lighting plan for a new build
dormmom
last year
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PROBeth H. :
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New Contruction Advice / Floor Plan Help / Build Log
Comments (35)You've eliminated the dining room and created a small breakfast nook without its own windows. Even if future owners convert the office back to a dining room, they'd have to squeeze past that tight little nook just to bring food to the dining room. You seem to want to create a kitchen tucked away from the living room, which makes your retrofits of that space invariably awkward for most future buyers. (I know...it's your "forever" home. But a lot can happen over a lifetime. I'm on my 3rd "forever" home, and I sincerely believed each one was perfect forevermore...at first.) Try not to get too hung up on creating your dream vision...what you are doing to that kitchen/dining area may make the house into a white elephant that is difficult to sell. I know it would be a dealbreaker for me, unless my husband agreed to spend $80-100k to gut and rebuild the kitchen into something that probably would look like the original kitchen from the original plans. Lastly, you haven't left yourself any wiggle room for future needs. Having eliminated the stairs, you're obviously not going to have a second floor or basement. What if the kids want to play video games while you and hubby have company in the living room? Will the kids have enough room in their bedrooms for a desk and shelves, or will they need a study space? What about a guest room? A play room? An exercise room? Putting back the stairs and a basement would give you options for the future. What about storing the kids' bicycles and sports equipment? Where are you going to store your lawn tractor and accessories? How about expanding the garage to at least 3 bays so you don't have to build a shed that becomes a home to the mice and spiders that will take up residence over the winter? You're building 3800 sf of luxury home without any of the features that would make most people consider it to be luxurious. Again, "forever" homes rarely are forever, so building something others would want to call home is an important consideration, assuming you don't want to keep your house listed on the market for 785 days before that needle-in-the-haystack buyer decides your former home is his new dream home....See MoreElectrical plan for new build
Comments (27)Plus it seems like there is no rhyme or reason as to how you put all those cans in. And I certainly wouldn't do 6" cans nowadays but instead 4" cans. I removed all your outdoor lights. What you have is lighting your house up like a Christmas tree. It's overkill, especially since you have flood lights. Here is what I'd do: I'd ditch the can in the front entry and instead put a sconce light on either side of the door. You don't need more than 3 floodlights. One flood on the corner of the house can have two lights with each one pointed in in a different direction. In the office all you need is the fan with a light on it. The rest of your lighting should be task lighting. In the family room, you need to center the fan and lights in the room. Depending on what the rest of the room looks like, instead of cans you might even consider flush mount lights. In the kitchen, your lights are best if they are on the edge of the counter so you don't cast a shadow as you work. Additionally you don't need a light in front of your cooktop because if you have an exhaust hood (and you absolutely should!) then the hood will have lights on it. Additionally, 3 pendants usually work better than 2 visually. No light is needed in front of the fridge since the fridge is lit inside. In the dining room all you need is a beautiful chandelier. If you want more lighting, add 2 sconces on one wall. In the hallways, instead of three more cans, much nicer would be 3 pendants, or 3 flush mounts or 3 semi flush mounts. Instead of lighting up the master bedroom, do the fan with a light and then add a sconce on either side of the bed or bedside lamps. Sconces over the vanity mirrors or on either side of the mirrors in the bathrooms work better than a pendant light. In the garage you don't need cans. You get a utility light or lights. The two bedrooms only need a fan with a light on it. You can add more light with lamps. On the patio, do two sconces and a fan with a light. Then on the back of the patio put a sconce....See MoreSeeking Feedback on Floor Plan for New Build
Comments (44)Our great room (living room) is 20x20 and is definitely too small. But I am probably not a good one to give input on this (but I will anyway). I love large rooms with lots of space to maneuver and don’t care for a room that looks and feels like it’s been crammed with lots of furniture because it’s too small. In our space we have seating that can basically fit 6 comfortably (we have a large sofa, 2 club chairs, and one other chair). For just our immediate family though, if we are all gathered together, we would need 10 seats, so we are 4 seats short. Now add to that larger get-togethers, and we are really lacking in seating. Obviously, if you have 40 people over you will not be able to seat everyone, but it’s nice (at the very least) to be able to accommodate your immediate family so that everyone has a place to sit down in the living room. So.....if I had to do it over, I would definitely make our main living space at least 25x25 (and that’s just the living room with no added eating area). With that size, there could even be a small game table spot. I think it’s important to take into account how much seating you feel you need for your family (and guests if you entertain a lot), and then from that point design a room that will easily accommodate the furniture needed to seat your family and friends.....especially if you only have this one room. So, my mentality is to make the room large enough so you’re not squeezed in and to make sure there is ample square footage to accommodate the needed furniture....See Morekitchen floor plan-new build
Comments (33)Random responding... There's something about plans that is additive - there are dreams in there that may or may not fit your lifestyle. As planned, that kitchen isn't bad, and it fulfills the dream that you'll be commanding the space? or something. There are three kinds of people here - they different in what they value most: efficiency, style or "the dream." We all care about such things, but in different proportions. I'm an efficiency. "The dream" is that by building something different, you will become different and finally achieve the life you want to have? or see yourself admired? or whatever is a dream to you. And I'm not saying this with any attitude, cause I do it too. So, "the dream" part of that kitchen makes it wasteful of space. The idea that I spend so much time at the kitchen sink is laughable. It wouldn't be if all I had was a small kitchen but that kitchen can have amazing amounts of counter space and cabinets. But that needs to be organized to be able to cook easily - in whatever way suits you and meets your values for efficiency, style, and your dream. What I mean with the line of upper cabinets was that if you have a transom on top, running stuff down the whole wall would be visually way cool. You could do a pair of open shelves under the transoms or perhaps wall cabinets that were 18" to 27" tall depending on whatever those ceilings are doing. Photo is as example of shelves done on a long wall with a shortish ceiling... from The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Flooring Ideas and Materials | Kitchen ceiling lights, House design, House (pinterest.com) If the sink in on that wall, though, you may need to break the upper cabinets or shelves over the sink. It depends on how much room you need over the sink. The word "stove" is interesting because it means different things depending on where you grew up. I'm in the camp where a stove means the same thing as a cooktop but cooking is fire of some sort - but even here, people talk about wood stoves meaning a cast metal, free standing enclosure for a wood fire, but not for cooking. So, I'm also getting older and that microwave on top of an two oven stack would be a concern for me. So, high - hot stuff. Also, my need for two ovens are pretty small - I'd be thinking a breville smart oven on the countertop and a mid-height single wall oven. Or drop the single oven down a bit and add a micro over it than was at a more accessible height. And I'd probably be using the smart oven more than the big one. In my fantasy kitchen, I'd have something like Unox Cheftop Mind map compact. Whatever I'm baking, I want it absolutely perfect and I don't need a lot of it. https://www.unox.com/en_gb/lines/cheftop-mindmaps-one/...See More
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