House layout and lighting
Hello. We have been exploring the possibility of raising our roof but increases in the plan design and supply costs have meant that this is now beyond us financially so.... we are going to embrace tiny house living and come up with better storage and lighting to make our small house work for us. I have made numerable sketches but I am very indecisive so hopefully some of you kind folk will share your opinions with me to help me move forward before I drive myself crazy!!
Our house is a small bungalow approximately 6.5 m x 8.5m (internal dimensions). Currently we only have one set of french doors which is our only access to the house. These lead straight into our open plan kitchen, diner, living room. They are south (slightly east) facing so up to 1pm the room is light however, since it is a long room with no other windows it gets gloomy in the living area in the afternoon. We have little kitchen storage with only 1 small cupboard for hoover, coats etc. So here are my questions / thoughts.
1) should we switch the living room and kitchen? I don't particularly want to do this as I envisage wet coats being dumped on the sofa and I think it is handy to have the kitchen next to the garden, plus we have a fire in the living room end. However, my husband is fed up dancing around the kitchen table and thinks we will get more storage and a more spacious feel.
2) - should we put a window in the wall? This will either face directly onto the pavement or 2m away from our neighbours frosted kitchen window.
- Or we could put in a velux window? Will this look funny with a long flat ceiling and then a section cut out for a velux window?
-in that case would sun tunnels be better?
3) Would you get rid of a shower enclosure and replace it with a cupboard that houses a washing machine (further from the garden though) and more storage?
I like to invite all my family to dinner so don't want too small a table and we are a family of 4 so need to keep the 3 bedrooms.
Any thoughts or design ideas gratefully received!!
Comments (8)
katlucy
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***Please Help - House ground floor layout change***
Comments (7)Hello Assia, If I was you I'd definitely look at hiring an interior designer/architect even to help you with this project. It sounds fairly major and you are best off getting someone who can spend the time it needs helping you to achieve what you want. Houzz has loads of interior designers, you can check out their reviews, get an idea of pricing and look at their previous projects before you decide to contact them. Many interior designers actually offer a FOC first meeting, so even if that's all you decide to do it may be worth getting someone to come and look at the house etc. Hope this helps!...See MoreLayout suggestions for home office
Comments (3)While I appreciate the need for space for the monitors, in the above design, given the width of room 2m, the average desk depth 50cm and chair around 50-60cm, you will find yourself squeezing to get into the room towards the door. A 2m length desk is way more than enough for all your monitors and laptops. are you a day trader with so many screens? Can I assume that the monitors will be used together therefore stuck next to each other? I would scrap the L shape, go for full length floating desk as per the above design. Your back to the TV, stretch when tired and you can look into the garden without being too distracted by it. Dog in the corner under the floating desk to the right. Drawers on castors to the left. Will need to send a design across for the sofa and TV....See MoreCan anyone help me with reconfiguring my home /kitchen layout please!!
Comments (13)Whilst I understand the constraints of budget I think you are approaching the planning wrong. I think the way to do this is to decide on the layout that works best and then work out what you can afford to do now- perhaps you can make economies on purchases such as the kitchen cabinets to get a better Gliw in your home. An architectural designer or a concept planner are worth considering to help with this- they would also help you visualise the finished space too. If this were my house I would be thinking the entrance wasn’t big enough for the size of house and I would be concerned about privacy of the bedrooms at the front, I also don’t like the current kitchen being some distance from a window and being a heavy traffic area. Although I can’t see the layout properly I think I have got the sizes about right to show how I would do it. I have moved the front door to the middle of the house, shown a vaulted hall with stairs to two big upstairs spaces, shown the living space as completely open plan but with the option of using one of the downstairs bedrooms or one of the upstairs rooms as an extra living room. In my opinion there are often houses with long narrow extensions across the back that should have been better considered as invariably people need bigger spaces rather than more small rooms and retrospectively opening up the original house into this space is more difficult that building in the steels originally. So my plan doesn’t change any of the external walls of the original property but a couple of internal brick walls have been removed. I have just shown what is commercial and probably wouldn’t cost the earth but a designer would spend time trying to better understand your needs....See MoreGround layout options for house renovation
Comments (7)I like option 2, but i don't think the shower area and Utility / Coats is going to work. A short projection toilet ( smallest you can get ) sticks out 600mm. You have 1250mm, leaving you with a gap to walk through to get to the shower of around 60cm. You should have a gap either side of the loo of around 30cm and you also have to fit your basin in and have room to get out of the shower and dry yourself. You shouldn't put the toilet by the shower as that takes up the most room and cuts down on your drying area. All of that spaced out with just an 800mm wide shower would take up around 2500mm, depending on the width of basin and toilet. You have a total of about 3150 ( had to guess ) Even if you cut the gaps down a bit to 250mm between everything, you'll take up 2255. Then you add in 100mm for the pocket door, 800mm for coats and another 100mm for the last pocket door. ( Total 3255 ) You could therefore buy a combination vanity unit ( smallest is 900mm wide ), however, the toilet would then stick out by 740mm . You can't push the vanity unit up to the shower because you wouldn't have enough drying room, or room to really walk around the toilet - So i wouldn't use the combi vanity because of the toilet issue. You need a separate short projection one in order to walk past it. Even if you move the vanity away from the shower, the toilet sticks out too far. THERE IS NO PROVISION FOR A TOWEL RADIATOR I would keep the design to this, I put shower 8800mm, Gap to allow for standing in front of shower without banging too much in to basin 250mm, Basin 350mm, gap 300mm, toilet 350mm, gap to door 300mm ( Total 2350mm) I also put in a Towel radiator You could make the Coat room a little bigger by moving the door in line with the right hand wall. Moving the wall allows you to put in an integrated washing machine and tumble dryer. They're less deep than standard machines ( they should just fit with the door opening ( which has to be the smallest door you can buy 24".) By putting the machines in here instead of coats you have a tidy functional area to walk through to the bathroom instead of lots of coats and shoes. Of course you could put all of those in a cupboard and not have them on show, but I think they're better off in the hallway under the stairs as it's a better use of tight space. With regards the living area, i might be inclined to swap the two sides over. If you have the dining area on the right and the sofa where you have the seating area marked, you would have a wall on which to place a T.V ( if you want ). By having it the other way around, the sofa has to face the wall opposite ( which is fine- all down to personal preference. ) I would say however, that for me that central pillar really spoils the whole room, so I would put an RSJ in side to side so that you can get rid of it. You may benefit from a good concept planner, there are many on here. Space is tight and they know all the tricks to make the most out of every inch. It's not easy, and when you know all the products, the depths and widths of what is available it really does help, as I think I've demonstrated. I just come from a building background, but I do have a fair amount of knowledge with regards to products. The concept planners on the other hand take everything to a new level and will get everything perfect. The thing is with tight spaces, that unless you plan for everything to the nth degree as they say, things can go wrong quite quickly....See Morekatlucy
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last yearPersonally, I prefer a bright kitchen and dark TV area - no glare and relaxing cozy darkness. If your table is an issue, there's some cool multipurpose table ideas on Houzz and Pinterest, like the fold up table attached. A bench under the TV could be pulled out to seat 3, if your couch was raised slightly to 50cm seat height, it could be used for dining, tub yptype chairs are suitable for both sitting and eating. A pull out island would give extra work surface or a high dining island.
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last yearPersonally, I prefer a bright kitchen and dark TV area - no glare and relaxing cozy darkness. If your table is an issue, there's some cool multipurpose table ideas on Houzz and Pinterest, like the fold up table attached. A bench under the TV could be pulled out to seat 3, if your couch was raised slightly to 50cm seat height, it could be used for dining, tub yptype chairs are suitable for both sitting and eating. A pull out island would give extra work surface or a high dining island.
Hillsborough Spanish Influence · More InfoBaer Retreat · More Info
PROJikoni Interiors
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katlucy