What’s your ideal house downstairs like?

[Cinnabomb]

Just for fun/lighthearted! in the stages of dreaming about our future home purchase and extension thoughts etc as we are planning a full remodel. If it ever happens….

Currently thinking large kitchen/dining/family room, living room, utility, maybe small office and downstairs loo. It’s a fairly small footprint so wasn’t sure I could fit anything else in. If you could design your ideal home, what would be a must room for downstairs? We are a young family, outdoorsy, with dogs.

@Cinnabomb

Just for fun/lighthearted! in the stages of dreaming about our future home purchase and extension thoughts etc as we are planning a full remodel. If it ever happens….

Currently thinking large kitchen/dining/family room, living room, utility, maybe small office and downstairs loo. It’s a fairly small footprint so wasn’t sure I could fit anything else in. If you could design your ideal home, what would be a must room for downstairs? We are a young family, outdoorsy, with dogs.

I think you've covered it. We were really keen on a kitchen/diner/family room.

We have a large kitchen/diner and a front room. If I could squeeze a small cosy chair in the the kitchen/diner (just 2 of us) it would be perfect. But we were very glad in the end of having a seperate living room as well. We have a large downstairs toilet which also has a large cupboard for boots/coats, it's right by the back door, so you can go in, take off all the muddy stuff, wash your hands etc.

I dislike open plan so separate lounge, dining room, kitchen, utility, cloakroom and boot room. Also if possible a small downstairs study would be nice as well as a small and cosy sun library - more solid than a conservatory but with lots of windows and a fire.

We have just reconfigured . We converted the garage into a family room, and turned our open plan kitchen/ family room into a dining kitchen . We have a separate lounge /dining room. The dining room is now redundant because we sit at the table in the kitchen.
It’s so much nicer having the family room separate again. It stops everything smelling of food and it’s cleaner. No worries about putting the kettle on/ making a snack/ washing dishes in the middle of someone’s favourite tv show. I wouldn’t go back to open plan kitchen/ living area.
We thought about getting rid of the utility room to make the kitchen bigger but I’m so glad we didn’t. It’s so useful for laundry/ pets

I have a big kitchen/dining/ family room, with enough space for a corner sofa. There’s a living room too. We have a cupboard in the cloakroom that houses the washing machine and tumble dryer. We could, in theory, add a proper utility room and include a shower downstairs.

We have a large house with two living rooms, dining room which is in fact a playroom and large kitchen with table in. I’m very fortunate but the downsides are that the kitchen is where we spend most of our time. It’s cold dark and north facing, with no view of the garden and set away from the living area via a pointlessly long corridors. It has a tradesman’s entrance that opens onto the street. So everyone comes in that way rather than the grand front door and dumps their bags and shoes in it. It’s still very obviously a Victorian layout designed for how people (and their servants!) lived their lives then.

What would be perfect would be to extend the kitchen around the side of the house to connect it to the garden, portion some of it off as a boot room, and put a door through to connect it to the playroom. I’d then put double doors between the playroom and back living room and use this as a family area, keeping the other living room for best. It would creat so much more flow and usability

Massive enclosed porch with room for bench to sit on/shoe and coat rack.
Somehow there's a slide alongside the stairs just for fun.
Dining room.
Sitting room with big log burner (yes I KNOW but it's my fantasy house so I'm allowed.)
Office/sewing room.
Kitchen across most of the width of the house. It's large enough for a big sofa and kitchen table overlooking the garden and has huge trouble free concertina doors.
Laundry room with chute from upstairs and a dumb waiter to hoist clean laundry back up (for fun).
Boot room with dog wash.
Excellent private South facing garden.

Separate rooms. I really dislike open plan and put me off a lot of houses when I was looking recently. So, separate lounge, dining room and kitchen.

Downstairs loo a must, and a spacious hallway/ space for coats, shoes etc.

We have moved recently and the non negotiable for us was a separate living room, that wasn’t a route to another room, so it could be closed off. Our old house had a relatively spacious lounge but the furniture we could fit in was limited and could only really be configured one way as the route to the kitchen had to be left clear.

Our new house has a much smaller kitchen than our old one. I actually love it, so much easier to keep clean and I find it easier to cook in. I de cluttered ruthlessly when we moved so everything we need fits in the cupboards. The work surfaces a pretty much clear so we have more work space now than our old kitchen! We assumed, when we moved, that we would want to do an extension to make the kitchen a similar size to our old one, but I don’t think we will bother,

Living room, playroom, downstairs bathroom, large kitchen with dining area and utility room.
Large hallway for prams

I’d like a wider hallway/ more spacious porch. A boot room with lots of shoe and coat storage. Maybe room for a buggy although we’re getting out of the buggy years. We have an L shaped kitchen/diner/family room and a separate lounge which works really well but I’d like another room for the toys/gaming so it can be shut away-my son would also love this especially if there was room for fusbal/ping pong! I’d also like the kitchen/diner to be bigger so that we could have an island and a bigger dining table. Oh and I love living room layouts where the sofas are in the middle of the room rather than along the walls but our rooms don’t work for this so rooms where that was possible would be great! I’d also like a laundry room with lots of hanging space but ideally that would be upstairs.

Utility room, walk in larder, and a small room to use as a library (all my books line the walls of my dining room at present)

We have extended our house to mean I have most of what I want - big kitchen with space for large table, island and sofa area, large lounge with space at end for office if needed, biggish hall with lots of storage and a utility room with plenty of shelving space for appliances. We have a downstairs toilet as we have a bedroom downstairs in its own annex with a bathroom. I'd love an enclosed porch and a boot room and a separate office in an ideal world.

Oh god I "walk through" my ideal floorplan as a way to get to sleep. I never make it to the first floor.

Ground floor:-
Large entrance with lots of light. Access to loo, storage cupboards and garage.
Large kitchen with island, and at the bottom, a sort of orangery (green framework) as the dining area with a long rustic table and assorted chairs. There's a padded bench along the length of the orangery windows.
Access from the kitchen out to a raised bed kitchen garden.
Between the garage and kitchen would be a laundry room with access to the garden.
Access from the entrance to a family room type space (open) with open fire. Lots of squishy sofas, bookcases filled with books, games and jigsaws. A round table for gaming/jigsaws.
A separate smaller formal dining room only for xmas/date nights
An office for me to wfh with glass doors onto the garden.
At the back of the house a sitting room with glass doors onto the garden.

I vaguely know the upstairs plan but no floorplan yet.

I would never go open plan because of noise/smells/mess. It's fine being open plan in a flat when there's only one or two of you living there but as the main living space for a family it's totally impractical IMO.

We have a large kitchen with a table that seats 4. A converted integral garage off the kitchen which was a playroom when DCs were small (so I could see them whilst cooking/ironing etc.)It then became a teenage games room and is now a gym! We have a separate utility room so can shut the door on the washing machine and clothes maiden full of damp clothes. A separate dining room (mainly used when we have guests) and living room means noone has to sit and look at dirty dishes and we can watch TV when the dishwasher is running. Downstairs loo by the back door is also great when young children have half the village kids playing in your garden (no need for them to traipse through your house to get to the loo).

Huge South facing bay windows so my plants and I can thrive in the natural light. Hard wood floors in the living room with 8ft high ceilings.

A large kitchen with an island and a hot water tap inside a big farmhouse sink. Double fridge freezer with an ice and water machine. Large double patio doors that open out on to a lovely garden seating area. Enough room for a large solid oak dining table too.

Downstairs toilet and sink.

Ideally, a study and reading room with lots of natural light.

A full black and glass conservatory that doubles as a sun trap off the lounge.

Living room at the back, I like privacy and don't want people walking past and looking in.
Kitchen/diner not separate dining room, I like to cook and put it on the table and not carry stuff between rooms.

No open plan living/kitchen area

Utility room and cupboards big enough to store large items such the the vac, ironing board, step ladders.

Practical flooring, not high gloss floor tiles or black worktops.

Access to the garage without having to go outside.

Not open plan.
A large hallway with big wooden stairs and fireplace.
Study, snug, zen garden meandering out from kitchen garden, sunken tub and spa room.

Another one here who hates open plan. I just don't know why you'd want to be sitting down relaxing listening to washing machine, dishwasher or someone banging pots and pans away.
I want individual rooms I can go into and close the door on everyone.
Currently we have to walk through lounge to get to kitchen. I would much prefer a hallway with the rooms off it instead.

So many on here dislike open plan.
I wonder why it's thought to be the popular option these days?

Lounge, dining room, study, kitchen-living-dining space, utility, downstairs loo & decent hallway/reception area with a porch so you have a space-lock to the outside.

Wide hallway with one of those double front doors. Stained glass panels on either side of the door. A proper parquet floor and one of those old fashioned telephone tables in the hall. Windows on the stairs and the landing. Loads of light. Massive under stairs cupboard and a futility room. A living room with an original tiled fireplace and large window/s looking over hills, trees and a river. Kitchen with semi separate diner that can be closed off with sliding doors. Enormous pantry. French windows from the dining room opening into a verandah with a porch swing on it. Massive garden with shrubberies and potting shed and secret bits, leading to a wood. Basically my ideal house exists in about 1905!

So many on here dislike open plan.
I wonder why it's thought to be the popular option these days?

I suspect because it makes small homes seem bigger. Home are shrinking is size.

Exactly what you said. I'd have to make sure my utility could have an outside door so it could double as a boot room. I've always had back doors open into a lounge which is not ideal!

I'd also like an office/study to be big enough to double as a music practice room as well.

This is what we have and I think it’s great! We bought from a builder who developed the house for himself so it’s pretty spec’d up
Boot room with separate outdoor access and also linked to the utility room.
Utility room which has a shower in it as well.
Kitchen diner with island, dining table (can seat 10), large sofa, big doors that open onto the patio.
Kitchen with below counter cupboards and deep drawers. We have shelves along one wall too. Range cooker. Double width fridge freezer, larder cupboard. Wine cupboard. We have another fridge in the garage and a chest freezer in there too.
Heated underfloor.
Big windows and lots of light.
Charging ports where the plugs sockets are.

No open plan for me. It looks like a tip if there's one thing out of place.

What I'd like:
Big kitchen with a kitchen table and a door or narrow opening.
Kitchen opening to mud room. Currently I have a big back porch which is great, opening to a deck.

Sitting room/ dining room linked with an arched opening, maybe pocket doors. Dining room off kitchen.

Proper, fairly large hall with a big coat closet as well as a cupboard under the stairs.

Downstairs loo.

A basement, and a back stairs leading up from the kitchen.

What @Liverbird77 said basically! Down to the last detail 😍