Plan Review: Flow, function, design critiques
Wendy Rehman
8 years ago
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reposting plans:first draft from our designer--critique needed!
Comments (19)I'm not sure the great room is a good size if it houses both dining/living. I think it might be a bit tight. Take a table standard width of 42" then min 4' on each side of that to move around (and that is tight when people sit). So add two more feet Then you have 28.5-13.5 ft left for a living area. I had a 15 ft x 18 ft in my old house for the living part of my great room and that 15' makes it really narrow and very limited for furniture arrangement. I'd do as others suggested play with graphpaper and furniture sizes to see that you have plenty of room. Since your Great room will be used as a walk through area to get between kitchen and bedrooms make sure you have 3-4' of walking space on both sides. One from the master side and one from the front door/other bedroom side with nothing interferring and still allowing you to have the pieces of furniture you want. Remember the FP as drawn will be sticking out into the room as well. I'd maybe consider putting it where one of the French doors are and have it stick out on the porch. This way you have more space and a wall where a TV could go and still be able to arrange furniture so the FP is also a focal point. Our current great room is set-up that way and I really like it. The FP provides warmth and coziness closer to where we sit flanked by french doors (one set stationary and one where both open) and the TV and book cases are on the other wall. My old house had an open great room with dining and living where the FP was placed in between the two. It was great for using the FP as it heated both areas and it was not in the way of furniture placement, however I didn't like that it was sort of not a focal point from one area to the other. Since you have the bonus room maybe you could set that up so you can have guests there. Otherwise you could just make that half of the porch screened in all the way to where you have it now. Not all will have a view, but you'll have a little private area in front of the casita too. You only need a little extra screen since there will be walls covering the other areas so the cost wouldn't be much more....See MorePlease review and critique my house plan design
Comments (1)You must be excited! Most of it works quite well. I have a few thoughts: Are you planning on your son and daughter sharing a bathroom? Is bedroom #4 a guest bedroom? If you have 3 bathroom, why not give each of your children their own? especially since they are different sexes and getting older. I would make bath #2 an en suite bath for bedroom #3. Swap the laundry room and bathroom #3. Then bedroom #2 can use bath #3. You can keep direct access to bath #3 from bedroom #4 if you'd like. The dining space in the family room looks tight. Make sure it fits your table. Make sure there's enought elbow room for the toilet in the master bath. The door from the garage should swing into the home....See MoreKitchen Plans: Cabinet maker delivered two designs. Critique please
Comments (70)We met with our guy, Brian, from the kitchen ideas center again last week. We made a lot of decisions and we're pretty excited. Perimeter cabinets will be Plato and the two islands will be Woodland (?). We decided to go with mid-level cabinetry for the islands, because we're painting them and it's one way to cut costs. The walnut cabinet uppers will have walnut interiors as well. The lower cabinet interiors will be natural maple. Thanks to the advice on here, I decided to go with two 6" drawers in the "hutch" and the appliance garage will be 16" high. After seeing a 3D model, there is one area of our plan that is getting an overhaul, and that's the 84"W x 60"H x 10"D pantry. It looked like a row of lockers. Ugh. I hadn't taken it to the ceiling, because I wanted to put a TV above it. I've since given that idea up and I'm excited about the ideas Brian presented. Basically, a shallow hutch (10" - 13" deep, maybe less) with 18"W floor to ceiling pantry cabinets bookending a center display area - either glass doored cabinets or open shelves, with countertop dividing top and bottom. The pictures below are similar to the idea. As soon as we started discussing possibilities I remembered this post by illinigirl: what height pull for these extra tall uppers in bar area? I loved her design drawings for her bar area. At the end of the thread she has a picture of the partially completed bar behind an island, I believe. I especially like that the plans call for 'wood shelves with glass inserts' for the center display area. I'm not 100% sure how this will evolve, but it's possible we'd use the center shelves for alcohol. Or maybe just a display area for pretty things. The side cabinets would definitely need to hold pantry staples. We also met with a general contractor and that went quite well. We have another meeting with him tomorrow. Our project would be about 12 weeks out, and he estimates it'll take 12 weeks to complete. He will be presenting us with a full plan tomorrow, I believe. He is also taking on relocating the washer/dryer and making sure we have a somewhat workable temporary kitchen....See MoreKitchen remodel-please critique the first design plan
Comments (24)Here's an island plan. You mentioned that you enjoy the view from your kitchen and I think that should be a priority and maximized. My childhood home has counter seating in the kitchen with a lovely view. It's the best place to hang out. I'm not clear on the dimensions or the plan for the area around the back door and present laundry zone, so I made some guesses in that corner. I thought it would be a good place for reach in/roll out pantries and a ~48" worktop+ upper cabinets for a coffee station and small appliance storage. The distance between the island and the nearestwall is 44", which is probably wider than your hallway. I'm hopeful that I didn't miss something and that you can indeed widen that opening between dining and kitchen. It would be great for the dining area to take advantage of view and natural light from the kitchen as well as let the cook interact more with those outside the kitchen. Here's a floor plan and a 3d view from the dining room opening....See MoreWendy Rehman
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8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoWendy Rehman
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8 years agoOaktown
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8 years agoLavender Lass
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