Help with farm house design
gramps
9 years ago
Looking for general comments on this floor plan. We have designed this ourselves using Excel.
Wanting to accommodate our growing family (currently 3, could be up to 5 of us in the future) + occasional guests. Building on a 1,000 acre farm in Victoria, Australia at the foothills of a mountain range. There are 270 degree mountain views (N,E,S) and an open panoramic horizon view to the west with spectacular sunsets every night.
We want a practical house that will showcase the views, be simple to construct, low maintenance, and kid friendly.
Any insights or suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks!
Wanting to accommodate our growing family (currently 3, could be up to 5 of us in the future) + occasional guests. Building on a 1,000 acre farm in Victoria, Australia at the foothills of a mountain range. There are 270 degree mountain views (N,E,S) and an open panoramic horizon view to the west with spectacular sunsets every night.
We want a practical house that will showcase the views, be simple to construct, low maintenance, and kid friendly.
Any insights or suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks!
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Comments (8)
gramps
9 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (10)If you're seriously considering chalk paint check out Marilyn's, the Annie Soames stuff is pretty expensive. Marilyn's comes in some made up colours or you can get the powder and add it to any colour you like. (I have only tried this on small amounts only, not sure how you'd go mixing larger quantities). I'd be inclined to get it in place before doing anything radical, then you'll have a better feel. I'm thinking that the grey drawers definitely need to be changed, I'd try painting some cardboar and sticking it over the top to experiment with colour. What you do with your splashback will also make a big difference, those grey tiles add to the contempaory feel. You could also change out the handle quite cheaply for something a bit chunkier. Open shelves or glass fronts scream farmhouse, so maybe just leaving some of the upper cupboard doors off could work, you can always paint the inside of the cupboard for a bit of interest. Or depending how the L fits in, open shelves, on one end. Another option depending on what's in the rest of the space, and how big that space is, you could think about a butchers block in the space, very farhouse and extra benchspace never goes astray....See MoreFarm house exterior colour scheme - colorbond cladding
Comments (62)apennameandthata i don't know... vertical is more shed like style, while we still have a colonial style base and veranda. Dust will be an issue here (although its not so bad in that particular spot on a river, good protection from trees) but pressure wash will be regular practice anyway. Thanks for all your suggestions and I will take all on board, especially sandstone ideas. I don't this I want this house to look pretentious, but how can I describe that, I am after some subtle "wow" factor or something a bit different, but it must look like we knew what we are doing and YES, I want it to look like high quality build and not a transportable house or kit home. The house rectangle is so simple that I worry it may have that boring factor in its looks and that is why I am looking for some ideas. My problem is a tendency to overthink but I hope I will find a balance at some point :) At this stage I think: galvanised tin everywhere (or that zincalum), rusty steel posts, aluminum windows with timber look, sandstone features around main door and sandstone chimney. We had a big flood last year and the spot never goes under water, its on high grounds even though it is only meters from the river....See MoreExterior Designer help! New house attached to existing house!
Comments (4)Interesting project there........when you're dealing with extending immediately from an existing building there are usually two ways to go....1. blend/extend seamlessly so that there is essentially no indication of any additions, or 2. separate/distinguish clearly between the old and the new. It's usually reflected somewhat in the floor plan as well. There is also a spectrum within both of those categories on how it can be done and whether its deemed to be done well or not so well. The issue I see with the facade articulation resolution (on your drawings) is that it is arguably neither one nor the other. The window/fenestration articulation is an issue because there's no confident consistency or sequence to the proportions of the new glazing areas. If you want "timeless" then you need to pull it into line with a particular style, either remain faithful to the reference/traditions/scaling/proportions of the original, or if that is either challenging or not providing the functional outcome sought, then consolidate the style/breakup of the extended windows to be visually contrasting yet balanced/controlled against the original. It's a similar story with the materials, it needs to all balance compositionally. Usually the decisions in this area come down to how best to balance also in conjunction with the roof form. And getting to the roof, this is again similar in that it's not ideal to mix & match gable and hip forms unless there's good reason to do so or you feature projecting gables out from a primary hip composition like as in cal bungs. I think you'll find it would be a better outcome to confidently work with one or the other here. In this case the existing primary reference is the gable form and this could be really be made the defining building form feature, but you need to decide upon how you articulate the gable forms - it's like there needs to be a clever/clear approach/language developed with some contemporary material to express the garage gable full height so it reads as the single material, rather than being broken up with the garage door and the gable infill - if it was a hidden door and the form finished more consistently the whole thing would look classier, professional and more elegant. There is super potential here to get this right and look amazing. I think the layout is all OK but some harder work is required/deserved on the facade, street presentation and form resolution, which obviously you are aware about since you've asked the question......possibly here, less in more ;) PD...See Morehouse design help needed
Comments (13)Hi Lorna Lux, I think there are some serious issues with the layout of your house. Both the living room at the front and the family and dining at the back have circulation needs that restricts furniture placement. I would be good for you to put your furniture into the spaces and see how you will need to move around it. A large amount of the circulation is wasting usable space and you are trying to fit a lot into a reasonably small house, which as Dr Retro mentions, makes the spaces quite pokey. For instance, if this is a tight urban site, which it appears to be restricted in width, why not look at bringing the entrance in part way down the side of the house which would allow much better use of the front room. You can still make a really great feature of your entry down the side and it is cheaper to create that space outside rather than give over precious floor space internally. I don't think it is ideal to enter either bedroom 1 or 2 directly off the family, dining and kitchen space. Do the occupants of bedroom 2 have walk past the dining and kitchen and up the hallway to use the shower or bath? A bit of a hike. I have worked on tight 10m wide sloping sites in inner city suburbs and there are good solutions that only take a bit of fine tuning to make them great spaces to live in. Good luck, Christine....See More
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