I had a family room that was 20x30. It was not a pass through room, so it did not need paths through it. We had a corner with couches and tv/game system. 2 computer desks on one wall. A table in a corner for games and projects. And we still had a 9x12 rug in the middle with no furniture on it that was a great play/toy area when the kids were little. We also had a number of bookshelves along the walls. Oh, and a piano on one wall. There was a single doorway into the room, and French doors to the outside. Basically it was a huge room, and worked great for us.

28x 30 is very big. We used up most wall space. So the extra 8 feet of your room could be extra doorways?

See if you can play with the furniture arrangements you are planning to see how they fit. 28x30 is almost square. Will there be too much unused space in the center?

Good luck and have fun!
lafdr

My original house footprint (before we added on) was 23x34--the entire first floor--with a kitchen, an eating area, a living room, a bathroom, a set of stairs, and 2 bedrooms...

(I'd think you've gone overboard the other direction...) I'm not sure my children's classrooms are that large... See if you can find a room that size to "feel"/"see".

IMO it will not be too large.

Instead of being crowded, you will have room to do whatever you want in there--sewing, a large piano, exercise...dance...anything!

Have fun with it.

How big are your current spaces? I would say it's too big for me, but I am coming from a 13x18 family room, and I don't have a big family. If you've got a much bigger room now and feel like it's too small, then maybe you're okay.

That room is 840 sq ft. What is the size of the house?

Speaking of which, take a look at the thread linked to below about a 20' x 26' living room in the Decorating forum. If you have the $$$$ to build something that big, hopefully you also have the $$$$ to furnish it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Large living room in a 9000 sq. ft. house

Lafdr-your room sounds wonderful and gives me hope that this one may not be too big. Ours is a pass-through room. One of my sons takes piano lessons and we only have a Clavinova. If he keeps it up I would like to get a piano. Thanks for posting.

Kirkhall--I know. I'm a little freaked out. I tried really hard to find rooms that size to visualize on Google and Houzz. No luck. My family room and unused Living room in my present hose total about 700sq. ft. together I think.

Erbren--thank you :-) see note above re: piano. I do have one grandchild that loves to dance and another on the way ;-)

Amberm--posted a pic of the FR in the house we built 10 yrs ago that we live in now. We use the room off the kitchen because it's open to the kitchen. I'm not as comfortable in the other room because it is totally visible to the front door. So our TV is in that smaller room, and that is where we all end up . It's way too small. I do have a good sized family and still have 2 at home.

Dekeoboe--hadn't totaled sq ft of my present family room plus living room until I saw your post. That total is way below the size of this room. We don't really have the sq. footage of the house yet because it's so preliminary. Do you think this room should be a certain percentage of the house?

Dreaming--yes, I read that thread. To be honest that thread is what made me start to freak out a little about the size of my room...so I am glad you posted it. Although I didn't like that house or the room at all, I didn't think the actual size of the room was that BAD just really poorly furnished and staged. Nope my house will not be 9000 sq ft ;-)

If anyone is willing to share the size of their great/gathering rooms if they are large...but they work and are not too big please help me out here.

Pic is of present family room not new house.

Hi red_lover-good to see you are still busy at getting it right!

A couple of random thoughts observations that may or may not help. I am not an expert but thought I'd offer up in case it helps either good or bad.

How about more of a rectangular space?

Thoughts: when it's just you and hubby or small group it is still cozy. When it's a large group likely still adults will be in main 'front' part where fireplace or tv or both are and the back could hold a piano, a separate seating or conversation group for kids/teens/small table for game playing? You would all be in he same room but I wonder if it would work better? Depends on what you all do when you are together (chat or watch movies or)? Do the guys and girls kind of separate?

A friend remodeled/added on and her room is rectangular and I really like it. She has 4 kiddos, the room is open to the dining and kitchen on one side toward the back. I am not sure on dimensions. Furniture grouping is by tv, then at the back she has a few built ins for books and toys and a puzzle table. I can see it will change as they grow but I think it would easily accommodate another furniture grouping.

Our family room downstairs we left open at 17x33 to keep it flexible and I Imagine it allowing for larger groups multipurpose. We aren't finished but I can take a pic for a visual of the 17x33 space if it would help.

Good luck!!

Autumn--thank you for your thoughts. They are helpful. I would love to see a picture of your 17 x 33 room.

I'm with Kirkhall!!! My brand new HOUSE is only 24x32!!!! :o Gawd, I'm glad I have 15 acres because apparently I'm throwing the kids outside and leaving the christmas tree on the porch... ;)

How about trying to find a house with a room that size to see in real life?

Before deciding to build, we'd been looking at buying an existing home. That meant touring a lot of homes. One benefit to that was we got a real good sense of what rooms were too big/too small. (We called it the "Goldilocks Game").

Take a look at the MLS, find a house with a big great room, then go to an Open House.

When we added on, we put a 15x20 family room on the back of the house (that is 300sq ft). Without walking paths, that seems large enough to me. But, we do have some walking paths.

Also, 15+9 of original kitchen/dining is 24.

So, 24x20 is a space I can visualize.

And, would be plenty big for a full size grand piano (not just a baby grand) and family room activities.

Maybe find information about the size of TV you'd need for the size of room you are looking to build and see if that fits for you?

Or, maybe take what you want furniture wise, and layout it out on graph paper and see what dimensions you come up with...

Places with large rooms for you to take a laser tape measure and discreetly measure...

churches, community centers, hotels, senior centers, senior living home,schools ...

If I remember, I'll take my laser measurer and measure the room I work in. I teach classes to adults. They are interactive classes, so the chairs are set up around the room. But, there is room for 30 in a u-shape. Would that be helpful?

Our kitchen, eating area and sitting room are in a space ca. 20 x 45, with the sitting room being about 20 x 25, with a small window seat bump out. All with 11 ft ceilings. It's definitely not too big for our uses, but provides a nice space for a house concert or dance party when you pull the furniture out. My three pianos still have to live in the music room, it's not big enough for that.

We scaled down considerably while drawing our plans to eliminate extra square footage after we began to deal with the $/sf reality in our area. Making an inch to the foot scale drawing of the room and of the footprint of each of our pieces of furniture was enormously helpful in scaling the room--we found we could make it 3 ft narrower (saving 150 sf at $350-400/sf) with essentially no loss in function, indeed if we had gone with the larger plan we would have had some awkward empty spaces and would have needed a 90 inch TV to be able to see it from across the room. As it was the room felt bigger once built than it looked on paper, and we probably could have narrowed it by another foot.

Big volume rooms can present a wall space problem-- square footage increases as the square while walls only increase linearly. We had a lot of stuff that we wanted against a wall (bookcases, display cabinets, TV, etc, plus many windows which was difficult with this big an open space.

I understand what you mean about everyone using the family room. We also have a front living room and never use it. And when we host large gatherings, both spaces are too small.

The new house will have one bigger space.

But your planned family room is almost 50% bigger than both your living room and family room combined. Is the current space really THAT tight? When everyone is home, are you using both rooms and still feeling like it's too small?

I think it's a mistake to think of the piano (or other infrequently used item) as needing it's own space. When you've got a group, someone can sit on the piano bench. Or the piano can be the source of entertainment. You don't need to keep it 10' away, with the space around it saved for time when your son is practicing.

I also agree with the suggestion of making it rectangular rather than square shaped.

Yes, that would be very helpful Kirkhall. Thank you. I wanted this room to be big because I eliminated the redundant spaces but clearly I went too far the other direction. Starting to feel discouraged too early in the game.

Oicu--thanks for the suggestions. The MLS listings...very good idea.

Also, how many people?
Sometimes, I think people will choose to lay on the floor to watch a movie rather than be at an awkward angle in chairs lined up all around the perimeter of the room...

And, I know sometimes, I choose to sit on the floor in a large gathering of people too, so that I can be part of a conversation occurring here, rather than trying to hear over other conversations lined up around the room.

I think with a huge room, you risk that intimacy, and square footage, because people will still tend to interact in smaller groupings.

Kirkhall--how many people. Two kids still at home for several years. Two older dds, one engaged and one married with a grand and one on the way. And of course dh and I. So, not that many I guess.

We're only going up to 15'x18'.

But the maximum we have ever had for Christmas dinner is 10 or 12 people, and getting smaller (small families all spread across the country). It's also open to the 13'x16' kitchen, and a 12'x14' eating area. So when we have larger gatherings, people in the family room are not isolated from people in other spaces.

Here are some pictures while still under construction. It's not done yet (I'm dong finish carpentry myself), but is further along. Here (bottom picture) is what it looked like right after I put the floor down, but before the kitchen went in.

Heres the sitting area:

Here's while installing the kitchen:

No House Beautiful photos yet!

Very nice. You are doing a beautiful job! What are your floors?

So what area is the last picture?

Since I have 7 kids, I can understand why you want a big family room. I want the same. It's one of the reasons we can't find a pre-existing home that we like. They might have a lot of square footage but too small of a family room. I would say I'd be happy with a minimum 18 x 25. If I found a huge one, I'd still be happy and I'd find a way to make it awesome!

red-ugh, so hard to get a good pic! Here are the ones I took and I will include the drawing to help. We eliminated the window on the end as we though that is where we'd put a TV if/when we finish it off. I hope this is helpful. 33 might be a bit long for the main living room but I still think if you had a rectangle you could put a piano or something in the back end.

Drawing:

From the far end looking toward the wall that will have a TV:

Window wall, I am thinking anything past the 2nd window there would be fair game for additional seating or a game table for family night, etc.:

From the stairwell:

My bottom picture was the room standing at the kitchen end looking towards the sitting area before we installed the kitchen.

The floors are birdseye maple with a walnut and cherry picture frame border. We used the inlay on the floor (which has about six different woods) to define separation between the kitchen/eating area and sitting area. We are still debating addition of some low dividers with bookcases as well as the possibility of coffered beams on the ceiling. The trim will be natural cherry, I've done the doors but not the windows or baseboards yet. The house is an interpretation of English Arts and Crafts style. Lots of work yet to do.