looks excellent although swopping the small study desk and the powder room would keep the toilet further from the kitchen and allow a wider opening between sitting and family room, the separate toilet in the ens needs a bigger space and the master suite entry foyer could have chests of drawers and a dressing table with mirrors to add to the lux feeling

Don't forget that you didn't want to walk through the WIR or Ensuite to get to the living room so as not to see any messy places which will spoil your Lux feeling

this bedroom/ensuite is Lux and always reminds me of resort living cheers

Just as a complete rethink . . .

Move the sitting room to the front with access from hall; grand double door entry from sitting room into sleeping area (glass doors, perhaps patterned or frosted if privacy was a preference or plantation style; maintains natural light from front) with walk around wall ie entrance from either side of bed for ensuite / robe.

The window into the courtyard, depending on your plans for that area would add loads of natural light to your ensuite / robe area.

Has the value of combining wet areas (ie powder room) and provides for a more flexible additional sitting / office space to perhaps add resale value whilst maintaining the master-suite feel.

Hi Moonya,

Just thought I'd throw a spanner in the works for you to consider. It appears from your original plan that your house is against the boundary and you only have one window along the boundary wall that is currently in the dressing room and looks to the front of the property. If this is the case, I would swap the wardrobe and the ensuite so you can have some natural ventilation and light to the ensuite. Far more important than a window into the wardrobe in my opinion. I know that would bring the plumbing noises closer to your bedroom but presumably you and your partner can deal with that and probably have for years. I would keep a hinged door to the ensuite, swinging in, and put insulation in the adjoining wall to the bedroom to minimise sound transfer. The bed on the passage wall would be fine in this plan. Not ideal but the better option here.

Create a small lobby from the hallway as Siriuskey drew on 21 April but bring the doors to the master bedroom and sitting room back into the lobby so the doors do not swing into the room space. This makes the lobby a bit shorter and helps furniture placement in the rooms a little.

I would also make this lobby a bit wider than a standard hallway by 100-200mm so it didn't feel like a tight corridor giving the more luxurious feel and only loses a tiny bit of room from the ensuite and robe. As Siriuskey suggests, have the door to the passage oposite the longer bit of wall between the robe and ensuite and open so you look towards the main bedroom, not to the sitting room.

The ensuite, I would put the shower to the outside wall, full width of the room, with the toilet next to it and the vanity nearest the door into the room. I would put a full height wall between the vanity and toilet but only about 1000-1200mm long. Enough to screen the toilet and fix the toilet roll holder on. I'd do a glass screen between the toilet and the shower with or without a glass door. Heated towel rail can go outside the shower oposite the toilet.

With regards to your dining table placement, if the dimensions on the plan are acurate, you should have plenty of space, however, I feel those measurements are not correct when you compare the space with the dimensions for the living room. What is the space beyond the laundry at the end of the kitchen for? Why is this not the placement of the laundry and therefore giving you more space in the dining room? If you pushed the laundry back into that corner and the door to it was at the other end of the bath in the adjacent bathroom, it would give you another 1500mm or so into the dining room.

Cheers,

Christine.

Hi Moonya,

My ideal position for the master bed would be on the boundary wall-great Feng Shui but it is generally the better design option not to be looking straight at your bed when you enter the room. You could make the room feel a bit bigger by not having a door into the room. It makes it feel like it goes further and there is already a door from the passage and one to the sitting room. The bedroom door, if you kept it would probably be open 90% of the time anyway.

If you were to do this and swap the ensuite and robe, don't put a window between the bed and the ensuite window. Delete the door and small window shown on the plan and keep the nice corner window arrangement. That should provide ample light to the room.

If this is a family home and if you are thinking of re sale value down the track, I would not swap the sitting room to be next to the master bedroom. Presumably it's main function is as a second living space/tv room/study during the day with it's secondary function as a night time escape when you or your partner can not sleep. If this is the case, moving it would render it almost useless during the day and destroy your privacy in the master bedroom and not give the sound privacy to your bedroom when the sitting room is in use. If it were a much bigger house, having a master suite would be lovely, but your current positioning and dual access to the sitting room is ideal.

With regards to the dining table/kitchen/laundry arrangement, as you described, your current arrangement should be fine for space for the dining table. One thing I don't like is when you have a dining table right next to a breakfast bar and one or the other does not get used. This is wasted space and functions. If you have a rectangular table, you can butt the end of the table upto the kitchen bench so when it is just the family you can use three sides of the table and there is more space around it in the living room. That way when someone is cooking, people chatting to the cook actually sit at the dining table rather than on stools at the breakfast bar. A much more intimate arrangement. When you have more people around for dinner, pull the table out so you can walk all around it or get an extendable table. This way you don't need to get bar stools which would make the space feel cluttered and push the dining table further into the living room. Separate breakfast bars and dining tables in the arrangement you have, really only work when you have much more space.

Also to keep the space where it is needed, keep the galley kitchen reasonably narrow. They work best when you can reach both benches. About 1200-1400mm apart, as long as you don't have clashing doors oposite each other, i.e, dishwasher and oven or pantry etc. French doors from the kitchen to rear yard would be nice too if you want these.

Christine.

so good to have a professional submit a drawing as it's so much easier to understand

So very pleased that Christine confirmed keeping the sitting room where it is, so much better function for everyone to be able to use it and make it part of a bigger space. cheers

Hi Moonya, two thoughts re table for such large numbers and space, I have a friend who has an indoor outdoor table as one, when she wants it indoors they just lift it in.

This can be also be done with two smaller tables to be fitted together (ie; one indoor and one alfresco, making one large table when needed for either indoors or out, this frees up space in the kitchen dining area with a smaller table for everyday use.

The other is a Banquette cheers

I'm surprized no one has picked up that the toilets are fully enclosed spaces and should, if possible have natural light and ventilation. Ventilating these will require some form of mechanical ventilation which should also be exhausted. There's nothing worse than left over toilet odour seeping back into your bedroom some time after their creation. Ventilation will add to your building cost and power bill. Why not swap the shower for the toilet so the toilet is on the outside wall allowing it to be naturally ventilated. By turning it 90 degrees you can still have a shower on the same external wall with a large window (s) to provide natural light and ventilation to the bathroom. Have a play and save the day!

Hi Moonya, not sure where you are at but the ensuite bathroom is ventilated via a high window in the shower the toilet is next to this and should be heaps but you could add an extraction fanheater which is quite normal. The only thing with that toilet is that you would need to ensure that the wall is sound proofed, you don't want to hear the flushing etc through the wall.

The powder room DOES need ventilating as does the family bathroom, what a shame not to have a window into that bathroom. cheers

Hi Moonya, I haven't read all the other comments but just wondering, if it's worth changing your WIR and ensuite from their current rectangular configurations to square configurations where the ensuite takes up the external wall position to assist with ventilation and natural light and the WIR where the toilet and dressing room are?

She has skylights n ensuite and wir. Needs to add to powder room. Exhaust fans a given

Hi moonya... here's a dodgied up version on Photoshop of what I mean.

WIR is large enough for an ottoman inside in the middle where you can sit down to get dressed/put shoes on etc.

Resolves the privacy issue for your WIR which is now completely hidden from view ...

Hi Moonya, I love Siriuskey's 21 April design, though maybe the internal door to the sitting room is unnecessary. Also agree with Oklouise's idea about moving the powder room further from the kitchen - and you definitely don't want that door opening out onto the hallway. Just a thought - do you really need a third loo if it is just the two of you & visitors? Using the bathroom as guest loo would save on space & plumbing costs. Agree with Wendy loves Pets - getting it right now (even with arguments) is better than living with regrets. Good luck.

The easiest and simplest solution is to close off the door from the hallway, and put a doorway in the area right opposite your WIR, put a door on your WIR and no-one can see inside, I do agree to swap the toilet with the shower, you would have to move the vanity over slightly to give you more room for your shower.

I like Kate's plan the best with Oklouise's suggestion re backing the two toilets to each other - best resolution of your Brief.

Moonya, yes referring to the original plan at the beginning of the story.

Love it. Not sure why the third sink in with the toilet though

I would also however plan a direct entry into bedroom from hall. But it could always be added later

Hi Moonya,

Just thought I'd weigh into the discussion again. I'm sure by now your head is reeling with options put to you so I thought I'd try to help you clarify what is important. Try to put the suggestions of use of space in order of priority for your requirements. For me it would be an efficient use of space first and then looking at the use of the spaces and the circulation around the rooms and minimising space taken up in circulation. For instance, how much hanging space and other storage do you need in your wardrobe? A 'galley' arrangement tends to lead to the most storage space for the floor area it takes up. You can sacrafice some of the storage to install a nice seat or ottoman to sit on to change your shoes etc with maybe a mirror above that so you can check your outfits or do your hair, but a seat in the middle of a space, whilst it looks lovely, takes up more space. Moving on - for your ensuite, do you want separate rooms for the functions or do you like it all in one room, keeping in mind the issues of light and ventilation (both for moisture and aromas) and the fact that you have another separate toilet and full bathroom in the house. Moisture is less of an issue in a larger room and only requires one extract fan. Then such things as furniture placement. Where do you want your bed to be placed in the room and what do you want to see from the bed? I don't think the suggestion has been made to place the bed with the view out to the front garden yet. The plan below allows the bed to be on any wall. The sitting room, which is also the TV room, if it becomes a walk through room with the entry to your bed suite in the middle, restricts where you can place seating and how much seating you can have. I'm sure with family visiting, you want either two separate seats/couches or at least an L shaped arrangement and your office space with good light to that.

With regards to circulation, I would still have the main door to your bedroom off the hallway. Think about for instance, arriving home via the garage when you need to go to the toilet. I would want to use 'my' toilet and get there asap, not via the full length of the hall, back through the sitting room and into the bathroom. Having that door from the hall also gives you privacy to your ensuite from the sitting room, which serves dual functions.

Have a quick look at the plan arrangement below which flips the ensuite and robe from my first plan and also frees up the sitting room by placing the powder room on the other side of the hallway with the other plumbing. You could also delete one toilet if you wanted to with this arrangement. I have created an outside window to that bathroom by stealing a bit of space from your pantry but this could have come from bedroom 3 if you prefer. This arrangement might require to steal 200mm or so from bedroom 3 so the bathroom isn't too narrow.

I have flipped your laundry fittings to the other wall. The laundry could actually be in a cupboard if you prefer but this arrangement gives you more of a pantry space and gives you a wall for artwork etc and a wall for hanging towels, aprons etc in the laundry.

Good luck Moonya.

Would click the 'love' button Christine Hall but there isn't one :) Fabulous resolution. Especially love the master bedroom/ensuite/WIR layout :)

just a quickie, you can save space in the wir by having all hanging one side and all your folded, shoes . bags etc on the other which only requires 380mm depth instead of 600mm- 220mm can be useful in other spaces

Hi Moonya

i may be too late for this as I've been away.

I would simply swap wc & shower positions (I still prefer wc on outside wall with a longer window..old school)

if u don't want a door into the bedroom then I would place door where desk is, relocating desk under window or beside powder room wall.

The walkin robe is ample enough to put a linen in the hallway.

Lee-Anne

thanks Moonya, that's very kind of you:)

I think the toilet should open off the bathroom so u can use the basin after. And make sure you sound proof between toilet wall and bedroom.

Just saw this, something to consider - I had to have an ambulance come to the house as I had a disk bulge in the spine (moving things the previous day), anyway they couldn't fit a stretcher down our narrow passage and into the bedroom to get me! Luckily some of the 'magic' green stuff enabled me to walk with support out to the ambulance and thence to hospital. This episode caused me to rethink our new house build to ensure there is easy access, as what happened to me can occur at any age!