Floor plan - suggestions & criticism welcome!

I really thank you very much for your answers!

Regarding the dressing area topic: Of course, I would prefer 60 cm cabinets on both sides. But if it can’t be done otherwise, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for me now, I could live with it, because 7 m of wardrobe space is quite a lot anyway. So that’s not my main priority right now. More important to me is the exterior view facing west. And no matter how I turn and twist it, I always think it looks strange. In my opinion, the window in the dressing room should have approximately the same dimensions as the other windows on the upper floor on that side. But that can’t be done. I’m just a fan of symmetry . But I can hardly imagine how you both mean the window. If I simply shift it by a few centimeters so that 60 cm cabinets fit on both sides, it looks worse to me than before. But it’s also possible that I have simply lost the perspective because I have stared at this view so often in the last few days that everything looks somehow strange to me now .

At the moment I’m also kind of "afraid" that we will have to almost completely discard the floor plan because we won’t get it right with the west view. I like the floor plan itself very much, so I would at least like to stick to it in the basics. All my wishes have been accommodated, all distances work for me, all the furniture I want fits ... we have been dealing with floor plans for a very long time and I know that I am very picky about that and this is the first floor plan that fully satisfies me ... if it weren’t for the views.

Regarding the south view/kitchen window: kbt09, do you really think it makes a big difference in terms of light and feeling to have a rectangular, not floor-to-ceiling window (it could still be large, e.g. 2 m long x 1 m high) instead of a floor-to-ceiling narrower window? At first glance, I would say it doesn’t make much difference, but I can hardly assess that.

Regarding the wall near the office/child 1 room one could think about it. Thanks for the idea.

Bathroom, yes, it’s not perfect as I have done it now. However, I can’t do it any better either, but I think this is probably one of the smaller problems with this floor plan (the main problem is and remains the west view ). I think with a bathroom of this size you can manage it reasonably somehow, so I’m not too worried. Even if the room is rather narrow and long.

More important to me is the exterior view on the west. And no matter how I turn and twist it, I always find it looks strange. In my opinion, the window in the dressing room should have roughly the same dimensions as the other windows on the upper floor on that side. But that can’t be done. I’m just a fan of symmetry .

But it could also be that I simply lost the eye for it, because I’ve stared at this view so often in the last few days that now everything somehow looks strange to me .

Yes, I think the problem is that you think symmetrically. I did that for the first 30 years of my life too, but I learned. Asymmetry brings dynamism. Look at nature: while straight lines drawn by human hands, like an avenue or an entrance path, are interesting and beautiful precisely because of the awareness, a flower bed or a cluster of bushes lives from dynamic balance. Tall and thin on the left, medium height and thick on the right, with connecting components in between...

I take your views without the floor plan and notice that quite a few window dimensions are being used. About the north view, there is nothing to say except: there is a window dimension that is not found anywhere else on the house. That could be changed with a window dimension from the east facade. For the east view: 4 window dimensions! At least I would equalize the two on the left. Why is the WC window lower than the upper one above it? Bathroom exterior does not correspond with the floor plan anyway, and that’s where the potential lies: swap bathtub with washbasin and remove the middle window. The horizontal windows on the ground floor only single-leaf like the left window on the upper floor? Try sketching that. South view: shift the upper left window outward at the same distance as the lower ones, so that the distance between the windows below and above is the same. I would leave the kitchen door as it is because that is the direct access to the garden. Looking again: maybe rather move the single dining room window further out and mediate the two upper ones between the lower ones. The south side doesn’t work for me at all: it looks squeezed. The proportion between wall and window is not right. The window area is too large. The outer edges (walls) should frame and not feel like falling apart. Either three meters on the left and right with nothing in the middle or one meter of windows on left and right, with your sliding door in the middle. Use the approx. 50 cm above for the dressing room and shift. Personally, I think there are too many window dimensions; I’d try how 3-part windows would look, for example on the upper floor east, meaning three-leaf windows with a high sill, and below two-leaf with the same sill height. Draw the facades and stencil the different proposals. Phone photos allow comparison. Otherwise: all good (except the kitchen, which would be too boring for me )

Thank you so much again for your reply, ypg. That already helps me a lot here. My husband and I will spend the next days/weeks thinking things over again, stenciling, painting, pondering... it has to be possible to make it look quite acceptable somehow.

On the east side, we will try to accommodate fewer different window sizes to make it look a bit more uniform, and of course the windows in the bathroom need to be adjusted to the new sanitary arrangement. Giving the window on the north side a dimension that can also be found elsewhere in the house is a good idea and surely easy to do. On the south side, we will try to implement your suggestions; otherwise, it will probably come down to a window with a sill in the kitchen. Of course, this is hard to say theoretically, but I don't think I would miss the door in everyday life, so it’s no drama for me if there is no floor-to-ceiling window there. However, I would then try to pick up the window dimensions of the other south-facing windows, meaning the window would have the same dimensions, just rotated (height floor-to-ceiling = width of window with sill, or width floor-to-ceiling = height of window with sill) so it doesn’t look too chaotic. I actually thought that looked pretty good in my sketch, visually speaking. It looks better than the original, in my opinion. Regarding the west view: Yes, you're right, the windows on the ground floor are too much. I would like to keep it to three windows because the middle window (sliding door) would be a nice main access to the terrace, as neither the living room furniture nor the dining table will be in the way here. There is plenty of space to comfortably get into the garden, so I would prefer three windows to two windows, where we would probably have to squeeze around the dining table in everyday life. Therefore I think we will reduce the size of the left and right windows to 1 - 1.5 meters and adjust the width of the windows in the children's room and bedroom upstairs. As for the main concern, the "dressing room window," we will have to see... I may have already thought about not arranging the three large windows on the ground floor symmetrically (spacing from the outer wall and from each other) but shifting them so that the edge of the large terrace window lines up with the edge of the dressing room window. But I still have to work that out in more detail and then we will see if it looks good or not. Or is it a no-go if the left and right windows do not have exactly the same distance from the outer wall?

Otherwise: everything’s great (except the kitchen, which is too boring for me )

Thanks, that’s already worth a lot that the floor plan itself isn’t bad. We also spent a long time working on this floor plan, as I said, the basic framework comes from ourselves, the graduate engineer only adjusted a little (wall thicknesses, etc.). Our mistake was that we initially drew the floor plan without windows because we wanted to make sure that the dimensions and the floor plan itself fit first, and I always thought that the windows wouldn’t be so difficult and would fall into place if the rest was right. Well, I was wrong: now the floor plan fits well but the windows do not want to integrate that well.

By the way, we like boring kitchens – our current kitchen is terrible, so I am quite happy to have a nice, straightforward, "boring" kitchen in the new house.

Thanks again. I will get back to you in due course after we have played around with the windows a bit. Our planner is currently on his annual vacation, so we won’t have the opportunity to discuss the design intensively with him for a few weeks. Maybe he’ll have a few more ideas then.

Hello! Somehow your house reminds me of our planning. What I would still change: - All the windows in the living room are floor-to-ceiling and also all "only" 2.01m wide. We have them like that too. That is completely enough. I wouldn’t know why one should be wider. - Remove the short wall in the living room. - I would even do without the door to the kitchen. We prefer to put kitchen cabinets on the right-hand wall according to the plan. Otherwise, you have little to no space for tall cabinets. - In general, I don’t like the arrangement upstairs. It looks like the office was just squeezed in between the two children's rooms. The two children's rooms are very small and planned only with narrow cabinets. The bathroom upstairs is relatively large, but also very difficult to furnish. The dressing room window shouldn’t be disturbing, though. We also have a narrow window there (children’s bathroom) and the others are all 2m wide. Maybe you can imagine that better with a real picture: Edit: Now that I see our view again: I would definitely plan a window for the garage/storage room.

Jochen, thanks to you too for your reply.

- The windows in the living room are all floor-to-ceiling and all only 2.01m wide. We have it like that too. Totally sufficient. I don’t know why one should be wider.

All floor-to-ceiling is already on our list, we will definitely do that. Regarding the width, you may be right and it would be worth considering. That would also help make the view look a bit more uniform.

- Wall stub in the living room gone.

Yes, definitely. That’s already on our list too. We will make sliding doors in the kitchen and living room, so this wall extension won’t make sense anymore.

- I would even do without the door to the kitchen. We prefer to put kitchen furniture on the right-hand wall of the plan. Otherwise, you have little to no space for tall cabinets.

That’s not an option for us. It’s important to us to have a door to the kitchen and a door to the living room. I have already roughly planned the kitchen and there should be enough space for everything even with the door.

- In general, I don’t like the layout upstairs. It looks like the office was just squeezed in between the two children’s rooms. The two children’s rooms are very small and planned only with narrow cabinets. The bathroom upstairs is relatively large, but also very difficult to furnish.

Your criticisms are not entirely unfounded, of course, but even at the risk of coming across as resistant to advice, these things do not necessarily bother us. The office just evolved like that, we wouldn’t know where else to put it. We originally thought of having it on the ground floor, but then the large kitchen-dining area became too small for us. Upstairs, it only fits where it is currently, and we think that placement is very good. Everything practically depends on the half-landing staircase in the center of the house – but that is very important to us and stands very high on the “must-have” list. We have already been to a show home where the staircase, children’s rooms, and office were arranged very similarly, and we liked that very much. So for us, that is completely acceptable. We might also take kbt09’s suggestion and leave the door between the children’s room and office out for the time being, since the office is just a “reserve” in case we decide on a second child. The children’s rooms are not very large, that’s true, but in our opinion, they are not actually too small. We have already seen rooms of similar size in friends’ new builds and find it absolutely okay. Bigger is of course always nicer, but since we also value a large dressing room and a bathroom that is not too small, that is simply the “price” we pay. But we don’t find that necessarily bad either; nowadays it’s common in many houses that children’s rooms range around 12-14 m². That the children’s rooms have rather narrow cabinets (somewhere between the two cabinet widths in the dressing room) only occurred to me through your comment, many thanks. But that can probably be fixed by moving the door in child 2 a few centimeters to the left (aligned with the door to child 1) and shifting the window in child 1 by a few centimeters (we are working on the south elevation anyway). Furnishing the bathroom is not so easy, that’s true, because it’s rather narrow – but again it’s due to the half-landing staircase, which as I said is a must for us, but I think this can also be managed well. I already like my modification of the bathroom furnishings very much, a bit of detail adjustment (and possibly swapping bathtub and washbasin) and then it should work.

The window in the dressing room probably won’t be disturbing. We also have a narrow window there (children’s bathroom) and the others are all 2m wide. Maybe you can imagine it better with a real picture:

Thank you very much for the photo, that really helps me imagine it much better and I have to say it doesn’t look bad. However, you also have floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere upstairs, so I would have to think about that for ourselves; I’m worried about children’s room 1, which is not very large and would have floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides, which of course takes away some placement options (e.g. desk)... we’ll see... Regarding a window in the storage room, we had already thought about it but then thought it might also take away space and is not absolutely necessary. You think we should make the window? We are undecided, we’ll think about it again. The advantage would be, of course, that it’s not so pitch-dark in the storage room.

I find it quite practical when part of the closet is only 40cm deep. You should keep in mind how much you hang (for that you need 60cm depth) and how much is stored in drawers/shelves. Personally, it annoys me more when the closets where I store T-shirts, sweaters, socks, underwear, etc. are that deep. You never need that much. I prefer to have more running meters of closet and only 40cm deep. That way you can easily reach the things. I see it now: we have 4m of closet, no dressing room currently (planned in the new building) and it is consistently 60cm deep. That is great for hanging clothes, but for everything else I would personally prefer shallower shelves that are not so tall, so more boards, even better drawers. Now I stack high piles of T-shirts because with a depth of 60cm the shelf height can’t be too low either (otherwise it’s hard to reach things at the back), but in front of the (unstable) piles I easily have 25cm free. So eventually you start stacking in a second row. Annoying. I would prefer shallower shelves where everything lies within easy reach at the front.

But if you prefer to hang a lot and fold less, then this should be reflected in the ratio of 60/40 depth. My T-shirts are folded -> I need corresponding shelves. Those who prefer to hang them need more 60cm closets.

In the kitchen, I would leave out the door and instead make the terrace door at the dining area double size (or even bigger). I think then the south side would also look better from outside. For that (this has already been mentioned here, I believe), you would equip this side with kitchen furniture. Instead of the door there could be windows or a strip of light above the work surface. Also wider than the planned terrace door (I would make it the entire length of the work surface). That gives you more and it becomes brighter.

Study: I also don’t find the rooms upstairs particularly generously sized. How often do you use the study? If it is only used occasionally and otherwise stores paperwork, you could consider moving the room to the basement (oops, do you have one? I’m not sure now) and giving more space to the children's rooms.

Bathroom: T-solutions are actually great, but not always the best solution. Here you have next to the currently planned washbasin at the T-solution a whole wall free that is not used at all. I would include that. Either put the washbasin there or the toilet, etc. I wouldn’t like the toilet as it is now, directly next to the door, at all.