A Homes of the Rich reader has designed floor plans to his ultimate dream home. The reader, Clinton, lives in Texas so he had to design it without a basement. (since the ground’s not ideal for that). Give Clinton some feedback!
 |
Tags: Miscellaneous
A Homes of the Rich Reader’s Mansion Floor Plans
Posted by Kenny Forder on November 19th, 2011 | 33 Comments »
33 Responses to “A Homes of the Rich Reader’s Mansion Floor Plans”
Leave a Reply
Featured Websites
HOTR Archives by Month
- alabama (9)
- alaska (1)
- architects (62)
- arizona (85)
- Arkansas (6)
- Australia (47)
- ballroom (46)
- basketball court (181)
- belgium (2)
- Bermuda (1)
- billiards room (348)
- bowling alley (81)
- Brazil (2)
- businessmen (231)
- California (492)
- canada (78)
- cayman islands (3)
- celebrity (144)
- China (4)
- colorado (72)
- connecticut (134)
- costa rica (2)
- cyprus (1)
- czech republic (4)
- DC (6)
- Delaware (1)
- dubai (7)
- england (52)
- floorplans (55)
- Florida (310)
- France (22)
- georgia (176)
- Germany (2)
- greece (4)
- gym (651)
- Hawaii (3)
- home builders (82)
- home theater (996)
- idaho (4)
- Illinois (101)
- India (1)
- indiana (13)
- indoor pool (332)
- iowa (2)
- Iran (1)
- Ireland (1)
- Israel (1)
- Italy (7)
- kansas (2)
- kentucky (11)
- London (39)
- louisiana (5)
- Malta (1)
- maryland (55)
- massachusetts (33)
- massage room (55)
- mexico (3)
- michigan (35)
- minnesota (18)
- Miscellaneous (383)
- Mississippi (2)
- missouri (18)
- montana (4)
- Morocco (1)
- nebraska (2)
- nevada (44)
- new hampshire (5)
- New Jersey (321)
- new mexico (6)
- new york (196)
- new zealand (3)
- north carolina (35)
- ohio (33)
- oklahoma (6)
- oregon (5)
- paris (4)
- pennsylvania (45)
- Portugal (3)
- racquetball court (35)
- Rhode Island (3)
- Russia (33)
- Scotland (2)
- South Africa (3)
- south carolina (5)
- south dakota (1)
- spain (20)
- St. Martin (1)
- St. Vincent (1)
- Sweden (4)
- swimming pool (1412)
- Switzerland (7)
- tennessee (62)
- tennis court (340)
- texas (243)
- Thailand (2)
- The Bahamas (5)
- The Dominican Republic (3)
- Turkey (2)
- Turks & Caicos (2)
- ukraine (3)
- united kingdom (42)
- uruguay (1)
- utah (47)
- video (63)
- virginia (60)
- washington (18)
- west virginia (1)
- wine cellar (685)
- wisconsin (8)
- Wyoming (1)
Blogroll
- Affluent Abodes
- Archello
- Atlanta Real Estate
- Fancy Homes
- Home Decor
- Houston Luxury Real Estate
- James List
- Lux Issues
- Luxatic
- Luxury Launches
- Luxury Magazine
- Luxury Properties Asia
- My Little Finnish Housing Blog
- Project Dream Mansion
- San Antonio Luxury Real Estate
- Second Shelters
- Tevami
- The Rich Times
- Unique Homes
Nice job
I love the observatory. I really want one of those myself
Friend of mine put one in his house for his little son. It is kind of cool I guess.
Make sure your heat your though for some reason he chose not to heat his. I would not spend the money on one.
Looks very impressive and well planned but will cost a ton to build. What tool or software did he use to design and draw this?
I drew it out on grid paper first and the only program that I found that was easy enough for a novice was microsoft paint. I tried designing it on a few programs like HGTV Home design suite and Google sketch up but they were too hard for what ms paint could do easily.
Wow that is a really elaborate and nicely thought out plan. I love some of those features. Dyno machine, showroom, rock wall, the secret passageways/saferoom, studio, shooting range, but the science lab is what really caught my attention. What more could you ask for?
You should draw up some elevations (and build it haha)
It’s funny you say that Nalin, because I initially designed this house with a list of all my “wants” and then created it around my list. When I sent the plans to Kennny, my email to him was purely for reader feedback. I wanted to see how well it was received by the public. I have worked on my list and design for about 2 years now, constantly reworking it, adding to my list and somehow making it work with my overall design.
Is there any room(s) missing that you or any other commenter would add to their dream home?
Someone is a little paranoid I see. 18 billion secret rooms and passages and gun ranges. Has anyone ever actually heard of people breaking into these kinds of homes and these rooms ever actually being used? I have not.
Putting the master bedroom next to the absolutely loudest and most heavily traveled area of the home has got to be the worst idea I have ever seen. If you have kids and their army of friends are over, they all have to traipse past the master area to go to the basketball court, movie theater, gym etc etc. I don’t know if a gun range near an area where kids frequent is a great idea.
The indoor pool should be in the same area as the gym/athletic area. I know if I was working out I would want to be able to just jump right into the pool after. Instead it is next to the retreat which is supposed to be quiet. It won’t be very quiet with 20 screaming kids splashing around in the pool.
The office should always be near the front door. If you have anyone coming over to do business with you, you don’t want them traipsing all over your house.
The massage parlor should be in the athletics area, not next to the kitchen. That just seems like a bad place for the theater also, maybe over the garages would be better.
You sure are quick to criticize Venom.
It’s constructive and useful criticism.
I havent seen a house being built these days not near the entertainment area of the house. all yous see in these new homes today are main level master suites right off the entertainment area. its for convenience. also if you have twenty kids over, most responsible parents would be out supervising, not hiding away in their bedroom to escape noise. also putting the theater or massage area over the garage wouldn’t be the best idea, garages make loud noises each time you open and close the doors, even in near sound proof homes, so having them opening and closing while watching a movie or getting a massage, wouldnt be too smart.
Get a good enough sound system and you won’t give a shit that there’s a garage below…
In all seriousness though, my bedroom growing up was located directly above my parents’ 2-car garage, and my mother worked very late two nights a week at an emergency vet hospital…she’d get home at 2 or 3 in the morning, and it almost never woke me up, and I am NOT a heavy sleeper. The right design and hardware will make sure it’s not an issue, no matter what you put above the garage.
Thanks John! Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Thanks for the feedback Venom! I don’t think that the Master bedroom placement is that bad. I do see your point that it is a heavily traveled corridor but the only consideration that I could see would be to put the door to the Master coming in from the Great Room, but I think that isn’t as tasteful.
As for the gun range, it would definitly be locked for any kids that would come into my house.
Also, If I was doing any business I would use the Library at the front of the house and that is why I put a “secret” office right next to it.
Woah, don’t hold anything back! Lol
I am blind. Can you repost this in braille. It is too small for me to read.
Some considerations:
Nobody needs 6 pairs of washers and dryers. Seriously over the top and mostly useless. How about just one for the Master Suite or something like a Master Laundry? You also don’t need two in the Laundry Rooms when you have so many others. You could easily get rid of three pairs and still be fine.
Also in the master suite, do you realize that you have to pass by a toilet every time you want to get into a closet? You should consider reworking that a bit.
With the “secret hidden safe room,” it makes more sense to place it where the master bath is located and put the bath where your secret room is located. If you truly want it secret, you wouldn’t want any windows in it anyway and it would be more secure by being more internal to the house. Also, this would allow you to put more windows in the master bath. You could also probably throw a door to the private garden (why does the garden need to be private? what’s wrong with letting everyone in your home enjoy it?) in the hallway next to the theater.
Your “secret office” has doors leading outside from it. It’s not very secret if you can see into it from the outside. All secrets need to be hidden on the interior, no exterior walls!
Regardless, I would love to see the more detailed plans if you’re willing to post them somewhere like mediafire.
i think anyone who has over three people in their house could use more than one pair of washers and dryers. i know personally when i was my clothes, theres always another load, sometimes several, to go in after and it has to wait an hour just do due so, and this is on a daily basis.
Thanks John! I am the designer of this plan and I agree with a house full of people you can never have too many w/d! When I was designing this, my wife and I have always said that we we have our own w/d in our own closets, so that when the time came you would just throw in a load when you wanted to.
I’d recommend flipping the Master Bedroom suite to the opposite side of the house. Venom is right, you really dont want all of that traffic near the suite.
Besides what’s been mentioned previously:
Seriously, I don’t think this is for real. If it was, it would at least be to scale. A bowling alley should be about 112ft long, which makes that one side of the house about two hundred feet by 150ft. Do you know what a roof on that thing will look like? it is either going to be a flat top or it’s going to be bloody high.
A racquet ball court is 20×40 and a shooting range should be at least thirty yards long. It should also be locked so the children don’t get in and have the gun room near it since you’re going to be walking from one side of the house to the other with your firearms. Shooting ranges also need about four feet extra on every surface but the floor for sound baffles and bullet absorbing panels. They also need huge amounts of ventilation because of the lead.
A “secret” safe room should have no outside wall and I don’t see why it’s about the same size as the racquet ball court. A safe room should be in the middle of the house adjacent to the master suite, which it is, but it’s not really “secret” if it has three exterior walls. The great room isn’t really “great” either. It’s quite small, actually.
The left side of the house on the first floor by the office/gift wrapping room has no natural light, which you will get tired of very fast, especially if that is the area your wife is going to be in. Women are more prone to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder [lack of sunlight] than men.
The indoor pool should be over with the home gym considering there are locker rooms over there and preferably in a different building entirely as indoor pools can create very bad mold and humidity problems. If you have to have it in the same building, have a twenty foot corridor to it and nothing else around as to minimize future problems.
The part of the kitchen where you have the eating bar, the area/hallway/walkway behind it needs to be at least five feet wide so people can easily move around behind people who are seated at the bar.
On the second floor, for bedroom four, flip the bedroom proper with the bathroom and closet so the bedroom is facing the south(?) side so it can have more windows. The bathrooms could also be a lot more creative. There also seems to be a lot of wasted space, in general. This is just a poor layout.
You’re also going to have to rethink this considering I see no room or planning for structural supports. The architect and engineer who are going to stamp this thing are going to have to redesign it.
I’ve been working on my house plans for the last four years and I have nearly five hundred revisions already. I work on them every day. I suggest you go back to the drawing board and think this through a little more and make it to scale, put some dimensions on it and submit it again for us to look at. And give us a big one we can read and see the dimensional markings on.
I am not the designer of these plans, but I still wanted to tackle many of the things you mentioned and/or criticized in your comment…
First up, of course this is not “for real”. It’s a fantasy plan drawn up by a non-architect who clearly loves extravagant homes, so it’s not really fair to criticize it as if it’s really being built. That brings me to my next point…the designer does not have to be an expert on the dimensions of bowling alleys, shooting ranges and racquetball courts to include them in his plans. IF the house were really being built, it would not be difficult to make some minor modifications to the plans to accommodate officially-sized recreational areas, but it’s fine here because it gives a good general idea of how the designer wanted the house to be laid out.
I do, however, agree with your view that safe rooms should have no exterior walls and be better hidden. Also valid is your point that an office should not be internally located and window-less, but your seasonal affective disorder comment is laughable and over-the-top.
Going back to my original point, it’s also not fair to criticize over the lack of structural supports because the designer is clearly not (I assume) a structural engineer, and would not be qualified enough to include those elements. And finally, there’s a big difference between an enthusiast designing his fantasy home and someone like you, who seems to be creating and revising plans for a house that will presumably be built at some point…since this home is just a fantasy there are certain flaws in design that are excusable because of that fantasy status.
All I’m saying is if you’re going to do something, do it right, not half-assed.
To make the plan anywhere near “real,” it won’t take some “minor modifications,” it will take some major modifications.
And my wife has SAD so, no, my comment is not “laughable and over-the-top.”
Thanks Watchdude! I do value each comment and minor modification that everyone has suggested, but would agree that you are being a little critical when it comes to demension. I am definitly not a architect or structural engineer, so its design is was not exacltly to scale.
I understand your passion on the subject, watchdude, I really do. But you’re still missing my original point, which is that this was done for fun by someone who likes big homes. I don’t think that “half-assed” is an acceptable term to throw around when we’re dealing with the for-fun layout of a reader’s dream mansion. Clinton’s computer-drawn floor plans are a few steps above other plans we’ve seen on this site, which were hand-drawn on graph paper with free-form sketches of elevations. These plans, by contrast, are more thought out, and while they omit things like structural supports and officially-sized recreational areas, it’s still valid as an exercise in what Clinton would want in his dream home. If you want to criticize floor plans of homes that have actually been built or will be built, do it on some architectural forum’s webpage, not HOTR, which caters to people who are merely interested in big homes and who sometimes wish to sketch out their own versions.
How is everybody reading this? Help me……I’m blind.
Open the picture in its own window
Wow thats alot to read ppl…i personally dont think the house was thought out verry well…thats all im gunna say cuz you ppl have everything else covered. But i do like the secret room idea if only they were more secret.
There are plenty of things I like about the house; some really cool spaces in it. I like how the kitchen and family room are open concept. And I love the observatory and the science lab. I’m not much of a basketball fan, but I love the idea of a big gym; especially if you’ve got kids. A safe place for the kids (of all ages) to come an play.
The following are just some things to think about:
A house that big is going to need staff. Even if it’s just day staff you’re going to want to give them a break/lunch room with their own bathroom somewhere separate from the family spaces. And if you’re talking about ‘fantasy home’, well your fantasy would probably include live-in staff for round-the-clock kitchen/cleaning/beverage service
Or rooms for live in nannies if your fantasy kids are young enough 
As others have mentioned, in my fantasy home I’ve grouped like activities together. Fitness space, family space, large entertainment/party space, intimate entertaining space, etc.
If you’re going to have secret rooms, then you’ll want a secret escape tunnel.
I’m a big car guy, and in my fantasy home the car museum is by the entertainment area, so that when I’ve got a big party people can look through a nice glass wall into the car museum, or they can actually enter the museum and walk around without having to go outside – but no drinks please, and keep your dirty hands off the paint
Or if you want the car museum to be separate, you might want to think about including washroom facilities and maybe a small bar in the museum.
I know this is just a fantasy plan, but as an intellectual exercise it might be worth while thinking about where you’d put the utilities room(s) (ie: water heaters, furnace, vac., etc.). A house that big will likely require at least two utilities rooms; one at either end or one really big one in the middle. (If they’re on the plans I apologize – I can’t read all the room labels). You might want to think about how the bathrooms stack between floors to limit the number of drainage and vent pipes you’ve got to deal with. I don’t know how cold it gets in the part of Texas where you live, but if it ever gets down below freezing you probably don’t want to put any water or drain pipes (ie: sinks, toilets, etc.) on exterior walls in case they freeze – especially when you’re away in St. Barts for a few weeks in the winter
. Likewise give some thought to where the fireplace chimneys will run; if I’m reading the plans right, the fireplace chimney for the family room will be coming up right in the middle of the 2nd floor kitchenette.
I’d probably want to locate the outdoor kitchen a little closer to the real kitchen so that when you’re carrying stuff back and forth it’s not so long a walk.
Are there elevator(s) to the 2nd floor? Every fantasy home needs at least one elevator.
And you can’t really call a guest suite a “suite” if it doesn’t have it’s own private pooper.
Cheers!
Those are all valid points, I completely agree with your main points. Watchdude should take note…put DJL’s comment next to Watchdude’s and I think it’s obvious that one is helpful brainstorming, the other is insulting.
You should do an elevation of the front of the house, even if it’s just a sketch
shooting range next to the master suite?
This is a beautiful plan, and I just have one criticism. The placement of the dining room is awful. In most 2000sqft suburban homes, the placement of the dining room open right next to the front door is acceptable, but not in a mansion of this size. It should be in a different part of the house, close to the kitchen, or even connected, allowing easy access when the chef, i am assuming, brings the food out. Just a suggestion. You did a wonderful job though and should really be proud. lots of luck, and I hope one day you get to build and live in your dream home.
The only thing i find weird about this floor plan is the fact that inside the master bathroom, you have to walk through his/her toilet room to get to his/her closet lol kinda awkward, no one is going to get ready then walk through a toilet room to get out of the closet. other than that, great job love the layout.