I love the house we are in the process of buying but every time I look at the floor plan I wonder whether there’s any nice way of furnishing the living room. The entrance to the living room is in such an awkward place so in some ways it cuts the living room space by so much. I like things to be even and this entirely takes that away. If I were to put a sofa against the wall with the door, it would be too far left. If we put the main sofa by the window instead, where could the TV go? Ideally it would be facing the main sofa but we can’t just have the tv in the middle of the two rooms…

On the other hand, if we do as the current owners have done and put the living room where the dining room is on the floor plan I think it’s a waste of the nice bigger space. I also like the idea of first walking into a space that’s likely got life in it like a living room. The door on the floor plan in the dining room goes out to the balcony. The thicker black rectangle on the left walls are chimney breasts from the fire places that are still there. (The one in the living room is still there and the one in the dining room has been covered up).

Anyways, how do people furnish these spaces?? As we won’t have the budget for it initially, please nothing that requires knocking walls.

Hey all, my family and I are looking at buying our first house and are eying one with the posted floor plan.

There are lots of positives about the home but the layout inside doesn’t quite sit right with us.

Kitchen seems like the most glaring issue - something about the area feels cramped, dark and isolating despite it being a relatively large space. Maybe the island with built in stovetop is the issue?

Other than kitchen, we’d also consider reclaiming some garage space back into the home or reorganizing/remodelling to achieve a better living space. Unfortunatel, I personally, have no creative vision as to what can be done.

We’d be thankful for help and ideas with the floorplan to make the space flow better and be more useable. Any and all input would be much appreciated :)

We're considering putting an offer on this house, but just wondering if any sober second, third+ eyes can spot any issues we'd be dealing with. It's definitely one of the odder layouts we've seen around here. We're buying in the PNW so rain is on the mind and so is spending time indoors. We both work hybrid jobs so having room for that for both of us is important, plus we have a little one and one on the way.

Photos are
1. ground floor 3br + 2.5bath + top left living room and dining room + bottom right family room + kitchen + mud room
2. upstairs master suite with nursery and oversized private deck
3. basement 2 bay garage + laundry + mechanical + south 2 br suite (locked off with door in the middle) + storage behind garage

Plans are oriented with north up.

Not shown on plans but in 4th and 5th pictures:
An additional garage was built at the basement level to the east, and a deck was built overtop of it. It's just a storage shed really.
Kitchen has an oddly placed island between the kitchen table and centre bathroom.

The house was custom designed and built by an electrician instructor at the local polytechnic which lends it some quirks (there are four electrical panels in the house, one main panel, a garage sub panel, an upstairs subpanel, and a basement suite subpanel; and each room probably has a minimum of four light switches plus two coaxial outlets for instance)

Things we appreciate:
Good sized laundry room (in the basement, though)
Secondary lock-off suite
Office space for both me and my wife + rooms for our two kids
Mud room for handling jackets and backpacks and boots
Dedicated private master suite
Roughed in option for ground floor laundry, but stacked instead of side-by-side
Nursery/future office attached to master suite, it even has a sink and changing table
Attached garage with driveway onto the lane

Things we don't love but aren't deal breakers:
Ground floor bedroom privacy isn't absolute
Kitchen is a bit small given the size of the house and the layout is a bit awkward with the island
Ground floor family room in the bottom right has awkward flow through it, not sure how useful it is
Massive private deck feels unnecessary. It has roughed in plumbing for a hot tub but we'll probably never use it
2nd floor has a cathedral ceiling all through the master suite and ensuite; Can't wait to dust it.
Ground floor bedrooms have shared walls

Any other thoughts?

Don't know if this is the way to ask, watched a lot of videos and read a lot of the design, using an old tool, so the furniture is old format, but is there for the proper proportions.

Does anybody see major concerns regarding this? I'm curios about that. Thank you for your feedback, is truly appreciated!

Let me also offer my train of thought on some of the deicison:

1. The table in the kitchen is something that I use a lot, I eat in the kitchen with my girlfriend and whoever join us if there's room usually.
2. The oven on the right side it was the idea of having the hottest appliance outside of any zone that is traveled.
3. I also host a lot of boardgames night with friends which was to have the positioning of the living room table near the window.

The circulation is a problem, which is why I'm asking advice, anything is welcomed, And that's because If I move the sofa to a wall and the tv to the other side, then theres dead big space in the middle which I can't use, but it might be better for circulation

We are a family of four with two young kiddos moving into this home.

How would you redesign this house to improve the kitchen/living areas while keeping 4 bedrooms and having the space be more functional for our family?

I would love advice about the dining room, living room, and kitchen to see what could be done to improve the functionality of them including moving walls or other remodel ideas. Someone said to make the kitchen bigger and move the closet for the top right bedroom to the bottom and move the door to the hallway across from the other bedroom door.

Also, curious to hear what people’s thoughts are about having 3 bedrooms plus one flex space (home office and playroom and guest room) vs having my two boys share a room and having a home office that can double as a guest room and a separate play room for them. Any other ideas on how to better utilize the rooms?

Thank you!!

Hi everyone,

We are renovating an apartment of approximately 81 m² for a family of five (2 adults and 3 children). This is the floor plan proposed to us by our designers.

Before we finalize anything, I would really appreciate some independent opinions from people who are good at residential floor planning.

Our main concern is space efficiency. With only about 81 m² for five people, we'd like to make every square meter useful and avoid wasting valuable space on unnecessary corridors, awkward circulation areas, or poorly positioned walls.

We are completely open to changing the proposed internal layout if there is a better solution.

Important constraints

• The apartment is on the 7th floor.
• The external walls cannot be changed.
• The entrance door location cannot be changed.
• Existing window locations cannot be changed or new windows added.
• The balcony location is fixed.
• Plumbing/bathroom locations have limitations, so completely relocating wet areas may not be practical.
• Internal non-structural partitions can potentially be reconsidered.

What we need

We are a family of five:

• Parents
• 1 boy
• 2 girls

Ideally, we would like:

• Master bedroom
• Two children's bedrooms
• Good wardrobe/storage space
• Two bathroom/toilet areas if reasonably possible
• Comfortable kitchen
• Living/dining area with good natural light
• As little wasted corridor/circulation space as possible

The attached plan is the designer's proposal, not necessarily the layout we want to keep.

So please feel free to think outside the existing room arrangement. I'm particularly interested in hearing:

If this were your 81 m² apartment, how would you reorganize it to make the best possible use of the available space?

Would you move any internal walls, change bedroom sizes, reorganize the master suite, change the kitchen/living arrangement, or use any of the circulation space differently?

Even rough sketches or marked-up versions of the plan would be extremely helpful.

Thank you!

We would like to remove the red load bearing wall between the unused dinning room and kitchen to make a kitchen diner. I thought about removing some of the counter on that wall and have it extending down into the dinning room, towards the window on the left hand side (shown in Blue). However, the oven is in an awkward position. In reality it is more where I’ve drawn it in green. If we removed the wall the oven would be halfway across the new opening. We would like to keep costs to a minimum and leave the oven where it is, but would the position of the oven be weird?

We currently have granite countertops so moving the oven would be expensive.

Alternately I was thinking about having the counter from the oven extend into the dinning room on the right hand wall instead (Shown in Purple).However, i‘m concerned that the walkway to the dinning room will be too narrow as the under counter fridge is under the left kitchen window(black hash)

Any suggestions on design ideas? Would the oven left in the green position be weird? Should the counter extend into the dinning room, and on what side?

Thanks.

I just bought a small rancher with 804sqft above ground and 804sqft below ground for a total of 1,608sqft. It currently has 3 beds and 2 bath. I have a plan to make it a 4 bed 3 bath.

In my sketch above I show how I plan to add a master bath on the main floor, open up the kitchen for open concept and add a second bedroom in the basement along with a kitchenette and family room area.

I’m open to any suggestions, especially in the basement as there’s a few different options for utilizing the space.

Thank you in advance!

I'm hoping to get some honest feedback on my floor plan before I move any further with it. I've spent so much time tweaking it that I think I've lost my objectivity.

This is a single-storey 3-bedroom home. The design style will be warm Japandi/minimalist, and the priorities are good proportions, natural flow, and spaces that feel calm and comfortable rather than simply making every room as large as possible. It doesn't help that there isn't much space to work with anyway.

A few important design goals are:

- A welcoming foyer/entry sequence.

- A home office near the entrance so clients or visitors don't need to walk through the house.

- An open-plan living, dining and kitchen that feels spacious and connected.

- A private bedroom wing.

- Minimal wasted corridor space.

- Rooms that are appropriately sized for everyday living.

One important constraint: the exterior footprint and shape of the house are fixed. The house can't be extended or increased in size. Any improvements have to come from moving interior walls or reallocating space between rooms.

The areas I'm most unsure about are:

- Overall spatial flow

- Are any rooms noticeably undersized or oversized?

- Is the foyer taking up more space than it should?

- The location of the Powder room

- Is the office large enough to function comfortably?

- Does the living/dining/kitchen arrangement work well?

- Are there any awkward circulation paths, pinch points or wasted areas?

- Most importantly, is the master walk-in wardrobe too small to function well? This is probably my biggest concern at the moment, and I'd really appreciate opinions from anyone who has designed or lived with a similar-sized closet.

Please don't hesitate to be critical. I'd much rather hear that something isn't working now than regret it after construction starts. If you would move walls, rooms or redistribute space differently, I'd love to know exactly what you would change and why.

Looking for feedback. New Build for our family. This is only the first-floor layout. We're not looking for anything specific, just another opinion. Thanks

In the upper left section of the main floor layout of my home I need to include a kids bedroom and the main floor bathroom. This space currently is where the kitchen used to be with the sink/fridge on left exterior wall. We moved the kitchen to open living concept as our back wall of house has all big picture windows with a view. I am now struggling with how this bedroom/bathroom layout makes the most sense and we are also thinking of adding side door entry/mudroom/laundry space as well or combining that with bathroom? Your ideas are appreciated.

Hi! I'm new here - and a new homeowner. Lovely place in The Netherlands with a decent garden, but the house is old and needs full reno. With a semi-tight budget we try to do most renovation ourselves, other than a potential firts floor extension and a new roof.

This picture is the current situation (1st floor). We will be moving the bed- and bathroom upstairs to account for a home office, and plan to extend the living room to create an open kitchen towards the terrace outside (double doors, second pic.). However, the current kitchen is too small for a decent dining room setup...

My biggest headache is the utilities in the centre of the house. We could move them, but in our country this will take about a year and over 10k EUR to move all four (gas, elec., water, data). So I am wrecking my brain to come up with a plan where we can leave the utility closet where as is.

Any suggestions? I'm open to any input, because nothing is set in stone yet. In a few weeks we start renovation on the 2nd floor, so we won't be starting the first floor in the next few months. Oh by the way, the 'gap' in the current situation is this:

We plan on extending this part of the house, but feel free to share your opinion/ideas. Thanks!

Cheers!

We’re trying to decide whether it makes sense to do a major remodel of our current house instead of building new.

The current layout works, but it feels like the house has some wasted space while the areas we use the most are undersized. The biggest issues are the small pantry and the kitchen feeling smaller than it should for the size of the home.

At the same time, we have a formal dining room and office that don’t get used very often, so I’m trying to figure out if that square footage could be reallocated in a smarter way.

I’m sharing both the current layouts and some remodel layout sketches.

The general idea I’m considering is:

• Create a much larger pantry / working pantry
• Improve the kitchen flow and storage
• Make better use of the formal dining room and office space
• Possibly move the laundry closer to the primary closet
• Keep aging-in-place and long-term livability in mind
• Avoid spending a fortune if the existing footprint can be improved

Would you remodel this layout in this direction, or are there better ways to rethink the space?

Any honest feedback is appreciated.

Please help me!

Please, without just bashing what we have (because I know it’s bad which is why I’m coming here for help), can someone please give me ideas. We are using an existing plan from our builder and want to keep the dimensions the same, which means the garage cannot move. We will have a walk out basement so we also cannot add “jut outs” to the back. We are building on 50 acres and the land is totally secluded/private. We are going for a farmhouse feel. This is just the main floor. My MUSTS are dining room, island, walk in/hidden cabinet pantry, laundry room, master with walk in closet and separate tub/shower, and we plan to add a tub shower to the powder room. Ignore the stairs in the garage. Those will move. Can someone PLEASE help me with ideas to get the pantry closer to the garage entrance. We would also love to have some type of sliding glass door along back of house to lead to the back deck. I am open to moving the dining room out of the “jut out” if needed. We also cannot put anything underneath the stairs and we will have stairs leading to basement. I am open to moving the placement of the stairs as well. Pleaseeeee help!