As I've had time, I've been pecking away at my digital Dream House. I finally got the 2nd floor plan nailed down - I think! Not surprisingly, I wanted to have a fabulous master (mistress?) bedroom suite, but also wanted decent guest rooms. While the house looks big, it's only about 2600 sq. ft. so things can't get too enormous.
Sorry this is a little messy looking. The software I use - Live Interior 3D Pro for Mac - doesn't generate really fantastic floor plans. The grayed out lines are the first floor walls. There is some kind of glitch that forces the upstairs to be slightly smaller than downstairs on three sides and I just don't know why. Learning process.
Anyway, as you can see, the master suite is on the back of the house. When I lived in Newburyport (the future location of my fictional dream house) I lived on High St, which is the main drag through town. Loved the street - but it is noisy. Since all the houses sit right at the street, the master in the back is preferable. My condo's master was in the front, but after a while, I moved to the smaller back bedroom to get away from the street noise. In order to get everything in, I've ended up with an upstairs hall that has no direct natural light, which bothers me, but I'm not sure how to avoid it. Light would come up the stair well from the front hall and the stairs to the attic would be open and I think I'd want to try to force some natural light down the stairs via sky lights in the attic. The space behind the stairs is the chimney, which is why it's boxed in.
I still have to work on making sure all the doors are at least 3' wide since I'm trying to maintain as much universal design principal as possible. Since this is a plan for me, I'm considering the fact that if I were to build it (sponsors anyone? lol) I'd want to be here the rest of my life. So, I am in fact planning room for the addition of an elevator in the rear of the house. It would be accessible from the back yard and garage, into the downstairs and then it would open on the 2nd floor in the hall between the master bedroom and bath. So if this were a real house, it would always be accessible.
Of course, I've had fun planning the master bathroom. Not sure if I'd do so much marble (it might fall off the house!!!) but a girl can dream. And to be honest, it's easiest to just lay in a "material" in this software on the whole wall vs. dealing with wainscot, etc.
Because I have an entry way below in the home office, I was able to push the tub area out from the room - which I love. I also love that I am able to get a vanity table in with natural light. There would of course be window treatments, but I haven't gotten to those yet. I played around with the tub configuration quite a lot. I like the symmetry of the faucet being in the middle, but it's hard to reach across the span to use them. However, the fact that they can more easily be reached when sitting in the tub made the center installation a winner for me.
The shower isn't huge - 4'6"x4'6" - but it's fine. There is a niche in the rear wall for shampoo, etc. Ignore the fact that the glass shower walls and door are just floating - I know there would be hardware, but I'd want it as minimal as possible. The door next to the shower would be a sliding door to the toilet closet. The opening is a linen closet. Decided against a door there and would either use a curtain, or just really nice baskets to hide the usual linen closet stuff.
I like the mix of old and new with the simple vanity, Federal inspired mirrors and Jonathan Adler sconces. The doors would be mirrored - possibly with antique mirror inserts. I'd also have a rug. Not yet sure about the floor, thought it won't probably be all black like this.
Working on this project really reminds me how important it is to bring in a designer early on in a building project. While I know I shouldn't get into too many fine decorative details while still figuring out floor plans, it's important to understand how someone will be living in the house, the size of furnishings, layouts, physical needs now and in the future, etc. Too often, houses are built without planning for real life needs and the rest just needs to be squeezed into the available spaces. It all needs to be done in tandem for the best outcome.
I'd love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, etc. Also, what would you want in your dream master bathroom?
If you would like my help on your dream house design project, I would love to chat with you! Please email me. Thanks!
Subscribe to ::Surroundings::
0 comments:
Post a Comment