New build floor plan - any thoughts? (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[Wel]

DH and have bought a piece of development land to build our dream house.

The land currently has planning permission granted but we hate the designs. Far too open plan for my liking. When the oldest is cooking and blaring music I don’t want to hear it.

Here is the downstairs of a house DH and I saw a few years ago. We loved the proportions and layout.

I find a lot of Mumsnetters are practical and sensible.

Please can you share your thoughts on the floorplan? Do you see any issues we may run into?

The house will be occupied by Dh, myself and 3 children (aged 9-13yo). 3 big dogs.

We see the architect next week and want to be able to jump straight in.

My dream is to be able to access a drawing room from an open plan kitchen/diner, but via large pocket doors which can close off the space when you need separate spaces, and opened up eg when entertaining / at Christmas. Does that appeal?
I guess the boot room can double as a cloakroom for the family, while the inner cloakroom could be used for visitors' coats.

My ex inlaws had their living room and dining room separated by beautiful frosted glass doors, it was a genius idea, you could fold them back so it was open plan for Christmas etc, but separate it when their teens had people round and they needed more rooms.

id also make the boot and utility one.

I would slightly shift that lead from the French doors from the kitchen/family room to the garden (I presume anyway!) so that they line up with the doors from the entrance hall and front door. This will give you a lovely straight line of sight through the house into the garden when you enter.

I assume that's a storage wall for coats/boots etc in the boot room? Lovely!

The snug will feel quite cut off from the rest of the ground floor. Is that intentional?

Would the first floor layout still work if the staircase was reversed? (Just a personal preference!)

what will people entering the front door with their coats and shoes?

The cloakroom is accessed by the stairs.

what are the intended dimensions of your home rather than the one you loved?

I would keep the boot room and utility separate, especially as it's likely to get muddy!

I’d swap the drawing room and dining room around and pull the dividing wall towards the back of the house so it’s level with the kitchen entrance, also move the fireplace in ‘new’ dining room to be level with the cooker in the kitchen. I’d also keep the original study but move the doorway again to other side of dividing wall.

Keep the boot room as it is (presume that’s where you’ll keep all the coats and shoes).

Edited - sorry just seen coats by the stairs.

I think I would change the proportions of the boot room and utility room. I think with a kitchen the size of your potential kitchen a utility room will
not be used as it is in a smaller house as a bit of an overflow of the kitchen. I would refer to it as a laundry room.

so enter boot room
take off boots and coat - sorted

enter front door…, carry coat and shoes downstairs to res h cloakroom?

Also a fan of pocket doors. If we were keeping the dining room I’d probably do them between that room and the drawing room.

Just realised my earlier comment made no sense. Should have said

I would slightly shift the French doors that lead from the kitchen/family room to the garden (I presume anyway!) so that they line up with the doors from the entrance hall and front door.

We have told architects we want between 2500-3000 square feet.

The only think I would definitely change is to swap the snug and the dining room so that the snug is slightly larger (kids and dogs) and the office slightly smaller. We first had a boot room in our old house, and one think we'd have loved is a dog foot bath on the way in, but I do realise that would not be cheap and would take up space... I'd also be happy to have a combined utility/boot room, which is what we have now.

Erm no? Go in the boot room and utility room and go through to the hall to WC and hang coats

I love it. Lovely open kitchen diner and scope to do whatever you like with the other rooms. Boot room and utility room and great additions.

The WC seems in a weird place for me, I would have it either where the plant room is or in the boot/utility.
Also not sure why the divide between boot/utility and if you want to dry clothes in the utility, it is too small.
Dining room as someone else has said seems too far from the kitchen and as they also said, would it get used?
Seem to be lots of space for just 'sitting' which most of the time will be empty or minimally occupied I would guess. Depends what you want out of the house, but I agree an area that children can have their friends round pool table/games consoles that is fairly self contained.

I think the dining room is too far from the kitchen, I would swap it with one of the other rooms unless you plan to primarily eat in the kitchen and have a more formal/rarely used dining room. My current house is 3000sqft with a staircase and hall between the kitchen and dining and it’s actually quite a trek back and forth with food/dishes although I do like not seeing the cooking mess in the kitchen when we sit down to eat! We’re in the designing stages of a bigger house and that’s the one main thing I’m changing.

I’d be having a dog shower put into the boot room too in that case. Give them a spray down and let them dry off in the boot room 👍🏻 keeps the rest of the house decent for you

One of those tiled nooks, like a shower tray crossed wet room.
that would be amazing with big hairy dogs.

With the dogs would it be worth trying to work the boiler room stuff into the utility and then having the current boiler room as a wet room/shower for the inevitable mud/fox poo rolls.

I'd swap boot and utility room. Leave wet dogs/boots in boot room rather than taking clean laundry through the boot room. Would also have sink in boot room rather than utility (or both).

Dining room too far from kitchen and agree with other that wouldn't be used. Better to have it as teens room and use snug for adults. As teens get older if they're in the snug you'll have people traipsing through house rather then going straight into "their" room.

Exciting times ahead!

When I get my utility room done I want a dog shower. Might be worth thinking about making space for one in your boot room?

For PP questioning: I think the 'boot room' is for family boots AND coats/bags etc. The 'cloakroom' is usually for guests. Looks like OP and family will pretty much always be entering the back way.

We’re on the same page! Our only bath right now is upstairs which is carpeted. An absolute nightmare.