Variants for furnishing the all-purpose room

Hello everyone,

after almost a year’s break, we have resumed our construction project and are planning a new floor plan.
We are stuck with the open space and I would therefore be interested in your opinion!
Our garden faces west, to the south there is a neighbor’s border after three meters.

Option 1:
Basically, we like this option best. ONLY: Is it maybe too tight? About one meter between the sofa and the table, is that too cramped? It’s enough for walking through. But does the coziness on the couch possibly suffer? Today we have much more space between couch and table, but not as much depth in the room as in the drawn floor plan. We thought about simply putting the table in our current apartment that close to the couch as in the new floor plan just to see how it feels.
Pro: Great window view to the west, a skylight to the south (brings lots of light but no insight from the neighbor into our house), from the couch you look into the room, into the garden, and at the TV
Con: is it too narrow in width?

Option 2:
Same play, only the table is rotated. Basically, a table with a base size of 1.00 x 2.00 always requires a space of 2.00 x 2.00 because of the chairs. With this arrangement, all guests could look into the garden. With option 1, from the sofa and the kitchen island you would have visual contact with all guests.

Option 3:
Sofa and living wall swapped. The skylight to the south now becomes a floor-to-ceiling window and the window to the west is lost.
Pro: More freedom of movement in the room, sofa hidden behind the fireplace, more coziness
Con: From the sofa no view of the garden, loss of a west window, view of the fireplace only from the side

We have already lost ourselves so much in planning again that we can’t see the forest for the trees.

What is your opinion?

Thanks and best regards
Ypsi

I like option 3 because I'm not really a fan of the furniture showroom style of the open spaces. And you can also rotate the table if you really want to "entertain guests from the kitchen island."

Is there also a floor plan of the upper floor for this? Are you still completely free regarding the window planning? With variant 3 you keep more options open, also to rearrange sometimes. And what do you have in variant 1 and 2 regarding the west window when you are sitting on the couch with your back to it? That would block the window again. I'm also not a fan of skylights in the living room, so for me it's clearly variant 3. I would enlarge the window at the dining area for that, then you have a generous view of the garden from all sides.

Somehow this feeling seems familiar to me. Hirschhausen once called it "too-much-itis," which I also get quite often. Is it already built, so are the measurements, windows, etc. fixed? If yes, I would definitely prefer variant 2 and then design it in detail; I don't like variant 1, rather 3. With a room width of 9.90m, I wouldn't place the table lengthwise as well. We looked at it like that in a show house and found it too tight. If the house is already standing, you can always rearrange later. I would also pay attention to what is often used and what is rarely used. Guests don't need the premium view, because they are rare AND when they are there you mostly chat, so the view is secondary. We have a similar situation, but more width, less depth. However, for us the TV is completely out and takes place in another room. We have no children in the house and we don't eat at the big dining table very often; therefore, we have now decided to place our dining table directly attached to the island; as a result, a lot of space suddenly opens up in the middle; I could imagine that for you as well. Maybe you write more about the situation regarding construction, children, etc. We are also downsizing significantly, as we currently have 200 sqm on one level. At first, one is shocked but eventually you realize that you previously had a lot of unnecessary running space and the new place has other advantages.

Is there also a floor plan of the upper floor? Are you still completely free regarding the window planning?

Yes, we are still completely free in the design. Both on the ground floor and the upper floor. Windows on the upper floor could therefore be visually adapted to the ground floor.

Variant 3 with the rotated table so that everyone sitting at the table can look out the window toward the garden or the light falls evenly on the table.