Floor plan advice please - acreage dream home

8 years ago

We are working on our concept design for our dream home and I was hoping for some feedback on our floor plan. We are building on a hillside acreage with brilliant views and have tried to take advantage of this in our design. I am happy with the general layout of the rooms, it might sound odd but I feel as though the house doesn't have balance in the design, where half the house is more architectural detail with variation and depth to the house vs the other side of the house, where the master bedroom which takes on a more contemporary streamlined layout (which is the design we were aiming for) The architect has attempted to balance the design with some bump outs to the rear of the house. It just doesn't seem to sit right, not sure if I am overthinking it. Also after some feedback on room sizes and if these seem to be in proportion for the overall size of the house approx 360m2. Would appreciate any feedback.

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Comments (4)

haephestus
8 years ago
The following are all general, non-professional comments.

I'm not sure how the occupant of Bed 2 will feel about their primary bathroom window facing the "front" of the house as other family members, guests and potentially even people driving past will be able to see into the bathroom.

I would consider swapping the toilet and shower so that you can have a big window on the side or potentially even slotting that ensuite between Bed 2 and Bed 3 and having a big window on the side for Bed 2 and a "high" window along the front for Bed 2.

It will depend upon how many people will be living in the house, but since the main bathroom appears intended to serve as both the powder room and the "ensuite" for Bed 3, I would consider separating the toilet into a dedicated powder room. That way, the occupant of Bed 3 has "privacy" from guests for their vanity and shower and if they're in the shower, guests can still use the toilet.

I would widen the hallway by pushing the laundry and media room out a bit. I don't think it would cost too much extra to widen the hallway, but I think you would appreciate it as it is currently a little long and narrow and the "focal point" as you enter is simply the door to the main bedroom.

I would consider furniture placement for Living 1. On the plans, it looks a little squished, especially if people were sitting and relaxing at the indoor dining table. It might be a good idea to pinch some space from the alfresco or to combine Living 1 and Living 2 to create a lovely, generously proportioned space.

It strikes me as a little off that the fireplace will be "behind" the sofas in Living 1. I think most people like the fireplace to be the focal point, but the fireplace currently seems like a last minute addition. Do you want to be able to sit in front of the fire or are you happy for it to be at your back?

I would ensure that the allocated space for the TV in Living 1 will fit your desired TV. TV sizes are getting bigger and bigger and if you're planning on having a big TV in Living 1 (in addition to the TV in the media room), then it would be good to ensure that it won't dominate the angled wall (and distract from the views).

I don't understand the purpose of Living 2. With a separate media room and Living 1, it's unclear whether Living 2 is meant to serve as another living room or whether it is actually intended to function as a study.

Do you have a collection which will be displayed in the nook opposite Living 2? If so, it seems that the "display" won't be easily visible to guests. If you have a particular collection which you want to proudly display, then you may wish to consider repositioning this nook.

Everyone has a different point of view, but I would try to separate the toilet in the ensuite.

I would have thought that the person using the dressing table in the main bedroom would appreciate some natural daylight, but there doesn't appear to be a window that will service that area. The same comment applies for the study nook opposite the kitchen.

Good luck!
bigreader
8 years ago
I love the alfresco between the two living areas. Can imagine this working beautifully for a large gathering.

In a house that size I'd try for a separate main toilet. Maybe with a basin. You've set the house up for a largish family or lots of visitors, so a separate toilet would be more flexible.
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just looking at the Master suite .... door from ensuit lines up with pillows and would mean thst any late nihht trips to the loo would cast light on partner. not sure how to reconfigure though?
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Hi Kieran, I've spent a fun Sunday playing around with this... thanks for the challenge! Jumping in to post it though, I think my ideas overlap with Siriuskey and Lucia. Isn't it funny how similar solutions can be arrived at independently! Key points: - As far as possible, I've tried to stick with the existing walls. - Since Bed 2 & Bed 3 are quite small already, even though I've encroached into each to achieve separate entries, the impact is minimal, particularly for Bed 3. - I've used pocket doors to both ends of the WIR and to the store room for optimal functionality. - I've depicted Caroma Urbane compact toilet suites with wall concealed cisterns because they save a bit of space and both toilets can use that extra space in that direction. - It's a very stageable design. You may for instance decide to build the ensuite/WIR and reconfigure the bed 2/3 entries without doing any of the kitchen changes. Or you may decide to save the expense and not move the main WC into the existing store, though it does add a fair area to the living space (I've used the exact existing footprint of the store to save cost and demolition pain which is workable with the Caroma Urbane, but alternatively you could demolish and rebuild the wall behind the pan for a more spacious loo). - The Family/Dining area ends up being fairly generous and very flexible. I've added a door to the end of the corridor to screen the loo a bit better from the dining area and for noise separation for the study, but you may prefer to leave this off. - I've not mucked around with your windows, figuring the important thing was to get the concept down for you, except in the ensuite. Really good idea there to have a central mirror with a narrow window to each side to throw light on your face at the mirror. Has the side benefit of a symmetrical effect which is always good aesthetically. - I've also flipped the main bathroom door to relate better to Bed 2/Bed 3, though not strictly necessary. - I originally used the Bed 1 robe space as a big walk-in-pantry, but it didn't relate particularly well to the kitchen and it also left no provision for general storage. Rather than take up a lot of valuable kitchen space with a pantry which would reduce the length of the peninsula breakfast bar (not ideal), I came up with the idea of shallow shelves with a roller shutter which I think you'll find give you an amazing amount of readily accessible storage. I'd like to think it would be possible to source a horizonal roller shutter that would coil back into the dead space at the back of the fridge, but perhaps better to just go with a vertical shutter and avoid the headache!
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Hi Renai, there are a couple of things about the kitchen that trouble me. To me in some ways it looks like a hybrid of 1990's kitchens and the current direction design is taking. The L-shaped return looks like it has a breakfast bar, but so does the island bench - a duality that does the kitchen no favours. I would ditch the L- return. This achieves a number of things: 1 - It facilitates better traffic flow between the kitchen and dining room; 2- it eliminates the awkward corner cupboard, always a problem that none of the many high tech "solutions" address adequately; 3 - it simplifies the construction of the kitchen, with potential savings; I would move the island bench up the page (possibly even make it longer), providing a free wall for tall storage cabinets, and or alternative fridge location. The door to the walk in pantry would need to move slightly to best achieve this. The corner location where you have the fridge now is not good for one main reason: you will often need to open fridge doors up wider than 90° to pull out drawers and shelves for cleaning, and even at 90° most modern fridge doors require more space than just the fridge recess allows.
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Somehow the plans only show up on mobile, not on PC for me... I think that the kitchen/living/entertaining area in the front with the sea view is gonna be gorgeous. I'm guessing you and your family have guests over often? I love that there is a good separation between the entertaining area and the private areas. Some questions though, would the 2 garages have separate entrances? Would the astro turf / courtyard area on the lower floor be covered by the top floor? What's the distance from the building to the boundaries on each side? From the top floor, would you have to go through the stairs and garage to hang the laundry? For the en-suite in the lower floor, might be a good idea to future proof it, by starting to plan for hand rails, ease of access with walkers, etc. The gap around the vanity seems to be quite tight on the drawings.
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jol77
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks for the suggestions. I will take these ideas back to the drawing board!
judithss
6 years ago
Hi is the house build now?

Floor plan advice please - acreage dream home

Comments (4)

haephestus

bigreader

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Floor plan advice please - acreage dream home

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haephestus

bigreader

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