Opinions Wanted on Plans

[Dutch]

Hi

 

opinions wanted on the layout.

Floor Plans.pdf

[ProDave]

I think I would want a loo on the upper floor without having to go through the bedroom to the en-suite, or downstairs.  Perhaps shrink the en-suite slightly to join a loo on the right hand end?

 

I take it the lower floor is cut into a sloping site hence the lack of windows on the back wall?

[Mr Punter]

As the balcony is inset it will need proper insulation, waterproofing and floor finish which means the floor zone will be thicker.  You will either need a step up from the living room or a bulk head in the bedroom / entrance hall.

 

Agree with @ProDave regarding the WC at first floor.

[Bonner]

Stairs look the wrong way around, is there any reason for that? First floor bedroom suite is huge in comparison to the living/dining area. Could you make a bedroom in the mezzanine?

[Bozza]

Lots of good stuff there IMO.   Your 1st floor bedroom is very big in comparison to livingroom, and you’ll spend longer in livingroom.  You could definitely shrink that bedroom and as suggested create cloakroom next to en suite on that floor.

 

I totally get the mezzanine floor/void but personally not too keen on the spiral staircase in addition to staircase, might make the livingroom feel a bit like hallway/thoroughfare.  
 

Suspect you’ve got a southerly view being an upside down house.  As have I.  But generally the view will be of less benefit in bedroom than living & kitchen

 

so have you perhaps thought about swapping kitchen with bedroom, which could create a wee hallway for stairs to mezzanine with bedroom to left and kitchen/livingroom to right, and wc and staircase up to mezzanine.  Double glazed doors to right leading into living/kitchen/dining.

 

a bit rough, but sketched up what I was meaning per attached.

 

reversing main staircase, as suggested, will create the staircase void closer to your southerly balcony window and will take light down to your ground floor which appears to have limited light.  
 

…just throwing idea at you it’s your house of course !

Edited August 23, 2021 by Bozza

[Bozza]

Or this

 

 

[PeterW]

I really like it but …

 

Stairs are wrong way as many have said - think about taking shopping upstairs for example. Also, as they are open to the kitchen you’re going to have some fun with fire protection, especially with the open plan mezzanine. 
 

I would spin the bed and make it face the windows in the master - I like it that size too ..! One thing I can’t see is wardrobes so think that through, and also does your en-suite really need a bath..? Think about making the room slightly more square and use the rest for the upstairs WC which is definitely needed. 
 

With some careful planning of staircases too, you can lose the (expensive) spiral and use ordinary staircases - flipping the kitchen and dining for example gives you a wall to play with. 
 

 

[BenP]

Ground floor isn't too bad - needs some tweaking to get the back bedrooms a bit bigger. I'd do this by losing the WC and being a bit more clever with the bathrooms. You could have a loo connected to the utility if it's for when popping in etc? 

 

First floor suggestion above is spot on, but it depends on the views and context which we don't know? At the very least have a bit more separation between the living area and bedroom. Add a WC into this separation too. 

 

It's a good start. I'd let us know more about the surrounding context and any particular brief arrangements you have!

[Dutch]

I have changed the stairs around, funnily I never knew they were the wrong way round, I think adding an upstairs loo is a good point otherwise you will have to gone downstairs every time you want the loo if your a guest.

 

The front is south and faces towards the see hence the bifold doors onto the balcony,  the site is sloping hence why there are no windows on the north side facing the rear (north)

 

I was planning on using the mezzanine as an office a desk and a computer there.

[Bozza]

If you reverse your stairs it will give a nicer impression coming into the house, rather than walking down the hall and back on yourself.

 

I’m assuming the house faces south and being elevated is it exposed to extremely of weather both sun and storms.  If so best to have your main bedroom at back where extremities of weather won’t disrupt your sleep as much.  Ideally have cooler rooms as bedrooms.

 

I know this from my experience we have a large glazed south facing bedroom and it gets very hot.  And I’m in Scotland,

 

I know the temptation is to have bedroom with a best view but like I said your more likely to appreciate view from dining kitchen living space.  just my opinion. Your house

Edited August 23, 2021 by Bozza

[Ferdinand]

Good comments above.

 

I think on the whole it feels a bit over-bedroomed and under-living-roomed.

 

Consider when you want to have two people doing different things privately (eg reading a book and practising the trombone, or sewing and watching TV, or kids playing first-person-shooters and grownups playing poker) - you probably want two separately available living spaces.

 

Depending on the width of that sea view, can you project the balcony?

 

Outside shower?

 

Ferdinand

 

[Dutch]

[Dutch]

I have made some of the changes discussed.

 

[the_r_sole]

In an upside down house you really want to have a big, generous, stair, with a low pitch too

[AliG]

Hi @Dutch

 

I saved this as a PDF to try and get the right scale for room sizes.

 

1. The garage is roughly 5.66m long. A lot of cars nowadays are 5ish metres long. If you want to get something from the other side of the car you will find yourself squeezing past it. I would lose maybe 300mm from the utility and add it to the garage. I might also be tempted to move the door to the LHS so that most of the space is on the house side. It is almost the width of a double. Then I would make the utility deeper at the RHS so that you have room for the door behind the stairs into it.

 

2. Looking at the downstairs, the rear bedrooms are a little narrow at 3m or less and the hall/stairs is also a little narrow. Meanwhile the master bedroom and garage are 4.8m wide. I would lose 400mm from the garage/master bedroom width and add this to the man house width. This allows the rear bedrooms to be 3.2m and the hall 2.4m. You could make the stair 1m wide and still have a wider hall next to it too.

 

3. Add fitted wardrobes to the larger downstairs bedrooms. 

 

4. Consider having a dressing room behind the bed in the master bedroom and moving the bed towards the window.

 

5. The upper floor has quite a few issues for me. I really would not like to have a WC directly off the kitchen and the master bedroom directly off the lounge. Where would you spend most time, the kitchen or the lounge? The kitchen will be pretty dark as positioned at the back. We have loads of windows and a balcony off the bedroom. The balcony is never used and all the glass makes it hard to sleep in summer. I would consider swapping the kitchen and master bedroom, the kitchen could then be dual aspect. If you make the main part of the house wider and the garage part narrower this will make this easier. There is still the issue of where to squeeze in the WC and if it can be separated from other rooms.

 

6. I am not a fan of the spiral staircase in the lounge, but I can see that a lot of symmetry has been achieved in the current design and there would be head height issues if the stair was elsewhere.

 

[jack]

19 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

I think on the whole it feels a bit over-bedroomed and under-living-roomed.

 

Agreed. We have two separate living areas and I occasionally think it would be nice to have another! Depends who's living there, of course. We have two very different teenagers who rarely spend time together.

 

The main thing that jumps out at me is the size of the master bedroom. We have a big bedroom at around 4600 square. Having lived with it for a few years now, I know that if I ever build another house, knocking 600-800 off both dimensions would make very little difference in terms of space and comfort. Yours looks to be roughly another metre or so bigger in one dimension and maybe roughly the same in the other. This feels like massively wasted space to me.

 

You could set up the window end of the bedroom as a proper "parents' retreat" type of thing, with sofas, TV etc, which would use up the extra space and perhaps offers you another private sitting area.

 

[epsilonGreedy]

@Dutch Are you extending an existing property leftwards? I ask because I am trying to understand if the oversized master bedroom is a result of an existing constraint.

 

Overall I think it is a good design that achieves a lot in a small footprint. I agree with the excess bedroom observation but only you know your requirement, I would convert one bedroom into a study to fit my lifestyle.

 

The original stair orientation worked for me because it creates a larger open plan connection between kitchen and living room.

 

What head height and space will you get in the mezzanine? My feeling is these do net get used in practice.

[Dutch]

I have made the garage longer & shorter, swapped the master bedroom with the kitchen diner, made the rear bedrooms wider.

 

Garage is 6m x 4m

Edited August 24, 2021 by Dutch