Suggestions for improving this first floor layout

[Sweetmelody72]

Considering a property that has all the square footage we need, but the extended area on the first floor has resulted in a rather clumsy layout.

Want to retain 4 bedrooms with one being a master suite, 2 doubles for our 2 children and one guest room. Could potentially build out over the terrace but would be nice to replace with a Juliet balcony on the master if this turns out to be the best option.

Any suggestions?

Hopeful bump

I would probably look at reworking bedroom 3/the family bathroom into the master suite and then make the en-suite bigger, and the existing master bedroom slightly smaller.

What’s this terrace thing? It’s included in the sq footage, so I’m a little confused.

What do you find clumsy about the layout? It looks like 4 bedrooms accessed from the landing + a bathroom and en-suite to the master. Seems pretty standard?

The terrace is on the roof of the ground floor extension. You can walk out onto it from the master bedroom. Yes, included in the square footage but a waste of space, if useable to improve room sizes and overall layout.

I agree I didn’t make the point that the master bedroom isn’t wide enough for my liking ( @Flamingolingo has come up with a potential solution to this).

Yes it is a bit of a clumsy layout! I’d second turning bedroom 3 into your master, stealing a bit of bedroom 2 in the process. It has a much bigger bathroom for a start. Will it matter that the existing ensuite that becomes the family bathroom doesn’t have a bath?

I think Flamingo’s idea is a good, cost-effective option. Building over the terrace might not be financially viable unless you can add a bedroom to increase the value of the property.

@Flamingolingo

I would probably look at reworking bedroom 3/the family bathroom into the master suite and then make the en-suite bigger, and the existing master bedroom slightly smaller.

This ^

Make the en-suite the family bathroom with its own access, separate access to that bedroom, and then use the existing master as a guest room, which means when you don't have guests everyone can access the terrace without going through your bedroom.

Is bed 2 big enough to square off the awkward but and make that into the family bathroom then do what hardasnails and flamingo lingo said with the master and guest room swap. That way guest and master both get en-suite and other two beds share a family bathroom.

@dramalamma Not sure I follow. Wouldn’t that lose me a bedroom?

Regarding the point about the bath being in the master en-suite. We have this setup (our en-suite is bigger than the family bathroom as it was once a bedroom). It works fine for us. We opted for a spacious walk in shower in the family bathroom because we are mostly shower people, most guests are happy with a shower, and it’s not that big a deal if one of the kids wants to use the bath.

Assuming none of the internal walls are load bearing it should be quite easy/cheap to do. And you could use the existing master while you do the work.

@Sweetmelody72 sorry I wasn’t clear - def no losing a bedroom - just slicing a bit off bed 2 to make into the bathroom. - you see that bit where it looks like someone has taken a slice off the corner of bed 2? If you took a line from the corner along towards bed 3 you take a slice off bed 2? That becomes the bathroom but it’s hard to know whether that still leaves bed 2 big enough Tho it does seem a very big bedroom. Does that make more sense?

Yes that makes sense @dramalamma

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and suggestions

I’m attaching a photo of the back of the house to show the terrace and how the three bedrooms wrap around it.

I thought an option might be to extend the width of the master bedroom onto the terrace, have the bed running from left to right so that there is suffIcient space to walk around it (8’ currently is not enough). @JoJoSM2 suggested this might not be good value but I had assumed It wouldn’t be that expensive a job.

Anyway, going to view tomorrow so will have a better idea after that and will report back.

Interesting to see the house from the outside OP.

Looking at the configuration of the roof line, it doesn't appear that it would be either an easy or cheap job the extend over the balcony. I'm not a builder (!!!) but we've done several of extensions/ renovations. Presumably you'd have to take the whole or most of the roof of? The existing sloping roof wouldn't have enough height to extend at it's current pitch over the terrace (you'd end up with a ceiling that was too low). And not sure how you could extend the flat roof currently over the master bedroom. Hmm. Let us know how you get on!!

What are the rooms on far right above bathroom and left at top of stairs (the little room with a circle in it)? And where is the top of the stairs? If next to bathroom, that might make reconfiguring bedroom 3 with family bathroom more awkward? It's a very odd layout - would feel like a hotel with that long corridor and 7 doors off it.

I would also expect the current master bedroom to be quite cold. So another reason for that to be the guest room

@SwedishEdith

What are the rooms on far right above bathroom and left at top of stairs (the little room with a circle in it)? And where is the top of the stairs? If next to bathroom, that might make reconfiguring bedroom 3 with family bathroom more awkward? It's a very odd layout - would feel like a hotel with that long corridor and 7 doors off it.

There is a separate shower room above the bathroom and the room next to the stairs looks like a cupboard where the hot water cylinder is kept

@Flamingolingo

I would also expect the current master bedroom to be quite cold. So another reason for that to be the guest room

Very good point

Really liked the house. We are agreed that the best option would be to create a master suite with walk in wardrobe from bedroom 3 and the main bathroom. Now there is just the small matter of making an offer and moving on with our lives, or waiting to see what happens with the market over next 6 months or so....

*small matter of deciding whether to

hi OP,
I would make Bedroom 3 into the master then open up the landing by making Bedroom 2 slightly smaller. To make a proper family bath you could make the current master smaller and extend the bathroom.
Good luck, hope you get it!

The above is a good suggestion, just depending on what is/isn’t load bearing just because the costs will go up massively

Thanks for sharing that @FrustratoPotato

That’s the space we will have. Wondering if there will be space for a walk in wardrobe (particularly if we lose the bath to the new family bathroom)

If you make the bathroom smaller by keeping the shower (but reconfiguring so you enter from the bathroom rather than the bedroom) you could have a walk in where the bath currently is. This wouldnt work with the window though. I'm sure someone has a better solution!

I think you put your wardrobe into the space where there is currently that weird shower-in-a-cupboard arrangement. I don’t think it needs to be a walk in wardrobe, decent built in storage is the better option imo (I have a walk in panty, which is an excellent use of our available space but doesn’t have great useable space inside)