While I'm not a fan of WIC in the bathroom, I realize many people like them. That's a personal decision. However like was explained many of the things in this house don't work because they are just not good design. Here's the changes I made to the first floor to give you better flow and to put the things needed where they will work the best. 1. Since you don't use a bath, get rid of it! If you want a bath on the first floor, put it in bedroom 2. 2. Your master closet is actually now larger. However I was able to pull in the wall so it now matches the wall of the dining room. 3. Now you have a straight shot from the master suite to the bathroom to the closet. And then as an added bonus if you don't want to wake your spouse in the morning, you can now leave through the laundry closet! 4. Instead of the powder room by the master suite, I moved your laundry room there. Think of how easy it will now be to do your laundry. 5. I pulled the closet across to meet the study. Even though it makes the house a bit larger, it will actually save money because you won't have the extra bump outs. 6. Your study is the same size but by moving it down, you now have an actual hallway that creates a "spine" for the house, so you're not making a jog through your great room to get to the master suite. 7. By moving the powder room to where the laundry was, it freed up space so you now have a good sized entry from the mudroom door and the garage. No more trying to shove one another out of the way. Plus there's now more room to store all those kids things. 8. The powder room is now near the side where the kids will enter and it's convenient still to guests. 9. I moved around your layout for your kitchen too. It didn't work. Lots of space but not well used. I moved your cleanup sink to under the window with the dishwasher next to it. Lots of storage space in drawers now to the left. I moved your fridge so it's now in the work "triangle". So now you take food out of the fridge, move it to the prep sink on the island to wash, then prep to the left of the prep sink, and then carry it to the cooktop to cook. 10. In the master bath, if you're planning on a glass shower enclosure, I would probably flip the toilet closet and the shower so the toilet isn't against the master bedroom wall.

I’m bumping this as someone with a large family (8 of us currently) in smaller spaces (lived in 1600, currently in 2160, waiting to build). Let me tell you - our rental was the exact same square footage as this temporary house we bought last year, but laid out completely differently. This 2160 sq ft ‘69 ranch with no basement lives TEN times better than our newer build 2160 sq ft rental did, precisely because of these factors: 1) Storage. I have tons of built in storage, including medicine cabinets, a linen a d coat closet, and laundry room/pantry. 2) Layout. This ranch has all the bedrooms and main bath on one side, all the bedrooms on the smaller side. And a good 60% of the floor plan is then dedicated to the public spaces on the right side of the house. Very efficient, good sound separation, and we are fitting three kids in each bedroom without issue. Even being home all day every day be keeping homeschool junk and adaptive equipment everywhere, it doesn’t feel too small. These two factors are SO CRITICAL, that is why I’d side with the group recommending you pay an architect to help. They’re surprisingly reasonable for design time, given how much help they can give in making a cost effective, efficient space for you. This plan has some problems that a few posters, like Mrs Pete, have tried to address. But precisely because you and I have big families and tight budgets and space constraints, it is even MORE important we not try to make a plan ‘fit’ what is intended for a generic and usually-smaller sized family. Retaining design services was the best choice my husband and I made in planning our build. Hands down. We don’t have the budget to get this wrong. And out of four homes we have lived in only ONLY had solid layout and utility for us as is, the current ‘69 ranch home I detailed above. It’s just not worth it to shop stock plans when you can have a professional give you everything you need and with skill and insight into problems you may never have noticed or considered. I wish you the very best!

I love playing with rugs in rooms, so found some to show you ... mostly to get an idea of what you like (and don’t like) as far as designs, colors, styles, etc. I really like the warmer tones, but that’s just my own preference and you may want cooler tones. These are all from Rugs USA because they have the “See it in my room” option (if you’d like to do some of your own). eSale Rugs and West Elm have that ability, too. Keep in mind that mock-ups of course look a bit different ... these are more vivid-looking here than in real life and, in some pics, the patterns are skewed somewhat. If you go to the individual rug page, you’ll see they look better. :) _____________________________ https://www.rugsusa.com/rugsusa/rugs/rugs-usa-abstract-waterfall/Blue/200RZBD04A-P.html _____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ https://www.rugsusa.com/rugsusa/rugs/rugs-usa-vespertina/Blue/200OWMC05A-P.html ____________________________________ ___________________________________ https://www.rugsusa.com/rugsusa/rugs/oriental-weavers-049/Blue/132049S7-P.html _____________________________________ ____________________________________ https://www.rugsusa.com/rugsusa/rugs/american-rug-craftsmen-wendall/Blue/1259063350101-P.html _________________________________ ________________________________ https://www.rugsusa.com/rugsusa/rugs/rugs-usa-obscure-rosette/Ivory/200KHMC35A-P.html

Congrats on the new home! You can plan this from afar. I placed some basic items in this floor plan to get you started thinking. In a design, take things a step at a time. 1) Know what style you want. Create an ideabook. Looks like you have that part down. 2) Create a floor plan (most important part and it looks like you realize that)! Only when these 2 are complete, can you move to step 3. 3) Start looking for furniture that fits the parameters of the floor plan. For your space, I recommend something like the floor plan I have posted. Comments: 1) I don't recommend using 2 sofas or a sectional. Reason: adults like their own chairs. However, If that is what you prefer, then that is totally your choice. You mentioned you thought there should be a sofa on both sides......I am just giving you my experience, that 2 sofas are not the best choice in most circumstances. Chairs can be swivel. 2) This gives people several venues: chairs, sofa, seating in back of sofa, stools at the kitchen island......and they people who hang around the bar and don't sit. LOL. 3) Obviously, you can take this floor plan and tweak it. Example, one other option is to place the tv to the right of the fireplace. One advantage here is that, if you like to watch tv from the kitchen, that is a huge advantage. Then, play musical chairs with the furniture. Other comments: 1) I recommend considering drywalling in the openings on the tv wall. They feel awkward and I think you need a much larger tv for this space. 2) No furniture where they have the piano. This is a walkway. Let me know what questions you have and if I can be of further help!