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stacy_oakwood

Open Plan Living Room. Comments & Ideas are REALLY appreciated.

Stacy.Oakwood
10 years ago

Hi,

We are planning to build a new house. I really like this house with open plan living room but my husband does not like open planning very much.

I would really appreciate if you could comment & criticise this design so we can get neutral feedback before we decide.

House Plan
www.concepthome.com/ch142

THANK YOU

Stacy

Here is a link that might be useful: Floor Plans & Images

This post was edited by Stacy.Oakwood on Thu, Mar 6, 14 at 6:44

Comments (6)

  • Stacy.Oakwood
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Additional Info

    Here is a link that might be useful: More info about this house

  • jimandanne_mi
    10 years ago

    First thing I noticed is that there's NO privacy for those in the 2 bedrooms getting to the bathroom. I'd switch the laundry with the entrance, and then switch the dining room with the kitchen so that as you enter the house you see something other than the kitchen. But overall, there are other issues that need to be addressed--like the huge amount of wasted space in the middle of the GR/DR/K.

    Anne

  • mrspete
    10 years ago

    I like the open living /dining room concept, and the ceiling emphasizes the difference in the two rooms. The windows prevent the rooms from feeling small. I don't mind the "wasted space" between the living /dining /kitchen because with the three major living areas coming together, it's going to be used heavily.

    Your picture shows this house on the water. This definitely has a beach house or lake house vibe -- it's all those huge windows! Do note that your window treatments will cost a fortune.

    What I don't like:

    - I agree that the entrance (walk in, look straight into a bathroom) isn't very inviting. Ideally the entrance would have you looking straight into the living room at that focal window wall.

    - Where would you place a TV in the living room? And I'd want a fireplace; that could go in the center of the window focal wall. Still, the living room is small.

    - Little storage in the kitchen and no space for a pantry. If you enlarge the utility room a little, you could have a whole wall of pantry storage.

    - I love a U-shaped kitchen, but I see that this floor plan is cleverly hiding a U's biggest negative: Where's the dishwasher? This plan places the sink in the typical, most useful place -- the middle of the U -- and obviously you want your dishwasher to be beside it . . . but you don't have space . . . and if you cram it in, it'll be a dreaded corner dishwasher, which means that when you open the dishwasher, the door blocks your entrance to the cabinets . . . so you can't put away dishes. If you put the dishwasher onto one of the "legs" of the U, you'll be dripping dirty dishes across the floor as you reach things towards the dishwasher. You can move the sink /dishwasher to the penninsula leg, but that's not ideal either.

    - Neither bathroom has enough sink space /no storage; this could be fixed in the secondary bath, but the master bath needs more square footage.

    - All the bedrooms are small. I don't see dimensions, but I think you'd be pushing maximum density in the master even with a queen-sized bed, and the two secondary bedrooms probably couldn't comfortably handle anything more than the twin beds that're shown. However, it'd be easy to add just a few feet in both directions to fix this -- just an extra 2' or so would make these rooms much more liveable.

  • jimandanne_mi
    10 years ago

    I'd shift the great room to the left, so that the left wall is in line with the bath. Extend the master BR wall out 3' parallel to the closet to make a bit of a more secluded entrance to that room. Make an L-shaped kitchen with cabinets along the MBR wall and existing window wall to the right. But then the DR would be pretty much a part of the kitchen.

    So I think I'd shorten the GR by about 8', and add 8' or so on to the corner of the house to make it come out even with the corner of the GR and the DR/K. Then put an island in the L of the kitchen, and the DR in the right corner, possibly with about an 8' long wall between it and the GR. Depending on what climate you are in, the GR would be more comfortable in all seasons without 3 full sides exposed with windows.

    Probably others can come up with a better rearrangement, but as the plan exists, there would be almost no privacy in this house.

    Anne

  • dekeoboe
    10 years ago

    Where is this house going to be built? With all those windows, I hope it is somewhere with a mild climate.

  • maggiepie11
    10 years ago

    i have to be careful because the photo with all the distressed wood beams, ceilings, floors... and all the awesome industrial lighting etc have sucked me right in. i absolutely love how it looks.

    however, mrspete hit several nails on the head. is this going to be your primary residence? do you watch tv? i don't see how you could lay out that living room to make it livable other than just a sitting area. and others are making pretty complex plan change recommendations, which makes it silly to purchase this plan because as you move something like a kitchen around the plan needs to be completely redone.

    if you start closing in those awesome window walls, i think the space would lose its wow factor immediately. i also think this house plan done in sheetrock/drywall ceilings would have much less impact.

    also, the feedback about the functionality of the kitchen and dishwasher challenges is key.

    i'm ok with small bedrooms and small bathrooms - it's more that i struggle to envision using the kitchen and living room on a daily basis.

    SOOOOOO pretty though, and the elevation is charming.

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