Floor plan design for a 160 sqm single-family house - Your opinions are welcome

If there is customer traffic, I would also avoid having a customer wander through my house. The hallway is not exactly inviting either, way too long.

Edit: looked again... street is on the right side of the plan????? Okay... [emoji6] then the orientation fits a bit better.

Is the plan oriented? North on top?

In the bottom left of the ground floor plan is a north arrow. :)
So it is almost oriented to the north. The terrace faces south-southwest.
EDIT: SORRY, I removed the north arrow during image editing! Bottom is south-southwest, top is north-northeast!

If the office is actually supposed to be used for customers/stranger visits, I would swap the space with the utility room, so people don’t have to walk through my entire house but are intercepted right at the start.

Customer visits do not occur very often – maybe once every two weeks. Still, we want an office on the ground floor. But because of the low number of customer contacts at home, it’s not so important if customers have to walk a few meters further through the house.

I don’t find the long hallway in the entrance area very appealing. Also, I find it annoying when you come in and immediately bump into a wall. The one wardrobe for coats would be too little for me as well. I would therefore completely rethink the entrance situation.

We actually also see the hallway as a drawback.
We have now developed a small improvement: The utility room will be moved about 40 cm upward from the lower left corner to the right just before the door. This creates another break in the “hallway tube” and makes space for an additional shoe cabinet/wardrobe. Although I lose one square meter of space in the utility room, the wall space for furniture decreases only marginally.

The entrance area is indeed not entirely optimal either. Without completely reworking the plan again, however, I see no possibility for optimization.

The dining area in the bay window seems very cramped to me. I would make it wider.

The dining area in the bay window appears cramped because the chairs are pushed all the way out in the plan. If not exactly 6 people are eating there, the chairs are tucked in. If I enlarge the bay window further, it would come at the expense of space in the kitchen and living room, or I would have to buy significantly more living space overall. I have an aversion to building a 170 sqm house or bigger for a family of three that I will live in with two people 20 years later. ;)

The piano stands half in the living area and half in the dining room. It looks like one can’t decide where to mess around. I would prefer a clear separation or none at all.

The piano and the cabinet next to it can (and probably will) be swapped. That will surely make it look more harmonious. But these are just details. ;)

It's not about a customer having a long way to go, it's about the fact that while the customer is in the building, no one has any privacy.

I also don't understand the change for the hallway: I can't scroll that much to comprehend it. However, I do find the width borderline, the length would be acceptable to me at just about half ;)

I just had the thought whether it would help the questioners if there was a "similarity search" in this forum: in my opinion, with comparable approaches but at a more advanced stage of development, you would probably find this for the design discussed here: :)

The dining area in the bay window feels cramped because the chairs are pulled out completely in the plan.

Unfortunately, the measurements are missing ;) ... the path from the kitchen towards the terrace (summer evenings, BBQ evenings, just chilling) is still an annoying slalom route. And

The kitchen seems to only have a Side-by-Side refrigerator and no other tall cabinets planned.

It would also make sense to see the entire property. For example, I consider 2m in front of the garage to be a rather impractical garage forecourt leading to the street. The door from the garage to the utility room also takes up space in the utility room. ... you’re responsible for the similarity search anyway ;) ;).

Thank you for your opinions!

I have gladly taken a few suggestions from you. My architect has even implemented everything today.

- We did not make the hallway shorter, but: we moved the front door a few centimeters down and made the hallway about 12.5 cm wider. The entrance area should therefore not appear quite so cramped. The hallway was enlarged at the expense of the utility room by adding a small extra wardrobe. With this we want to achieve that the hallway appears irregular and not tunnel-like. Nevertheless, the hallway and entrance area will remain the "weak point" for some.

- The living/dining area, kitchen, and the bedrooms and children's rooms upstairs were extended by 25 cm downwards (south).

- Guest WC now without shower, as it was too tight and there was no motivation to make the room larger. Guest WC is now logically significantly smaller.

- Office reduced around the bay window, but enlarged around the shower area of the guest WC. Overall smaller, but sufficient for us.

- Garage was further extended towards the north until the roof overhang reaches the property boundary. Garage door was enlarged to 4.75 m (from 4.50 m). Garage door is centrally positioned, shelves should be installed on the right and left.

Many of your other points I gratefully accepted, but either discarded because I find them irrelevant for us or because I do not prioritize them highly enough to give up other aspects more important to us.

I have gladly taken some suggestions from you.

Had you already looked at the "similar" draft I linked? – I think if you let it settle quietly, more will come out of it. Especially if you not only compare the plans but also the comments in the development history. But I already see progress now.

or because I do not prioritize them so highly in order to give up other aspects that are more important to us.

Which aspects would have suffered then?

Garage door was enlarged to 4.75m (from 4.50m). The garage door will be centered, shelves should be installed on the right and left.

Considering the suitability that also has to be accomplished regarding the "cellar replacement," I think the garage has not been finalized for the last time. Like with the kitchen and bathroom planning, it may be worthwhile to tweak it again more closely.