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Design Dilemma Building a Home

need advice for this floorplan

4 years ago

Hi, I have the final house floorplan before start building it. I wonder if you could help look at it and give me your suggestions. I’m not 100% sure if I miss something.

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Comments (5)

chispa
4 years ago
There seems to be a lot of bathroom space and very little living/dining space.

Eleven (11) bathroom sinks?

Is this some multi-family vacation house?
Ning Gulari
Original Author
4 years ago
Yes, it is. We have three children and each one with their significant other so they will have their own bedroom with its own bathroom. Hmm... I didn’t realize that there is so much bathroom space compare to the living space. I will check carefully. Thanks
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I've looked at your plan several times, but have found it difficult to come up with ideas since I'm not clear on what can be changed, and it's hard to see the measurements. Looking at your second plan, it's guesswork to see what the old plan was. It would be very helpful to see the original, existing plan. But I'll take a stab at it. What is it that you don't like about the MBR, besides the location of the WIC door? You said you're redoing the bathrooms. Can their fixtures be relocated? Can the kitchen cabinets along the dining room wall be changed? Seems like there must be a better way to do the butler's pantry, which is inconvenient in its present location. Can the locations of the appliances be changed in the kitchen? The great room seems huge--what are the measurements? Do you really need it that large? The reason I ask is that it seems like you have space in it for the dining table at the end towards the kitchen. If so, I'd go back to the 3 car garage, and just attach it to the house. Then I'd rework the present dining room, mudroom, and butler's pantry. How many people/ what ages are living in this house? Is there a reason the mudroom is so large in Baton Rouge, especially with the laundry elsewhere? I assume you need 4 active bedrooms, and wouldn't want to convert one to a study/guest bedroom? Living in the north, I don't know much about life styles in Louisiana. How much of the year are the doors and windows open, or do you mostly close up and use air conditioning down there? Which way is south on this house plan? How wide is the lot, and how close to the lot line are the doors of the present 3 car garage? More info and the original plan will help! Anne
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@kgeorge12 regarding the orientation - your neighbors are pretty far away, so I guess the question you need to ask yourself is how important it is for you to have light in your home, vs. seeing a neighbor's house. Your house doesn't need to be oriented DIRECTLY south, either. An architect can help you orient it to maximize both light and privacy, while still giving you curb appeal. I agree with cpartist - your initial draft looks very similar to a lot of home plans I've seen. Since this is for ageing in place, also consider that your kids may come visit when they're older, and with their families. If you do a house with "wings", or an L shape or H shape, you can create privacy for everyone (your kids as kids, your kids as adults, your kids with their kids) while still maintaining your goals. Regarding the garage: if I had your space, I would absolutely put the garage through a breezeway off the house. Regarding laundry, you could consider a laundry closet with a stacked W/D for the kids near their rooms. If they're older, they can do their own and won't need to access the laundry by your closet. It's a long haul for them to bring their clothes to the current laundry room. I assume the closet in the hall behind the kitchen is the pantry then, and the closet labeled "PANTRY" is actually the mudroom closet? If the closet behind the kitchen is the pantry, consider a pocket door there, or an inswing at a minimum. That door will likely be open, and having it open into a busy hallway will get frustrating quickly. If the room labeled pantry is the pantry, it's too far from the kitchen. Also - if you have a king sized bed, you may not be able to get it into your bedroom through that hallway unless it's a split king. They don't turn 90 degree corners through narrow doorways very easily (just tried to put a king in one of the kids' bedrooms with a similar orientation in my own home when we replaced our carpet and couldn't get it in).
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Advice needed on floorplan of narrow living room!
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Hi everyone, I need advice on whether the below proposed layout will allow for proper flow and if it will look cramped. The floorplan I was given has this room listed as 16'4 x 11'7, but based on some rudimentary measurements, I actually think it's quite a bit more narrow.. 10'6, max. The black line along the left wall is the width of the existing fireplace mantle. The dark blue box in front of it is the rough dimensions of the hearth. We will be placing our TV above the fireplace with an extending arm that will allow us to lower it to proper viewing height The dark blue box on the bottom is the approximate size of the radiator, which is placed below the window The dark blue box attached to the sofa is the length of a proposed chaise The light blue boxes are proposed built in cabinet/bookshelves. These would be roughly 16 inches wide in order to accommodate a record player and speaker system. They would also hide the various cords associated with an entertainment center The opening on the bottom right leads to the front door, and the opening on the top right leads to the kitchen. There is another room in the house that has a layout more conducive to TV watching, IMO, but my audiophile husband demands that his speakers be along a flat wall opposite a couch for optimal acoustics. So, here I am. With the proposed layout, there will be a minimum of 30 inch walkway between every surface. The tightest would be the top door to couch, which is roughly 32 inches. Between the coffee table and proposed bookshelf is 38 inches, and between the chaise and the bookshelf it's about 47. However, I'm worried that it will still look cramped. Is the chaise a bad idea? I prefer watching tv with a chaise, but it will take up over half the available floorspace if we do built-ins. Also, Is narrowing an already narrow room with built-ins a bad idea? Any other advice you can provide? I've attached a few pictures below so you can get a sense of the room (the current owners are using it as a dining room). Thank you so much!
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Comments (6)
I think you've done about the best you can do. When a room is really busy with odd angles, you have to go a bit simpler with the decor and eliminate clutter. I think your mock up looks a lot better than reality because the clutter is gone. For starters, the front door opens the wrong way into the room, IMO. Can you reverse that so you're opening up to a welcoming place to sit and not the TV screen? If you need more seating for entertaining, consider a round hassock for your coffee table so it can double as seating. Use a tray on it and keep it about the size of your table now. The room can't handle a larger one. Place a chair left of the fireplace. Add a large colorful piece of art 5" above the mantel. It can be as wide as the firebox opening. To tackle the wall over the sofa, I would use the pieces you have already to make a gallery that actually just incorporates the window that's there with the stained glass. Center the sofa on that entire wall and then plan your gallery to work above it just like the window does (at the same height and with a similar volume.) Eliminate the shelves. Maybe use them right of the window in the adjoining room, or the kitchen.
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bpath
4 years ago
And will all of those children and significant others live with you in this house? They don’t seem to have much closet space, nor storage at the bathroom sinks. Perhaps they could get by just fine with one sink per bathroom, and more drawers and counter space in the vanities.

Are there, or will there be, younger children?

Do you need an “away” space, or are you okay with being all together all the time?

Do you need a den or study for paying bills, storing records, private phone calls, etc?

Is there enough dining space for everyone?

Is a 2-car garage sufficient for everyone?

What are the little courtyards off each bedroom?

Where are you building? What is the site, and climate, like?
mtpo
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I suggest you lay out furniture in each room to see if the spaces accommodate your needs. If all of your children and significant others show up at the same time, will you have enough space for everyone to dine together inside? Does your family watch TV together? Will you have enough seating for everyone?

I agree with bpath and chispa’s comments. Counter ”real estate” in a bathroom is often more valuable than a second sink. Which will your family appreciate more? A second sink or room on the vanity top to spread out hot rollers, make up, hair dryer, make up mirror (and a place to put it all away)?

If if this is a beach house or ski house etc, I suggest you have an area to store all the messy stuff and clean off messy feet etc before you enter the main living areas. I can’t tell from the plan if you have that.

You may also want to consider how much space you give to the MBR suite vs the space you give to the guest rooms. How much time will you be at the house without your kids? I expected my kids would want to come to my beach house a lot. But in reality, my grown kids have only a few weeks of vacation time which they split up between us and in-laws and their own travel. Once grandchildren come along and have their activities, getting everyone together at the same time gets even more complicated.

One more thing to consider — the U shaped outdoor space on the garage side of the house may get little sun, depending on how the house is situated. This may limit your landscaping options. If the area is in shade, water (or snow) may not evaporate quickly, which could be troublesome. You may want to talk to a landscape architect to make sure you have proper drainage and a landscaper to see what you can grow if that area is shaded most of the day.

I look forward to seeing photos of the house as you build it.
Kristin S
4 years ago
I've seen plans like this a lot in Hawaii - I'm guessing this is a house in a tropical location of some sort, so there's more limited indoor space because there's an abundance of outdoor living space? And you're building bedroom capacity for all of your adult children to visit simultaneously?

One thing to think about is how the house works if/when you have grandchildren. Right now none of the bedrooms are easily accessible to the others. That's a plus when there are couples in each, but it can be an inconvenience when one bedroom holds the parents and another the kids. In that situation, our extended family has found that what works best is if there is a small room (even a large walk-in closet, if it has HVAC and ventilation) off of a bedroom that can be used for a crib or child's bed.

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