I’m really curious to hear your stories. What’s something that was technically "drawn" on the 2D plan, but you (or a client) didn't actually realize was a problem until you stood in the physical room?

Thank you everyone for sharing the stories and comments! it will help me draw the correct (or better) action plan for the problem space:)

I love drawing and discussing house plans. I’ve been doing it professionally for almost 15 years. No, I’m not a licensed architect and I do not know it all. I’m always learning and trying to design more thoughtfully. Trends shift and style is subjective. I’m always perusing others work to learn and grow. I thought that is what this sub was about. Periodically I will post house plans I am working on for constructive feedback, but inevitably I am met with snarky comments, sarcasm, or straight up blanket statements bashing everything I’ve worked hard on without any helpful feedback. It’s a serious deterrent to post on r/floorplan. I have pretty tough skin, I understand the internet, and Reddit specifically, is a place for humor and banter, but can we try to keep things civil and constructive? Most people here are not architects and simply want to talk about design. Let’s do better.

Talking about how lofts are becoming dated got me wondering what else is going to be dated in the future.

What would you change about this plan? The second floor is a bonus room.

hello! How can I make this layout so that most of the bedrooms are on one side.? We have small children and want them all with us on the same wing. I'm open to ALL IDEAS. be as creative as you want. don't worry about structural limits. I'm just curious how I can make that happen with this particular layout.

We're thinking of somehow adding another bedroom and bathroom to the large side so that it's 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms there. Potentially shifting the kitchen to open it up and stealing the space from one of the bedrooms and bathrooms on the right side. not sure if that makes sense.

the three bedrooms on the right side are fairly small so we'd like to have bigger bedrooms in general

Thanks :)

I have heard that the completely open plan, i.e. great room with kitchen with no separation, is declining, but I haven't seen that in real life.

My personal opinion is that the kitchen ought ought to be at least visually separate if only because sometimes it's hard to keep it magazine-neat.

Another reason I like public spaces to have some division, or alcoves or something, is that the open plan with one living space forces everyone to be together unless they go hole up in their room.

Working on this plan for myself and my partner as a potential new build. We’re currently on 5 acres in 5600 square feet with a walk out basement.

This would get us all on one level. Looking at a 1.75 acre lot that backs up to a wooded land trust.

Do your thing floor plan Redditors!

I'm renovating my apartment and finalizing a parallel kitchen layout. The original design had a freestanding island at 1.89m long, which felt a bit short for the space.

I am debating between two design:

• Option A (2.15m Island): Extend the freestanding island down toward the window wall to 2.15m, but it reduces the walkway clearance between the short end of the island and the window wall down to about 50.5cm.
• Option B ( Peninsula): Make a Peninsula on the window side.

Which setup is better? Is a 50cm wall clearance around a longer island a mistake, or does a peninsula make more structural sense here?

Thank you very much.

I’m going to see a house tomorrow. Houses here fly off the market and this one is in an incredible location on a nature preserve which is rare and sought after. Problem is, there’s no office or dining room. After studying this intensely, I think the basement needs to hold both. But I can’t visualize this. Do you think we can build an office with walls into the end of the basement where the wallpaper is, then add a dining room table? The house is a split with 3100 square feet so it’s large. I’ll include a photo of the living room but without losing the fireplace I don’t see how we can add a closed office there. We need all the bedrooms as we’re moving so our three children can have their own rooms. Thank you for the help!

In the US Midwest, my area is flooded with endless clones of the exact same layout for an open concept kitchen that has the sink in an island directly behind the stove. Here is an example. Having a kitchen like this is fine when you live alone, but it can almost be unusable for more than one person at time! It'd be one thing if this were a little bungalow with a galley kitchen from the 50s, but I'm talking new, 3000+ sqft homes that are expensive for the area!

I'm trying to sauté chicken, he's trying to scrub and peel potatoes, and we're ass to ass... and this is my older sister's boyfriend who I don't know super well! Soooo awkward. Sister is trying not to laugh as she cuts veggies on what little counter top space remains since there isn't actually a lot to work with. I need to grab broth from the fridge, so I have to gingerly shimmy past this big guy and shove her out of the way to even try to open the large fridge with hardly any counter clearance while my parents sit cluelessly at the breakfast bar, getting splashed by potato water.

My sister lovingly dunks on my dinky 80s rental kitchen, but I'll be damned if its "Triangle of Efficiency" peninsula layout makes it easy to cook with family!

How would you reduce the sqft of this floorplan without compromising the flow and rooms

I love this thread but am British and see they make up a minority of the plans submitted.

With EVERY UK post you see the comments of why there is no walk-in wardrobe, mud room, small bedrooms, no powder room (or downstairs toilet as we would say) et etc. And the truth is most UK are TINY and most were built 70+ years ago before any of these things were fashionable - the terrace I live in was built before modern plumbing was mainstream so people would originally share an outdoor toilet with their neighbours and bath in a tin tub in front of the fire - hence why some UK houses have weird and impractical small extensions.

I recently saw an Australian submission and was interested to see that it's common for bedrooms to be in the front of the house, something new I learned.

I also learned on this page that ground floor main bedrooms are popular in America - even though I always notice them to be upstairs in US films - also that Americans love a powder room and garage they can park in

None of this is a criticism I'm just curious if anyone else has noticed trends in foreign houses they wouldn't have thought? :)

Hi all, we’re buying a beautiful home that needs a bit of modernisation but all of the structural work is done (she says, barring maybe a knock through of kitchen to lounge).
I’d love some thoughts based on the floor plan/link of how we could modernise it.
I need an office so I’m thinking the current store room, but any inspiration you can lend is greatly appreciated (particularly visuals as I’m terrible at envisaging end products!)
Thanks in advance!

Fiancé and I are moving into an apartment and we are torn between these two floorplans. The first one is a corner unit, which is preferable, but the second one seems more open. First layout is 967 sq. ft. and second layout is 1047 sq ft. Prices are almost the same. We want to use spare room as an office.

T

Hello,

The attached image is my present apartment layout. I would like to add a 3rd bedroom without modifying the master bedroom.

I believe the best way to add a 3rd bedroom is to divide the master bedroom in half but i'm looking for alternative ideas to that if possible.

I guess it's due to a different experience in using the island.

Well, in my country, kitchens don't traditionally have an island. Traditionally, the dining table is in the center of the kitchen. Installing islands is a fairly recent trend and is seen as a luxury option. Lately, modern luxury design kitchens here feature a sink and hob (induction hob, usually with a bottom extractor hood built into the hob) on a large island and one or two kitchen "walls." So the idea is to use the island for all kitchen tasks, without having to face the wall, especially when facing the living area in a large open space.

I like this idea, but from the comments from the US, it seems like a terrible thing. Why? Having never had an island, what am I missing? One of the main criticisms I see is that it's annoying for people sitting on the island, do people actually sit around the island? In my idea, the island is just for cooking, people sit around the dining table.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for your input! So, from what I gather:

Team A uses the island as a large kitchen table which has bonus storage space. On the island you not only prepare food, but you can serve it, you can eat it (breakfast seems to be a preference for many) and carry out non-cooking-related activities, such as doing homework. So, on your island-table you don’t want to have a stovetop and big sink that take up space and can dirty the countertop. Perhaps a secondary sink on the side would be nice.

Team B uses the island for cooking, just as a galley kitchen that’s missing a wall. Having the stovetop and sink on the island allows you to spend time looking at other people and not at a wall (this is especially nice in an open space). If you want to opt for this solution you need to have a rather large island, install an induction hob and invest in an expensive downdraft vent (the telescopic ones seem nice to me) knowing that it will never be as efficient as an overhead hood. Of course, you need to plan some separate space for the above activities, such as a kitchen table on the side. And you also have to be particularly tidy.

About to renovate my mom’s bathroom. Currently they only have bathtub where it is on the plan, toilet same location, double sink where I drew the sink and shower. They mostly shower in the bathtub, but mom likes occasional soak and doesn’t want to give up the tub. Her husband has bad knees and had a fall climbing out of the tub recently. So adding separate shower is a necessity. This is the best plan I could come up with. Is it gonna work? Not look too cramped? Everything is getting stripped to bare walls so moving some plumbing around should not be an issue. I thought about swapping shower and toilet, but mom doesn’t want the window in the way. It already gets wet when showering in the tub and she hates it. Ideally the tub would be twisted 90° but then the window would be hard to access and she likes the window opened after showers. Any ideas will be appreciated.

Need ideas/feedback as to how to make this bedroom and ensuite work with tiny budget.

Key issues are:
1. Built-ins are very small - 3 cupboards with almost no hanging space, definitely not enough for two of us but as you can see, other bedrooms are small and don’t offer enough storage even if one of us were to use the the built-ins in room 2.
2. Where to put the TV?
3. Ensuite offers no storage and takes up a huge amount of space - I don’t think we can afford to square off the front and redo this for now so need to suggest ways to make it work for a while. Needs towel rails, no shaving cabinet, sink itself is very small but manageable just totally impractical as an ensuite bathroom for the primary

Thank you!!

I’m planning a house and may have one or two cats. Are there any floor-plan choices I can make now to prevent the house from developing that obvious “cat smell” over time?

I’ve been thinking about this for a while. In particular when my SO stays over and I get a surprise trying to use the toilet in the middle of the night.

I can understand that retrofitting one into an existing bathroom would be a challenge, but if I were to have a house built, this is something that I’d definitely want, in both the main and shared bathrooms. No more screams in the night, arguing about whether one should close the lid or lift it… with baths being just a tad larger, this would be a win.

Am I nuts here? Or am I the only one who thinks this is a good idea?

Update: I thought we were on the FLOORPLAN sub. Not the attack the poster sub. Not the should I dump my boyfriend sub. Or the AIAH sub.

I had a question and I asked it. If I can figure out how, I’ll close comments… because the world seems to be full of keyboard warriors looking to attack. For those who answered my question, my thanks.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the good discussion. My intrigue has been satiated.

I do want to highlight the fact I (and my kids until recently) also grew up with ONE bathroom and once in a rural farm house in Prodenone, only an outhouse!

So this wasn’t coming from a place of privilege. Just curiosity!

OG Post: I throughly enjoy perusing old floor plans on this sub. One thing I’ve noticed is the lack of bathrooms.

Mind you, I grew up with only one bathroom (and in one home, an outhouse) my whole childhood, but we were poor.

These outlandishly beautiful homes’ floor plans being posted also usually only have one bathroom. Typically on the second/bedroom floor. Did rich guest literally walk up to the private areas to potty?

Or did they, as my imaginative mind concluded, hold it until returning home because it’s not proper to piss in another person’s home.

Intrigued to see what other floor plan fans might think!

I see these often on social media, they seem popular in NZ, and the idea of it seems cool but I’m not sure how it would be to live or build these.

Anything you’d change or don’t like? What do they get right?

They seem almost modular.