What should an ideal home be like? What affects the quality of life in it? The designers and architects of the project KP “Britannica” know that among the most important factors of comfort are the area of the house and the layout, which takes into account the needs of a particular family. An ideal home should be of the optimal size, and at the same time with the necessary personal space for each household member. Britannica has already developed comfortable basic configurations for townhouses, duplexes and cottages, but at the same time left room for imagination and possibilities for those who want to make a house according to an individual layout.
How many square meters do you need to have enough space for living and relaxing, working and playing? A reasonable minimum area of a house in which a family of three or four people will feel comfortable starts from 110 sq.m.
Our city apartments, as a rule, cannot maintain this standard; the average area of a two-room apartment is 40-50 sq.m. Therefore, many families are starting to look for houses outside the city to move out of cramped apartments and increase their living space.
Number of floors and dimensions of an ideal house
The dimensions of the house should, first of all, be logical. There is no need to blindly follow the “dream house” from the nineties, where the total area was at least 200 square meters, and the living area was about 80. The ideal house should be rational, it should not be difficult for you to go from one room to another. Don't forget about utility costs and taxes.
Regarding the number of floors, here you need to proceed from the number of members of your family. If there are few of them, then you can get by with one floor. But remember that two floors are always profitable, because the costs of building the foundation are the same, but the usable area is twice as large. At the same time, in a one-story house you do not need a staircase, and many owners of two-story houses say that they themselves rarely visit the second floor. In general, we sorted it out.
Number of floors and dimensions of an ideal house
How to calculate the total area of the house:
Optimal floor space for a family of three to four people
- Living room
- 25-30 sq.m., if the living room is connected to the kitchen or dining room - 30-40 sq.m. - Kitchen
- 12-15 meters, kitchen-dining room - about 20-25 sq.m. - Bedroom
- on average 14-18 sq. m., built-in dressing room in the room - another 4-6 meters. - Children's room
for two children - 14-18 sq.m. It is better if each child has his own room of optimal size 10-14 square meters. m. and another common play area of 15-20 sq. m. m. - Toilet
- if the house has two floors, then there should be at least two bathrooms, 3-5 meters each. Combined toilet with shower - about 5 sq. m. - Bathroom
- optimally 6-8 sq. m. or 8-15 sq.m. - big room. - Entrance hall with dressing room
- together about 10 sq. m. m., separately: entrance hall 5-9 sq.m., wardrobe 3-5 sq.m. - Utility and technical premises
: boiler room, laundry room, storage rooms - about 6-15 sq. m. m. - Corridors, vestibules, stairs
- as a rule, occupy about 10 - 15% of the total area of the house. - Office
, work area, workshop, guest room or hobby room - 10-14 sq.m.
Using the example of the most popular Britannica townhouses, we will tell you how much space an ideal home can have and how you can increase it without a significant overpayment. The Anna and Victoria townhouses can comfortably accommodate a family of three or more. There are several ready-made solutions that designers can offer. Standard solutions can be supplemented to suit the different needs of the family and make the home more functional and comfortable.
The ideal design of a country house, according to many designers and architects, should have two floors. Townhouses "Anna" and "Victoria" are just two-story, plus a mezzanine floor where you can make a room for a teenager, a playroom or an office. In the basic configuration in a house with an area of 115 sq. m. living room with fireplace, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and two parking spaces. It is worth noting that each house also comes with its own plot of two hundred square meters. So this is not only a place to live, but also a space for walking, playing sports, barbecuing with friends.
On the first
floor, depending on the configuration, a large living room with a fireplace of 30 sq.m., a separate kitchen of 12 meters, a bathroom of 2 or 3 sq.m. In one option, the hall can be enlarged and there is a technical room. In another, a storage room was added in the space under the stairs, and the kitchen configuration was slightly changed.
On the second
floor there are two or three living rooms, a bathroom, a dressing room or a storage room. Here, too, different layout options are possible to suit your needs. For example, an option with a master bedroom of 18.7 sq.m. and two children's rooms of 10 sq.m. each, a bathroom of 6.6 sq.m. and a storage room of 2.2 sq.m. Or an option with two bedrooms of 13.7 sq.m. and 12.2 sq.m. (one of which has its own dressing room of 4.6 sq.m.), a children's room of 9.6 sq.m., a bathroom of 5.5 sq.m., and a storage room of 1.3 sq.m. Or there may be two large bedrooms and 18.6 and 14 sq.m. with own dressing rooms of 4 sq.m. and a large bathroom of 7.3 sq.m.
On the mezzanine (attic)
floor, you can place another small room, make it a cozy space for relaxation, a games room, a home theater, a hobby workshop, an office or a guest room.
How to place rooms in a house
You need to think about which rooms will be sunny and which will not while designing. Therefore, it is better to place the bedrooms on the east side, and the living room on the west. The kitchen can face both east and south; If you still choose the south, then equip the kitchen with air conditioning. We press the stairs in an ideal house closer to the north.
We decorate the bedroom, which will face east, with thick curtains so that the rising sun does not wake up the owners. If there is a noisy street on any side, then consider so that the bedroom does not face it.
How to choose a house project - instructions
Choosing a house or cottage project begins with identifying an organization for cooperation. There are a large number of design companies on the market offering their own services and developments. The selection criteria in this case are as follows:
- availability of completed projects and reviews from owners;
- efficiency and price level;
- possibility of making changes to standard projects.
The last factor is very important, as it shows the professionalism and capabilities of the designers.
After choosing an organization, using the advice of its specialists, you need to answer the following questions:
- how the site characteristics influence the choice of project;
- determine financial capabilities;
- select basic building materials;
- consider the number of floors of the building and the requirements for layouts and the presence of specialized premises and structures.
Based on the results of the answers, together with the designer, you should select the closest option from the ready-made projects. If it does not fully meet the customer’s wishes, a list of necessary changes is drawn up. Thus, the client receives a house or cottage that best meets his requirements.
Layout of the ideal home: some practical tips
1. Try not to use corridors, but to connect rooms with rooms, and if you still can’t do without it, then its width should be at least 1.5 meters, so that a couple of people can easily pass each other in it.
2. Equip a kitchenette on the second floor with its own bar, refrigerator and microwave.
3. Take care of the thickness of the walls in advance, it can be even 50 centimeters, no big deal.
4. You can make a second light in the living room: this is when the ceiling height is equal to two floors. But be aware that heating may be difficult in winter.
How to place rooms in a house
5. Try to avoid sharp corners; it is better to make the rooms non-square. It looks very impressive.
6. If the bathroom is located next to the bedroom, then it is better to separate them with another room, where there will be a kind of dressing room.
7. Despite what we said earlier about bedrooms, it is still better to place one on the first floor. This is for older people or for yourself, so to speak, for the future.
8. If for some reason there is a room in the house without any windows, then make a window into the next room.
Examples of interesting projects
Project No. 40-11VK
A three-story house made of aerated concrete with an attic, a terrace and a bay window. Suitable for large families. The area of the cottage is 266.98 m². On the ground floor, according to the plan, there is a kitchen-dining room, a living room, a vestibule, an entrance hall, an office, a boiler room, a dressing room, a bathroom and a guest room, on the second there are 4 bedrooms, a hallway, a bathroom, a bathroom and a dressing room.
Project No. 13-59
Two-storey wooden house of economy class with an area of 92.6 m². Ideal for a comfortable stay of 3-4 people. On the ground floor there is a living room, hallway, kitchen, shower, sauna and toilet, as well as a terrace. In the attic there are 2 bedrooms, a hall and a bathroom.
Windows in an ideal home
Windows in an ideal home
Floor-length windows look great. When choosing window sizes, remember that curtain sizes may be limited; In addition, windows need to be washed periodically.
The window on the ceiling also looks great. There is no need to be afraid that with many windows it will be cold in the house. Modern two-chamber or three-chamber double-glazed windows know their job very well.
Finally, make sure that the bathroom also has a full-fledged window, and not a miniature window.
Types of projects
An important question often arises: should you give preference to a standard or individual project when choosing? The advantages of ready-made standard design documentation are obvious:
- low cost;
- use of practice-tested solutions and designs;
- opportunity to begin construction immediately.
An individual project can more accurately reflect the customer’s wishes and fully meet his requirements. Naturally, this will require additional time and financial costs.
Quite often, a compromise decision is made when the choice of a standard cottage or house design is accompanied by changes to floor plans, number of rooms, types of finishing materials, etc. Most serious architectural and design studios will easily make adjustments, saving the customer money and bringing the project as close as possible to his wishes.
Ceiling height
When planning an ideal home, few people think about the height of the ceilings, but in vain. We believe that this height should be based on the area of the room. So, for a standard room with an area of 17 square meters, the ideal height is 3 meters. If the area is larger, then the height needs to be made larger (remember that the flooring will “eat away” somewhat from the height).
But low ceilings mean low chandeliers that people will bang their heads on. You can make your home unique and have different heights for different rooms. This can be seen in the Hermitage, where huge wells are adjacent to small closets.
What are the possibilities for expansion?
The townhouses in question have interesting options for extensions, which can be used to create additional rooms on the ground floor. They are suitable for you if you are planning to move elderly parents out of town or you need guest rooms for relatives and friends.
- Option to enlarge the house due to the added extension area of about 13 sq.m. The living room in this case is combined with the kitchen and the total space of this area is about 43 sq.m. On the side of the courtyard, you can make floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the garden - there will be a feeling of space and light. On the ground floor there is a bedroom of 15 sq.m. with a private bathroom of 4.8 sq.m., and another additional guest room of 7.6 sq.m. also with a bathroom.
- An option for a house for a large family, where several generations plan to live at once. On the ground floor there is a warm utility block of 9 sq.m., a garage for two cars and an additional guest room of 12 sq.m. with a separate bathroom. In the warm covered terrace there is a large kitchen-dining room of 19.7 sq.m., which can accommodate all household members and guests at the same time.
Unusual projects can be seen in video reviews on the Britannica channel. For each request there is an interesting individual solution, but it is worth noting that the basic configurations are created in such a way that they already answer many important questions.
Come to Britannica, discuss interesting solutions for creating a home with our designers and you will surely find something that suits you.
Garage
Is there room for a garage?
It is better to build a garage separately, because it:
1. Additional load on the foundation
2. Exhaust gases that may enter the house.
The height of the gate is at least 2.4 meters, the area is such that 2 cars can fit with a margin.
Finally, I would like to remind you about fire safety. Make sure that there are at least several places in your home that would prevent the spread of fire.
Thinking through the future layout of the cottage
So, we studied the project, saw its weaknesses and what we would like to redo in it. But is this really the right decision? What room sizes are considered normal? And what kind of corridors? Which walls are extra and which are not? And is there even an ideal cottage layout?
Oddly enough, there is no answer to this question. Neither in construction encyclopedias, nor in Google, nor in Yandex. What is this connected with? Perhaps the reason is that each person has his own ideal, his own vision of the future home, and his own understanding of the ideal layout.
We will take the liberty of closing this gap. And we will consider the ideal layout of a private house to be:
- which will allow you to get the maximum area of rooms with minimal costs;
- in which all rooms will be placed in such a way that they can be used comfortably by all residents of the house.
What should be the area of the rooms?
The convenience of a house's layout directly depends on its area. After all, obviously, the larger it is, the more rooms we can place in it, we will have more opportunities to choose the right shape for them, the right number of windows and the height of the walls (for the attic floor).
Alas, making an ideal layout only due to the area of the house is an expensive pleasure, since each new meter of area will cost us tens of thousands of rubles.
Our resources, as a rule, are limited, especially if the building has already been built, which means that we need to learn how to make the most efficient use of the area that already exists.
If you are just about to build a house, think about this: will the entire area of the house project you have chosen be used? The main mistake Russians made when building cottages in the 90s and 2000s was precisely this.
Remember: the larger the house, the more expensive it will cost not only to build it, but also to maintain it. Do you really need all those 5-7-9 bedrooms or will two or three be enough?
When choosing the size of your future home, also think about: How many people will permanently live in it? How long does it take to come from time to time? And based on this, you can already understand how many rooms you will actually need.
Now regarding the area of the rooms. Another common mistake made by developers of the 90s and 2000s was huge living rooms, corridors and staircases in houses. Yes, it’s beautiful, pompous, Russian in scale... But are all these areas useful for life?
It is worth taking an example from commercial real estate, where there is such a term - usable area. So, it does not take into account corridors, bathrooms, common areas that are used occasionally. Usable area is only those rooms where people are present all the time. Obviously, a corridor or staircase is not. So why “waste” precious meters on them?
A huge living room is also a controversial issue. On the one hand, having a small living room in a private house is not comme il faut (after all, guests will come, you need to somehow surprise them, show your status). On the other hand, as practice shows, in most living rooms only 20-40 square meters are actively used and this area, in principle, is enough to comfortably accommodate a family of 3-5 people. So whether it’s worth making a huge living room is up to you to decide.
The size of the bedrooms is also important. But here it is important to take into account not only the area, but also the height of the rooms, since in most house designs the bedrooms are located on the second attic floor, with a sloping ceiling. Keep in mind that in attic bedrooms the floor area is not equal to the usable area, and this difference can reach up to 40% (!) in houses with ceilings built at an acute angle.
How to place rooms correctly?
Here, again, one should proceed from the functionality of the house: how long a person will live, how many bedrooms, bathrooms they need, etc.
In one-story houses, all rooms are located on the same level. And all you need to do is think about it so that it is convenient to move between them.
In two- and three-story cottages there are more nuances: you need to think about how to properly place all the rooms and non-residential premises on different floors.
The first floor of the house is usually allocated for the kitchen, utility rooms, hallway and living room. According to homeowner reviews, this is the most convenient accommodation.
The second floor is usually occupied by bedrooms and an office. This should be a quieter and more private area where parents can relax and children can do their homework.
If the cottage has a basement or basement, then it is best to place a boiler room and a place to control other engineering systems of the house: heating, water supply, sewerage. If the basement area is large, you can organize a full-fledged floor for relaxation: make a home theater, billiard room, sauna, wine library or gym. If the house has not yet been built, you can also make a garage in the basement.
The entrance to the ground floor can be either from the street or from the first floor of the house. This is convenient, including from the point of view of access to storage rooms.
Here are some more useful tips:
- It is recommended to divide living and guest rooms into different zones. Guests of your home should not see what is happening in the kitchen or who enters the bathroom;
- If possible, it is advisable to make several bathrooms: for the owners of the house, children and guests;
- Think about how to organize a proper ventilation system that will prevent odors from getting from the kitchen or toilet area into the living areas;
- Consider quality soundproofing for your walls. Especially in the bedrooms. They should not be able to hear noise from the nursery or conversations from the living room or kitchen.
Materials for the construction of one-story houses
Environmentally friendly materials are increasingly being chosen for one-story houses. Houses made of bricks, blocks, or wooden houses made of timber and logs have long become classics. A relatively new and modern technology is frame construction. One of the most budget options and the fastest.
However, houses made of logs and timber fit more harmoniously into the interior of suburban areas. The rounding is more solid and representative. Hence the high cost. Houses made of timber are simpler and more affordable. However, they are in no way inferior to log cabins in quality and performance characteristics. In addition, laminated laminated timber is simpler and more convenient to work with than solid wood.
Layout of a modern one-story cottage measuring 8.8×10.8
The exterior of a private house should not only match the tastes of the owners, but also fit into the surrounding landscape. If houses made of brick or stone may look somewhat heavy and overly pretentious, then one-story houses made of timber will be an excellent decoration for any site: from an abandoned wild garden to a well-kept property in any style. Rustic simplicity and minimalism are the basis of most interior and exterior styles: rustic, farmhouse, country, retro.
