In addition to the advice above (lots of fabrics), see if you can get any kind of sound insulation in the bedroom walls, doors and floors. For the 2nd floor, wall-to-wall carpeting will be the best insulation, but there are ways to make hardwoods more soundproof too. Don't do ceramic or stone tile in the loft, halls, or great room, it's the worst with noise.

Also, consider white noise machines for the bedrooms. If you have speakers in the great room, be sure to keep the bass turned down when others are sleeping. Even if you're just watching TV, bass tones (like rumbles, explosions), will reverberate all over the house.

Can you post a floor plan? Besides structuctural changes, G W offered *sound* advice. Solid (vs hollow-core) bedroom doors should help, too.

Any open airspace between the areas will allow almost all the sound to be transmitted. You need to reduce the noise level at the source -- carpets, drapes, wall hangings, etc. Solid core doors in the bedrooms too.

Close off the second floor to the great room, or redesign.

This is the problem with 2- story great rooms , or even entryways with lofts and catwalks. The upper window light feels fabulous but there is a big trade off in sound & privacy. Hopefully some of those sound- muffling recommendations will help. I had something like that once & would not do again. TV sound in particular ( not using ear buds or anything like that) because noise from loft went down or across to bedrooms, and noise below went up.
But perhaps you have a separate media room or other “ away” room.

This is one of those things that looks great but is very impractical. I have a two story living room open to the second floor, but we are empty nesters. I wouldn't have bought a house like this with children at home. You can always reduce the size of the opening and glass it in above a half wall so some of the light gets upstairs. I don't see this done very often, but it's possible. Get an architect's consultation on it so it looks right. The other downside to this type of floorplan is that the upstairs is always hotter than the downstairs - more than you get with a regular two story house.

It may depend on how much noise you need to block. I have a house like you're describing: 2 story great room living room with an open staircase and walkway above that leads to some bedrooms. I don't have children, so I can't speak to whether it's too loud for children to sleep. But I do have my office up in one of the bedrooms and unless my husband is rocking out to some music, I don't really hear anything (TV, etc) in the office, especially if the door is closed. We do have carpet in the hallway, bedrooms, and in the living room.

IMO a poor design where heating. cooling and sound will all be affected for no real improvement in your life . If at all possible close this off somehow before it is too late . The view is best seen from the main floor so make sure you use solar shades to control heat and UV and keep the view .

Our vacation home was designed just like that--the great room was open to the kitchen and dining room, and to the upper hallway. When we moved in our 4 year old daughter called it the "echo house." :( Out of the mouths of babes.

We compensated by installing lots of rugs, fabric wall hangings, curtains. I wouldn't do it again. Try to get the light and airy feeling in a different way. Maybe 10-12 foot ceilings, clerestory windows, etc.

My brother had a house like this and he said "never again".

While I do not think my house design is perfect, I do really enjoy the light and airiness we get from the very high ceilings, floor to ceiling windows, and the open staircase and walkway also lets light come in from the other side, which is our entry which also has wonderful 2 story windows. Honestly, I don't really notice much echoing except when my ridiculously loud dog barks. My dog loves to perch up on the walkway where she can watch me in the living room and the front entry. When my nieces and nephews come over, they love to go up to the walkway as well. I would worry a bit about safety if the kids lived here. I just mention that as something to consider if you have young kids.

Thick rugs

Full height drapery panels

Fully upholstered seating

Wood on the walls

Consider wood railing designs.

Place bedroom doors as far down the hall as possible.

"Wood on the walls" - Not sure this helps in this situation. Sure - mass helps between walls but for an open room, wood is not going to absorb sounds like fabric (most of the other suggestions).

The whole echo house, heating problems, never again are so true. These double height rooms can be tricky (and expensive) to furnish/decorate due to the scale as well. Are you at a point where the open to below can be changed? I agree there’s many ways to get light and views without the open to below headaches.

Windows that you can open and close? But I will echo the other statements that designs where quiet spaces adjoin potentially noisy spaces and the heat rising from tall spaces bleeds into the smaller upper spaces and affects the zoned climate control of those area, is something that you may want to reconsider.

Upstairs is a hallway that is opened to looking down into the great room. i am nervous of the noise traveling up through the bedrooms, but I would still like the natural light and the views from the great room windows.

You are giving up a lot just so you can have a nice view and natural light when you walk down a hallway. How often will someone linger in the hallway to admire the view? But people do spend a lot of time in their bedrooms and generally like for them to be quiet. Noise, particularly from the TV, will definitely travel through the open space, regardless of how much fabric you put in the room. If you want natural light in the hallway, I recommend a couple of Solatubes or skylights.

Have you considered this concept?

I like Diana's idea of clerestory windows instead of a mezzanine. You get the views, but you don't mess up your HVAC and noise control.

Oh Mark- leave it to Mark! lol.

We have a 2 story foyer and family room and a bridge hallway above and do not have a noise problem. I love that we have a view of the backyard when you step through the front door. I think what helps in our case is that we have 2 story heavy draperies in the great room, a thick rug and we have a buffer at the ends of the bridge hallway that leads to the bedrooms and is not open to below. Our house was designed by an architect, so I think in a properly designed home the noise isn't an issue.

How does one close 2 story heavy draperies? How does one clean them?

A thick rug would tend to accumulate dirt and allergens.

When you say that you do not have a noise problem - that isn't very specific. Maybe you all go to bed at the same time. Maybe you are quiet as a church mouse. I would want specifics - like we watch monday night football and scream at the TV and our 6 year old never wakes up.

But - I am sure that a proper design (less than 1% of built houses) along with thick upholstery can make it much better. Just requesting specifics.

You can certainly have a view of the backyard when you walk through the front door without a 2 story great room. Now - if your backyard is a mountain view - 2 stories is going to help a lot.

I have had a 2 story great room - always without kids - and did not prefer them. When I custom built, no 2 story rooms. I have a child now and sometimes wish we had a closed staircase with a door at one of the ends.

Sleep is invaluable.... Not worrying about noise is a close second.

I do not find it difficult to open and close our drapes and I am a petite woman, although I usually leave them open. They were designed and installed by an interior design firm, who offered us the option of automating them so they would open and close at the push of a button. When they need to be cleaned, their firm comes and removes them, launders, irons them, and reinstalls them. This is the second set I have had since we built the house, we redecorated several years ago, so we changed the draperies then. Funny you should ask about the rug, it was just cleaned today. We have all hardwood, so I get the area rugs cleaned a couple of times a year. It is just the three of us, so maybe we are not a loud family, but even when my son was a baby, we had no issue with noise. I also have a two-story study and would not change a thing.

Some people are closing off that open space and gaining a bonus room. HVAC has to be considered in any case. After falling downstairs in such a home, I would avoid it at all costs. I don't even consider more than one story, not even a basement!

The pretty view and grandness of our 2-story great room don’t come close to compensating for the acoustical and light control challenges, hvac issues, or the waste of space.

I agree, Verbo. We had a very large 2-story foyer. Made it a one story foyer and a second story office, which is much more practical and definitely added value to the home, especially post-covid.

Do Verbo's idea with a glass floor.

I raised five kids with an open foyer looking into a two story great room. We had the kids bedrooms upstairs when we entertained in there I would look up and it was not unusual to catch a child spying. lol it was pretty but ended up putting a wood ceiling treatment up and

large rug with drapes to try and cozy it up. i think it depends on how many kids you have and how much you entertain.

Spaces that are open to each other in any way will be impossible to separate acoustically so the design of the upper corridor will not help much. If the bedrooms are acoustically isolated they should be fine.

Acoustic isolation consists of walls and ceilings with double layer drywall on resilient channels or metal channels supported on resilient clips. Cavity insulation will only help where there are sound leaks in the walls or floors so its worthwhile but not enough by itself. Doors should be solid core wth perimeter acoustic seals and perhaps a drop seal at the floor.

And cover the walls and ceiling with this stuff. Don't bother cleaning it, just change it out every other year.

Is there a suitable place in the upper hallway to add a door? Our vacation home great room is double story and having a door in the upper hallway helps with noise control on both levels. Sometimes guests staying upstairs want to turn in early or take naps, or sometimes grandkids get rowdy or fussy upstairs and closing the door helps buffer noise for people hanging out in the great room below.

@Marc - reminds me of the computer room walls at my banking job in D.C. back in the day!

Add duct tape over mouths and ear plugs in ears to G W's list.

Ahhh....that's what I was missing! I knew there must be a solution to kids, dogs, two story foyer and a post-call husband. Duct tape. It is the handyman's secret weapon.