Hello everyone,
we are a German-American family with three young children.
Here you can see our very first floor plan attempt.
We haven’t spoken to any architect yet; this is just the basic house model from ProHaus that we chose (including the exterior walls). The interior layout is entirely our own idea (so this is just the first try).
“Up” (where the garden and bay window are) is west, right is north, down is east, left is south.
The garage is on the property line (which is allowed).
Unfortunately, the software didn’t show me the exact wall dimensions, but I can tell you the house measures 8.48m x 10.30m (28ft x 34ft).
The knee wall height on the north and south sides is 1.60m (5 ft 3 in).
The wall thicknesses as well as all furniture (except those in the utility room) are carefully measured and were entered accordingly (it’s just not visible in the program). The square meter figures are correct.
For the staircase on the upper floor, there is obviously no wall in front of it. The software didn’t let me change that.
What must absolutely stay:
- No basement (decided after long discussions)
- An additional entrance through the garage (my American husband insisted on this)
- The staircase in the living area (we want to keep all hallways as small as possible and simply find it much cozier – of course, it’s a matter of taste). The staircase is open underneath, so there is space for bookshelves, etc.
- The glass bay window on the ground floor in the living room, which should have access to the garden
- The gable sides facing the street and the garden (this is required by the municipality, relating to the building permit / planning permission)
- All bedrooms on the upper floor (this is important for us as a family; we want to stay together and not be separated)
- The rooms themselves (meaning which rooms there are). Their sizes and exact locations can of course be changed
-- We need the three children’s rooms. I know they are quite small, but we think it’s more important that each child has their own personal space, especially as they grow older. Their bedrooms in our current apartment are much smaller.
-- Two bathrooms. We think this is practical because eventually, there will be five people needing a bathroom at the same time. No shower on the ground floor.
-- One bathroom & a walk-in closet that are only accessible from the master bedroom (again, the American style)
- The master bedroom can remain fairly small, maybe a bit bigger, but not much. We only sleep there and don’t care about size, as long as the bed fits.
- The storage room downstairs is intended for toy boxes, etc., to keep the children’s rooms less cluttered.
What we are not 100% happy with yet:
On the ground floor:
- My biggest problem: the utility room. 5.62 m² (60 sq ft) – is that really enough?
What needs / should fit in:
air source heat pump, hot water tank, ion exchanger (to remove lime scale from the water), laundry basket for dirty clothes, washing machine, dryer (stacked if necessary), if possible a sink for dirty boots, etc. (since this is also our entrance). Is the space enough? If not, how can I improve it?
- Kitchen is 12.03 m² (130 sq ft). Is that enough for five people? I know there is no wall between the kitchen and living room, but isn’t it a bit small? Or is it sufficient considering there is a pantry for supplies? The island has to stay; again, that’s our American influence.
- The bay window. Is it well positioned in the “middle” of the living room? Or should I move it all the way to the left? (Though the decorative fireplace is in the left corner). The door inside the bay window area can be moved individually, so it could be positioned so people don’t have to squeeze past the dining table – but this doesn’t really bother us anyway.
- The hallway still feels too large to me. (Not the part left towards the WC—there’s the coat closet there—but more the long one going from the entrance to the living room). What do you think?
On the upper floor:
- The children’s rooms. For “Child 1,” I don’t like the offset wall very much. (For “Child 3,” I think it’s okay; a wardrobe fits nicely there, saving space).
- Master bathroom. I would like it to be around 9 m² (97 sq ft). But how? The bathtub and so on are moved away from the exterior wall because cupboards (built-in shelves) are planned in the wall, and I would have to add another wall. I can’t do that on the exterior wall, can I? Or is that possible?
- Walk-in closet. I measured the dimensions today (2.25m x 1.12m / 7 ft 4 in x 3 ft 8 in) by using blankets on the floor and boxes as wardrobes (Pax units 60 cm (24 in) deep). There is still around 75 cm (30 in) of walking space, which is okay (of course, to open a drawer you have to stand to the side, but that’s fine—I don’t intend to live in there, just get my clothes in the morning). Still, bigger would be nicer.
Besides that, I’m completely open to entirely new floor plan ideas as long as the main requirements above can largely be maintained. I find everything a bit complicated and somehow crowded.
Some rooms are still too narrow or not very straightforward.
Do you have better ideas or great solutions? Good suggestions?
It doesn’t help me if someone just says “everything is bad.” What I need is someone who tells me how to solve it better.
Our neighbors have three bedrooms upstairs (I attached their floor plan as OGneighbors – unfortunately drawn quickly and roughly in Paint). Of course, all bedrooms have doors leading to the hallway (including Child 2’s). To me, their master bedroom is too large, but the bathroom and walk-in closet are nicely sized. But how can I place the staircase in the middle without it blocking the ground floor layout?
Maybe someone here is super creative and can show me completely new possibilities I haven’t thought of yet or convince me to go in the opposite direction?
I would really appreciate that.
Thank you very much and best regards,
Anya
we are a German-American family with three young children.
Here you can see our very first floor plan attempt.
We haven’t spoken to any architect yet; this is just the basic house model from ProHaus that we chose (including the exterior walls). The interior layout is entirely our own idea (so this is just the first try).
“Up” (where the garden and bay window are) is west, right is north, down is east, left is south.
The garage is on the property line (which is allowed).
Unfortunately, the software didn’t show me the exact wall dimensions, but I can tell you the house measures 8.48m x 10.30m (28ft x 34ft).
The knee wall height on the north and south sides is 1.60m (5 ft 3 in).
The wall thicknesses as well as all furniture (except those in the utility room) are carefully measured and were entered accordingly (it’s just not visible in the program). The square meter figures are correct.
For the staircase on the upper floor, there is obviously no wall in front of it. The software didn’t let me change that.
What must absolutely stay:
- No basement (decided after long discussions)
- An additional entrance through the garage (my American husband insisted on this)
- The staircase in the living area (we want to keep all hallways as small as possible and simply find it much cozier – of course, it’s a matter of taste). The staircase is open underneath, so there is space for bookshelves, etc.
- The glass bay window on the ground floor in the living room, which should have access to the garden
- The gable sides facing the street and the garden (this is required by the municipality, relating to the building permit / planning permission)
- All bedrooms on the upper floor (this is important for us as a family; we want to stay together and not be separated)
- The rooms themselves (meaning which rooms there are). Their sizes and exact locations can of course be changed
-- We need the three children’s rooms. I know they are quite small, but we think it’s more important that each child has their own personal space, especially as they grow older. Their bedrooms in our current apartment are much smaller.
-- Two bathrooms. We think this is practical because eventually, there will be five people needing a bathroom at the same time. No shower on the ground floor.
-- One bathroom & a walk-in closet that are only accessible from the master bedroom (again, the American style)
- The master bedroom can remain fairly small, maybe a bit bigger, but not much. We only sleep there and don’t care about size, as long as the bed fits.
- The storage room downstairs is intended for toy boxes, etc., to keep the children’s rooms less cluttered.
What we are not 100% happy with yet:
On the ground floor:
- My biggest problem: the utility room. 5.62 m² (60 sq ft) – is that really enough?
What needs / should fit in:
air source heat pump, hot water tank, ion exchanger (to remove lime scale from the water), laundry basket for dirty clothes, washing machine, dryer (stacked if necessary), if possible a sink for dirty boots, etc. (since this is also our entrance). Is the space enough? If not, how can I improve it?
- Kitchen is 12.03 m² (130 sq ft). Is that enough for five people? I know there is no wall between the kitchen and living room, but isn’t it a bit small? Or is it sufficient considering there is a pantry for supplies? The island has to stay; again, that’s our American influence.
- The bay window. Is it well positioned in the “middle” of the living room? Or should I move it all the way to the left? (Though the decorative fireplace is in the left corner). The door inside the bay window area can be moved individually, so it could be positioned so people don’t have to squeeze past the dining table – but this doesn’t really bother us anyway.
- The hallway still feels too large to me. (Not the part left towards the WC—there’s the coat closet there—but more the long one going from the entrance to the living room). What do you think?
On the upper floor:
- The children’s rooms. For “Child 1,” I don’t like the offset wall very much. (For “Child 3,” I think it’s okay; a wardrobe fits nicely there, saving space).
- Master bathroom. I would like it to be around 9 m² (97 sq ft). But how? The bathtub and so on are moved away from the exterior wall because cupboards (built-in shelves) are planned in the wall, and I would have to add another wall. I can’t do that on the exterior wall, can I? Or is that possible?
- Walk-in closet. I measured the dimensions today (2.25m x 1.12m / 7 ft 4 in x 3 ft 8 in) by using blankets on the floor and boxes as wardrobes (Pax units 60 cm (24 in) deep). There is still around 75 cm (30 in) of walking space, which is okay (of course, to open a drawer you have to stand to the side, but that’s fine—I don’t intend to live in there, just get my clothes in the morning). Still, bigger would be nicer.
Besides that, I’m completely open to entirely new floor plan ideas as long as the main requirements above can largely be maintained. I find everything a bit complicated and somehow crowded.
Some rooms are still too narrow or not very straightforward.
Do you have better ideas or great solutions? Good suggestions?
It doesn’t help me if someone just says “everything is bad.” What I need is someone who tells me how to solve it better.
Our neighbors have three bedrooms upstairs (I attached their floor plan as OGneighbors – unfortunately drawn quickly and roughly in Paint). Of course, all bedrooms have doors leading to the hallway (including Child 2’s). To me, their master bedroom is too large, but the bathroom and walk-in closet are nicely sized. But how can I place the staircase in the middle without it blocking the ground floor layout?
Maybe someone here is super creative and can show me completely new possibilities I haven’t thought of yet or convince me to go in the opposite direction?
I would really appreciate that.
Thank you very much and best regards,
Anya
kbt09 schrieb:
Here is the guide for dimensioning with Roomsketcher:
......
@ypg .. I hope the link is okay.No, you can also send it via private message.
Alright, then there is no link .. you can find it with 2 search terms anyway ...
@anya .. I still see an issue .. with a knee wall of 160cm (63 inches), windows in the walls will end at about 145cm (57 inches) at the top edge, while roof windows will only start at about 170cm (67 inches). So neither option really works well.
@anya .. I still see an issue .. with a knee wall of 160cm (63 inches), windows in the walls will end at about 145cm (57 inches) at the top edge, while roof windows will only start at about 170cm (67 inches). So neither option really works well.
This is something that just won’t let me rest.
@Anya., are you sure that your floor plan matches the external dimensions of 10.30 x 8.48 m (33.8 x 27.8 ft)? I’ve made an attempt now. First, here are the area measurements from my results:
The living area was calculated according to the rules for spaces under 200 cm (79 inches) height.
As I already mentioned, there is the issue with windows on the upper floor where the knee wall height is 160 cm (63 inches). Here is the southeast elevation with a floor-to-ceiling window in Child’s Room 2… I had originally indicated a window height of 145 cm (57 inches). As you can see, that’s already too high since the roof beams would be visible there. So, no more than 135 cm (53 inches) in height will be visible. On the other hand, roof windows only start bringing light into the rooms from a minimum height of about 160 cm (63 inches) on the inside.
On the other side, in the planned stairwell area, there is also a window with a 0 cm (0 inch) sill height and 80 cm (31 inches) window height from the upper floor perspective; the view looks like this:
Then I tried to implement your specifications. However, I enlarged the utility room to also use it as a storage area, including space for a washing machine and dryer. Something like a pantry with space for a vacuum cleaner under the stairs accessible from the kitchen.
A sofa placed in the middle of the room with a walkway area, space for a kitchen island, and enough distance to the TV doesn’t seem feasible to me with a room width of 775 cm (305 inches). Therefore, I took a somewhat different approach, which also somewhat privatizes the living area. For example, the dining table is drawn in at 90 x 180 cm (35 x 71 inches). The kitchen island is about 120 x 120 cm (47 x 47 inches).
For the upper floor, I had the same idea as @Manu1976. Walk-in closet in the center, bedroom to the right facing north so that the southern sun doesn’t overheat the room. Room depth here is 305 cm (120 inches)… the bed with an outside frame dimension of about 175 cm (69 inches)… as you can see, it still won’t be very large.
The children’s bathroom now only has a small corner shower.
For Child 2, only roof windows and this knee wall window are possible. Unfortunately, I’m still not satisfied with this. A clever idea is still missing on how to improve the upper floor layout here.
As I said... I have the impression that something is not quite right with your measurements.
@Anya., are you sure that your floor plan matches the external dimensions of 10.30 x 8.48 m (33.8 x 27.8 ft)? I’ve made an attempt now. First, here are the area measurements from my results:
The living area was calculated according to the rules for spaces under 200 cm (79 inches) height.
As I already mentioned, there is the issue with windows on the upper floor where the knee wall height is 160 cm (63 inches). Here is the southeast elevation with a floor-to-ceiling window in Child’s Room 2… I had originally indicated a window height of 145 cm (57 inches). As you can see, that’s already too high since the roof beams would be visible there. So, no more than 135 cm (53 inches) in height will be visible. On the other hand, roof windows only start bringing light into the rooms from a minimum height of about 160 cm (63 inches) on the inside.
On the other side, in the planned stairwell area, there is also a window with a 0 cm (0 inch) sill height and 80 cm (31 inches) window height from the upper floor perspective; the view looks like this:
Then I tried to implement your specifications. However, I enlarged the utility room to also use it as a storage area, including space for a washing machine and dryer. Something like a pantry with space for a vacuum cleaner under the stairs accessible from the kitchen.
A sofa placed in the middle of the room with a walkway area, space for a kitchen island, and enough distance to the TV doesn’t seem feasible to me with a room width of 775 cm (305 inches). Therefore, I took a somewhat different approach, which also somewhat privatizes the living area. For example, the dining table is drawn in at 90 x 180 cm (35 x 71 inches). The kitchen island is about 120 x 120 cm (47 x 47 inches).
For the upper floor, I had the same idea as @Manu1976. Walk-in closet in the center, bedroom to the right facing north so that the southern sun doesn’t overheat the room. Room depth here is 305 cm (120 inches)… the bed with an outside frame dimension of about 175 cm (69 inches)… as you can see, it still won’t be very large.
The children’s bathroom now only has a small corner shower.
For Child 2, only roof windows and this knee wall window are possible. Unfortunately, I’m still not satisfied with this. A clever idea is still missing on how to improve the upper floor layout here.
As I said... I have the impression that something is not quite right with your measurements.
Well, unfortunately, I can only agree with the previous comments. From experience, I know how hard it is to let go of a self-created floor plan. But there are quite a few issues here that a layperson simply cannot manage from a planning perspective, given the construction restrictions (e.g., zoning plan). Don’t hesitate to invest money in a competent architect instead of spending time and nerves!
This will definitely do you more good than getting frustrated over inadequate floor plans!
Good luck with everything, best regards
This will definitely do you more good than getting frustrated over inadequate floor plans!
Good luck with everything, best regards
We have the same room layout as you for 5 people and were not able to fit all the rooms on these two floors within 10.8 x 10.2 m (35.4 x 33.5 ft).
So, we added another story on top (without knee walls).
Are you able to build higher? For example, could you use the attic for 1–2 rooms?
So, we added another story on top (without knee walls).
Are you able to build higher? For example, could you use the attic for 1–2 rooms?
Milkie’s idea isn’t bad. You could create a children’s area on the upper floor with three bedrooms, a bathroom, and possibly even the office. Then, up in the attic, you could set up a cozy space with a bedroom, dressing room, and your bathroom. This way, if the office moves upstairs, you’d free up space on the ground floor again for other uses, such as storage or more room for living and dining.
However, this also depends on the building permit / planning permission. If that’s not possible due to the eaves height or similar restrictions, you’ll need to come up with another solution.
However, this also depends on the building permit / planning permission. If that’s not possible due to the eaves height or similar restrictions, you’ll need to come up with another solution.
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