useful, although there is no space for it in this current design.