ᐅ Floor plan is finalized – any suggestions for improvements?

Hello to all the great idea contributors,

A little about us: I’m 29, my wife is 26, and we are planning to start building our house in December (timber frame construction). We already have a floor plan that suits us. (Please share any ideas or suggestions for improvements). What we aren’t quite happy with yet is the large flat roof valley between the two pitched roofs. However, we want to keep the full ceiling height in the bathroom.

Maybe someone has some ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Best regards,
Carsten

I like the floor plan and the house overall. It's a pity that not all the dimensions are readable (perhaps upload it again as a PDF).

However, one thing I definitely wouldn’t do is place the bathtub in the master bathroom in front of the window. That would severely limit the use of the window.

Regarding the wardrobe... will you be using the space under the stairs? Otherwise, it might be a bit small and could especially restrict the curved area there.

How do you plan to access the attic space above the garage? Pull-down stairs? Overall, I think the garage layout is well thought out.

I don’t really have any ideas for the roof. But that’s really a job for a professional and not something a layperson like me can solve.

Unfortunately, I can’t quite decipher the measurements, but at first glance, there are several points that (as a non-expert) I wouldn’t like:

- Why is there a recess in the guest toilet? That space can’t be used efficiently.
- If the rooms are already going to be divided this way, I would probably “cut off” the corner of the office with a 45° wall and move the door closer to the toilet, hoping to create a cloakroom right next to the stairs. Alternatively, moving the toilet wall closer to the office wall could provide more space inside the toilet.
- I would remove or move the closet in the hallway and instead install a door. This way, the path from the couch to the toilet wouldn’t be so long. Also, it would be quite annoying to have to walk so far from the door to the cloakroom, bringing dirt far into the house. You would always have to cross this path to get to the toilet...
- The space for the dining table is limited due to the TV wall panel. You shouldn’t expect to accommodate many guests at once.
- The passages through the wall panel might be a bit narrow.

- The passages in the bathroom between the shower/wall and bathtub/shower could be somewhat tight.
- The space for the toilet in the master bathroom isn’t very generous either.
- The walk-in closet space needs to be carefully calculated to see how much room remains after plastering! It looks very tight with two rows of wardrobes each 60cm (24 inches) deep. Alternatively, one row could be only 40cm (16 inches) deep for folded clothes.
- Kids’ bathroom: children grow up, and the low height of the toilet might cause problems later on.

I found that if you copy the graphic, you can enlarge it in an image program like Irfanview so that the dimensions become readable.

The recess for the toilet is probably mainly to make the entrance more spacious. Otherwise, it would be quite tight there. Also, I would definitely plan to fully use the space under the stairs for the wardrobe. About 100 cm (40 inches) wide, there should be room for some kind of pull-out shoe cabinet, plus another 150 cm (60 inches) or so for a closet with angled doors. I quickly sketched it into the cross-section:

Where the wardrobe is currently drawn, you could place a narrow cabinet as a small shelf. Or simply install some coat hooks for guests.

And it's true, the wall panel for the TV could also be moved 70 to 100 cm (28 to 40 inches) further down according to the plan. Especially if there will actually be seating at the island.

Closet room for the parents... that’s how I would describe it... 234 cm (92 inches) wide. Ikea Pax wardrobes with sliding doors are about 66 cm (26 inches) deep, so they would fit exactly on both sides of the window. After plastering, they might protrude about 1 cm (0.4 inches) into the window line on each side. The hallway width would still be about 98 cm (39 inches). What I would leave out are the dividing walls to the parents’ anteroom, because otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to fit 300 cm (118 inches) wardrobes on each side.

Regarding the toilet and shower in the master bathroom, the door openings should be about 70 to 75 cm (28 to 30 inches) wide, which is actually sufficient. In the kids’ bathroom, it would be possible to move the toilet slightly out of the roof slope. However, I would omit any privacy panels there. They make such a small bathroom feel cramped and are absolutely unnecessary.

@kbt09 I think I also like the idea of a closet under the stairs. And there is no plaster in the dressing room because it is a prefab house, so the wall thicknesses are as per the prefab dimensions. I also believe it’s better to leave out the wall towards the entrance hallway. Actually, I planned to install cabinets myself there (since I’m a carpenter). As for the dining table, well, it was actually supposed to be rotated 90° to stand there.

I would still consider moving the wall panel further into the living area. You really don’t need the full 470 cm (185 inches) there. Also, if you rotate the table, the passages toward the island and the wall panel will become even narrower. So I would position the dining table as shown on the drawing.

If you are a carpenter, I would suggest designing the cabinets under the door like pantry cabinets about 90 to 100 cm (35 to 40 inches) deep, but equipped with coat rods, etc. At least the two on the left. The cabinet on the right could have some shelves for hats, scarves, shopping baskets, and so on. The drawer unit for shoes can be made a bit deeper, around 70 to 80 cm (27 to 31 inches), to make the most of the space under the staircase.