Is it better to have a room 18 x 22 or 16 x 24 as a playroom/den ... (a little long)

Hey Guys/girls ... I never post questions about my home renovation's but this one has got me confused ... here is the deal ...

I am adding a playroom for the kids to my home along with a basement since we have no basement now ...

I have filed the plans with the town for a 18 wide x 28 long (504 sq ft)room. I've gotten some quotes for the extension and it is about $15k more then I want to spend so apparently if I take 100 sq.ft. off the room I can bring the price down to about what I want.

My architect says I sould bring the room down to a 16 x 24 (384 sq.ft.)where I thought I should go with a 18 x 22 (396 Sq.ft.) ... he said that I am better off having a longer room as it will seem bigger and also easier to set up for the kids ...

Evenutually this will be the a den / hang out room when the kids get older ...

Anyway, is 16' a good width for a room or am I going to feel like the room is too skinny and not as usable ...

My wife and I have layed it out to try to feel the size but am not quite getting a good feel ...

I'm pretty bad a visualizing this stuff.. but our living room is 14x24 and it's a pretty difficult shape to deal with. One of the long sides is open into the dining room, so we don't have a problem feeling like we're in a tunnel, but it's narrow enough that it is hard to make good use of the space. We've said a few times that an extra 3 feet would have made a big difference.

The only place you can put the TV is on the short wall, and 24' is too far away to watch TV, so you end up with a couch 2/3 of the way back, with a dead space behind it. Also, the room isn't wide enough to have my speakers placed around the TV as I would want them. Is there any chance this room will eventually become your TV room? If so, (and if you're into audio at all) I'd spend the effort to design it now to be a decent shape for a music room, or a surround sound movie room. Long and narrow probably isn't good.

And despite being a relatively large room, there's no easy way for say 8 people to sit around and talk. The couch is a barrier in the middle of the room.

Maybe it would make a good play room, I don't know. Our bedroom is actually the same shape (sits right above the living room) and the shape works OK there. I just don't like it for a TV room.

I don't think you will notice the difference, both are huge rooms. I would go for the 18x22 because later you have the possibilty of make two rooms out of it, 2x9x11. Trying to make two rooms with 16x24 to 2x8x12 would make the 8 ft width too narrow.

Rumatt ... I have a living room now that is 24 x 13 and I know what you mean about it being to skinny ... I try to imagine the extra 3 feet wide and it seems like a wide enough room but still can't quite tell.

Dave: Thanks for the advice but there is no possiblity it will ever being divided into 2 rooms ... if anything when the kids are older it will become a den/theatre room and I am guessing the basement can be there hang out room.

One thing for sure, I am definitely going to have it prewired and will set up a system for the kids to have to watch movies and tv ... this was the one mistake I made with my Kitchen/den, I didn't have it pre-wired and now I regret it

Originally Posted by AF-RX8

if anything when the kids are older it will become a den/theatre room

I would post on the home theater forums and ask for suggestions. Trying to setup a great surround sound room and finding out that the room is an acoustical nightmare sucks. For example, I think you don't want one dimension to be 2x the other, or weird things happen. Also, at some point you may want to get a certain size TV. the size of the TV dictates your viewing distance, and given a viewing distance, you want your speakers a certain distance apart... You need to make sure the room is that wide, (plus plenty for space around the speakers) etc.

Originally Posted by Dave 330i

I don't think you will notice the difference, both are huge rooms. I would go for the 18x22 because later you have the possibilty of make two rooms out of it, 2x9x11. Trying to make two rooms with 16x24 to 2x8x12 would make the 8 ft width too narrow.

um, Dave--you could make 4 rooms 8x12 from a 16x24 room

2 rooms would be 16x12

you're an engineer, right?

18x22

the wider room gives more room for foot traffic, and the deeper room ends up with more wasted space at the back.

Originally Posted by atyclb

um, Dave--you could make 4 rooms 8x12 from a 16x24 room

2 rooms would be 16x12

you're an engineer, right?

Originally Posted by atyclb

um, Dave--you could make 4 rooms 8x12 from a 16x24 room

2 rooms would be 16x12

you're an engineer, right?

I prefer squarer rooms, Alan. 18X22

Originally Posted by atyclb

um, Dave--you could make 4 rooms 8x12 from a 16x24 room

2 rooms would be 16x12

you're an engineer, right?

must be the metric conversion error
since AF will never convert the room anyway, I agree with John, 18x22

Originally Posted by AF-RX8

I am adding a playroom for the kids to my home along with a basement since we have no basement now

wow, adding a basement? How would that work?

Originally Posted by atyclb

wow, adding a basement? How would that work?

Easy. Lift up house, dig hole, set down house.



I assumed he meant just under the new room.

Hell, just build both.

Originally Posted by AF-RX8

My architect says I sould bring the room down to a 16 x 24 (384 sq.ft.)where I thought I should go with a 18 x 22 (396 Sq.ft.) ... he said that I am better off having a longer room as it will seem bigger and also easier to set up for the kids ...

hell, what does an architect know...just go with your gut

Originally Posted by rumratt

I assumed he meant just under the new room.

Exactly ... the basement will be under the new room only ... it really sucks not having a basement because anything that needs to be stored ends up in the garage.

The extra cost to have a basement per square foot is very affordable

Originally Posted by atyclb

hell, what does an architect know...just go with your gut

While to give you an idea the guy drives a Hummer ... now do you think I should listen to him

Originally Posted by rumratt

Easy. Lift up house, dig hole, set down house.

You mean like this

Originally Posted by AF-RX8

You mean like this

Exactly. But when you do this, I think the square footage becomes slightly less affordable.


Moving houses is cool. In my home town a bank bought a piece of property that had a house on it. Rather than tear it down, they gave it away free to anyone who agreed to get rid of it. Someone bought it and they moved it down the street about 1/2 mile away. As a kid, it was cool as hell watching them drive a house down the street.

Both room sizes are very large and should accomodate a pool table or a media center. I also don't think you will feel that the longer room is too narrow.

One thing to consider is that drywall comes in lengths of 8 or 12 ft. Therefore, the 16x24 room would be easier to drywall and would have less seams, if that matters to you. Since I finished my basement myself, it mattered to me a lot.

Our family room is 14x24. An extra 2 feet in width would be nice. Two feet more than that wouldn't be particular helpful for waht we want/like to do with the room. I'd much perfer 16x24 over 18x22. We have the TV set up a couple feet from one of the short walls (to make it eaasy to get behind the AV gear when things have to be changed...which is way too often). The seatback of the couch is about 14 feet from the screen, which is fine for me with our 32" TV, but most people would be happy at that distance with a much larger screen.

There is space behind the couch, but it's far from dead. Originally, we had a stationary bike and, some cat scratching posts and a small credenzza. About a year ago, we converted my office to a playroom for the kids and moved my computer desk (which is a huge two panel motherfcuker) behind the couch (and the stuff that was there went other places). it's very cozy back there now.

At our last place, we had a similar setup. Originally, there was a wet bar and some barstools. We removed the bar and moved the couch back a few more feet. We meant to do something else with it, but we moved not too long after removing the bar. The space also sort of functioned as a path to a sliding door to a balcony. There's all kinds of things that you can do with the space behind a couch.

Audio requirements are different for listening to music and for listenign to tv/movies. You generally want the front mains in a video system to be a lot closer together than you do for music.

Originally Posted by ·clyde·

Our family room is 14x24. An extra 2 feet in width would be nice. Two feet more than that wouldn't be particular helpful for waht we want/like to do with the room. I'd much perfer 16x24 over 18x22. We have the TV set up a couple feet from one of the short walls (to make it eaasy to get behind the AV gear when things have to be changed...which is way too often). The seatback of the couch is about 14 feet from the screen, which is fine for me with our 32" TV, but most people would be happy at that distance with a much larger screen.

Clyde by any chance do you have a picture of your room ? It sounds like a great size ...

Originally Posted by atyclb

wow, adding a basement? How would that work?

And for those of us who live in TX, what is a "basement"?

(NOTE: most of us live on rock so the idea of anything under ground level is completely foreign).

Actually I found that Texans like to refer to an upstairs playroom as a "Texas basement".

Originally Posted by hockeynut

And for those of us who live in TX, what is a "basement"?

(NOTE: most of us live on rock so the idea of anything under ground level is completely foreign).

Actually I found that Texans like to refer to an upstairs playroom as a "Texas basement".

No basement? Where do you store all the junk you never use anymore?

Originally Posted by guitarman

No basement? Where do you store all the junk you never use anymore?

Closets.

Garage.

Attic.

Kids rooms.

Bathroom behind the toilet.

Under the sinks.

Trunk of the wife's car.

You get the idea...

Originally Posted by AF-RX8

Clyde by any chance do you have a picture of your room ? It sounds like a great size ...

I can take some tonight...