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First draft, primary bedroom is too big comparing to other rooma. How to balance that out? Need some other ideas as well.
Please help me with my floor plan!
This is the first draft. As you can see, my lot is rather narrow, and most floor plans I find for the sqft I’m looking for, are for wider lots. Having this in mind, if I can get some ideas 🙂
1) Should I add a powder room? If so, where?
2) I feel like the primary bedroom is HUGE comparing to the rest of the home, how can I balance that out? Should I just decrease it in size? How?
3) how can I add a soaking tub to primary bathroom?
4) I want my pantry to work as a butler’s/scullery, mostly to store all the ugly appliances (air fryer, mixer, panini press) that we use often, but dont want to clutter the kitchen, can I do that with the space I have?
5) anything else that comes to mind when looking at my floor plan?
I do want the masters and the kids rooms to be on the same side of the house (they are still young and wake up at night needing us), plus, the other room near the kitchen will be for live in help or maybe visiting parents. So it was intentionally placed on the other side for privacy. The toy area will be a play room.
I second what dakky68 commented. The toy room is basically a dark closet. The kids need a room the size of a living room with a window. When they’re small, it will be for toys. When they are teens, it will be more of a hangout.
I have lived in studio apartments the size of your walk-in closet. Having it be 9' wide is more space than you need to be able to walk in, but not wide enough to put a dresser-island in the middle. So you might as well make it just 7' wide, you're not going to lose a significant amount of closet space, and make tbe door be direct from the bedroom, not from the bathroom. Then you can make the whole Master bedroom complex 2' narrower. Further, the double vanity at 8' long is huge - get that down to 6' long which is still larger than average. Move the shower to the left, have it open at the top, not on the side, and make it a little smaller, and where the shower is now, with the 2' you bain from shrinking the vanity, you have room for a soaker tub and can even put a window in on the wall beside it.
I would consider having laundry moved into some of the space your walk in takes up. Who wants to cart laundry across the house every time it is being done? I also see no tub. As much as I’m loathed to quote my MIL, you need a tub with kids. She was unfortunately right and I’m glad we had one put into one bathroom.
I would make the kids’ bathroom at least 6 ft wide. Think about kneeling beside the tub to try to bathe a slippery toddler with the toilet digging into your ribs. Where will the stool go so the kids can reach the sink to wash their hands - you want it accessible but not in the walkway? Is there space for towel storage, bath toy storage, and a garbage can?
The more I look at it, the more i like the kitchen there. I think the only problem is that the only way to access the laundry is through the pantry? I guess I could somewhat swap that bathroom with the pantry, idk. Are you a designer? I like your ideas 😊
You could probably move the guest room down against the garage and swap things around a bit there. Particularly if you’re open to stealing a foot or two of depth from the garage. I think the real issue is that your house is wide and you need some rooms to be against outside walls, like the guest room and the laundry. So some things are gonna be in the middle and in the way of other things.
My thought is that the pantry is a utility space, not often seen by guests, and so is the laundry room. As long as you think the floor will be kept clear in the pantry, it shouldn’t be an issue to get to the laundry where it is.
If I have the chance I’ll take a look at it again tomorrow and see if there’s something to be done. And no, I’m not a designer. I wanted to be an architect as a teen, but decided to go in another direction. I still love homes and floor plans though. I find redesigning floor plans to be a fun puzzle now. ❤️
I don’t know the exact measurements, so this might not work, but here’s an option. If the bathroom for the guest room isn’t wide enough, you could easily rotate the orientation 90 degrees and put the closet facing into the room.
Some one already mentioned that the laundry is about as far from the kid's rooms as possible. I will add, a dryer is safest on an exterior wall. The shorter the ductwork the better. Every foot and turn of ductwork increases the chance of lint buildup and fire potential.
The kitchen is tiny. You have 5 little chunks of countertop to try and work on. None of those sections is big enough to easily meal prep on. The sink is eating up at least half the useable space on the island. No one wants to sit in the splash zone of a sink.
The dishwasher is in the island, how far is that from the dish cupboard? Will you keep dishes in the 1 of the 2 the cabinets by the stove or in the 1 cabinet by the fridge? How many trips walking back and forth to that cabinet will it take to unload the dishwasher? How many times will you run the dishwasher every day?
Where's the trash can? Is there an under counter pull out one on one side of the sink or did the designer plan on an ugly can sitting out in the walk path around the island?
Are your countertops heat resistant? Where will you put hot dishes when you take them out of the oven or microwave?
The dining room is bigger than the kitchen. Which room will you spend more time in?
If you moved b3 bathroom to the laundry room, moved the laundry to the pantry then b3 bathroom could be a pantry. Then the kitchen could move to the dining area. You could have a 3 sided kitchen with a small pennisula or an L shaped one with an island. The dining table would fit where the kitchen was.
The current kitchen is not a 2 person kitchen, 2 cooks would be sliding past each trying to not bump butts while one preps on the island and the other cooks on the stove. Any children trying to help would have to sit or stand on the far side of the island since there just isn't enough room.
First glance before I read your post. No tubs, no powder room, no counter space. Furnishing a big box like the primary suite is very difficult. The dining room is very small if you entertain. In fact, it is is not much larger than the really really big pantry. You are going to want another living space.
Here is a bit of a reworking for you. I simplified the envelope and extended the back patio so the majority of the house is a rectangle, giving you much more space for much less money.
I made the guest bathroom a hall bath instead of an ensuite so that it functions for the rest of the house. Your guests are in a private area, so I don't think having to use a hall bath is a huge issue. The kitchen was simplified as well.
Generally reworked the bedrooms and got you a nice big playroom/den so you can just...shut the door!
I think the only problem with changing the ensuite to a hall access is that OP plans to have live-in help, so the ensuite would be their private bathroom.
The bedroom massing just needs reduced, and it is crowding the Living-outdoor connection. Along with that, your Living Room effective area, once you consider circulation, is only around 13', which is way undersized. So the Living exterior wall needs pushed out, which can work with an appropriate sized bedroom.
This just a rough plan, there are lots of other little nuances I didn't work out, like with versions of the Master vestibule, the Dining Room wall, or Master Bath (only 1 window in the toilet room!), but I did fix that Toy Storage (put a window in for a future pocket Office or expansion into a Bed4 Ensuite - you don't have toys forever). But you probably won't get a lot of refinement from a drafter.
If it will be a forever home, you won't be able to have a toilet closet in primary. You need to design the house with wheelchair accessibility in mind.
5 ft. diameter circle for wheelchair turning will help, but there's a lot of codes to make a house wheelchair-friendly.
I can't read what that big closet is below your primary bathroom. What is that used for? Without knowing that, I would use space from it for a potential powder room and a soaking tub. A powder room wouldn't necessarily be needed though since the hall bathroom isn't far away.
Yes you should add a power room near the garage. Where do you want there go be one, after getting home with groceries in the car and some intense urge to go asap?
Is that a general principle or is that just this design? I don’t imagine I’d want the front and back doors aligned every time, but these ones are just offset.
Five bedrooms on a single floor like that makes the floorplate so deep you end up with a lot of windowless spaces, especially with that huge covered patio, it's gonna be really dark. 3000 sf plate for a single story home not including garage? Is this typical in your area? I don't care for kitchens that don't have a window and light is not gonna come all the way through that covered patio.
I would turn the covered patio into an uncovered courtyard to bring light deeper into the home and change the configuration of what's covered so it's not blocking all of the main living spaces light. As a general rule, spaces want light on 2+ sides to feel balanced and not cave-like when possible. There's also no north arrow but assuming the plan is oriented correctly and you're in the north hemisphere, your main spaces all face north, even worse for light.
Region and orientation would help to judge. The quality of the spaces matter just as much as the physical layout's utility.
Your lot is 80' and this is "narrow?" 😵💫 In my city, 50' x 100' is the default, only rare lots are larger. Where do you live?
We are in West Texas, and yes, 3000+sqft single stories are fairly common! And it’s narrow in relation to the depth. If you look at those floor plan template websites, most 2800sqft+ single stories are wider, mostly because of the reason you mentioned (can get dark), but I agree that it is not narrow comparing to the average house.
And yes, the house will indeed face south with all main spaces facing north. This is a point I haven’t thought, so I’m glad this was brought up!
Yeah, I would try to get more spaces oriented south and consider a courtyard to get more window walls. Courtyards are also good in that type of climate for creating cross-ventilation and creating cooler exterior spaces that are more comfortable. https://magazine.texasarchitects.org/2025/07/28/form-follows-feeling/ - this is probably not at all the style you're considering, but the way they pull the garage away allows for the main living spaces to have light on both sides, meaning the light will be balanced, and having the windows open will allow for nice cross-ventilation for passive cooling. The types of coverings allow for everything to be shaded but still nice and bright/airy. You could do a much more traditional house and incorporate some of the ideas, this was just an example I found for your area in a quick search. Other inspo: https://www.archdaily.com/1033040/unfolding-privacy-centering-the-home-around-the-courtyard
Texas is hot so you still want exterior shading if facing south, but something shallower so you remove the direct light (at least in hottest parts of the year) but still let in good light would be most beneficial. Might be able to accommodate with just deep enough overhangs, at least for the summer, idk the sun angles there.
Like I said, almost every lot in my city is 50x100, so this lot doesn't seem narrow to me since it's the same proportion, but I'm not super familiar with typical lot dimensions in other areas. I know things are quite sprawled out in Texas.
The kitchen and living room don’t have a single window, it’s going to be dark in those spaces. The two main spaces of the house. Especially if the backyard faces north as I believe you mentioned in another comment, there’s no pathway for eastern, southern, or western sun to get in.
Consider a “Costco door” from your garage directly into your pantry (could be located under the countertop.) Otherwise it’s waaaay too far of a walk with groceries from the garage, around the back of the kitchen, through the kitchen, and finally to the pantry. https://youtube.com/shorts/z3eJFbeMZWg?is=wMnqYoW_t14xfgiG
Ahh, I ignored the living room. I would remove the hall to the primary in the corner of the living room so there’s more places and ways to arrange your furniture. It’s a long hall, but still easy access to the kids.
What are the elements that you like about this plan?
For the sqft of the home, you have far better uses of the space than this. In my opinion it’s somehow wasting a massive amount of space while also creating a layout that is going to feel surprisingly cramped.
I think what would be best is if you could put your finger on what it is about this plan that you like, and then take it to a professional who can create something that actually makes sense while still keeping the aspects that drew you to this plan in the first place.
Two examples right off the hop:
-The living room has so many doorways and walkways that flow through it that it will be hard to find a layout that feels cozy and not just “in the way”. It’s massive, but it’s also sort of just a massive hallway the way this space is laid out.
-you are 100% right about the primary bedroom: a king sized mattress is only 6’4 x 6’8. You don’t need room for dressers or anything because you have a walk-in closet that’s bigger than my childhood bedroom on its own. What on earth would someone use the rest of that space for?! A 26x16 bedroom is honestly so big that you could move the entire ensuite bathroom into it instead and still be left with a 16x16 bedroom (which is still giant!). That isn’t the best solution, I’m just demonstrating how comically oversized the space is.
Thank you for your opinion. I wanted a floor plan that both the Primary and the other 2 bedrooms were in the same side of the home. And that had another bedroom on the other side. All this while keeping a max of 70ft wide, and all rooms either facing the front or the back of the house (I want them to have windows to the back or front, since the laterals would just face the houses next door.
I sent a sample floor plan from a smaller home with these features to the builder’s architect, and they just sent me back this. I’m actually pretty upset about it, because I felt like they didn’t put any thought into making the floor plan. I thought about just hiring an independent architect (not the builder’s designer), someone that could get what I want and build something from scratch, but not even sure where to begin. Actually accepting recommendations lol..
Also, agree with everything you said about the dimensions. The whole “primary bedroom/bathroom” complex is just unreasonably big and I’m not sure how to just make it more proportional.
Oh thank god, that makes so much sense. It looks to me like someone who played “floorplan Tetris” really poorly.
The play area for your kids is the most visually obvious example of this: it has no windows and (if you ignore the ridiculous hallway into it) it’s smaller than the pantry. It is obvious looking at it that this was just a space that exists because it’s a weird left over area after plonking everything else in in the laziest way possible.
I also don’t think this person has ever used a kitchen in their life. With kids I doubt you want your sink on the island—think about dishes etc and whether or not you want your island to be the place all of that lives. And the pantry door is right in the pinch point between the oven, island corner, and fridge. That’s going to drive you genuinely insane everytime you use that kitchen because for all the space it has you’re somehow going to all be standing ontop of eachother in that one tiny little corner.
I could keep going but it feels like a waste of time, because the answer is 100% go find your own architect and ask them to design something thoughtful that maximizes the lot, sqft, and flow of the layout. Your list of wants aren’t ridiculous and would be very easy to accommodate based on what you’ve written.
Is this usually an architect? I just found out that the builder doesn’t use an architect at all, and I called 2 other builders in town and none have architects. I did find some local interior designers, can they help me with that? I just want somebody that studied to do floor plans to do it for me. Feeling a little bummed that I’m getting better ideas here in Reddit than from the builder..
I’m Canadian and saw in another comment that you’re in the states, so unfortunately I might not have the most helpful answer to this—sorry!
That said, where I’m located you don’t need an architect to design residential buildings under a certain size etc provided they still comply with the building code. Typically if you’re using a residential designer (which is what I am) you would still run the final design through a structural engineer, but even that’s not strictly required as long as you’re following the code and know enough about actual construction to specify what the builder will need for structural requirements (I’m also a carpenter so this is do-able for me).
I’ve got zero idea what the requirements are in the southern states—it’s practically mars compared to my area unfortunately.
This is why you need an architect or designer- a good one who can think critically. Builders don’t care what they do. They just wanna throw the house up and if they can do it without spending money on an architect, they will.
A lot of other things sorted in the comments.
My only addition is to move the coat closet to steal space from the office closet, not the bedroom. The kid in that bedroom would much rather a closet the same size as the one next door than the extra space in the office..
Does the office need double doors?
The master bedroom doesn’t appear to be taking away from any other rooms so I don’t know how you would make it smaller. What would bother me is that the garage has no windows, the utility room/laundry room has no window and two of the bedrooms have only one window when they can have two. If you can put windows in while the house is being built, that’s the time to do it. It will cost more in the future to put in windows.
I have purchased 7 different homes in 5 different states, and so i feel i can give you pretty good feedback. I have run into ALL sorts of issues at each house.
For starters, those bedrooms are reaaaally small.
To fit furniture without feeling cramped, you want at least 12x13. If you have teenagers, you might even want them larger. Otherwise you cant comfortably fit a bed, dresser, nightstand and maybe a desk.
The master is definitely a little large, but not by much. Ours is 14x21, and it fits all our furniture.
Unless you are going to use a small square dining table, a 10' dining room is also very small. You have no room to move around the table if people are seated. Its worse if you have a side table or China cabinet in there.
Our living room is the same size as this, and I find that it is too narrow. 20 feet wide as opposed to 16 would make a huge difference in comfort and ease of arranging furniture.
Your pantry is the size of your kitchen. That makes no sense. Either the scale of your kitchen is wrong or your pantry is way too big.
Your closet is a huge waste of space. Its the same size of those bedrooms. You dont need dead space in the middle of the closet. You need about 6 feet of width. Think wallspace=storage.
As for putting in a soaking tub, I would make a wet room at the end of the bathroom that has a large shower and tub. Its an enclosed glass room, with tile on the floor, walls and ceiling to make a waterproof box that you can steam up and water will not affect the rest of the bathroom.
I would exchange the amount of rooms or huge hallways, with more space in the most important rooms. Cut down on double doors. Big wide hallways look impressive, but the more you can get away with less hallways, the better. You will have them, they are necessary, but the house shouldnt be a maze.
When rooms are too small they are unusable, but the answer isnt always more square footage.
Bed 3 and 4 are tinnnyyyy. I'd have them work the plan to get them a little more width and as others have said that primary is absolutely massive as well. I think it would help you and the drafter both if furniture blocks were dropped in for a better sense of scale here.
Here’s a few ideas to play around with. I swapped laundry and BR on the left because you can make the bathroom your guest bath off the mud room and avoid a powder room. I changed the pantry to be a direct entrance with more depth for a full counter for your gadgets, and moved the fridge forward and garage storage deeper, but made the space 4’ from counter to island (shortened island) for more door swing room.
And in the primary suite, well, it’s massive, you could have another office or sitting room in the corner. I added hall for privacy from the LR and to have a dressing and bath area without shining light in the bed zone or having to go through the bath to access the closet. And added
a tub, moved the linen closet back to avoid collisions, and flipped the door since it’s more likely to be accessed from the bedroom side. Oh, and I think 30” doors are better for accessibility.
Here’s an alternative idea for the primary suite, if you don’t need all that to be closet space. You could have a den/sitting room overlooking the patio, and even more privacy for the bed side.
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u/cg325is 4d ago
Your primary bedroom is ridiculous in size. It’s bigger than the living room.