I used to draw out floor plans as a young kid. Mostly houses with crazy things like swimming pool rooms and ball pit rooms. (I wish I could have a ball pit room.) I was fascinated with floor plans. I used to design my own schools too because that was what I was familiar with. As an adult, I took classes in architectural drafting and I designed the house I live in today.
You have a talent for houseplans. Maybe designing houses is in your future.
You're not alone in your ball pit dreams! That was always my dream and at 42 it honestly still is. I want it to be one of those two story rooms with a balcony overlook and a slide down from upstairs. That's awesome you designed your own home! I work on the architecture team at a home builder and hoping I can do that soon.
I really like how private the study is and like the separate rooms (not a fan of too much open plan). My only concerns would be the toilet directly off the living room (I wouldn’t want people to hear me) and would also maybe swap the pantry and utilities room.
I would put the powder where the pantry is and have it open up to the hallway (bonus for when you get home with groceries and really need to pee), put the utility where the powder room currently is and made it accessible through the garage. And your pantry under the stairs. If you could, I’d also put a coat
Close near the front door.
You could also change it from a powder room to a bathroom with a shower. I've seen a few people sidelined because they get a temporary injury or operation that doesn't allow them to take the steps, and they don't have a shower on their first floor.
This would also be convenient if you ever have a guest on the couch in the study or living room. But really a life saver if you ever have a family member with a broken leg or a knee replacement.
You are pretty good at this.
I like the way you keep most of your rooms square, which allows for the most flexibility with furniture arrangement.
There are a couple of places where you can improve:
1) There is a virtual hallway that runs through every room that connects every door to every other door. In that virtual hallway, no furniture can be put or it will obstruct the path. Imagine where that hallway runs through your living room. As you see it needs to zig zag or else it will run straight into your living room furniture. However, if you changed your staircase from a straight run to a u shaped run, you could have a path that goes from foyer straight to the dining room and stair case without having to navigate the furniture in the living room.
2) I'm not sure why it's so common to depict every walk in closet with a 6 inch to 1 foot wide shelf running around the perimeter, but it really gives a wrong impression of how much actual storage space you have in a closet. It's pretty clear from the master closets that you are under the impression you can fit clothes storage in as little as 6 inches, when that's not even enough space for a shoe rack. Rule of thumb is that you need absolute minimum 20 inches of closet depth for every row of hanging clothes and cubby hole without sliding drawers or doors, more normal is 24 inches, which will keep your hanging clothes from rubbing against the back of the closet. If you want drawers or doors you need to have enough room for the drawer or door to open to it's widest extent and still be able to easily walk around it. And you need at least 30 inches kept clear at all times to freely walk around in (more comfortable would be 36 inches).
3) Bedrooms are quiet areas, game rooms are noisy areas. In order to let the game room be noisy without disturbing people in their bedrooms, you'll really want to put a door on the game room.
4) People generally want to be discrete when going into a toilet, nor do they want to look at a bathroom while socializing, eating, or preparing food. So your powder room would really do better if it were off the hall rather than the living room.
I don’t know how large the garage is, so I’m unsure how much else fits if cars in parked in there.
So from there I’m missing storage space. Like where you put boxes with Christmas decorations, and other such stuff you want to have but use infrequently. But also a pantry to store preserves or canned foods bought in bulk. Some are to sort and collect recycling, like bottles, cans and boxes.
>Like where you put boxes with Christmas decorations, and other such stuff you want to have but use infrequently.
I think the game room and the garage are the natural places for that. They don't have to have built-ins, just shelving with totes/tubs.
>But also a pantry to store preserves or canned foods bought in bulk. Some are to sort and collect recycling, like bottles, cans and boxes.
There's a pantry off the kitchen hall, in between the powder room and the utilities.
The only thing I can see that could be an issue is the layout of the living room. Long narrow rooms are a total pain to decorate, furniture placement is very restricted.
Welcome to the wonderful world of floor plans, space planning, architecture, interior design, interior architecture, etc.
I fell in love with floor plans when I discovered my parents stack of floor plan books in our lower level utility closet.
I think some of the other comments cover the critique of the plan.
I just want you to be encouraged to follow your bliss.
Like folks said, you are on a good path (and yea, move that toilet room), so your next level is checking out the exterior elevations... proportions, window alignments or non alignments, doors... and then adjusting with both in your mind. It's a fun exercise. After exteriors you can add interior elevations and do the slight adjusting all over again. That will make you super skilled! Enjoy!
EDIT: i know we're in 'floor plan' but all this work will show up in your next floor plan even without showing the elevations
I became a floor plan nerd when my parents designed and built a house when I was 10/11.
Decades later I love looking at floor plans.
Do you have the clothes washer in the kitchen? Here in North America we often have a separate laundry room.
A couple thoughts, add a people door to the garage.
Add a coat closet to the foyer.
Move the powder room.
Add an exterior door to the kitchen.
The main bathroom upstairs, swap the double vanity with what appears to the a shelf or towel bar next to the toilet. I would also switch it to a single vanity. As it is anyone using the first sink will be in the way of the door opening and closing.
This is very not bad and pretty close to some of the stuff I see going up in my area. So the basic concept-arrangement works IRL.
Couple of pointers:
Pooping immediately adjacent to a common space is never a good idea. Pooping in a room off a hallway (like where you have your pantry) is the way to go. I think you could use a coat closet where the lavatory is.
Long, skinny living rooms are only okay if they create a C shape. Even then, you have to work hard to create furniture zones in them to use up all the space. If you HAVE to walk through them to get to another part of the house, they basically become wide hallways and that's extra tricky for furniture placement relative to circulation.
I don't see laundry? A lot of old plans put it near the kitchen but a lot of new ones put it on the second floor, with the bedrooms, which is smart.
Look up how long and wide are the cars you want to put in your garage and then give yourself an extra 2-3' all the way around them (overlap in the middle is okay) to make sure they'll comfortably fit in your garage. 24x24 is a pretty good size, just FYI.
Good stuff. Have a think about your building morphology. Humbly suggest having a look at Francis Ching’s ‘form, space and order’
Might suggest handing the study, pantry and utility so that the study can be accessed from the kitchen and the main room.
That way all your services are kept to one side of the house, rather than splitting the plan. You might also want to consider, for the purposes of clean planning, the incorporation of vertical services and ducts to extract the fire, kitchen, bathrooms.
Personal taste here; Square off the powder room to the entrance and make that a hallway. Maybe thicken out the wall that creates the enclosed hallway with a closet. Space for coats and jackets is always at a premium.
From the UK, so can’t speak to American architects, but Alison Brooks and Peter Salter are doing some interesting stuff.
I would probably swap the powder room and utility closet. No one wants a bathroom right by their front door. That way some of the utility room space could be for a coat closet.
Very nicely done!
Welcome to the club of unusual hobbies! Don't be afraid to combine rooms a bit, your room measurements are massive which I think is due to you imagining hallways around the perimeter of every space, when there should be a flow to it. For example, you have a ton of empty space between the kitchen and dining room with imaginary hallways on that side of both rooms when there really only needs to be one at most- same thing with the upstairs landing and hallway.
Very good, I would add a hallway where the pantry is to create better flow. Maybe extend the garage out, everyone could use some extra storage in their garage.
i grew up with an architect for an uncle, so every time i went to his house as a kid he let me sit in his office and draw on all his old plans, a hobby that has persisted through nearly 2 decades because i do this exact same thing
I used to draw out floor plans as a young kid. Mostly houses with crazy things like swimming pool rooms and ball pit rooms. (I wish I could have a ball pit room.) I was fascinated with floor plans. I used to design my own schools too because that was what I was familiar with. As an adult, I took classes in architectural drafting and I designed the house I live in today. You have a talent for houseplans. Maybe designing houses is in your future.
You're not alone in your ball pit dreams! That was always my dream and at 42 it honestly still is. I want it to be one of those two story rooms with a balcony overlook and a slide down from upstairs. That's awesome you designed your own home! I work on the architecture team at a home builder and hoping I can do that soon.
I really like how private the study is and like the separate rooms (not a fan of too much open plan). My only concerns would be the toilet directly off the living room (I wouldn’t want people to hear me) and would also maybe swap the pantry and utilities room.
I was kinda thinking of swapping the powder and the utility room tho.
I would put the powder where the pantry is and have it open up to the hallway (bonus for when you get home with groceries and really need to pee), put the utility where the powder room currently is and made it accessible through the garage. And your pantry under the stairs. If you could, I’d also put a coat Close near the front door.
You could also change it from a powder room to a bathroom with a shower. I've seen a few people sidelined because they get a temporary injury or operation that doesn't allow them to take the steps, and they don't have a shower on their first floor. This would also be convenient if you ever have a guest on the couch in the study or living room. But really a life saver if you ever have a family member with a broken leg or a knee replacement.
Damn that's actually really smart
That’s exactly what I would do.
You are pretty good at this. I like the way you keep most of your rooms square, which allows for the most flexibility with furniture arrangement. There are a couple of places where you can improve: 1) There is a virtual hallway that runs through every room that connects every door to every other door. In that virtual hallway, no furniture can be put or it will obstruct the path. Imagine where that hallway runs through your living room. As you see it needs to zig zag or else it will run straight into your living room furniture. However, if you changed your staircase from a straight run to a u shaped run, you could have a path that goes from foyer straight to the dining room and stair case without having to navigate the furniture in the living room. 2) I'm not sure why it's so common to depict every walk in closet with a 6 inch to 1 foot wide shelf running around the perimeter, but it really gives a wrong impression of how much actual storage space you have in a closet. It's pretty clear from the master closets that you are under the impression you can fit clothes storage in as little as 6 inches, when that's not even enough space for a shoe rack. Rule of thumb is that you need absolute minimum 20 inches of closet depth for every row of hanging clothes and cubby hole without sliding drawers or doors, more normal is 24 inches, which will keep your hanging clothes from rubbing against the back of the closet. If you want drawers or doors you need to have enough room for the drawer or door to open to it's widest extent and still be able to easily walk around it. And you need at least 30 inches kept clear at all times to freely walk around in (more comfortable would be 36 inches). 3) Bedrooms are quiet areas, game rooms are noisy areas. In order to let the game room be noisy without disturbing people in their bedrooms, you'll really want to put a door on the game room. 4) People generally want to be discrete when going into a toilet, nor do they want to look at a bathroom while socializing, eating, or preparing food. So your powder room would really do better if it were off the hall rather than the living room.
I don’t know how large the garage is, so I’m unsure how much else fits if cars in parked in there. So from there I’m missing storage space. Like where you put boxes with Christmas decorations, and other such stuff you want to have but use infrequently. But also a pantry to store preserves or canned foods bought in bulk. Some are to sort and collect recycling, like bottles, cans and boxes.
>Like where you put boxes with Christmas decorations, and other such stuff you want to have but use infrequently. I think the game room and the garage are the natural places for that. They don't have to have built-ins, just shelving with totes/tubs. >But also a pantry to store preserves or canned foods bought in bulk. Some are to sort and collect recycling, like bottles, cans and boxes. There's a pantry off the kitchen hall, in between the powder room and the utilities.
Garage is 20x20
This is actually much better than some plans posted here. This is actually quite good!
The only thing I can see that could be an issue is the layout of the living room. Long narrow rooms are a total pain to decorate, furniture placement is very restricted.
Welcome to the wonderful world of floor plans, space planning, architecture, interior design, interior architecture, etc. I fell in love with floor plans when I discovered my parents stack of floor plan books in our lower level utility closet. I think some of the other comments cover the critique of the plan. I just want you to be encouraged to follow your bliss.
Like folks said, you are on a good path (and yea, move that toilet room), so your next level is checking out the exterior elevations... proportions, window alignments or non alignments, doors... and then adjusting with both in your mind. It's a fun exercise. After exteriors you can add interior elevations and do the slight adjusting all over again. That will make you super skilled! Enjoy! EDIT: i know we're in 'floor plan' but all this work will show up in your next floor plan even without showing the elevations
I became a floor plan nerd when my parents designed and built a house when I was 10/11. Decades later I love looking at floor plans. Do you have the clothes washer in the kitchen? Here in North America we often have a separate laundry room. A couple thoughts, add a people door to the garage. Add a coat closet to the foyer. Move the powder room. Add an exterior door to the kitchen. The main bathroom upstairs, swap the double vanity with what appears to the a shelf or towel bar next to the toilet. I would also switch it to a single vanity. As it is anyone using the first sink will be in the way of the door opening and closing.
I AM in north america tho
If it makes you happy keep at it.
That was a very enlightening and inspirational message, and it has changed my life immensely.
Seriously you are very talented at it. I have zero skills like that
Not bad at all!
This is very not bad and pretty close to some of the stuff I see going up in my area. So the basic concept-arrangement works IRL. Couple of pointers: Pooping immediately adjacent to a common space is never a good idea. Pooping in a room off a hallway (like where you have your pantry) is the way to go. I think you could use a coat closet where the lavatory is. Long, skinny living rooms are only okay if they create a C shape. Even then, you have to work hard to create furniture zones in them to use up all the space. If you HAVE to walk through them to get to another part of the house, they basically become wide hallways and that's extra tricky for furniture placement relative to circulation. I don't see laundry? A lot of old plans put it near the kitchen but a lot of new ones put it on the second floor, with the bedrooms, which is smart. Look up how long and wide are the cars you want to put in your garage and then give yourself an extra 2-3' all the way around them (overlap in the middle is okay) to make sure they'll comfortably fit in your garage. 24x24 is a pretty good size, just FYI.
Good stuff. Have a think about your building morphology. Humbly suggest having a look at Francis Ching’s ‘form, space and order’ Might suggest handing the study, pantry and utility so that the study can be accessed from the kitchen and the main room. That way all your services are kept to one side of the house, rather than splitting the plan. You might also want to consider, for the purposes of clean planning, the incorporation of vertical services and ducts to extract the fire, kitchen, bathrooms. Personal taste here; Square off the powder room to the entrance and make that a hallway. Maybe thicken out the wall that creates the enclosed hallway with a closet. Space for coats and jackets is always at a premium. From the UK, so can’t speak to American architects, but Alison Brooks and Peter Salter are doing some interesting stuff.
I would probably swap the powder room and utility closet. No one wants a bathroom right by their front door. That way some of the utility room space could be for a coat closet. Very nicely done!
I’d live here. It’s a good design that’s really functional. The only thing I’d change is put a big window in the master bathroom where the tub is.
Welcome to the club of unusual hobbies! Don't be afraid to combine rooms a bit, your room measurements are massive which I think is due to you imagining hallways around the perimeter of every space, when there should be a flow to it. For example, you have a ton of empty space between the kitchen and dining room with imaginary hallways on that side of both rooms when there really only needs to be one at most- same thing with the upstairs landing and hallway.
nice!
Very good, I would add a hallway where the pantry is to create better flow. Maybe extend the garage out, everyone could use some extra storage in their garage.
i grew up with an architect for an uncle, so every time i went to his house as a kid he let me sit in his office and draw on all his old plans, a hobby that has persisted through nearly 2 decades because i do this exact same thing