Building a Home Renovating Design Dilemma

Character Home Extension Floor plan review

last year

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster!

We've outgrown our old 1920s character home in Perth and are looking for feedback on the below floor plan which we will owner build. Note Bedroom 1 incl ensuite and Bedroom 3 is the footprint of the current house, we will be extend from this point to the back/west.

Q1 - We are unsure whether the kitchen/dining/living is big enough?

Should we do a linear open plan K/D/L layout? The reason we've designed it this way is to keep all the plumbing services down the right hand side is that is where the sewer line runs. In addition, we wanted the kitchen on the North side for the sun and view (Correct me if I'm wrong here).

Q2 - Is the study large enough at 3.6m x 1.6m? I allowed a 600mm desk plus 1000m for chair/movement.

Q3 - Is the alfresco large enough keeping in mind the afternoon sun is blistering hot in summer. We were planning to install outdoor blinds down the track.

Q4 - What is a "comfortable" powder room size? At the moment it is 1.15m x 1.3m. However, I would like to reduce it to enlarge the pantry if possible.

Q5 - Open to any other suggestions/wow factor details/recommendations.

Understand there is minimal storage space, we were planning to create attic storage as we have a high roof.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments (5)

oklouise
last year
last modified: last year
please share plans of the existing house as it's not clear what walls are new or old, what style roof is proposed for the extension, what is the distance from the house to the rear and side boundaries, is there an existing or propose garage, driveway or carport and you want the kitchen on the north side for views but cabinets would block most of the views so i would prefer the kitchen on south or west with views from living/dining and a simple pergola across the whole of the western side of the house could help screen western sun and be more spacious than the small alfresco included in the extension ...and some photos including a view of the roof would help
John Connor
Original Author
last year
Thanks oklouise, I was looking forward to your feedback!

Please see below existing floor plan, I will be demolishing from the kitchen/Bed 2 wall which is brickwork. I am demoing from here to maintain the high ceilings of 3.2m. So Sitting/Living/Bath/sunroom/laundry etc will all be demolished.

Roof for proposed extension will be tiles to match existing, but may consider sheet metal as the existing roof is in pretty bad shape. Open to recommendations.

See below for boundaries, I've intentionally made the building footprint this size so I have opportunity in the future to install a granny flat, rear carport and allow circulation sapce for a car to reverse as the driveway is tight at 2.5m. At the moment I am very limited on parking at the front so was thinking something like below.

Again, thank you for the feedback
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Hello Marcelle, I am an interior designer . I can tell you a simple inexpensive way to change the look of your kitchen. Looking at the photo you sent the different cabinet heights , and all the objects on the stove wall are very busy . Your modern house is wanting a cleaner , simple look. I would lower the small cabinets so that the top is at the same height as the others in the room. And put doors on , that will hide the clutter. Next I would do a tile backsplash above the stove , up to the same height. The whole kitchen will be pulled together by the continuous top line. There is a small light wood cabinet with baskets in the foreground . I would paint it white , or the same dark accent color of the cabinets you have. I don't think you would need to change the beams then , they would add interest and drama once everything else was subdued. Lisa
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I think your layout is generally good. With a one bedroom it's nice for guests to have access to the ensuite without having to walk through the bedroom. One thing I do notice though is that there is a lot of hallway/storage/circulation space in the center of the building (in the two bedroom portion) that might be better used as living space. You could pretty easily make the ensuite in the one bedroom larger for example. The wash house space seems unnecessarily large to me as well. You could push the wall dividing kitchen from wash house almost all the way back to where the toilet door is in this plan (you'd then have the toilet door open into the wash room to the right from this viewpoint rather than straight ahead). This would leave much more kitchen to porch access, which would be nice.
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Kate
last year
Generally Living and windows on north beds on cooler south side. But need to consider viewpoints if the north is blocked by adjacent building you may be happy with kitchen there
oklouise
last year
last modified: last year
the original extension is about 120sqm but to allow space for the carport, granny flat and a too cramped reversing bay my suggestions rearranges the alfresco, kitchen, pantry and laundry and has a more comfortable powder room and study/mps... all the bedrooms and bathroom are at the original floor level..the new bathroom, bedroom and new hall has a lower ceiling to allow for the lower steel clad hip roof and the new roof cladding with upgraded insulation could be extended to the original roof with the storage loft and drop down access stairs in the entry... the rest of the extension is stepped down to a concrete slab on ground with higher ceiling but, before committing to such a major renovations it would be worthwhile to compare the cost of a KDR with garage and granny flat at the front of the house so less of the property and budget was used for driveways
John Connor thanked oklouise
John Connor
Original Author
last year
Thanks oklouise, very impressed with the proposal in the short time. You have given me plenty to work with. Do you mind if I private message you?

Character Home Extension Floor plan review

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oklouise

John Connor
Original Author

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oklouise

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Character Home Extension Floor plan review

Comments (5)

oklouise

John ConnorOriginal Author

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oklouise

John ConnorOriginal Author

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John Connor
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John Connor
Original Author