Anyone have any suggestions for my ground floor layout?

[Sweetmelody72]

Have lots of time on my hands to play about with plans before we finalise for submission to planning.

The walls with diagonal shading are new walls. We are putting a 10.5’ square double storey extension at the front of the house to give us a fourth bedroom. However, this gives extra hallway space which we are struggling to make useful. The downstairs loo is existing but would be happy to relocate. Wondering if we are better off moving the stairs too since it’s in the middle of the house and ceiling height is higher than average. Architect has put a small cloaks cupboard in the new space but we would love to have a bigger boot room with a side entrance if possible (especially since the utility room is in the centre of the house).

Latest version of the plan attached

The side entrance was the only way I could fit a boot room in. It's difficult to know what it would look like without knowing the house

Unless you go into the boot room from the front door and then through to the main hallway. With great "hidden" storage it could look OK.

Yeah - that makes sense, but if you access it through a door at the front there would be a lot of pressure to keep it tidy all the time

Yes. The only other option I cam up with was to shift the front door to the left and lengthen the cloaks cupboard. You end up with a corridor type hall which is kind of wasted space then.

It's tricky!

How serious are the musicians in the family? There seems to be a lot of effort/money going into the music room, but if it's a teenager likely to go to college & maybe then stop playing, is it worth arranging your entire house around this? If it's someone's career, that's a different matter.

I know you said you'd like a window in the study - but how much time do you spend in there? Is it a place you work from for hours a day, or mainly a giant filing space with people maybe spending an hour or two in there when checking the bank account?

At the front - could you have a small entryway with one door to the left going into the lounge, and another going straight ahead into a boot room? It would then make both the lounge and boot room walk-through rooms, but does mean you can use that space. Otherwise - move the door to the side, and maybe have a big window in that room at the front of the house to give it a visual feature.

And for upstairs ...
I also think it's dangerous to have a bathroom right at the top of the stairs.

the bedroom at the back R, make it the main bedroom and use both those spaces, one for e/s, one for closet.
The bedroom at the back L just has the space currently labelled closet as an e/s.
The room currently labelled e/s in the middle L becomes the bathroom for rooms 3 & 4.

I'm also thinking about the visual impact of coming down the stairs to see the wall of the boot room in front, rather than the front door.

How often do people come to your front door? Any solution that provides a boot room kind of blocks off the front door from the rest of the house. It could make your house feel more like a sanctuary, or a prison, depending on how you all feel about access to the outside world.

btw - do you want to have a garage at all? Could you add a garage on to that side of the house? Then use your current garage as an entrance & boot room, have a study at the front where the current front door is, and the music room pretty much where it is now?

I like the pp suggestion of just start with the exterior walls and draw in whatever you want. Think about what people actually do & want around the house, and what is likely to be the use in 5 years from now. It could be 2 years before this work is complete, so no point in thinking about current use - plan for the future, including likelihood of resale at some point.
(and yes, I have way too much time only hands!)

Why can’t you put a window in at the side of the house then you get a window.

In what is now the music room.

The bathroom is already at the top of the stairs. That hasn't changed.

@SoupDragon yes that is the only other option I’ve come up with - a longer, thin cloaks cupboard. Although I wondered if moving the stairs were an option, whether that would throw up something else...

@kickassangel - I appreciate you taking the time to comment! My son plays the drums and needs somewhere to practise. The garage is a dumping ground and, given it won’t be massively expensive to soundproof it, if the time comes that the use needs to change, it can be converted back to storage. Ditto the study which will be a playroom for my five year old and occasionally used for working from home (when we aren’t using the dining table).

That’s an interesting suggestion about how we address the issue with the bathroom and the stairs by re-assigning the ensuites and the bedrooms. The master layout is one I really love and the bathroom safety issue is not considered before so I really need to give it some thought.

I think the boot room needs to become a generous cupboard by all accounts

• I’ve not considered

And yes the bathroom has always been at the top of the stairs and need to think whether we are missing the chance to move it to somewhere safer

@Oliversmumsarmy The garage is connected to the house next door and they have extended to the boundary so we cannot put a window into the music room unfortunately

We have a big hall relative to the size of our house and other rooms. It does give our house a bit of wow factor and I have thought the size is sometimes a bit wasteful but it does make our house flow nicely and gives our house a good feel. Isolation bonus is currently my toddler is using it as an indoor scooter park

If you swung the stairs 90 deg and shifted the bottom towards the front door something like this might work.

The hall ends up being very awkward though.

Are you able to walk down the right side of the house? Could you have a side door into the kitchen space, and use that as a boot/laundry room? It gives you less kitchen, though. Or put the stud/playroom where the current laundry room is planned, and have a door in there for boot/laundry?

Obviously only works if you can get down the side of the house.

You do realize it could be cheaper/easier to just move house?

Maybe you need to go on one of those TV shows like list it or love it?

But less fun for us armchair architects 😂😂

Most utility rooms would have a door to outside whereas this layout does not allow for that. Anyone coming in with muddy shoes/boots or wet after a walk etc would have to go through the house to get to it. This wouldn't work for me as I have two teenage rugby players. It may not matter to you but may affect resale value.

I would also think about where your kitchen units will go if you haven't already as when the music room door opens in to the kitchen you are restricting your choice of kitchen layout.

Also does your 5 year old like to play alone or does she have a sibling close in age. If not you may find that the playroom is used for storage only and she brings everything out into the kitchen so she can be with you.

The garage is connected to the house next door and they have extended to the boundary so we cannot put a window into the music room unfortunately

Wouldn’t you be better off moving.

The money you will be spending would probably be more worthwhile putting towards a bigger house.

My worry is you have at least 2 rooms that don’t have windows. You are trying to extend a house to get spaces that really don’t go with the house.

E.g. Boot rooms and music rooms are great if you have a big manor house with fields around you but in a suburban semi you are in danger of making the lay out over complicated and if you come to sell at any point people will look at rooms with no windows and think they will need to take a sledgehammer to the place to make the layout workable.

Another one who thinks you need Kirsty and Phil or Sarah

I did see a house done on one of the tv shows. (Think it was Kevin Mc Cloud) where they wanted a cinema room.

They had the room as part of the living area then had sliding doors to shut the area off.

Could you do something similar so you don’t have the windowless rooms.

If you’re going to have a snug at the back of the house for congregating and watching telly, what are you going to use the lounge at the front for?

I have a kitchen/diner plus lounge and 2nd reception. DS1 plays xbox in there. It's nice having somewhere for teens to go that's not their room. Not essential, obviously, but nice!

Nice to have, yeah. I just bet that front room is going to be grossly underused for the amount of space it’s taking up.

I’d put the utility where the study is, can then have a back (side) door for mucky entrances. I’d take out the central walls around the otherwise small windowless room in the middle completely and make it all one open through space from the front door to the back. Then the front room can be your cosy snug tv space, and the back room your study/playroom, or vice versa. The back room I’d make the walls as flexible as possible too, maybe something like these corner sliding doors.

It really is only a few years your ds will be at home playing drums - seems v daft to go to all the trouble and expense of a special soundproofed room and rooflight for it. Splash out on a silent electric kit instead they’re really good and much more flexible for when he moves into student accommodation etc in a few years.

You could increase light into the centre of the house by putting a long thin internal window at the top of the wall between the front room and the kitchen/diner as well.

What purpose is the boot room? Is it mainly for storage or do you need a space for muddy sports kit to be removed and dumped?

And did you say if you can get down the side to the right of your property?