Critique the floor plan for my ground floor!

Hi all,

As per the title, let me know what you guys think.

Appreciate it

If your going to have just a wip and not a butlers, maybe add a door to it?
I love closing the door on my pantry, makes the kitchen look so much neater

Good idea - thanks!

Having staircase just opposite the entry is not a very good idea and generally lowers resale value a lot.

Why there are 2 staircases?

Entry is NOT positioned centrally, so rooms are not symmetrical.

What is the difference between Home Cinema and Lounge?
What is the difference between Family Room and Lounge?

Make sense to have powder near laundry.

What is this space next to the refrigerator for?

Having sink directly opposite the cooker is generally not a very good practice.

It makes sense to have cooker opposite your working/cutting area on your island, though.

Can't see any windows as well as without knowing where North is it is hard to evaluate your plan from passive solar and thermal comfort perspectives.

Thanks for that Alex
1. Staircase on the left side of the house runs from my basement to ground floor.
2. Noted regarding entry
3. Home cinema is the theatre room. Lounge is more like a formal room.
4. Not sure regarding the space near the refrigerator. Will check.
5. Can you explain why it’s not good practice?
6. North is at the back of the house - directly hitting my backyard.

Thanks

3. Lounge is formal for what? You are inviting strangers for couple of drinks or what? Or it is more like office?

Your family room is going to be living room? It always makes sense to plan your rooms from placing in your furniture first and this will be defining where you will be placing windows, doors, electrical outlets, lights, etc. as well as it will be defining sizing of your rooms.

5. I explained above, you would generally cut food first and then put on a cooker. But if later you sell your house to Asian family, it is also not Fen Shui to have fire and water opposite each other.

You have such a long rear bench why not put the cooker on there and make a statement of a sink free island. Definitely door on pantry. You also need to make sure your powder room door is in a way so you dont look at the toilet as you walk past easily - you think you will always close the door but that wont happen Also why are there two staircases - unless you are a three storey or more house - the curved one looks like it could be amazing but makes for a squeeze in the hallway - and if you don;t need the second the powder room could go next to the laundry and then the butlers could get bigger. Looks like it will be interesting.

You could cut into the lounge area and create a small hallway for the door to the powder room, so it isn't right off the entry way. I'd extend the new hall a bit and add in a door & move the laundry where the W.I.P is. Move the kitchen to where the family room is on the other side, and make the laundry space the new W.I.P. Add the family behind the new powder/laundry space.
I also love garages on homes and if you didn't have one already, i'd replace either the home cinema or lounge with a garage space, but that is personal preference of course. I myself think a home cinema, lounge and family is a lot of room to hang out in .

I would definitely not put a door on the pantry, I had a door on our last home and it was never shut, this build we are doing similar to you with a walk through pantry, I’d run the bench with overheads as you have it (as I think it gives it an aura of space and luxury), you could either have just open shelves on the wall backing onto the powder or run cabinetry all the way around.
In regards to Alex P comment about building for potential resale to the Asian market, while I think your space is definitely big enough to have the sink on the back wall, there is no way I would build a home to potentially sell to particular market, if Asians dont want to buy my home then someone else will, build your home for an Aussie lifestyle if that’s what you want.
Our last home had direct line of site from the front door, directly out to the back to the pool (a fixed glass window), apparently bad feng shui, I built the home to suit us (Australians), and our outdoor lifestyle (i.e. pool, large alfresco, open plan) and we are doing exactly the same this time, walk through the front door and see the pool!

This may be bad feng shui but it looks friggin awesome and there are plenty of people who agree!

I agree with you. I couldn't care less about bad feng shui. That looks amazing by the way. Great design - hope the build goes well. Do you have a copy of your floor plan you could PM me? Kind regarsd

Is it okay for anyone entering your house from the main door (e.g. couriers, etc.) to have unblocked line of site to your private space?

We also kept our pantry door open most of the time but it was nice to be able to shut it at times.
Everyone is different in regards to what they want visible from their front door - each to their own.
But unless you are building to sell, build for your own lifestyle and needs that is the joy of building a home for yourself.

They can see nothing but a pool and trees, much better than peering into a living room!