Does this floorpan make sense?

[janglemycoppers]

Would love some input into this house design. Dimensions aren't on, but I think you get a feel as the furniture is there. Whole house is about 10m wide if that helps. Do you think it flows nicely, and do you think the loft stairs work?
It's so hard imagining walking everything through!
TIA - I'm sure you're all much wiser than me!

And the other thing is, do you think it needs a porch? I think there is some storage under the stairs, but I’m wondering if a porch would also be useful

The back room has loads of wasted space, coupled with the large downstairs hall you are losing substantial living space to circulation. One of the 1st floor bedrooms is a very awkward shape and the 2nd floor bathroom is nearly the same size as the bedroom.

Thank you, but what do you think about it? i think that some of the walls are harder/more expensive to move, which is why the hall is the size it is. The long wall that runs side to side is pretty structural I think. Ditto with the awkward upstairs bedroom, it’s the way it is at the moment, it’s quite narrow, but I’m not sure if there’s a good and price efficient way to change it.
Which back room has loads of wasted space?

This is a house we’re looking at, these are the plans the owners have for it, but aren’t doing themselves

What do I think about it? I really don't like it, as whilst I'm not anti open plan I don't like church hall size rooms in homes, you can solve that to an extent by making the part to the left either a completely separate room or using double doors to give options if you were to have a massive party. The entrance hall itself, is actually fine, but then you go into the kitchen with another large circulation area.

A starting point might be to look at how to create a kitchen design to make the space more functional, the plan they've put in there it is taking up a lot of space, and compromising how the rest of the room can be used.

What are the current floor plans?

Thank you, that’s helpful. I see what you mean about the big circulation area in the dining bit. I don’t want to be tripping over chairs and tables, but perhaps we could extend a bit less (come in by a meter in that dining area) and make the space a bit smaller.

I don’t mind the kitchen design really, I don’t think it’s that inefficient and it would be up to us to fine tune kitchen placement. We do big gatherings sometimes, although not always.

when we got plans for our current house, there was so much internal rejigging that the whole budget went on that and not adding much more space, so was hoping less internal work would make for a more cost efficient build

And yes good point about church hall, might be a nightmare to heat, so some doors to that left hand space might be wise

The dining area looks too big and I would get rid of the kitchen island.

It'll be expensive to heat - huge open plan kitchen plus that side seating area. What's the point of that area if you have a proper lounge and it looks to be too far for someone to sit and chat to whoever is cooking? And why do you go through a room to get to the downstairs toilet? And what's the space behind the utility room for?

It's the position the sink under the window that I find off putting, it's not conveniently situated to the prep areas. It's hard to know without the dimensions but I'd look at turning the island around 90 degrees and using the space on the back wall more effectively.

What’s the room before the toilet downstairs? A walk-through boot room/cloakroom or something? That would make sense…

It just looks like dead space.

Thanks!
I think the seating area off the main space is a playroom area, it would have a window seat overlooking the garden which would be nice.

is a kitchen sink under the window a problem?

the bit off the utility is another toilet, which I don’t think is necessary so we would use it as a plant room if we got a heat pump.

yes the bit to the main toilet is odd. At the moment the electrics are all housed there in a massive boxed in bit. It’s also extra space for coats etc.

@PrueRamsay are islands out now? I thought everyone loved an island!

It's a strange heiarachy of spaces. The living room is usually the most used space in the house and yet these are the smallest spaces down stairs. I would think about swapping the dining table into the larger living space. You can then have a large L shaped space for a lovely large living area. You can still leave the smaller snug area as a play/kids area and include some sliding doors/screen to hide any mess.

In your plan, the dining table has the best space in the house but that's usually the area people spend the least amount of time.

I think the downstairs toilet is fine. That extra space is a cloak room. You could knock the two together.

Yes the small living areas are a concern, especially when we have people over.
I hadn’t thought about putting the kitchen there though. That wall is so structural I don’t know if it will be difficult to open it up.
interesting that you say that about the dining room having the best spot - we spend all our meals here, I cook a lot, homework at the table, puzzles.

I feel like I’ve got such a different perspective from everyone else, and I think the opposite! So it’s so useful to hear this.

Would this design mean that you wouldn’t buy the house if it was like this in the future when we sold it, and would look to change it?

It's flexible enough that you could do lots with it and it's nothing particularly awful that would put me off. I suppose it depends what your tolerance is for doing renovation and how your family lives.

If you like it and you think it fits your family then you don't need to ask us!

It's also hard sometimes to see the quality of a space in a plan. Hight of ceilings, period features , views make a huge difference too and can't be seen from a floor plan.

Round my way they are considered a bit naff/dated and people are going back to having a wooden kitchen table and chairs or just using the space as “space” rather than squishing an island into it.

Having said that, if you really want one, I wouldn’t care about what’s fashionable. I have a “country house” style kitchen with an Aga and big pine table which I know some people would hate/think dated but it makes me so happy. That’s what is important.

I do agree with PP re that dining space though…

Personally I quite like the layout I must say. Then again, I am a sucker for open plan living. I've put up similar post.
Yes, there is a bit of circulation space in front of the dining room but I don't think it's too much. If you have kids it's a nice space for them to play whilst you might be cooking or prepping some food in the kitchen so it means you can keep an eye on them easily. During Christmas you could station your tree there so it nively in view from the kitchen, snug and dining room. Kitchen layout is beautiful; sink underneath a window (presumably overlooking the garden) and proximity to the utility room is perfect. You could consider either a secret entry into the utility where the doors are the same as the adjacent cupboards or an arched entry with reused glass doors. What's the small room behind the utility?
The snug area looks a little small but you do have a separate livingroom so should be ok.
On thr first floor I like the layout of the big room the right in particular; looks like it has a dressing area behind the bed. The bathroom has both bath and freestanding shower.
In thr loft i see a bedroom and another room; will that be an office?

Thank you. Yes I think it can be quite flexible, this doesn’t have to be my final layout, this is just their design, their furniture.
it doesn’t have period features, but the extension has some nice skylights, big sliding doors.

Where are you going to put the (inevitable) tv in the snug? I would put pocket doors (these can be glazed to keep the sight line open) into this area so you have the option to close off if wanted. I don’t know how old your kids are (if you have any yet) but areas where you can close the door on the mess (or them) are useful as they grow.

there isn’t much space between the table and the doors to the garden but there is plenty of scope to move the table back into the room to get access

I get that for small spaces, and we don’t currently have one because there definitely isn’t room, but I actually thought it was a good space for it, maybe a bit shorter as it’s quite long. I don’t think it’s squished in.

if I didn’t have one then that space would certainly be too large!

Thank you, I’m not completely on my own then!
Yes we have two boys, always racing around, scooters and little ride on toys, so I thought it would be a good space for them. Not sure about when they grow out of that though.
The loft is split into a bedroom and then a dressing room, but that could be a nursery, office, or it’s a ok single bedroom. Quite luxurious I thought!

I think the tv will go in the living room at the front. I don’t think we’ll need one in the other seating area.
i can’t decide between doors or no doors to the family room / dining area. Not sure if the small room will feel too closed off, or the main space will feel too big.
At the moment they’re little and want to be with me / see me, and it’s hard to anticipate how that will all change, possibly even by the time we’ve done the work!

I think too much space is given to the rooms at the back of the house creating a lot of wasted space.

I think the living room is thus out of proportion- too small.

I’d also want a downstairs study. So many people wfh or hybrid now so it adds value.

I do like the larger entrance hall though. I think you could make that lovely.

All that said I think the layout of the first floor is the main main problem.

The rooms are odd sizes and proportions and there is no obvious master bedroom with en-suite/walk in wardrobe that I would expect from a property this size.

In all honesty I’d engage an architect to do this properly. You’ll get your costs back in terms of working with the space/structure and not having to make costly changes in the future.

Also an architect can help you future proof the house and discuss how you will live in it not just now but when the children are older.

I agree about the living room is small, but without moving that major long wall that runs the length of the house (structural and expensive) I’m not sure how to improve it. This has been my worry though so it’s interesting that everyone is saying it too.

The garden is decent and so we were going to put an office outside as it can take it. I understand that wouldn’t be for everyone but that it’s definitely necessary to have a wfh space. I wonder how many people would be bothered if it wasn’t in the main house though.

The rooms are odd, and a lot of them are narrow and feel narrow, but again, I’m not sure how this is fixed without great expense. At the moment there are two big rooms and two tiny singles, so I guess I’m looking at this and seeing it as an improvement, but fresh eyes wouldn’t agree. So good to have this fresh perspective as it’s easy to just get swept along.
But in terms of the master, it’s designed to be the loft. So a the bedroom on the right, four piece bathroom suite in the middle and then the little room as a dressing room. But it’s flexible so if we had another one, this could easily be the nursery, or it could be used as an office, or it’s been designed as the dressing room. So the master suite is actually the whole upstairs. It’s about 10m long, so I think pretty generous.

Lots of food for thought though

And in terms of the space behind the dining table and the doors, yes no idea why they’ve done that when there’s clearly loads of space as you walk in. So maybe that space isn’t as big or strange as it’s seem.
I think it’s about 6x7m or 7x7m off the top of my head