Interior floor plan ideas - first renovation
Hello everyone!
We've just bought our first home, and whilst it is perfectly functional, we are really excited to turn it into something it should have been but isn't.... The house is just over 10 years old and has always been a rental - as such, let's just say it wasn't built high-end and it's obvious the builder knew it was an investment property and the owners lived O/S....
It is also a bit of a strange layout. It's currently 5 bedrooms, with one bedroom on the ground floor. Ground has the garage, a weird shaped bit of space which we have no idea how to use, and a bedroom plus ensuite.
Upstairs has 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, quite a large lounge and a quite small kitchen with a dining room attached.
We'd like to turn it into a much more modern house, and that includes a new kitchen which I feel will have to be shifted to another room. I've thought about turning the old kitchen area into a inside/outside breakfast bar type feature. Thankfully the brother in-law is a plumber which will help out a lot, and fortunately there are also no load bearing walls apparently upstairs, which is a bonus!
With absolutely no house design skills or experience under my belt, I've made an attempt at a few design changes which I've attached (measurements might not be perfect, I've created this in FloorPlanner). We aren't leaning toward any particular design at the moment, as it all looks like lots of work and we want to do it right the first time, and work in stages (we will be doing as much as we can ourselves to save costs).
I've had some great ideas on the exterior provided by other members, and are looking to try to tie this altogether to then be able to find a starting point.
The house faces north, has great views off the deck to the east, and no views at all to the west (fence). We are certainly considering losing a bedroom or the office in order to expand upon the master bedroom or kitchen/bathroom designs - I feel that dropping back to 3 bedrooms though might be too much?
Below the new concept floor plans are some old photos prior to moving in of the kitchen, lounge, weird space, and dining.
We'd very much welcome your thoughts, suggestions or ideas if you have them!! Thank you.
Comments (20)
7 years ago
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Period Home Floor Plan Improvements and Renovations..please help
Comments (25)Update on this. We have decided to keep upstairs unchanged in terms of layout. We will live in the house for a period before making any layout changes upstairs - 2 Bedrooms will be for our girls, while our son will sleep downstairs in the living room (now bedroom) as this was seldom going to be used. Now we are looking at the kitchen design - photos attached of current kitchen which will be completely refreshed along with the tiling in the kitchen / living area. Looking for any ideas on how to best update the kitchen - notice under the stair case is not currently being utilised but we would like to perhaps have the fridge or pantry under the stairs to include this dead space. From the kitchen window to the stair case is 4950mm x 3200mm approximately depth of the current kitchen. The stair case hangs into the kitchen around 750-800mm. Wondering if it would look silly to have perhaps the fridge built here and this cabinetry would sit proud of the bench space next to it, but we could also install deeper bench space to balance the look... We are planning to have the eye-saw built in fridge space currently in the kitchen removed altogether....See MoreFloor plan ideas for renovation
Comments (5)Hi Kate, yes spot on. The family room and rear bathroom were an extension from long ago. And you’re right, the front lounge is really large. However we’d like to keep the kitchen at the rear of the house as that’s where the best views are and gets the best light....See MoreRenovation plans _ Help! Bathroom/Ensuite ideas
Comments (32)I hope you don't mind... seeing the external pics I have a totally different idea! But don't worry I don't expect you to actually use it, and it's just a rough sketch. You don't need to extend the footprint at all in my opinion. based on the picture of the front of house your drawing is a bit out... the entry stair actually sits to the left of the front door I think. so there is a little more room there, but i'm not sure if its wide enough. So maybe there is enough room to put a hallway back in and create a master suite upstairs? The front deck becomes a private retreat and I put the bath out there! It's only accessible from the master and bed 4. If you don't need that many bedrooms maybe even leave the master and bed 4 combined and have a huuuuge master area. there's still the study downstairs that could also be a spare bedroom. I thought as the front deck is so private it could be really luxurious. The old kitchen becomes the walk-through robe and ensuite. The new kitchen goes straight under the old, and the kitchenette becomes the bathroom,accessible from the pool. the downstairs kitchen is connected to the dining and living, but the posts define the areas. The kitchen can have a halfwall with a servery-style opening between the posts, and will still have that connection. I didn't draw it in on the downstairs picture, but the entry needs to be pushed a little forward and then the stairs run up from the left corner and arrive where the original entry was upstairs. The downstairs living is accessed straight from the entry at front and opens onto the front patio, under the back deck becomes the back patio. I feel like you have less new to build and retain more of the original layout. in fact the upstairs bathroom is entirely intact....See MoreRenovation plan? Ideas on layout.
Comments (7)Get your new design fully resolved, professionally drawn up and costed before you lift a finger towards renovating. There are at least 10000 decisions to make, and there is nothing worse than making decisions on the run, based on what is available. I would be looking to simplify the spaces - the current plan looks like there is too much crowded into too small an area resulting in some awkward, pokey rooms and rooms being thorougfares which make them hard to furnish. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls and Dr Retro Virtual Visits....See More
7 years ago- 7 years ago
- 7 years agoI guess it might be possible to put the laundry downstairs, however might be a lot of work re plumbing? The laundry currently has an external door which goes to the clothes line which is a bonus though.
Fortunately there is fairly easy access under the first floor western wet rooms.
I've included the original plan I got which isn't of the highest resolution unfortunately, but it's what I made the other design section from.
Thanks everyone for your great ideas. Keep them coming!
- 7 years ago
can't read the downstairs measurements and the upstairs measurements don't seem accurate but you said the internal walls are not load bearing so my initial suggestion would be to invest in a new internal staircase and remove all the angled internal walls to make better use of the available space...downstairs could have direct access from the garage to a small hall that would lead upstairs to the current dining area and allow the whole of downstairs to be used as a rumpus room with kitchenette and guest suite or a completely self contained granny flat and best arrangement for upstairs depends on accurate dimensions and my very rough floor plans are based on guestimates
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
I started playing with your plan yesterday, but without clearer kitchen measurements I decided to wait until you could supply them before going any further, the floor plan is very hard to read, but it's interesting to see how it was planned. I hope you can follow my rough sketch with ideas.
My thoughts were to keep the kitchen in the same place with the outdoor servery etc, or make that the dining opening out to the deck and putting the kitchen in the family room which also opens to the deck.
The master would have a WIR behind the bed? and remodel the ensuite with extra storage.
keeping the laundry but moving the internal door across so that the washing machine bench etc can run along the full width of the laundry. ie: bot internal and external door are inline
This new internal laundry door could be a pocket or external slider as could the new door to the family room to access bed & bathrooms. I would re model the existing bathroom insitu keeping the toilet as a separate Powder room.
Add a door from the entrance into the bedroom wing. and change part of the walls giving better access into the kitchen living space.
Perhaps turning the internal stairs in the opposite direction to allow better use of the downstairs, granny flat, family visits, full time rental or Airbnb for extra income to cover Reno costs
You have a lovely big house and big houses cost lots to redo, I think my suggestions could help to reduce these costs. As per the roof it most likely isn't allowed to have a higher pitch due to building height regs. What height are your ceilings at, you could look at possibly racking the living family spaces, and adding stacker/sliding doors from the living out to a new front deck.
Details for bathroom & kitchen layouts can be offered once you decide on the floor plan and correct measurements are given cheers
Lee & Laura thanked siriuskey - 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
Just another rough idea, trying to maintain all 3 bedrooms and reusing existing plumbing for bathrooms and laundry.
If the space is big enough the dining table would have a lovely open out look with access to the alfresco deck cheers
- 7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
Thanks again everyone. These are the best plans I have, still a little hard to read.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zlrfdddp702e45v/2nd%20floor.png?dl=0
Above are a few quick renders of the stair location/direction being changed, and a random woman to use for perspective! Thanks Oklouise!
Siriuskey, is this (above) what you had in mind for the kitchen? Looks nice, not sure about cupboard space though? Laura really wanted a butlers pantry, but I don't think we have the space, but I was trying to have some sort of walk in pantry.
And this was the last version I had designed before getting your suggestions on here:
Not sure if this will work, but here is a link to the FloorPlanner project, if anyone wishes to tinker! https://plus.floorplanner.com/projects/53937748-our-houzz/viewer
- 7 years ago
So having slept on it...are you leaning towards a layout more than another ?the link to floorplanner kept dropping out so in case anyone else has that problem ( or its my device as I love floorplanner !) Here it is . I screenshot it before it dropped asking me to reload.
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
based on approximate dimensions my suggestion retains the original bathroom and, laundry, enlarges the ens and adds biw from bed 2s and by rearranging the stairwell and angled internal walls the kitchen has been moved into the old dining room and enlarged old kitchen is the new dining area with direct access to the deck...changing the stairwell also allows for much better use of downstairs as a guest and rumpus room or completely self contained flat with optional basic laundry, kitchen and separate entry from the downstairs deck
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
- 7 years ago
Sharyn