ᐅ Planning Living Space and Kitchen for a Semi-Detached House in Nuremberg

Hello everyone,

I’d like to introduce myself briefly. My name is Sascha, and my partner and I will soon be building a semi-detached house in Nuremberg (we are still waiting for the building permit / planning permission).

Now to my issue:
The floor plan is mostly finalized, but we haven’t yet agreed on the layout of the living area on the ground floor, including the open kitchen.

Currently, we have two options:

Option 1: small kitchen, small dining table, large living room

Option 2: large open-plan kitchen with large dining table, and a small living room

For your information, here are the planned room dimensions

I’m curious about your thoughts:
What advantages and/or disadvantages do you see?
Which would you prefer? Why?
Do you have any positive or negative experiences with a similar layout?

Thanks in advance for your help. I’m looking forward to your answers.

Best regards,
Sascha

I find option 1 more appealing because it feels more spacious. But why not place the sofa in front of the large patio door and put the TV cabinet where you have the refrigerator and oven in option 2? That way, you would still have space for a large table on the shorter side.

Option 2 feels cramped in every aspect. A width of 2.80 meters (9 feet) is just barely enough for a table with chairs. If someone needs to pass by while guests are seated and possibly carrying something, it becomes very tight.

For your floor plan, I also think it would be practical if the entrance to the living area wasn’t located on the long narrow side. I would suggest chamfering the corner to create a 45-degree wall and planning the door there. This would give you a much greater sense of space in the living room.

Hello Manu,

Thanks first of all for your response.

In option 2, the dining area actually measures 3.4m (11 feet), otherwise I agree with you that in option 1 the living room feels more spacious, but I find the dining table and kitchen a bit too cramped. In option 2, it’s the other way around; the living room is squished into 3.4m (11 feet).

We definitely wanted to include the 45° wall in option 1, mainly because it changes the sense of space when sitting on the sofa. Unfortunately, I forgot to include it in the floor plan.

Installing a door in the 45° wall is a nice idea, but that wall will probably not be longer than 0.5m (20 inches), otherwise we would block access to the basement from the hallway (which I also didn’t indicate, but it runs parallel to the stairs shown in white).

I had also suggested placing the sofa in front of the current large patio door, but my partner didn’t like that at all. She really wants the light from the two large floor-to-ceiling doors/windows and doesn’t want to block it with the sofa.

By the way, the floor plans show west at the top and on the left side (the south side) the adjacent semi-detached house is located.

Best regards,
Sascha

How exactly do you currently use or plan to use the different areas? Think about where and how you spend your time right now.

I would prefer the second option for the following reasons:
1. We spend much more time in the kitchen and need more space there. Even when guests are over, we usually stay in the kitchen at the dining table rather than in the living room.
2. The terrace is probably at the back, right? Then the path to it from the kitchen is shorter and therefore cleaner!
However, I would arrange the kitchen furniture differently.
3. In your case, I think a small living room is more than enough. There’s enough space for watching TV in the evening or reading a book. A distance of 3.4m (11 feet) from the sofa to the TV is perfectly fine. In the long term, I might consider a slightly smaller sofa setup, but otherwise it’s totally fine.
4. Do you have kids? With my layout (and also the other kitchen option), there would even be space between the sofa and dining table for playing.

Hello Kisska,

Thank you for your reply.
Yes, the terrace is at the back, and I see that as one of the advantages of option 2 since we like to grill and eat outside in the summer.

There are no children yet, but they should be planned for.
I would be very interested in your layout with a different kitchen. Maybe you could briefly describe it?

Hello Sascha,

A completely different question:

How about simply leaving out the wall between the staircase and the living room?

Since it looks quite thin (compared to the other walls on the plan), it probably isn’t load-bearing.

If there’s an option to add a small entrance vestibule in front of the front door, I would even consider removing the wall between the hallway and living area.

This way, you would gain a significant increase in living space at the expense of the current circulation area…

If the walls are to remain as they are, I would personally prefer option 1, at least for reasons related to sunlight exposure.

Best regards,

Dirk