Room Layout

11 years ago

I'm in the early stage of floor plan design. All of my notes on what we want will go to the architect in August to start the design. We are a young family of 4. Possibly 5 and have years of child rearing ahead of us. Don't do a ton of formal entertaining. This is what I'm thinking:

1 dining table (no dinette), 1 living room/tv and kitchen on the 1st floor. There will be a gameroom upstairs. I'd like the kitchen and dining to be open to each other, and then make the living room semi separated by a wall that is open on both sides. Maybe that wall would have a fireplace you can see from both sides and tv on the living room side. I also want to put a small tv in the kitchen that you can see from the kitchen bar. We will have bar seating and maybe put a cozy settee on a wall in the dining space.

Thoughts/suggestions?

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Comments (5)

chelwa
11 years ago
I think there are a lot of other factors your architect my be interested in knowing. For example: Do you want a mudroom? Laundry room size/location? Large master bath/closet or more modest? Do you want to design for solar efficiency? Where will homework be done? Do you need an office nook? Big pantry?

You might also look through pictures of houses/floor plans and see what catches your eye. I would also recommend Susanka's "Not So Big House".
Elizabeth Burns
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes. I've been working on that for the past year. My houzz account has 20 books. I've also toured possible a 100 different open houses for new construction. I have not been in a house with the layout I'm mentioning above. I'll pull a photo from houzz to give an example.
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Elizabeth Burns
Original Author
11 years ago
http://houzz.com/photos/16402482

The layout of the kitchen, dining space and living room is open yet slightly separated by the wall with fireplace. After all the homes I've been in and never seen this setup.
amberm145
11 years ago
I think the reason you don't see that much is that it seems like the worst of both worlds, IMHO. The cook is cut off visually from the living space. You won't be able to watch what the kids are doing, watch TV, or participate in conversations. But you still get noises and smells, and can see the dishes in the sink.

But, just because it's not common where you are doesn't mean it shouldn't be done.
lexma90
11 years ago
Our new house has a separation between the kitchen and dining area and the living area. In our case, there's a wall between the kitchen and the living area that does not extend the full width of each room. On the living area side, it's a flat linear fireplace with tv above; on the other side, it's a wall of the kitchen with cabinets. It's what we wanted. I am not a big tv watcher, and prefer to play music / the radio while I cook or sit at the dining area table. So the noise of the tv / music / radio is blocked enough by the wall, yet not totally cut off. Because the wall doesn't go all the way over, Our kids are older, so I don't need to see them. But even if they were younger, I think they could handle being in the next room over all by themselves, within earshot but not quite within eyeshot.