.......walk-in pantry arguably a luxury at this scale and compromising the bench space which should be (IMO) a priority for a kitchen - possibly better to put the space into a well considered cupboard and achieve more balanced/maximised benchspace

In such a tight space it might in fact be worth throwing in the mix a "50's" L shaped kitchen with a centralised/roteted dining table where the kitchen wraps further around the external walls, achieves more practical length and enabling more swing room for the living & dining spaces & furniture.....the other thing you could consider is flipping the whole zones to achieve more of an alfresco dining function associated with the external space and a more private/cosy living zone.......but of course depends upon context....attached a (much tighter) example, but the concept could work similarly on yours if expanded............as always comes down to priorities of function & preferences

I should have added that option one gives you a bigger island for extra bench space you could also add a glass door/s off the kitchen

Hi all, I've just drawn up an alternative layout to consider. What are your thoughts on this option compared to the others? Entry to the laundry is via the walk in pantry rather than direct entry to the laundry from the hallway. I think the laundry would only be around 1700mm in this layout (based on 1m fridge provision, 720 pantry door and after all door frames etc are factored in) so not quite enough room for side by side washing machine & dryer under the bench. If you don't feel that a dryer provision is really that important then could have a 400mm set of drawers or cupboard under the bench next the the washing machine.

do you have a whole house plan?

A house of this size doesn't need a W I P keep it simple to give it a more spacious feel

Sure, here is the full plan

I do agree that a house of this size does not really need a WIP. The reason I had included it is because other similar new homes in the area do have them and also because they are fairly small and narrow homes I wanted to try and include some "luxury" features to enhance appeal. eg. WIP, stone bench tops, floor to ceiling tiling in bathrooms, 2.7m ceilings etc.

are you a developer? sorry to be critical but for spaces to live in, these are singular dimensional crammed in boxes that may tick the boxes, but there's absolutely nothing at all luxury about these residential "spaces" if that's what you're trying to achieve......if you want to provide touches of luxury it will be more in an improved feeling of space & light quality/outlooks/connection with external above & beyond anything else.... generosity and sensitivity to those aspects of design is what achieves "luxury".......

something like this has as much pantry storage, space for under bench washer and dryer and having the sink off the island will feel more spacious and a separate toilet, generous vanity and showe and nice finishes will add some luxury but ceiling height tiles can sometimes look like a public toilet so consider a wall of tiles around shower and behind bath and add some feature colour in painted walls that can be changed to help personalise the spaces

Louise that is amazing, thank you so much. It seems to solve all the problems and the separate toilet I think enhances the layout greatly.

Louise, in your layout would you have a window in the laundry?

I would love to make a different suggestion but will be unable to do so until tomorrow or the next when I'am back home

Thanks siriuskey, I appreciate your thoughts and will be happy to review your suggestion

you could have a small window in the laundry which would allow better ventilation for a hanging rod above the sink for air drying clothes but also research costs of an opening window above the door (another options to increase light along the hallway is to have a fixed pane of glass above all the hall doors)...but windows should be determined for aspect, privacy and security

Peter, considering the plan is so tight, it would worthwhile considering utilising the practically unusable external side space at least for the laundry/kitchen/bathroom area, and create then an internally accessed courtyard/lightcourt accessed via the garage and/or laundry.....you'll get an extra metre to play with in those areas that could make massive difference to the squeeze that is currently on them and free up a whole of options such as enabling a much more pleasant and open flow into the the kitchen/dining from the passage........just an idea if you want to make it feel bigger and higher end than standard....best of luck with it :) PD

it would be great if the utility areas could be pushed out to the boundary which is basically dead space as it is

Hi Paul, that is a great suggestion, thank you! I can see how this would be beneficial and I will definitely explore this further.

siriuskey, thank you also. Is this the idea you were going to suggest when you arrive back home?

Hi Nik, I completely agree with you...even though I am not the main woman/cleaner/human dishwasher in the house :)

Hi Louise (and others), what are your thoughts of this variation of your plan which allows for a larger dedicated linen cupboard in the hallway and larger pantry cupboard + small broom cupboard in the laundry? There should also be a window above the bath which I forgot to include.

I would be interested in everyone's views on whether you like this sort of layout with the separate toilet and vanity better than the original plans and do you have any issues with the combined laundry & pantry room? I quite like the idea it as it could also be as a scullery but interested in what others think about it.

the basic idea is OK but needs more space to be successful as it doesn't allow enough space for walls and doorways and the hinged door in the toilet is unlikely to be approved (NB i realise that i also forgot to have a cavity slider in my toilet plan) my other concern is that it reduces standing room in the vanity area ...attached copy of your floor plan with my suggested minimum sizes which would steal space of the already modest bedrooms...think what will be stored in the cabinets and allow space to suit the items to be stored...sheets and towels could be stored under the bathroom sink

Hi Peter, I had a discussion about your floor plan and 900wide external passageway is really just for access down the side of the building to the rear and not much use for anything else are you allowed to use some of the boundary for internal space as Paul has suggested

I'm estimating you could get an additional 6/7/8m2 for each unit if you pushed out to the boundary and this would relieve the squeeze on dimensions that are currently being played around with. There's just not sufficient swing room to make these (critical) utility areas feel spacious/generous - the tighter and more boxed in it is the less appealing it will be to your potential buyers......it's not like it' going to cost that much more either, but the end value will be significantly higher if you give each unit the extra breathing space

My personal dislike is either a sink or hotplates in an island bench. A pantry cupboard works if it has drawers, otherwise it gets goods stacked in front of each other and we over-buy and only discover things when we have a good clean out. A clothes dryer is a luxury (environmentally) in today's world, unless you live in a climate where it is wet for at least half of the year. Otherwise stack them and make space. Bath towels stored under bathroom vanities works if the plumbing is inside the walls, otherwise the space is taken up by pipes. Leave enough space on a vanity to put down a hairdryer safely too, even if the sink needs to be smaller. oklouise has offered the best options here. Best of luck.

Practically speaking, I like layout 2 but I would ditch the WIP. It wastes so much space. Have a floor to ceiling pantry with internal pull out drawers on the bottom half. Have a storage cupboard in the laundry on the reverse side of the pantry to use for linen, brooms, vacuum and general storage. Then you can make the shower larger as a luxury feature as well as having a larger storage space. I would also replace the hinged door into the bathroom with a sliding door. A barn door would be a great feature adding interest to the long hallway and marking the change from bedrooms to living spaces.

I had many arguments with myself about losing our WIP when we upgraded the kitchen. We ditched it. A top decision. I wouldn’t have another WIP. Compared to drawers, drawers, drawers the WIP was dysfunction central (for the same reasons Lydia has highlighted). Dunno why I got so anxious about losing the thing now.

Do you wash every dish /pot/glass as soon as you use it? Otherwise you will always have dirty dishes on your island bench (unless they are stacked on bench space elsewhere). How on earth do people manage with an island sink for washing up??? An island sink would be enough to make me reject a house if looking to buy.

We all like different things, a sink placed correctly in an island can work really well, the new deep square sinks can hold a lot of dirty dishes if you don't want to just rinse and put straight into the Dishwasher, a double dish drawer is excellent in this situation, while one is washing you can be adding to the other

I prefer option 3, if the window is not behind the fridge.

in option 2, it is a fire risk to have a window over a gas cooktop, due to the naked flame.

option 1 also has limited bench space, but may look the best from the living area.

also consider having a slide out pantry, adding extra space to the laundry

Lose the pantry, wasting space. Add that space to Laundry, etc.

L shape kitchens are better. Smaller island but better use of the space.

Kitchen/meals/living seem a little bit small for a 3 bed. I'd almost have a 'European Laundry' to add more space to bedrooms and K/M/L.....

As Paul said, push out to boundary if possible.

Don't forget to allow space for rubbish/recycling bins if you haven't done so already.

Hi Peter, sorry for being so long in coming back to you, as I mentioned I was away and don't have access to my App.

I had been thinking about pushing the wall (Part) out to the boundary to allow more space but not knowing what your council will allow wasn't sure, have you learnt anymore on this.

My thought was to use glass skylight windows to the boundary as per my photo. This will allow for a better kitchen. The bathroom is a quick Japanese style.

To me the shooting gallery hallway is one of the most negative aspects of these plans. Difficult to do anything about, but maybe it would be worth placing the living areas midships with an internal courtyard alongside, and push the bedrooms to the back? I know this disconnects the living area from the backyard, but there could still be an external connection via the courtyard. This would break up the long passage and bring public spaces closer to the front door where visitors enter. Don't forget that many m² are lost as useful space in that passage. I always try to minimise/eliminate circulation space in tight plans. That principle applies to walk-in pantries as well: you are really only pushing your storage shelves further back and putting a wasted m² in front of them behind a closed door when you do that.

Or, is there length enough on the site to make the house 3m longer and just introduce a courtyard between the main bedroom and the other bedrooms? You could widen the passage at that point for a small sitting area and introduce light from the side that would break up the long passage.

100% Daniel...........would be good to understand context/block more comprehensively to identify the constraints/limits to be exploited/negotiated more creatively.........it's a classic case of ticking boxes with "rooms" on paper, but in reality will translate to internalised & poorly configured & badly proportioned living.........development+drafting are a bad combination

That could be a good idea for the middle terrace as at the moment it has a solid wall down the RH side and the bedrooms are looking out to another wall on the LH side which is only 90cm away, not a good outlook.

Often the limited information provided it's very restrictive and doesn't allow for the best design outcome to be offered

Thank you everyone for the comments and suggestions over the last few days.

Paul and Siriuskey, I have spoken to council about your idea of pushing out to the boundary and surprisingly they seemed open to it. For detached and semi detached dwellings the development plan allows wall lengths not exceeding 8m to be built on the boundary with the total length of boundary walls not exceeding 50% of the length of the boundary. Although this does not apply to row dwellings (which the entire dwelling should be 900mm from the side boundary), there seems to be some flexibility to assess on merit. Thank you very much for this suggestion which certainly increases the design flexibility.

Daniel, I agree the long hallway is not exactly ideal and thanks for the suggestions. I do like the idea of a courtyard between the main bedroom and the other bedrooms, especially for the middle house as siriuskey has mentioned. There may be just enough depth in the block to consider something like this in line with POS requirements.

I really do commend you all for your obvious passion for building design and willingness to offer advice to others. There have been more creative ideas and suggestions offered from this forum than from other professional building designers I have consulted who have all basically come up with minor variations of the same overall design.

what is the length and width of each block, where's north and we can try a few different ideas for using the side passages and adding a courtyard to see how that might work?

Hi Louise, thank you that would be great :) Width 6.10m, depth 41.15m, North is at the front of each block (bottom of plan). Garage requires 5.5m set back from front boundary.

I have to say Peter that you have been an amazing person to deal with, always gracious towards everyone and their suggestions on possible changes to your floor plan and not just the kitchens as per your post. You will end up gaining some inspiring ideas from Houzzers, Pro and non Pro.

What climate are you building in, and choice of building materials and style of building are you working towards.

Thank you siriuskey :)

The location is metro Adelaide so very hot summers and cool winters. Plans are for timber frame wall and roof construction, rendered hebel panels for all external walls and colourbond custom orb roofing. Party wall construction with 25mm gyprock shaft liner panels. Laminate timber flooring for living areas, carpet to bedrooms, tiles to wet areas, stone bench tops. Exposed aggregate concrete driveway & front footpath, grey concrete/paving to side path & pergola area. The market for these homes is predominantly downsizers, first home buyers and possibly single/separated parents with young children who do not want a large block of land. Basically nicely completed traditional/modern homes with above average finishes but not too high end.

based on your market (rental or sales?) my suggestion includes some variety for each property ... total floor area around 455 sq m and a simple pergola style alfresco for each back yard would greatly improve liveability

adding furniture helps locate best door and window position eg the door from entry into garage is better placed further forward to allow easier access around a mid sized car

I have only done one floor plan mainly with the middle Villa in mind but would work for all. By using the passage width in the living kitchen family, and adding that to the other side it can give a large courtyard . I have worked with council only allowing 8m build to the boundary, so I have pushed the master bedroom laundry and bathroom out allowing more useable indoor space and in particular the master bedroom. The front of the house now has an internal courtyard which you enter from the garage and then into the house, this help throe light into the entrance. But it could also be a mudroom. Their is also a Pantry to fit out as wanted

All are ok dear, but I may prefer the first one. Built in refrigerator and pantry at each end will balance the space.

I think the middle design has the best use of space. A small walk in pantry will at give you some ample space for food items etc. And the return of the bench & wall cupboards along the exterior wall give you a lot more storage. Put drawers in where you can as these are easier to access and you use more of the space.

Hi Peter I wanted to add the idea of "The house of courtyards", because I have been concerned about the lack of possible internal light. Bedrooms 2 & 3 run across the rear of the property to give them both betterspace with access to the rear via large sliders this will open them up and give southern light.

The rear part of the house is quite separate and would be great for empty nesters with visitors and families with teenage children.

The master bedroom lacked "Wow", by adding a small private courtyard will give that and more light and fresh air.

These are just ideas and thoughts that you might like to consider with your Architect cheers

Thank you siriuskey and oklouise for spending the time putting these options together. It definitely has expanded my awareness of possible options that I had not considered :)