Old building style furnishing, 133 square meters

Dear forum users,

In the subforum "Grundriss" I have read very good advice several times regarding interior planning. Now I no longer have a floor plan to discuss (house has stood since 1885), but maybe I can also get help in this subforum?

The following is given:
- Old-style building (entire floor) 3rd floor in a large city in western Germany
- 133 square meters
- Kitchen with kitchenette (already present) and pantry
- Bathroom with shower and bathtub
- WC

- Room 24.99 square meters with balcony facing east as well as 1 window facing north and 1 window facing east
- Room 13.70 square meters with window facing east
- Room 24.77 square meters with window facing east
These three rooms are connected with large double doors typical for old buildings and each also has doors to the hallway.

There is also another room with 22.56 square meters and a window facing north.

Furthermore, there is a hallway with 21.73 square meters and a laundry room for the washing machine.

All rooms (except the bathroom/WC) have refinished parquet flooring.

Two adults and one schoolchild will move into the apartment, furniture is currently almost nonexistent.

I am looking for advice, tips, and suggestions regarding the furnishing of the apartment. Where to eat, where to put a sofa? Where to sleep, where should the child sleep? What tips and tricks do you have, also regarding rugs/lamps/furniture design? How would a table fit well in the kitchen (kitchenette only flush with the wall behind the door, rest of the room free). How can the large hallway be nicely designed?

We need a large dining table (width 1.20 m (sic!) and length at least 2.50 meters); also a workspace and ideally a place for frequent overnight guests.

Thanks in advance and best regards,

Anelya

;) ... somewhat unfavorable orientation of the apartment with east and north but could turn out nice ;)

In the plan, there are no double doors drawn between the rooms, just simple doors. That would need to be checked again. Positions of radiators are also missing, and one or two photos to capture a bit of the apartment's flair would also be useful.

I would .. you might not like it at all, I choose the labels according to the plan

[*]Children's room to parents' bedroom, close double door to room. On the wall with the double door, there is then wonderfully plenty of closet space, at the end towards the window maybe a small second workspace. Also a really big bed
[*]Room to sofa/TV room. Sofa planned at top on the wall to the "new" bedroom, possibly remove double door to have an open passage to the bottom of the plan. Hallway door could be kept
[*]Living room to kitchen/dining ... water/sewage should be possible with the wall to the bathroom. Important info missing here, the window sill height and whether there are radiators anywhere. Furnishing with a large table, as you want, wouldn't be quite easy, but also depends on kitchen demands. I don't estimate them to be too high if you would be satisfied with a single line in the current kitchen room.
[*]Bedroom to children's room. Thus separated from the family rooms. Then close the door to the bathroom there, which might create space in the bathroom for washing machine etc.
[*]Kitchen to work/guest room. The pantry can hold bedding etc. for guests. One could consider installing a wall bed on the wall at the bottom of the plan.
[*]Hallway can accommodate sufficient storage and maybe also a book/reading corner at the slanted wall.

Dear kbt09,

thank you very much for the very comprehensive answer, very helpful! Here are a few more details regarding the questions raised:

Perhaps first of all important to mention that the apartment is a rental. Major structural changes regarding relocation of the kitchen/pipes etc. are not planned or appropriate for the property in the format in which we will use it (pure rental). In the room marked "Küche" on the plan, there is a quite solid kitchen unit installed, which will definitely meet our needs and will continue to be used.

Now to the questions/remarks:
- I also hope it will still be nice between east and north :)
- regarding the doors and the position of the radiators and photos – I will gladly provide these after I can enter the apartment again
- interesting thought regarding swapping the children’s and parents’ bedrooms. My concern would be that the north side might not be so nice for a child – after all, the child spends much more time in the room during the day compared to the parents’ bedroom.
- regarding the "middle room" – I had similar thoughts (except that we don’t have a TV, but a reading room would be nice)
- data on window height and radiators I will provide later.
- the large table is planned for dinner/gatherings – that is important, more important than lots of storage space in the kitchen or similar.
- space for the washing machine is in the laundry room in the basement – there is also a drying room there. So nothing regarding laundry has to be done in the apartment, and no washing machine needs to be installed.
- interesting idea regarding a complete redesign/recasting of the kitchen – if this were a condominium, I would tackle it immediately! Unfortunately not possible, because it is a rental.
- I also had the idea about the "slanted wall" in the hallway – thank you very much for confirming!

Best regards,

Anelya

;) ... somewhat unfavorable orientation of the apartment with east and north but it could become nice ;)

On the plan there are no double doors drawn between the rooms, just simple doors. That would need to be checked again. Positions of radiators are also missing and one or two photos to get a feel for the apartment would also be useful.

I would .. you might not like it at all, I choose the labels according to the plan

[*]Children’s room to parents’ bedroom, close the double door to the room. On the wall with the double door there would then be wonderfully much closet space, maybe even a small second workstation at the end near the window. Also a really big bed
[*]Room to sofa/TV room. Sofa planned at the top on the wall to the "new" bedroom, possibly take down the double door to have an open passage to the bottom of the plan. The hallway door could remain
[*]Living room to kitchen/dining … water/sewage should be possible with the wall to the bathroom. Important information missing here: the sill height of the windows and whether there are radiators somewhere. Furnishing with a large table as you want would not be quite easy but also depends on the kitchen demands. I do not consider them too high if you are satisfied with a single row kitchen in the current kitchen room.
[*]Bedroom to children’s room. Thus separated from family rooms. Then close the door to the bathroom; that could possibly create space for washing machine etc. in the bathroom.
[*]Kitchen to study/guest room. The pantry can house bed linen etc. for guests. One could consider installing a fold-down bed on the bottom wall of the plan.
[*]Hallway can provide sufficient storage space and maybe a book/reading corner on the slanted wall.

Now I no longer have a floor plan to discuss (the house has been standing since 1885),

Then the floor plan is only an informational basis and no longer a victim of a discussion ;-)

Positions of radiators are also missing and one or two photos to capture a bit of the apartment’s atmosphere would also be useful.

Depending on the quality of the impact sound insulation, it would also be helpful to know how the rooms in the apartment above are used. The room sizes might invite variations in the usage assignments.

interesting thought regarding swapping the children's bedroom with the parents' bedroom. My concern would be that the north side might not be so nice for a child - it is clearly used more frequently during the day compared to the parents' bedroom.

However, the east side is not significantly sunnier for schoolchildren than the north side either, since the morning hours are spent at school. Basically, I agree that I usually don't recommend north-facing rooms as children's bedrooms. But I think in your situation it makes sense, because 2 adults might need a bit more space than 1 child ... and, you could at least fit a mini workspace and, for example, create a useful home office.

Important info about the rental apartment ;) still the question, what time horizon have you set for the apartment? I myself also live in a rental apartment and had the incredible luck to be able to incorporate my wishes during the renovation of the 1913 house. That was more than 10 years ago now and in the meantime I have a contract with my landlord that guarantees me basically lifelong right of residence, even if he dies and his 3 children take over as heirs. Because this is "my" apartment ;)

In the current kitchen you can fit a table against the wall at the top of the plan, but not your "gathering table" ... and, a work/guest room is still supposed to be created. However, the current living room is also not really suitable for living/sofa and "gathering table".