Idea generation for floor plan of 120m2 single-family house

Hello everyone, we are the new ones and are currently trying to find the right floor plan for our single-family house, we would appreciate support and ideas.

The south side is at the bottom, the main entrance should already be on the side as it apparently works best with our plot.

What I don’t like at all about this example is the hallway (no corner for a wardrobe), as well as the bathroom (too small), and the study is too big.

Our original design could not be implemented like this, this one was suggested as an alternative.

Hello and welcome!

You have already addressed 3 important points yourself. The only "special feature" compared to a "normal" 120 sqm floor plan is your wish for the gable-side entrance. There should be more possibilities there. Is it possible from the plot to change the ridge orientation, i.e., to rotate the house by 90 degrees and orient the gable north/south?

I also notice the following points:
- Utility room: If built without a basement, the 4 sqm may just barely be enough for all the technology. There is no space left for a washing machine, dryer, and a cabinet!
- "Space-saving staircase": For me, this would be a dealbreaker in a new single-family house. It’s no fun to use such a staircase in the long run.
- Idea for the upper floor: Swap bedroom and office, attach the walk-in closet to the bathroom. Bedroom without walk-in closet. => Larger bathroom and larger bedroom, smaller office. Or is the office possibly meant to be used as a second children’s room at some point? Then this swap is not a good idea.
- In the living room, you have a large dead space next to the kitchen. What do you have planned there?

Best regards

Michael

Hello,

I also don’t find the floor plan successful. As the [Wadenkneifer] already said, the utility room is way too small if you’re building without a basement. We have 12.5 sqm and just barely fit everything in there (washing machine, dryer, shoe cabinet, freezer, other things that were in our basement).

Take a look at your pantry; the architect has already properly "furnished" it. Given the size, you’ll really only be able to fit a shelf at the front. The other square meters are completely wasted space. Scrap the pantry and put two more storage cabinets in the kitchen. You can’t store potatoes in the middle of a modern house anyway; it’s too warm for that.

We have it too, and I would never do it again: the staircase entrance directly at the front door. All the street dirt first comes into the house, and you always walk right through it. If it’s at all possible, the staircase should be inside the house, after the coatroom where you take off your shoes.

Then you also wouldn’t waste so much space on hallways.

The living-dining room seems very narrow to me. It probably isn’t even 3 meters, right?

From our [BU] I know that the bay window, as you planned it, would have cost about 16k extra. For the same price, you could have made our house 60 cm wider. Since the bay window doesn’t really give you more space on the ground floor or upper floor, it would be cheaper to do without it and instead enlarge the whole house. Maybe then you could build a dormer in the upper rooms that also gives more ceiling height in the southern rooms.

Best regards
Julia

Hello,

how about swapping the staircase and the utility room and/or guest bathroom on the ground floor? Then you would have to walk a little further to the stairs downstairs, but you could also swap the bathroom and stairs upstairs, saving hallway space and making the bathroom larger. So move the stairs overall further to the "right."

I would also omit the pantry and make the kitchen larger instead. Or place the pantry crosswise at the back, so that the entire kitchen moves forward. (However, you probably then have a problem with the light in the kitchen, right?)

Upstairs, I might also swap the bedroom and office. I once saw a nice floor plan where the dressing room was in the bay window. I thought that was a good solution.

Best regards

I also spontaneously had the idea of Wildthing with the staircase in mind. Pantry gone, instead staircase opposite the dining room, utility room and WC at the front. You could also consider whether you then make the staircase open to the living/dining area, which in my opinion creates a bit of spaciousness. Upstairs then the bathroom where the staircase is now. That will then be larger right away. Provide a replacement utility room upstairs. 4-5 sqm is very little on the ground floor, just enough for technical stuff and a potato shelf. Maybe a room arises between the staircase and bathroom, but the dressing room would probably then disappear (depends on the location of the staircase). Cloakroom problem still there, possibly then push the utility room at the front a bit to make space for a built-in closet??

So, thanks a lot for the suggestions, I have now implemented and presented this professionally (sarcasm off).

Ground floor:
- basically my wife actually wanted a closed kitchen, but she would also like a "cooking island", so I think we can’t avoid an open kitchen
- I really like the staircase now and the idea of designing it "open" is great, but doesn’t this take too much space away from the bay window?
- space created for a chest of drawers

Upper floor:
- the dressing room must remain, only a bed and a chest of drawers should be in the bedroom, so it can be relatively small
- I think the bathroom should now be about 10m²?
- we have a daughter (2) and are not planning a second child
- I reduced the office (possibly 9m²?), this should be used as a kind of hobby/storage room and later maybe as an extension for our daughter until she moves out

@Wadenkmeifer, our plot is 16.90m wide and is located in a kind of S-curve, we can rotate the house but then the large south side is lost, I don’t know if that would create a nice overall look, also regarding the bay window. Later a garage should be added to the plot and preferably directly attached to the house (without passage from the house).

: Regarding the bay window I have to ask directly, thanks, the bay window is more of an optical thing for us. But if I build a dormer and make the house 60cm wider, won’t that make it even more expensive, especially because of the dormer?

Thanks a lot for now