Ground floor plan - open plan considerations for a growing family

mrsWhippy

Hi all,
We're hopefully going to be entering the planning stage of our build soon and are currently thinking about a ground floor layout. We will have about 80sq m to play with I think.

The attachment shows some outline plans - the output of a recent feasability study, which gives us an indication of the type of layout/space we could end up with. How would you think about adapting this to suit a growing family? Utility room is a must, as is a downstairs toilet - and a playroom would be an added bonus.

I'd love an open plan kitchen/diner with a casual seating area, but not sure how this would fit unless we widened the back of the house. A study would not be required on the ground floor, so this could be removed.

Does anyone have any suggestions or considerations for this shape plot? Any open plan decisions you made yourself but now regret? I want to make sure we don't make any mistakes at this stage of the process!

Thanks a lot

sydthebeat

why would you need a study AND a play room..... surely it would act as one of the other depending on the maturity of teh family.

also, a plan in isolation with no north point, site layout or above floor plans is not much use.

mrsWhippy

sydthebeat wrote: »

why would you need a study AND a play room..... surely it would act as one of the other depending on the maturity of teh family.

also, a plan in isolation with no north point, site layout or above floor plans is not much use.

If you read my post, that's why I said we didn't need a study! South is directly at the back of the house. I've updated the attachment to show the plot.

We are really at the initial stages, nothing has been decided regarding final dimensions or layouts at all, just thinking about how this space, particularly on a tapering plot, could be used to the max.

Thanks

Skybox

Viewed a house before that had a utility room off the kitchen like yours but had a separate door to the outside through the utility room. Had boxes for storage,etc and thought it was very useful if you are coming into the house with muddy shoes/gear etc. Could leave everything in the utility room rather than traipsing everything through the rest of the house.

If you have a growing family, why not take the house out to the boundary? Do you need the space at the side of the house for anything (getting around to the back for example?)

I would think that the space into the kitchen from the hall is also wasted. The hallway seems extra long. Why not run the utility room from top to bottom and maybe a little bit under the stairs to get extra space in the kitchen/dining? We have our dryer under the stairs.

RITwing

Build to the boundary. With tight sites like this forget about side passageways.

mrsWhippy

Great suggestions there skybox, particularly about using the under stairs space - thanks

I would love to take advantage of the extra space to the boundry but would that mean we're sharing a rear access with the house to our right? It's a family member living there but long term if we had to sell, wonder what repercussions that might have. Rear access would be a requirement yeah.

Would you build into that 'L' cut out south of the playroom? - that was only put there to allow light into that room, but if that could be achieved some other way it would give us more floor space ....

Skybox

What's on the left hand side of the building? Could you put a window on the side for the playroom and another on the side of the study. You would have plenty of light in the study as well.

You could also run the kitchen/dining all across the back (build into the 'L') and use clear blocks between kitchen/dining and playroom or glass doors to allow light in.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

mrsWhippy

Skybox wrote: »

What's on the left hand side of the building? Could you put a window on the side for the playroom and another on the side of the study. You would have plenty of light in the study as well.

You could also run the kitchen/dining all across the back (build into the 'L') and use clear blocks between kitchen/dining and playroom or glass doors to allow light in.

It's county council green space! Not sure how planning would react to us having non-opaque windows on that side but yeah, could throw some in and remove them if they objected.

If we're removing the study, would this be better utilised as the playroom, remove the walls around the current playroom and use that area for dining with a seating area at the back doors?

It is always nice to be able to throw an eye on the kids while cooking etc, not sure how often a playroom up at the front of the house would be used, practically speaking.

I've attached the plans for the First floor - there is also an attic bedroom with an ensuite.

RITwing

Ok so
- left hand side build tight to boundary on both levels and chance your arm with opaque fire resistant glass block "windows"
- right hand side keep passageway at ground floor level but build over at first floor level.



Maximize that site.

RITwing

RITwing

Example - terraced council housing. Green slatted doorway in middle is passageway at ground floor only

BryanF

Reverse the stairs for starters to help enlarge the SOUTH facing bedrooms

Gumbo

Add a window to the WC. You'll be grateful for it in the long run. I don't believe in mechanical ventilation for WC's if you have an option to add a window.

happywithlife

Not an expert but from my own experience ....
Am I right in thinking your only access to the kitchen is either from the patio/French doors at the bottom of the dining area or thru the front via the long hallway.. How does this work with say bringing groceries in from the car -- is it a long walk around? You've no outdoor access to the utility - that to me defeats half the purpose of the utility in the first place.
Whoever mentioned about not having appliances under the bedroom is spot on - we have our pump for the water under a child's bedroom and it is a bit loud tho she doesn't even notice it now at this stage.

mrsWhippy

As I mentioned before, these are only outline plans but there are some great suggestions, thanks all, much appreciated. Def food for thought!

Yep, outdoor access to utility would be a runner for sure. Will have to try map things out correctly so we can fit all the appliances we need plus storage and a door, without taking up too much floor space.

On a completely separate note, does anyone think having the stairs at the front of the house, (to make a square shaped entrance hallway) would be doable? I don't like the idea of a long, dark narrow hallway but not sure if we can get around this given shape of floor space.

happywithlife

I reversed my stairs from our initial plans - originally we were to begin them at the back of the entrance hallway but for various reasons I ended up with them beginning just inside the door so yeah it's doable but you'd need to consider the impact it'll have upstairs too

If you do go with things as they are now put plenty of spots into the skirting along the hallway - it'll really make a difference light wise

Msrob

mrsWhippy wrote: »

Hi all,
We're hopefully going to be entering the planning stage of our build soon and are currently thinking about a ground floor layout. We will have about 80sq m to play with I think.

The attachment shows some outline plans - the output of a recent feasability study, which gives us an indication of the type of layout/space we could end up with. How would you think about adapting this to suit a growing family? Utility room is a must, as is a downstairs toilet - and a playroom would be an added bonus.

I'd love an open plan kitchen/diner with a casual seating area, but not sure how this would fit unless we widened the back of the house. A study would not be required on the ground floor, so this could be removed.

Does anyone have any suggestions or considerations for this shape plot? Any open plan decisions you made yourself but now regret? I want to make sure we don't make any mistakes at this stage of the process!

Thanks a lot

I wud put the playroom where the study is with maybe glass doors so u can see but not hear the children in there 😊, toilet under the stairs with acess through utility, kitchen where the playroom is dining where kitchen is and living area at the bottom where u have dining and at the spot lights to hall or velum over stairs to allow some light

mrsWhippy

Msrob wrote: »

I wud put the playroom where the study is with maybe glass doors so u can see but not hear the children in there 😊, toilet under the stairs with acess through utility, kitchen where the playroom is dining where kitchen is and living area at the bottom where u have dining and at the spot lights to hall or velum over stairs to allow some light

That's really interesting! Like that idea, really need to see it drawn out though (something to do in work tmw) ... Thanks!

gofasterdad

I see you have windows in the kitchen / dining area on the southerly and easterly facing walls which would give you morning & afternoon sunshine.

If it were my house I would try to move the kitchen/dining room over to the other side so I could add a west facing window to allow in some of the light from the west in the evening time.

I guess it depends on what time of the day you will occupy the room most, for a lot of people, it is usually the evening time. I have west facing windows in my kitchen and at this time of the year it brings in a very nice warm evening sunshine which also helps warm up the house before the evening time.

I'm not sure what's on the other side of the fence on the westerly side, but it would be a pity to cut yourself off from all that natural light if the option is there to get a window in.

shell820810

Could you put your utility where the playroom is and have a door out the back where that window is?

and just reshuffle your layout a bit?
have playroom near main living room. Keep a small study and small playroom, or have one large room?

Trying to get a pic up of what i mean

Mearfada

a few thoughts...I think the living room where it's located may become redundant being remote from the highly trafficked rear and doubly so if its north facing, this coupled with the narrow hallway may not work that well...a downstairs bedroom smaller than the present living room may be a better option, you could then have a larger kitchen dining area...also possibly locate a lounge or living area of sorts at 1st floor level??

mrsWhippy

Mearfada wrote: »

a few thoughts...I think the living room where it's located may become redundant being remote from the highly trafficked rear and doubly so if its north facing, this coupled with the narrow hallway may not work that well...a downstairs bedroom smaller than the present living room may be a better option, you could then have a larger kitchen dining area...also possibly locate a lounge or living area of sorts at 1st floor level??

That's a very good point. This room also fronts onto a busy main road too which is making it even less attractive.

My hopes were to have a small cosy 'adult' living room for evenings, so we could cut off the chaos of the open plan kitchen/dining.

I was never a fan of downstairs bedrooms (separate from the rest of the bedrooms) but this might work as storage for the immediate future (buggies, kids crap etc), and then an older teenager bedroom down the road. We could then have our cosy adult tv room upstairs.

Great idea, thanks for that one!