Kinda depends on how you can USE the space. Is any of it devoted to walk-throughs? Got walls for furniture? Window and door placement?

I think that it is too small for your ceiling height. It is 3ft taller than wide. This will make it look more like a huge hallway and less like a room.

Our GR is about the same size, (16 x 19) but our vaulted ceiling is only 12'. I think I'd be more concerned about the height being out of proportion to the room dimensions as jrldh brought up.
I'd consider changing either the height or the room dimensions. This is one room you really do want to get right.

I think it is fine. Ours is 16 X 20 with >20' ceilings. It does not look like a hallway. It looks and feels expansive. We have one entire wall of the room with essentially floor-to-ceiling windows (and french doors). Ours is also an open plan where it flows into the kitchen and eating area. No pictures of the finished room as we are still building. The only way to know if it is too small for you is to measure out on graph paper the dimensions of furniture and placements as well as walk spaces. I don't think that the height of your room is too high for the space. 15' is a decently wide space (at least it is as wide as most rooms built today)...the above argument would make more sense if the room was 10-12' wide.

I'll let you see some pictures of our great room right after we moved in. It looks different now because we have finished some stuff (now have cushions on the window seats, etc.) and some new furniture, but you can get the idea. We are still trying to figure out what to do to the tv hole and the hole above the tv. Our great room is 22'6" x 18'6" with an 18 ceiling. OUr loft probably extend 5' over the greatroom, so the the loft also extends the upper space of the great room. Our great room was originally going to be 22'6" x 15' (the comments to the pictures give the wrong dimensions) and there was going to be a hallway to the bedroom that you see in the picture, but we decided the hallway was wasted spaced and deleted it. We really like having the bedroom opening into the great room --I know some people don't like that, but we do. If you have a loft or a two story foyer that you can see from the great room or if the ceilings of your adjoinging room are tall then I think it will look ok, but otherwise I think 15 x 20 might be a little small, but then again if you have the right windows it might be just fine too. What are your windows like? We love our two story great room, and your size really isn't much different than ours.

Here is a link that might be useful: our great room

In all honesty, a 15 x 20 room has a lot of useable space. I don't find your ceiling height to be a problem for the space either. As far as whether or not the room is large enough...it probably has more to do with the scale of your house. If your house is 6,000sq ft, then NO, your room is not large enough. If your house is 1800 sq ft, then yes, your room is appropriately sized.

I was sfraid of my great room being too small as well so I think we settled for a good size...ours will be 22'11" X 19'2". So I say go bigger at least the 15' section!

Architecture has traditionally followed the rule that a room's ceiling should not be higher than the shortest dimension of the room ( in your case, that's 15'). When you make the ceiling higher that way, the experienced effect is that of being in an elevator shaft, so it feels like the room's walls are being pulled in on you. Making the room feel smaller. It's a brain perception thing.

But that effect is lessened if your ceiling is a shape other than flat. Is the 18' a cathedral or other peak? Or flat? You won't feel the effect until you live in it--so if you can find those dimensions in a model home or friend's home, try them out for awhile. Also depends on whether the room is open to other rooms or not.

It would cost you some, but you would have a more pleasing room to lower your ceiling to , say 14'. Could use a trey.

Here are a few pictures of a 15x19 great room,the ceiling is vaulted. This is the Frank Betz floor plan "Sullivan". Hope this helps.
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Hi,
We are looking at a plan with a great room dimension of 15'6"x19'6" - pretty close to your size. On the 'long side' is the window wall with the ceiling vaulted to the second story with 2 dormers, across from that is the entry with and upstairs an open hall overlooking the room. On the 'short' side is the dining area on one end and the fireplace wall on the other. There is a traffic pattern across the room but it is part of the 'long side' ie: it takes up part of the 19'6" length. We have been in the home and the room feels great. The sloped ceilings make it feel 'cozier' than if it were completely open and straight up. I am guessing that it is about 18' to the peak. I hope this all made sense. I laid out a furniture plan and even with the traffic flow it worked-but our traffic pattern is opposite to yours.
The thing that would concern me on the plan you linked to if it is similar to yours is that you will have a traffic path on the 'short' side of the room and this will crowd your seating somewhat.
I think the suggestion to draw it out on graph paper is great. Another way that really helps is to draw out the room to size in sidewalk chalk (on your driveway or something-what will the neighbors think?!) and arrange some yard furniture in it and see how it feels. Remember-it will feel bigger because you don't have actual walls. Hope this helps!

A lot of public spaces-- churches, hotel atriums, etc.-- are taller than they are wide, so I don't see this as being an issue. Once you become accostomed to a space the overheads seem normal [which of course argues that they are a poor way to spend your dollars...]

My own living space [not really a great room since its seperated from the kitchen by the dining room, and not really 'open' to it, since there's only a 6ft pass-through] is 18.5x26, top of vaulted ceiling raises to 23 feet. But the stairs raise through the middle of the space, and the similar sized office loft overlooks it.

We're still building, but this space makes me very happy: just walking in seems like an event. It's gracious without being grand, which is just what I wanted. There's a log column in the center that combines with a multitude of windows to make it feel more like a forest than a cave. It's my very favorite thing about the house so far.

But: I wish it were a bit wider. I'm putting the furniture far enough out from the wall that one can walk [comfortably] behind it to access the front door, etc., and this would work better if it were 20 or 22 wide.

Too late now! My point is this: calculate just where the furniture is going, and how the traffic will flow. Depending on how you decorate, your functional space may well be only 12 wide instead of 15. Now is the time to address this, and your builder should be able to give you some guidance about the cost differences.

I do think a ceiling that is too high can make a room look smaller rather than larger. Also, have you ever noticed regular 30" doors that are too tall and they look too skinny?

With that said, if you find your ceilings will give that illusion, then you can always place some molding on the wall a foot or so from the ceiling and that would give the illusion that the ceiling is closer and you could also paint the ceiling a dark color to bring it down.

I have the same concern for our guest bath, but my DH assures me it will look OK. We only have 10' ceilings, but after living with 8' ceilings for so long, those 2 extra feet seem like a lot.

Ours is 16x20, it feels like more than enough space to me. It is wide open to the breakfast area which makes it feel like 27 x 20.

Just pay close attention to where the natural walkways are. We originally had a 14 foot wide room and realized that we would have to have the couch way too close to the TV viewing wall for comfort. Trying to watch a big screen from less than 10 feet away is not comfortable and does not make for an attractive seating area. IMO

15 feet seems to be the standard width around here for a great room so I think it will work fine for you. But I'm really glad we have 16 due to the walkways needed in our great room to get from point A to point B.

teach--I sent you an email.

Teach--I just noticed you don't have your email address. If you want to see pictures of my great room, send me an email.

Carolyn, I sent you an email, but in case you didn't get it, my email is guerriero@opsb.net

Thanks.