I'd pick the one that feels right for you and your stuff. In general it seems like larger might be better if you are working from home (i.e. spending all your time there) but if you just don't like that layout choose the other.

I think that desk is pretty useless. When you are spending most of your time working will you want to be in the back hall by the laundry room or out in the nice space by the windows? However, the desk area could be pretty nice for storage and personally I think having a whole utility room instead of just a doors over the machines is pretty sweet.

In the bigger one I would put the TV etc on the one "living room" wall and the couch opposite, floating, possibly with a consul table. Or you could flip it with the TV on the "dinning room" wall.
I also love the utility room

I like the larger layout a lot, but I would use the desk by the utility room to keep your personal paperwork separate from your work. I like that there is a little desk though, a good place to keep your files and bills.

Here is what I would do: face the couch toward that floating wall separating the bedroom and living room. Then get a little center island or a high top kitchen table to act as a dining table in the kitchen area, and then use the dining room space for your desk.

I agree with Leigh above, regarding couch placement. I think whether you use the living and dining areas in their designated spots, or switch them, if you want a couch opposite a tv, floating will probably work best, and will create good separation.

Also, it looks like there *is* a desk in the smaller floorplan - it's tacked onto the end of the kitchen counter space.

So, I see a few trade offs here - the utility room is awesome, the pantry seems like a good bonus (if you cook), the two bathroom layouts are kind of a matter of personal preference. And, the smaller kitchen has an island, which is cool. So, if it were me (and, for what it's worth, I have lived in a studio/loft type setup in the past), I know that I'm not great at working at a desk; I really want to be where ever things are happening. In the larger floorplan, I would put a desk/workstation/etc in the corner in the dining area. Then, since this kitchen doesn't have an island, and I like having a little extra prep space sometimes, I'd put a table in the kitchen, so that I'd have a little more prep space and a dining area (I don't really entertain anyone but close friends). I would use the living room wall for the tv, and put the couch opposite it (and I'd get a fold out couch for guests, because my preference would be to have as much of a wall as possible in between me and whoever is visiting from out of town so that it felt somewhat private).

In the smaller floor plan, I would count on the large-looking closet being enough (so no dressers) opt for under bed storage as necessary, and put my desk up by the window in the bedroom, so that I could see into the living room while I worked, and out the window, if I wanted.

I don't know if light-wise, or anything, that would work for you. And, since I do a lot of contract/school work at home, I would also be betting that I would spend more time working on the couch, at the kitchen table, on my bed, than at the desk. But the desk would be important for ergonomic reasons, and as a good place to *keep* all of the work from home stuff.

I don't know if that's helpful at all, but it's what I would do. :)

You can get a wall unit type of shelfving with both open and closed storage as well as a drop down leaf/table. You can use it both as your desk and dining table. Make sure that some of the shelving has closed storage so you can put your office supplies away as well as your lap top at the end of the day. If this does not work for you, I do like the suggestions above. Best of luck. Oh, I like both lay-outs but agree with ANGELINATHEBAKER. Pick the space that 'speaks' to you. Good Luck.

Another option...in the larger unit, place your desk against the dining room wall with shelves all around for your storage. You'll get storage and light. Depending upon your computer/desk needs, you might think of a "return" type desk arm on castors that rotates out and faces the window for work while it tucks away by rotating 90 degrees for off hours. Then curtain it off - that entire wall from pantry to the window. Bye bye work. Meanwhile, another use for the desk area near the utility room is a mud room with hooks for jackets above the desk or use as previously suggested for personal use, hobbies, etc.

I'd place your sofa facing the living room wall and a smaller extendable dining table to the back of it as thought it was a console, placing the extra chairs in other areas of your loft. Or go with the island idea from Grapevine above. Place TV on living room wall. I'd put a chair on either side of the TV unit so you can have a good conversation flow for entertaining.

The larger unit is also more flexible with those two bathroom sinks and the utility room for the long-term and I believe possibly for resale as well. Whichever you select, each has a nice layout.

I agree that the built in desk is not great to work in. The space is too small for a real home office. In reality it will become your launching pad: the place for keys, mail, briefcases and bags.

Put the TV etc against the wall and "float" the sofa in the room facing it. Instead of a console table how about putting your desk behind the sofa facing the TV. You will have to be neat and clear your desk at the end of the day, and disciplined and not watch TV while your work, but you will be near the windows, natural light and out of that little cubby hole next to the utility room.

I recently moved into a 741 sf loft and it is the perfect size for me! Remember the bigger the place the higher your utility bills too. In the small one I'd put the desk against the wall next to the pantry up towards the window. Add some bookcases and shelving for a nice work area. A long, slim desk like the MICKE from IKEA would save floor space. Put the couch in front of the living room window and the tv on the wall between the living and bedroom. Then you can see it fom everywhere in the main living space. Add a chair near the couch, a small roumd dining table or island near the kichen and you will be good to go! Have fun and enjoy your space.

All the floor plans I see in this post have something that says "Desk" so I'm not sure which one is the smaller floor plan. Give up on the idea of having your sofa up against a wall. Get one that looks decent floating in the middle of the room. *Idea* - put your desk up against the back of the sofa instead of a console table. Or, use the dining room as double-duty office and dining. If you have the larger unit you'll have more room for storage pieces where you can stash your work-related stuff when you entertain.

oops! I meant "in the larger one".

Is there a difference in price that you'd rather have the savings for something else? How long do you plan on staying? If you're not really into fixing up a place, maybe it'd be easier with the smaller one. The two LR DR windows in the larger one are kind of a plus if they have a good view and let in a fair amt. of light. If you don't cook much or plan on entertaining much, then again maybe go for the smaller one. Which one do you think you're more excited about (or least apprehenisve about?).

I'm going to say to go with the larger one if you're working from home. A small space quickly feels cramped when there's papers/stuff laying around and since you're spending so much time in it, you want to feel less squeezed in. With the smaller layout you would have to choose between having a work area or having a dining area. It takes a very neat and organized person to share the two without ending up just eating at a desk.

I do agree with the others about not using the "desk" for your work space and as storage instead. I like the idea of placing a desk and filing cabinets behind the sofa, this gives you a large area to spread work out on that feels open.

Which works better from a cost standpoint....I work at home and would go nuts facing a wall in the laundry room -- especially when there is nice light in the LR or BR.

Besides cost, the decision really is which one works better for you...and the kind of work you do. You could consider using the desk area in the smaller apartment (as noted in the plan) for files/electronics....everything but a laptop (If you can get away with that) and then simply work from your laptop where you feel most comfortable --. You might also consider floating the sofa in the middle of the main room of the smaller plan and put a console or dining table behind it....then maybe just a nice Eames lounge chair or chaise facing into the middle of the room from one of the corners on the window wall.

Loft apartments can feel incredibly spacious due to the high ceilings. My sister lives in a ~500 sq foot studio loft and loves it.

I don't think the layouts on these lofts are as good as hers is tho. Larger lofts tend to work better if the space has more than one level so that the open space is not overwhelming. A standard way to handle a slightly larger loft is to have a bedroom level looking out over the living area. This gives you a cozier area as well as soaring open space.

I *think* in your position I'd go for the larger layout tho, and I'd use the high ceilings as an excuse to indulge in a canopy bed and curtains.

Go for the floor plan that has fewer doors in the bathroom. We have three doors into our master bedroom and you can't begin to imagine the headache and frustration. We constantly spend our time opening or closing doors. A door is always blocking the way to open a cabinet, get into the shower, etc., The larger floor plan makes more sense for bathroom functionality. Also, the larger floor plan has a nice size pantry which makes a huge difference when you spend a lot of time at home.

I personally like the larger space better. With the smaller layout, the entryway looks cramped and the first thing you see when you walk in the front door is the kitchen, which is sometimes not what you or your guests want to be greeted with.

I love the larger loft. I would switch the living and dining room areas. You will also have plenty of space to have a nice desk and work from another area other than the "desk" area in the loft...I agree with everybody else that you could use the desk area by your entry for storage and decorate it really nice with a bold color...good luck!!!! Post pictures once you move and do the whole area.

Plan 1) If you do not have many guests over for dinner, you can use the eat-in kitchen as your dining area and use the diningroom/ livingroom as the living room (the entire area). You can add a fold down leaf to the eat-in kitchen island to add more place settings and counter space or fold it down to save space.

Plan 2) Use the couch as a room divider between the living area and the kitchen and dining area by adding a sofa table to the back and put the television on the opposite wall.

I know it's not what you asked, but being a long term apratment dweller, I always go for the floorplan that has the living area the furthest away from the front door - it can be such a nightmare if you constantly hear every noise from the hallway intruding into your private space - or if you should happen to have a neighbors door directly across from yours it will sound like you are sharing an apartment, and if either one of you makes too much noise for the other - WAR. So, from from what the floorplans seem to depict, I'd choose the smalller one!

I would go for the larger one, but not use the built in desk on a daily basis.

It's too small and has no natural light, but certainly use it for files and storage. My idea would be to have a feature vintage desk in the living room or dining room for your day to day work. With the windows it's much healthier to have natural light coming in and also a pleasant distraction watching the world go by, working from home can be isolating so it will provide you with more stimulation (rather than being side by side with the laundry room and front door.)

I would consider the larger unit as the floor plan of the smaller one will be darker in the fact the windows are on the shorter wall unlike the bigger unit
and my first thought for the lay out of the bigger unit would be go with a dining table/island in the kitchen and the wall "south" of the pantry as a work station "boxed" off with a sofa floating looking towards the wall deciding the bedroom space and use the "desk" as a "launch pad space"

2 comments

1) The solution to the furniture against the wall problem you mention is an area rug. Plunk it down in the are you want to be your living room and imagine the edges of the rug are the walls. Arrange the furniture accordingly. Also, a sectional sometimes works really well in such situations.

2) Is the loft finished? Because in the larger loft, that desk space is kind of inefficient. I would either make the utility room bigger and make it a huge storage space, or make it smaller - just a closet and use the space for something else, possibly a larger office space or more closet space or a reading nook with bookcases on both sides or ... something.

From an old AT post . . . "Bedrooms make no sense. Don't put single beds in empty rooms called bedrooms, but instead put individual bed alcoves off rooms with other nonsleeping functions, so the bed itself becomes a tiny private haven."

I would create a bed alcove with the bed against the bedroom wall and surrounded by scrims or some sort of frosted material. Then you can have shelving around that. Your desk can go at the no-longer-bedroom window and have all that shelving behind it for office-y stuff. There is still a nice hall to the bathroom from the office or from the living space.

You should still get nice, natural light in the bed alcove if you like and your living space would be left spacious and free of work paraphernalia.

As for the tv wall conundrum, flat screens mounted on arms are the things design dreams are made of.

In the either plan, you'd have to walk through one door, into your bathroom, to get to your closet to get dressed every time, and either do it there or bring the clothes back to where you do get dressed. Moisture issues, bathroom smells - those things I don't want that near my clothing. Unless you're one to get dressed in the bathroom, I'd find this daily annoyance reason enough to want to seriously reconfigure either plan. In the one, if a single sink could go where the linen closet is (the pipes and drains are there already) (why does anyone need two sinks in a place that small?! Why would they plumb a short wall in the middle of a unit?!), you could move the door to the actual bathroom, not your entry hall. The sink area then could become a smaller closet, but it directly faces into your room and use a sliding door to access the bathroom from your roon, And then whatever closet space is left isn't part of the bathroom, and you can access it from the hall, which isn't so weird, and then you could also lose the teensy clostet by the entry for a less door-cluttery entry.

Think about your daily life as it is now, and imagine yours in either space. Imagine your morning routine. Imagine how you walk in the door. Where you eat. How you put your laundry away. Where do you set your groceries down before you put them away. Things like that. When I look at those plans, and think about all the doors that open and bang into each other in either of them, it makes me irritable.

In the design where the bathroom and utility spaces flank the front door, there's a better flow when you enter - the desk to your left can be a landing strip and you can hang up clothing or store things right away. And if you're cooking or washing dishes, you're better able to interact with your guests. A pantry is probably more useful than an island. I'm not sure which is larger or smaller by the images, but the traffic flow and design in one would suit my way of moving about a home more than the other. You know yourself, really.

Go for the larger one. You'll have more room for changing your mind if the arrangement doesn't work the first time you get set.

I just moved into a huge live/work loft - about 1600 sq ft with no closets or defined spaces other than the kitchen and bathroom so I am envious of the closets!

I'd be tempted to turn the walk-in closet in the smaller apartment into an office, then get some freestanding furniture in the bedroom to store your clothes.

Are you willing to sit at the built in desk that is provided in that last plan? I've lived in lofts and they tend to get dark at the interior sections of the builidng (location of that desk).

Frankly, I find the layouts inefficient. Do you really need two doors to that little bathroom? Sometimes I think that these developers have a checklist of items that don't really apply to all situations. Lose the second door to the bathroom and that wall space will make an excellent area to place your desk.

Honestly, I like the smaller floorplan better because you can put the bed firmly against a wall and make the other half of the bedroom an office. Then you have room for a living room against the outer wall of the living space and a little circular cafe table near the kitchen. I just prefer the walls-to-space aspect of the smaller one. Too much floorspace that is used inefficiently can be confusing.

Those last two comments gave me an idea. Get a bed with a tall headboard (say 6 feet), then push it out from the wall by 7 or 8 feet (so that in each option the bed is near the centre of the room and pointing at the window). Put the office area behind the headboard. That way it's neatly out of sight but easily accessible and well lit.