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.

Swap dining room and drawing room over. Move walls slightly. Access dining room from kitchen.
Get rid of bay windows and add bifolds in dining rm and kitchen.

Just saw your max. is 3000 square feet - a lot of my suggestions won't work for a house that size. I assumed you were building something much larger based on the room sizes of the plans you shared.

unless only 3 small/medium doubles upstairs and a bathroom

the layout of this property significantly bigger than 2.5-3000 square ft

Fair enough but I still think you need a route through from the stairs as well. Maybe it’s just me but the risk of putting the basket down somewhere on the way back up because I had got distracted would be way too high, and you’d never get teenagers to go aaaaaall that way from their rooms upstairs!

@Wel if your whole property is going to be between 2000-3000ft, I would reduce the number of rooms. There is nothing worse than having pokey, multiple rooms.

I would make a wish list of everything you desire in your ideal house, and let the architect show you how they plan to accomodate them

your proposed downstairs layout is not the layout of a 2500/3000 sw ft property. presumably with 5 bedrooms

Think you like more ‘modern’ flat walls and glass
OP likes pantries and bays. It’s a very different feel.

What is the length and width of the current approved planning?

Be aware @Wel utility rooms need an extractor to the outside for building regs.

The floor plans I have included are just for room shape and layout. I should have been clearer that the measurements should be ignored.

We are aiming for 2500-3000 sq ft (hope for latter but all depends on build cost).

2 floors - 4/5 bedrooms.

Yes love bays. A window seat for a breakfast nook/ reading area would be wonderful.

That doesnt answer the question
The plans you have shown without the side bits are close to 2000 for 1 floor
You cant get 5 beds into 1250-1500 without them being tiny and/or having no bathrooms etc

The planning will have been for a set length by width- you need to start with that and not assume that it can be changed

So is it 30 by 40 or 50 by 60 or something else ?

This is food for thought! Thank you.

Absolutely.
Very cosy.
Id explore your laundry shoot thoughts. They are really useful. (Dogs and kids love them too! 😳Great for hide a seek!)

I am starting to think that this a fantasy plan and not a reality .
I have built and designed a few houses and bought with existing planning and amended (not a walk in the park!)
You need to dump 50% of the plan that you showed in the 1st post if it is a 3000 foot house and 70% if it is a 2500, so no chance of having the rooms on that plan at all unless you want them to be tiny and cramped.

1250 2nd floor is 3 large bed and 2 baths or 4 small beds with a minute ensuite and a small family bathroom
Downstairs it isnt boot room, utilities etc. It is 1 dining kitchen, study, utility , snug and a decent hall.

It’s bigger but not by that much.
Its a starting point and perfectly possible.
Also if OP reduces the height of the second floor and is partially in the roof then it cuts down on costs which could allow for additional floor space
This layout, of sorts, is feasible.

I was coming here to say put the utility upstairs! (That’s where most of the washing is created). I’d also put shelves in it to sort laundry, ironing board, hanging airer.

Boot room, love it, space to store coats, hats, gloves scarves etc, bench to sit on, big dog bed, dog bath if room.

I would put the dining room where the snug is, connected straight with the kitchen. Then the snug and living room go front to back on the other side of the house. I’d be tempted to have pocket doors from the kitchen into whatever goes at the back, probably the snug, and then have doors from the kitchen and back room onto the garden.

Now think again with every room half the size of the example plan?

If you are going to mainly use the side door then you will hang up everyday coats etc in the boot room. You might find the "cloak room" doesn't get used much.

That will make the kitchen a bit of a corridor for people coming into the rest of the house, so lay it out such that it's not the main cooking area they walk through.
Agree a walk in pantry would be great, you don't want a huge house without enough storage.
It's not clear if theres a loft or garage but you could think about a downstairs store room for camping stuff, bulk pet food, bikes etc.

Id make sure you have somewhere to dry washing without relying on a tumble dryer, maybe a well designed combination of radiator, ventilation and pull up airers in the utility room.

Architects seem to be good at houses that look grand but low on practicality.

Good idea to have two lounges , is there any need for a study?

No, a boot room is where you can also keep coats and shoes. You're not reading the plan correctly; you don't go from boot room > plant room > toilet as there are no doors. The boot room opens in to the kitchen (if I've remembered the plan right!)

@Wel I really like this floor plan, although probably wouldn't use the dining room as such, more likely an office.

I'd do away with the boot room and have larger utility room off the kitchen. Dining room should be adjacent to the kitchen as well. You don't want to be carrying food along a hallway. I'd also have a porch at the front with a cloakroom in it so people can take off their jackets and shoes at the door rather than trapsing down the hallway to where the cloakroom currently is.

Yes - it doesn't work at all. It would be a very different house at half the size and one I think the OP would be disappointed by, particularly with 5 people and 3 dogs to accommodate.

but square footage is a critical consideration in floor layouts 😐

OP, think realistically about your budget before briefing your architect, There's no point dreaming about a £2 million build if the reality is you're hoping to build for £2k/square metre.

Thanks for these questions. I’m hoping the architect will be able to advise. The current planning permission is for a 2 storey 3000 square foot house. Can’t see anything in plans about maximum length/width. The plot is roughy 0.8 acres. The current kitchen/living space has double height ceilings which I am not a fan of.

I may have jumped the gun a bit. But I’m just playing with layouts to show the architect based on a house DH and I have seen. It was much larger but I was hoping that a smaller scale version of it would also work.

Our current house in London has very awkward, narrow living spaces (poorly thought out extension by previous owners).

Just wanting to convey to the architect my preference for big square rooms which have a degree of separation.