Good morning! Mine is 20 x25, but about 4-5 ft. all the way around is walk way space, since nothing is against the walls.

Mine is 18x19 and I would make it bigger if I were to ever build again.

Ours is 24 x 20. Lots of french doors and arched openings. Opened to kitchen also. Furniture floats for the most part but there are a few pieces against the walls.

20x18 and I wish it were 2 to 3 feet larger both ways. Our main furniture is floating with space to walk around. Our kitchen is open and barstools sit in the livingroom as well which takes up about 3 feet (with someone seated). Best thing you can do is get some graph paper and place your furniture in the space. figure our what works then add 2 feet.

We are currently building our house and our plans call for a 17' x 17' great room. We will also have a fireplace. One thing we did was specify a flush hearth so that we won't have to lose floor space to a raised one.

23x18...dont know if I like it, as we have not broke ground yet!

Ours is 27x18 and I really like it. I guess it could have another couple feet on the 18ft but it's fine as it is. We have a 3ft walkway on one side but the other there is a couch essentially up against the wall so you can't walk behind it. I might be able to rearrange and get a walk way there but it's not really needed so I haven't bothered.

I will say our 27ft length gives us about 3 ft from the raised hearth to the furniture, 2 chairs, then a sofa, then my desk is behind the sofa w/ a walkway between the desk & the wall. So basically if I didn't have this desk here the room would be a little long in my opinion.

Our great room is 36.5 x 32. Almost no wall space as it is filled with windows, french doors, built-ins etc. It leads into kitchen through archways. The kitchen is another 600 sq. ft. So together it is fairly impressive. We are moving from 2200 sq. ft. total. We have 9 children still at home so this is a cozy room for us. I can't wait. We have been building for 2 years and I absolutely am ready. We have about a month to go. This is definitely our dream home and I am so thankful.

Almost identical to jennekay: 28x18, and rather wish the 18 were 20 or 22.

I'm not moved in yet, but I plan to place the couch out about 3 ft from a 28 ft wall, tough I know this will have the effect of making the space longer and narrower, I really want a walkway from the dining room on one end of the living to the front door on the other.

I did bump the fireplace out into a chase. If it had protruded into the room, it would have really cut the space in half.

Scale renderings of the furniture you'd like can really help you discern whether the room will work for you. Can be done online with free programs like 'arrange a room', or with graph paper.

Ours is 20 x 16. About 3 ft of the 20 ft length is walkway. The room feels huge. I wouldn't want it any bigger.

If your walkway path is going to cut into the 15' length you might want to go bigger. being only 11' foot from the opposite wall seems like a tight squeeze.

24 x 25--walkways on two sides (and kitchen eating area) and windows/fireplace/tv builtin on the other two sides and 18' high ceiling. Furniture mostly floats. Our size is perfect for us. I'm glad we didn't go smaller. Our great room was originally going to be 21x24 as one of the walkways was supposed to be a hallway to our masterbedroom but we took out the wall for the hallway and are really glad we did as not only does it open up the room more but it cantelevers the loft out over the living room 5 or so feet which adds interest to the room.

Kyjim, what Don Gardner plan are you working with? We are modifying the Clarkson plan which also has a smallish great room. This is a one-story plan so we are going to make the footprint of the house 2 feet larger to increase the great room and the dining room.

Even with this enlargement I am still a little worried about the size of the room. I realized that the room has walk-ways on two sides of the length which adds 3 feet to each side. The room shouldn't feel closed in because of these.

This house will be just for the two of us so I think (hope!) it will work for us.

Nanji, we are modifying Don Gardner's, "Woodland" plan, it is similar to charliedawg's greatroom size ours 15'-4" x 21' with a 3' walkway on one end of the 21' length. Since reading the above comments we are considering increasing the width to 18 feet. We also increased the wall height to 12' this will give us approximately 22' vaulted ceiling.

Wanted to thank everyone for their comments this has helped tremendously.

The Better Homes and Gardens website has a feature called Arrange A Room. You can arrange furniture (and size it match your actual furniture) and it's very helpful and free.

We are building the Irby. The great room is 17' x 17' with a cathedral ceiling. Right now the framing is done and the roof and windows are in and the space looks great. But everything is relative. The living room that we are in now is smaller so of course the Irby's is roomier. Also having looked at some of the photos of constructions going on in this forum, I realize that our house plans are also rather modest.

One thing you absolutely want to consider is how the wall and ceiling heights will work with the floor area to make the room feel. In other words, consider the room's proportions in 3 dimensions, not just 2. Look for a cardboard box of those proportions, or construct one if needed to get a feel for the room's proportions.

The reason I suggest this is because I had the uncomfortable experience of living with a poorly-proportioned great room once (actually, many of the rooms in the house turned out to be poorly-proportioned - the downstairs had 12 foot tall walls) and it was a subtle but 'why don't I like this?' feeling the whole time I was there.

We are in the design phase our our new home. The home will be approximately 5,700 sq. ft. and the great room is 20’ x 26’ 4”. Our kitchen, dinning and great room are all in one space with the great room having a double height ceiling. We’re thinking the open concept will help with floating the furniture and maintaining walkways. We currently have a family room 15’ x 20’ but a walkway cuts down on the 20’ and our sectional is up against the wall so we hope our new great room will give us more flexibility and elbow room.

This is a 12 year old thread. Oldie but goody.