City villa floor plan - Your opinion on it?

Hello everyone,

I needed your help with the architectural planning for our planned city villa. I will skip the fully completed list because the planning is already quite advanced, but I will leave the relevant questions in.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: >1,000 m²
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2, single-story extension on the ground floor
Roof shape: hipped roof, single-story extension on the ground floor
Style: city villa
Orientation: north/south
Basement, floors: no
Number of people, ages: 3 (2x30; 1x2 years) --> planned for 4
Space requirements on the ground floor, upper floor: approx. 110 m², approx. 75 m²
Office: family use
Overnight guests per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: closed
Conservative or modern construction: conservative, but without frills
Open kitchen, cooking island: no, cooking island
Number of dining spots: 4
Fireplace: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony, rather to cover the entrance area
Garage, carport: garage
Who did the planning: do-it-yourself and then architect
What do you particularly like?: appearance, the extension, the large ground floor
What do you not like?: the depth of the living room of 4.14 m, caused by the staircase; the room width <3.50 m on the upper floor
Preferred heating technology: ground-source heat pump, KfW 55

Attached I am sending you our floor plan. Currently, I see two core problems: on the one hand, we are bothered by the depth of the living room of 4.14 m, on the other hand, in the contract drawing the living rooms on the upper floor were each planned with 3.50 m width. Now that the architect is done, these have become narrower due to the real concrete staircase.

Is my concern about the insufficient depth in the living room and the room width justified?
Do you have any ideas on how to solve both problems?

For the depth in the living room I see only the following options:
- Staircase: one more step at the top exit. However, then at the exit the wall comes after about 1.20 m. But if I now increase the room width upstairs, the hallway at the exit might be too narrow. Maybe something can be optimized by reducing the gap between the parapet and the railing
- Pull the living room outer wall out by 0.3 m --> but costs about 5,500 EUR and is then only 30 cm; I don’t see cost/benefit as balanced and we are already at a far too large 185 m²
- Reduce the ceiling height on the ground floor from 2.70 m back to 2.55 m --> saves a 3/4 step; question is whether it still looks good with a 40 m² living room

Any other comments? I look forward to your feedback.
Best regards, Redsonic

What would personally bother me are the over 33 sqm hallway/corridor. It can be done, and it also looks spacious.. but basically an expensively bought room. In contrast, I find the wardrobe a bit small and squeezed into the narrow corridor.

among others, we planned the living spaces on the upper floor in the construction contract drawings with a width of 3.50 m each.

Hm, our upper floor has a similar layout, the children's rooms are almost identical. Here, the children's rooms are 3.34 m wide and each have 15.2 m². Those are very nice rooms (especially the corner windows make them nice and bright) and they are big enough.

On the bedroom side, you only have 3.20 m. You should simulate that in your current bedroom. Is the space in front of the bed still sufficient for you then? In the bathroom there should be no problems.

I would reconsider the dressing room. Is that a narrow door? But you go through it twice a day, right? If there is a row of wardrobes on the left and right, you should be able to open the wardrobe door and step back to see the contents. Just check critically again, possibly simulate it at home.

for one, we are bothered by the depth of the living room of 4.14 m

I would try to simulate the planned furnishing. You can also measure in a furniture store how much space seating groups or dining tables take up there (that means with chairs and everything and especially if you still want to be able to walk around).

I wouldn’t know how to place a dining table in the living room, or is there none planned? The bay window is much too narrow for that. Your hallway area is almost as large as the entire living room overall, which I find too much in relation to the size of the house. In the living room, if possible, I would plan at least 4.5m to the TV wall.

Best regards Sabine

180m2 house but only 11m2 bathroom.

Thank you, with that the problems are summarized overall. The ratio of hallways to living space is off, the staircase is intrusive, and the living areas are too small. Huge house but no space per room. But what does the solution look like? I'll soon build an outside staircase.

We solve the issue of the dressing room/bedroom by moving the wall 20 cm to the left. The dressing room will probably have closets on only one side. The room is anyway a "byproduct" from the upper floor, so I can give it up to the bedroom if necessary.

The dining area will be placed to the right of the study. It is 2.80 m and the bay window is not so deep that you get stuck there.