Need Design Help with Floorplans

12 years ago

My wife and I building a home, and have the architecture plans (which I have recreated via floorplanner). I am having trouble finalizing the plans because one of the bedrooms is limited in furniture placement and I would like to have the game/media room a little better integrated

I have attached two pictures, one of the original/current plans, and one of an updated one that I put together.

From the original plan, the bedroom on the far left in the center of the house is my concern. The way it currently is, we have the entry door, door to closet, and door to bedroom. The door to bedroom is not required, but this is the guest bedroom and thought it would be nice for them to not have to enter the hallway for the restroom. With the three doors on three walls, the way we can set up the room is limited with double bed. Also in this plan, the entry into the hallway is on the left side of the fireplace, which is fine, but would like an entry on the other side as well, better integrate the game/media room, but this would not be possible unless we did the following: offcenter the fireplace with built-in beside it and do opening on both sides.

In the updated plan, I have moved the left bedroom where it is on the other side of the fireplace. There is a hallway from the foyer leading to all three bedrooms, and there is a small hallway on the right side of the fireplace leading to the game/media room and bath. This helps integrate the play/media room with still having easy/quick access to all bedrooms. This also gave us a guest room with doors on two walls vs the 3, giving a little more option to how it is set up. The only thing in this plan is the entry from that bed into the bath if we want the door on the the far right of the room and would the long 4' wide hallway be too narrow.

My question is which of the following do you think would work best:

1) Original Plan:
Option 1) As is.
Option 2) Create an opening on both ends of the wall with the fireplace. Offset the fireplace and built-in.

2) Updated Plan: As Shown.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Featured Answer

PRO

sstarr93

12 years ago

Well, I find issues with almost all the bathrooms, particularly the master bath, but that's not what you're asking about. And, the windowless kitchen, the choppy exterior wall, the random room placement... I think I should probably leave it to others at this point.

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Comments (9)

PRO
sstarr93
12 years ago
My immediate reaction: too much hallway, you are giving up space. Will look more closely...
will873
Original Author
12 years ago
That is my concern as well. But both the original and the updated have about the same amount of hallway.
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will873
Original Author
12 years ago
I agree with the akwardness of the master bath, but it is not that bad for us. The choppy exterior doesnt look that bad, see the front image.

As for the random room placement, I labeled the rooms. My thoughts were the central part of the house is the main living area, with dining, kitchen, great room, back patio. The master suite and office are located on the right side of the house, the bedrooms are located on the bottom right side of the house together, and the media/play are back right, with a little seperation for the rest of the house.

The kitchen with no windows, was because we wanted the butler's pantry, and we will have a 16 foot glass sliding pocket door from great room to back patio, along with the many windows in the breakfast room, so we will get plenty of light into that room.

I am just not thrilled with the flow to the bedrooms on the right and the media playroom and that is what I am trying to solve. The master bath would be another discussion of its own.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
12 years ago
Did you hire an architect to work out the inefficiencies in the layout?
portpiro
12 years ago
Does the living room have no windows? I can't bear rooms with no windows. If this is the case I'd be re-positioning the media room to get some light into that central space. As long as you have one wall without a door for the bed, it's not a problem. But I do think a spacious hallway, 'tho a luxury, is a nice feature.
I'm confused about the bathroom between the 2 front bedrooms. Is this partly shared? If so why not ditch the bath and create 2 separate shower rooms with wc in both. You appear to have 2 other bathtubs in the house, so is a third necessary. I would also question the need for walk in closet in the guest room when a beautiful armoire would suffice. You could cadge that space then for a wc.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
12 years ago
I would hire a pro to fix this, it is way to complicated for us mere mortals. How many bedrooms do you really need, your media room could live with very little natural light but not the living room, so many issues.
Architectrunnerguy
12 years ago
I'd get a guy/girl to come out to your house and sit down with you over the dining room table with a pen and roll of bumwad and fix everything to your satisfaction. I do it all the time and it's not a big deal.

And I wouldn't be worried about spending a little money if that's a concern. This house is going to be some six figure number in costs. If you had the same six figures to invest would you be relying on complete strangers with unknown abilities for advice on where to invest it?
Nancy Walton
11 years ago
I prefer the second hallway, the "T" shaped one over the original straight, long hallway.