This spotlight features a Design Audit on a $250,000, new single-storey home. It’s to be built in regional Victoria, near Ballarat.
Sometimes you hire a designer, and you’re just not able to nail it, in designing the home you dream of. You reach a bit of a stalemate. The design doesn’t sing, and you’re out of options and ideas.
Or you know that you only get one shot at building or renovating your home. Once the walls are there, it’s permanent.
As a client of mine once said “the wall costs the same whether you build it in the right place, or the wrong place”.
A second opinion can be worthwhile before you commit a lot of money and time to creating your finished home.
That’s where my Design Audit comes in. I believe that, whilst your home is lines on a page, you have a precious window of opportunity to get it right. Here’s a spotlight on a UA Client’s Design Audit for their new home.
[Addresses and names have been removed for privacy]
The homeowners and their land
A couple with 2 young kids were planning their future home. They want to build in regional Victoria. For a few months, they’d worked with the building company and their draftsperson. They had a design that met their budget, but they weren’t sure it was the best fit for their lifestyle.
The site is a wedge shape, with a fixed location for the driveway and garage, and it is 778m2 in size. There’s large easements along the two boundaries, and parkland adjacent. The parkland provides a great outlook (and is to the north) – and no neighbouring home!
They thought that the home could have a better use of space, especially in kitchen and dining areas. In their words “We were out of ideas!”
They even tested the design by using little cutouts of their furniture (drawn at the same scale as the plan). This had immediately shown them just how challenging some of the spaces would be to use long-term.
The proposed design prior to UA Design Audit. Do you think it can be improved?
The Brief
- Create a functional family home which will see their 2 kids (aged 4 and 2) through school
- 4 bedrooms
- 2 living areas
- car accommodation
- functional kitchen
- ability for living areas to be separately used as ‘kid’ space and ‘adult’ space
- separate study close to living area, that will fit a specific desk
- good storage
- indoor / outdoor connection (covered outdoor area isn’t essential at this stage, but space for it would be good)
- windows positioned to take advantage of aspect and views
- garage has to go on south-east corner
The Budget
Maximum budget is $250,000.
They need to stick to their budget and accept that it may mean that they won’t have all they would want in a home. Yet they need to be happy with the compromises they have to make to meet budget. They, of course, want it to be as functional and as well-suited to them as possible.
Main Observations about the Proposed Design
A lot is being squeezed in, to the detriment of the design
It feels like the designer has taken a list of rooms and tried to get them to fit into a floor plan of a certain maximum area. This would be to meet the budget. They don’t seem to have (or helped make) value-judgements to determine whether it all can fit, or what areas to prioritise.
The solution may involve choosing certain areas over other. This means thinking about how to live day-to-day in the home … not ‘just incase’ living.
It seems that priorities are given to areas used seldom, over areas used always
As well as a lot being squeezed in, the design has areas (such as the walk-in-pantry, laundry, storage and Bed 4) that are oversized.
This is whilst areas, such as the 2nd living space and meals, are being dramatically compromised. Bathrooms are super tight in size also – again, probably because of budget choices.
The design turns its back to the west, but divorces itself from the garden as a result
The site is great – generous in size, with a fantastic outlook to the NE and North.
In a desire to protect the interior from western sun, the home disconnects from a big part of the garden. This will make it difficult to supervise kids playing in that part of the garden from within the home.
The kitchen is a challenging arrangement for a family
U-shaped kitchens, in my experience, are challenging for families. They end up being bottle-necks, as little kids come in and get underfoot. You also end up with corners which are hard to use, and with benchspace that ends up with clutter pushed into it. Doors / drawers banging into each other as they open at right-angles to each other.
The circulation around certain rooms will compromise their functionality and privacy
Bed 4 is directly off the living space. Circulation from the laundry into the home, coming through kitchen, between the kitchen and WIP, will make for busy passageways in busy areas. Circulation is compromising privacy and functionality, and once spaces are furnished, some movement will be a tight squeeze.
Some main design aims
The design of the home has a lot in the ‘guts’ of it. By this, I’m referring to the internal part of the plan that is away from the edge. It’s away from windows providing natural light and ventilation. The priority is to get the habitable rooms to the edge, and keep areas like storage in the centre.
Given it’s a single storey home, skylights are an option to light these internal areas. These can be economic options such as Solatube skylights. Or something more like a Velux sky window.
The key to creating spaciousness in a compact home is getting clear lines of sight through it. The hallway can enable this, as it will direct people’s view through the home, and to outside. This expands the size of the home as the view takes in the garden and views around it. Keeping the hallway clear and straight will assist with maximising views.
And given the budget (and that the existing design meets it), any work can’t move the external walls. This is about reconfiguring the interior planning for a better outcome.
The alternative design options
I prepared two alternative designs. Imagine the home as two halves, divided down the hallway. There are two design options for the master bedroom side, and two options for the kids’ bedroom side. These can interchange (mix n match, if you like!) – so there’s 4 options in total. Click to enlarge the floor plans.
Option A moves the kitchen over. It also provides a living space to the northern corner, with views out to the garden. The kitchen has a walk-in-pantry. Space is arranged to give more to the areas that will be used frequently (and hence matter more).
Kids’ bedrooms are made slightly larger. The family bathroom stays in its proposed location. It has a minor rejig.
I provide a semi-transparent overlay so you can compare the two floor plans. The alternative design has not increased the size of the home.
Option B prioritises the kitchen as a hub for the home, and enlarges it. It runs along the rear wall of the home and providing direct access out the side of the home. It includes a study nook. The living space (or kids’ zone) is compact. It’s designed so no doors run off it, enabling it to be well-furnished and functional. It borrows light from the open plan kitchen / dining next to it.
The family bathroom and powder room move down to the northern end of the bedrooms. This gives more storage space to the garage.
Now to mix ‘n’ match!
The Verdict
The clients’ favourite option was …
“We have chosen the long kitchen combo with original kids bedroom layout. We like the extra room this provides us in the living area plus the long storage area (and privacy to bedroom 4. Excellent). Although we do like the new main bathroom / toilet layout and the revised garage access, we decided to prioritise a little more space in the family room.”
They had this to say about their Design Audit …
From our first contact to Amelia, right through the design process and beyond, we found Amelia to be supportive, understanding of our situation and very professional.
The design audit was the best investment we made when planning our house. We were on a budget and had a small footprint to work on, yet Amelia found answers to those challenges. The ideas and options Amelia presented enhanced our floor plan and met our needs as a growing family.
We would highly recommend having a design audit done by Amelia as the benefits to your way of living last beyond the paper stage.
UA Tip on Reading Your Floor Plans
Check the window and door sizes shown on your plans.
Most low cost homes have a standard ceiling height of 2,400mm (increase this if you can). The top edge of doors and windows will then be 2,100mm above the floor.
Picture an imaginary line around your home 2,100mm above the floor. All windows and doors will usually align at the top to that line, regardless of how tall they each are.
In the plan, you’ll see numbers to describe the size of the window. They also set the position of the window in the wall.
So: 10-09 means 1,000mm high window, by 900mm wide. And 15-09 means 1,500mm high, 900mm wide.
If the head height on all windows is 2,100mm …. then a 1,000mm high window will have a sill height of 1,100mm. A 1,500mm window will have a sill height of 600mm.
The sliding doors (marked SD on the plan in this example) are 21-18. So 2,100mm high, and 1,800mm wide.
The original drawings here had sliding doors at 1,500mm wide. That means an opening of only 700mm. This is narrow for moving through. The door in question was the main door off the ‘meals’ area, and would be often used for getting outside.
Window sills in kids’ bedrooms are 1,800mm tall (sitting 300mm off the floor). This is not ideal.
In a small bedroom, walls are precious furniture space. Raise the sill height to 1,000mm (with a 1,100mm window height) will enable a desk or bed to go against that wall.
Over to you …
Which option would you choose? Can you see that a compact home can still work really well for a family when it’s designed for function, indoor / outdoor connection and natural light? Comment below – I’d love to hear from you.
This spotlight was a Design Audit on a $250,000, new single-storey home. Do you need a second opinion on the design for your new home or renovation? Head here for more info on what’s involved and to book.
Other blogs you may find useful …
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Here’s how to stretch your budget when planning your new home.
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