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willpower9

Floor Plan Thoughts

willpower9
10 years ago

We are in the planning stages of a full remodel of a 2 story / split level, 3 bed, 2 bath home. Entry, utility room and flex room (converted garage) are on a mid-level, kitchen, master suite and great room are up a full flight of stairs from the entry level, and 2 bedrooms, bath and living room are on lower level, down 3 steps from entry level.

We are considering expanding the master suite by removing a hallway and coat closet, which would require accessing the master bedroom, via a new vestibule, from the kitchen. I would love to receive any thoughts on the proposed floor plan.

I will attach the existing and proposed upper floor plans, and the existing entry and lower floor plan just for context. Thanks in advance.

WP

This post was edited by willpower9 on Sun, Mar 16, 14 at 19:33

Comments (6)

  • willpower9
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Here is the proposed upper floor plan

    This post was edited by willpower9 on Sun, Mar 16, 14 at 19:33

  • willpower9
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Here is the existing lower floor plan. Thanks!

    This post was edited by willpower9 on Sun, Mar 16, 14 at 19:34

  • kirkhall
    10 years ago

    None of your pictures are large enough to be able to look at them critically without getting a headache. :) Can you enlarge them and edit the posts with larger pics?

  • willpower9
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Sorry about that. I've edited the posts to include larger images. Let me know if even larger images would be more helpful. Thanks.

  • kirkhall
    10 years ago

    This was helpful.
    Now, what to say...
    Are you only modifying the main/upper floor?

    I'm not enthusiastic about it--mainly because I don't like the feeling that I am walking into the bathroom...which is how it feels to me to have a sink on one side of the bedroom entrance, and the bathroom on the other.

    And, for what reason?

    Is it mainly a kitchen remodel/rethink?

    If so, I think I would keep working on a kitchen rethink...

  • willpower9
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thank you for giving some of your time and thoughts.

    To answer your question, the reason for the change is that we want to steal the hallway width and add it to the master suite. But doing so requires moving the master suite entrance into the kitchen, which, in a perfect world, we would prefer not to do. We also want to add additional closet space via a built-in armoir.

    I completely agree with you that walking into a bathroom is not the feeling we want to achieve, nor do we want to walk directly from the kitchen into the bedroom. Thus the proposed solution of creating a vestibule and locating the armoir there instead of using some of the precious few feet of open space that exist in the bedroom for the armoir.

    But you make an excellent point that, in fact, we may not be avoiding the walk-into-the-bathroom feel after all.

    Perhaps extending the wall that separates the armoir from the bedroom vanity and in turn narrowing the doorway leading from the vestibule to the bedroom would provide more visual separation when entering from the kitchen. I think the large opening there, as shown in the proposed plan, would give the bedroom a much greater feeling of spaciousness, but the tradeoff you mentioned may not be worth it.

    To answer your other questions, the only floor plan modifications to the lower level will be adding a bath to the bonus room either now or in the future. The rest of the remodel will consist of new cabinets, doors, windows, floors, ceilings, paint, etc. throughout, all of which are vintage 1975. As you indicated, we're also slightly modifying the kitchen to rotate the peninsula 90 degrees and convert it to an island, but that can be done regardless of whether the hallway and mater suite are modified.

    Great comment and thanks again.