Rowhouse Floor Plans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, we are currently in the process of having our rowhouse completely renovated and adding an addition. It is interesting to look at your floor plans and inspiration pictures, too. We had a lot of the same considerations.

We toyed with the idea of putting the kitchen in the middle of the house, but ultimately decided not to. We do plan to having our living in the front and dining in the middle, but we can easily swap it out if we need the space. One of the reasons we did not put the kitchen in the middle is because it just isn't seen much and we felt that it might be a layout that people were not fans of, in general. Also, as you point out, light is a huge consideration and we were concerned the kitchen would just be too dark.

I love the idea of having your powder room opposite from the stairs, but I see you quickly abandoned that and I imagine it is, again, due to ensuring as much light as possible flows through the house. We struggled greatly with where to put our powder room for the same reasons and ended up putting it roughly in the same place since the stairs already block out light and we did not want to block out any more.

We are also essentially putting windows on the entire back side of our house to try to get in as much light as possible.

Sorry I don't have much in addition to offer - as I said, your plans look very similar to ours so it would seem we came to many of the same conclusions as we worked through the process. We did decide not to include a tub in our master bath. We decided that as far as personal use goes, my husband and I don't really take baths. This allowed the bathroom to be a bit smaller and we put more space into closets. But I think this is more of a personal preference than anything else. We do have a tub in the hall/guest bath.

I do agree with a previous poster about getting rid of the peninsula and going for the wider opening into the kitchen. This is another personal preference thing, but I'm not sure how much you will use that peninsula. I think it would end up just collecting stuff?

Another note, is it at all possible to get at least a half bath in that den on the top floor. I just imaging it could be a pain if you are up there and need to go to the bathroom and have to troop downstairs. We actually have our master bath on a separate floor from the other bedrooms. The floor our master bath is on has a den/tv room and we put another half bath there because we do not want people using the master bath when in the tv room, but we also did not want people to have to go downstairs. Just a thought.

Good luck with your project!

Thank you so much for your thoughts! It sounds like y'all thought a lot about the same things I have, and its nice to hear!

I totally agree on the tub personal preference, not having a tub in my current master bathroom makes me very sad, so even though it will make the bathroom a bit more cramped I am really looking forward to having one. And it will be freestanding, so I think it could be removed without terrible trouble if in the future someone else really wanted more floor space.

Given everyone's feedback, I am definitely leaning towards removing the peninsula. I want to wait to tape it out in the actual space once demo is done, but everyone seems fairly aligned on that point!

Unfortunately, as much as I would love to have the third floor be a bit larger, that is the part we fought with historic about the most. The roof of the third floor slopes to the back of the house and making the room any larger creates very low ceilings. We proposed sloping the roof to the front of the house, but there was concern that it would change the view of the house from the street.

Glad to hear that others are willing to admit to watching tv I'm not that ashamed to admit its mostly of what happens in the living room... Good luck with your renovation as well! Hopefully you'll eventually post some before and afters, I love seeing changes and one of the things I love about DC rowhouses is how they're all pretty similar at their core, so its fascinating to see how similar/different they ultimately end up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting discussion. We are currently toying with a kitchen renovation in our rowhouse and have similar questions about where to put the bathroom and also whether to do island/peninsula/or galley kitchen. Our designer wants us to do an island, but we have a small one already in our current narrow kitchen and I HATE it. I'm really leaning toward doing a galley, even though it's not best for entertaining.

One thing we did a few years ago is move the TV to the basement and so now we no longer have one on the first floor. It was one of the best things we've done for the house. We now have a sitting area that gets used plenty to listen to the radio/records/etc and for reading and for game playing (we have small kids). We do watch less tv overall but we're good with that.

I mentioned earlier in the thread, but I currently live in a nearly identical rowhouse that has a galley kitchen and we have a narrow movable island and have found it sufficient for parties. Everyone congregates in the galley kitchen all the same. The bathroom in the current rowhouse is about where the peninsula is (taking up a valuable window). I keep the bathroom door mostly closed, but I can see light flooding in under the door and it just makes me sad to have it in the little powder room rather than actually in the house!

[Anonymous]

Why are you tearing out the original staircase? it's beautiful and adds a ton of character to the house...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you tearing out the original staircase? it's beautiful and adds a ton of character to the house...

It might be helpful to see the first draft of floor plans (compared to the original floor plans) which you can see here in higher resolution , with commentary about what was added. That first draft kept the original stairs which really shows you the amount of space the stairs/basement stairs would consume. Below is a smaller image showing that floor plan:



Ultimately there are a few reasons that I am (unfortunately) getting rid of the stairs:

1. They take up a ton of space because of the turn and landing. They are so wide that it is nearly impossible to put any furniture in the 13 foot long area across from the stairs (other than maybe two chairs, but who is going to sit in two chairs and stare at the stairs?).

2. The stairs are not up to code, so stairs to the basement cannot be built under them (because those stairs would not be up to code). So not only do the original stairs take up a ton of space, I would also have to take up a ton of space to a second staircase. Plus that second staircase would block light flowing from the front to back of the house.

3. I am naturally fairly clumsy and the stairs are old, so they are more narrow and shallow (not up to code). I've fallen down up to code stairs before, and I worry that these stairs make it even more likely that I might accidentally fall.

I am really trying to keep other original details where I can (i.e. the wood floors, fireplaces, all the original doors and transoms) and it does make me sad to get rid of the stairs. The new stairs will be built in a style similar to the old ones.

[Anonymous]

Add a cased opening between living room and dining room and kitchen. It will still feel open but won't feel like a bowling alley. It will also be easier to decorate/paint/hang art.

[Anonymous]

Sorry if this has already been brought up, but do you worry about having the bathroom door right off the current living room? We use the middle room as the dining room, and the bathroom door is directly off of it. It's always been a sore point. I'm just wondering if you ever worried about maybe one day flipping the rooms and then being stuck with a bathroom door right off the dining room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if this has already been brought up, but do you worry about having the bathroom door right off the current living room? We use the middle room as the dining room, and the bathroom door is directly off of it. It's always been a sore point. I'm just wondering if you ever worried about maybe one day flipping the rooms and then being stuck with a bathroom door right off the dining room.

Yes, it is not ideal. However, in my opinion there is no ideal spot on the first floor of a rowhouse for the bathroom. The floor space is simply restrictive.

I've seen them:

1. all the way at the back of the house (sort of behind the kitchen) which blocks the flow of the light from the rear of the house. Like this house. The bathroom is behind the tiled wall.



2. Underneath the stairs (in the dining or living room), like mine is. Not ideal because you have to exit right into the room. In perusing a ton of listings for renovated houses in my neighborhood, I think this is the most common choice. See for example this house, with this floorplan:



3. If the turned staircase is kept, sometimes it is placed in front of the staircase. Not ideal because it makes the front room, whether used as a living or dining room even smaller than it already is. Plus, for the reasons mentioned above, I don't want to keep the turned staircase. I can't immediately find an example of this.

4. Where the peninsula is. Not ideal because it creates a smaller opening into the kitchen (which is why everyone hates the peninsula) and takes a valuable window (who cares if there is a window in a powder room, plus who wants the neighbors looking in the powder room).

Do you have any other suggested placements?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add a cased opening between living room and dining room and kitchen. It will still feel open but won't feel like a bowling alley. It will also be easier to decorate/paint/hang art.

Thanks! Do you mean where the stairs currently are? The stairs currently divide the dining/living. Then then again where the peninsula is? That seems to be a smaller opening already which has been why people don't seem to favor having the peninsula.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Add a cased opening between living room and dining room and kitchen. It will still feel open but won't feel like a bowling alley. It will also be easier to decorate/paint/hang art.

Thanks! Do you mean where the stairs currently are? The stairs currently divide the dining/living. Then then again where the peninsula is? That seems to be a smaller opening already which has been why people don't seem to favor having the peninsula.

Yes, I'd try to add one to separate the dining and living area. It doesn't have to be big or wide, just something. Same with the kitchen. You can make them very pretty with wood trim, etc. We have a large cased opening between our dining room and living room - so it still feels very open but also helps separate the space. We did wallpaper in our dining room and painted our living room. We always receive tons of compliments and people who are coming from totally open floor plans in particular comment on it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if this has already been brought up, but do you worry about having the bathroom door right off the current living room? We use the middle room as the dining room, and the bathroom door is directly off of it. It's always been a sore point. I'm just wondering if you ever worried about maybe one day flipping the rooms and then being stuck with a bathroom door right off the dining room.

Yes, it is not ideal. However, in my opinion there is no ideal spot on the first floor of a rowhouse for the bathroom. The floor space is simply restrictive.

I've seen them:

1. all the way at the back of the house (sort of behind the kitchen) which blocks the flow of the light from the rear of the house. Like this house. The bathroom is behind the tiled wall.



2. Underneath the stairs (in the dining or living room), like mine is. Not ideal because you have to exit right into the room. In perusing a ton of listings for renovated houses in my neighborhood, I think this is the most common choice. See for example this house, with this floorplan:



3. If the turned staircase is kept, sometimes it is placed in front of the staircase. Not ideal because it makes the front room, whether used as a living or dining room even smaller than it already is. Plus, for the reasons mentioned above, I don't want to keep the turned staircase. I can't immediately find an example of this.

4. Where the peninsula is. Not ideal because it creates a smaller opening into the kitchen (which is why everyone hates the peninsula) and takes a valuable window (who cares if there is a window in a powder room, plus who wants the neighbors looking in the powder room).

Do you have any other suggested placements?

I don't have any other suggestions. I think where you have it is the best you can do. We are struggling with this as well. Our designer suggested putting it in the back but I just don't know that I want to lose that back window. Do you have other examples of houses that put it in the back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry if this has already been brought up, but do you worry about having the bathroom door right off the current living room? We use the middle room as the dining room, and the bathroom door is directly off of it. It's always been a sore point. I'm just wondering if you ever worried about maybe one day flipping the rooms and then being stuck with a bathroom door right off the dining room.

Yes, it is not ideal. However, in my opinion there is no ideal spot on the first floor of a rowhouse for the bathroom. The floor space is simply restrictive.

I've seen them:

1. all the way at the back of the house (sort of behind the kitchen) which blocks the flow of the light from the rear of the house. Like this house. The bathroom is behind the tiled wall.



2. Underneath the stairs (in the dining or living room), like mine is. Not ideal because you have to exit right into the room. In perusing a ton of listings for renovated houses in my neighborhood, I think this is the most common choice. See for example this house, with this floorplan:



3. If the turned staircase is kept, sometimes it is placed in front of the staircase. Not ideal because it makes the front room, whether used as a living or dining room even smaller than it already is. Plus, for the reasons mentioned above, I don't want to keep the turned staircase. I can't immediately find an example of this.

4. Where the peninsula is. Not ideal because it creates a smaller opening into the kitchen (which is why everyone hates the peninsula) and takes a valuable window (who cares if there is a window in a powder room, plus who wants the neighbors looking in the powder room).

Do you have any other suggested placements?

I don't have any other suggestions. I think where you have it is the best you can do. We are struggling with this as well. Our designer suggested putting it in the back but I just don't know that I want to lose that back window. Do you have other examples of houses that put it in the back?

You can block less of the light from the rear of the house by making the bathroom a small rectangle with the shorter side on the back wall of the house. In the photo above, it looks like the longer side of the bathroom rectangle is on the back wall of the house, thereby taking up more potential window space. You may lose a little more kitchen space this way, but you don't lose as much of the light.

[Anonymous]

Our rowhouse has kitchen --> dining room ---> living room. Unusual, but I've actually seen a few others where the kitchen is in the front room. I have mixed feelings about it. We bought the house with this layout and even if we had strong feelings about moving the kitchen to the rear of the house, it probably wouldn't be worth it.

There are pros and cons to this set-up. Pro: I really like having the living room in the rear of the house. We have French doors that open right onto the deck and patio, and it's lovely to have the view of our garden. The house faces south so the living room gets the best light. Even though there are houses on other side of the alley, it's actually more private than if the living room was at the front of the house. We live in a busy neighborhood that gets a lot of foot traffic at all hours of the day and night. People are constantly strolling by and looking into the houses from the sidewalk. We don't spend as much time in the kitchen as we do the living room, so the lack of privacy in the kitchen isn't too terrible.

Con: it's an unusual layout and I wonder if that will impact resale if we ever move. Also, while we have a small foyer and a hallway leading toward the back of the house, the kitchen is the first room you see when walking into the house. You don't immediately walk into it upon entering the house, but it's right there.

Our dining room is in the middle, which seems pretty standard. In a rowhouse, I think you almost have to have the kitchen and dining room next to each other, regardless of where in the floorplan those two rooms are. Otherwise you are forced to walk through the living room to get from the kitchen to the dining room or vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our rowhouse has kitchen --> dining room ---> living room. Unusual, but I've actually seen a few others where the kitchen is in the front room. I have mixed feelings about it. We bought the house with this layout and even if we had strong feelings about moving the kitchen to the rear of the house, it probably wouldn't be worth it.

There are pros and cons to this set-up. Pro: I really like having the living room in the rear of the house. We have French doors that open right onto the deck and patio, and it's lovely to have the view of our garden. The house faces south so the living room gets the best light. Even though there are houses on other side of the alley, it's actually more private than if the living room was at the front of the house. We live in a busy neighborhood that gets a lot of foot traffic at all hours of the day and night. People are constantly strolling by and looking into the houses from the sidewalk. We don't spend as much time in the kitchen as we do the living room, so the lack of privacy in the kitchen isn't too terrible.

Con: it's an unusual layout and I wonder if that will impact resale if we ever move. Also, while we have a small foyer and a hallway leading toward the back of the house, the kitchen is the first room you see when walking into the house. You don't immediately walk into it upon entering the house, but it's right there.

Our dining room is in the middle, which seems pretty standard. In a rowhouse, I think you almost have to have the kitchen and dining room next to each other, regardless of where in the floorplan those two rooms are. Otherwise you are forced to walk through the living room to get from the kitchen to the dining room or vice versa.

Oh, thats a very interesting layout, I don't think I've seen any in my neighborhood with the kitchen in the front! I'm on a quest for real estate listings with that layout now, just to see what it could look like. How/where are your stairs to the second floor? I've seen a few houses where the stairs have been redone "backwards" (i.e. when you're walking up the stairs, you're walking towards the front door). Like this house . Looking from the kitchen at the back towards the front of the house, you can see they've flipped the staircase around:



I agree that having the living room not as visible from the street is nice. My street doesn't get as much foot traffic, and the basement is partly above grade (so from the sidewalk you can't easily see in to the front of the house, you can only really see in from the other side of the street). But I'm certainly guilty of trying to peer in to other houses when I'm walking around in the evening!

[Anonymous]

Hey OP, what's the status of your project? I'd love to know what you decided and how construction is going (assuming you've started).