What can we do with this room....

74jax

Downstairs we have 3 rooms - a lounge and a very small kitchen and what appears to be a huge expance of nothing... which has a dining table in but nothing else and is very bare and unwelcoming, as such we don't eat in there.

How can we change this layout? We were thinking of making the current kitchen a utility, and making the large current 'dining room' a kitchen diner. But on measuring, due to windows, patio doors etc we would just be moving the same size kitchen into the dining room and having therefore just gaining the dining table in the same room.

Yes, it would be more iinviting, we could sit and cook etc, it would be more spacious, light and airey, but would you consider moving your whole kitchen into another room worth it, if you didn't gain more kitchen space?

If you could have any room you wanted what would you have? We don't watch TV so a big TV room isn't useful. We have a study for the computer, it's just such a waste of space but we can't think what to do with it.

Person_one

Why don't you try and make the dining room nicer before spending a ton of money moving kitchens around!

Bookcases? Plants? Comfier dining chairs?

JanCee

Knock through & make it into a large kitchen/diner? It may cost more but if it gives you a more usable space then it may be worth it.

74jax

Person_one wrote: »

Why don't you try and make the dining room nicer before spending a ton of money moving kitchens around!

Bookcases? Plants? Comfier dining chairs?

The space is just too vast.... I did get a huge dining table in the hope it would take up the room (seats 10), but it doesn't really do anything and to be honest looks 'too big' - seeing as there's only 3 of us!, so we brought my OH's more average sized dining room table which is in the room (but mine is still in it also) and that one just looks lost.

We'd like it to be a room we use, we just don't know what doing.

JanCee wrote: »

Knock through & make it into a large kitchen/diner? It may cost more but if it gives you a more usable space then it may be worth it.

The kitchen is an 'add on' to the house, so to knock through we would need to take down the outside supporting wall and add a lintle etc. Between the wall is also a solid slate walk in larder so that would need removing and the ceiling above supporting where the larder walls have been removed if that makes sense.

rosalie-lavender

If it is reasonably close to the kitchen I think I would add a nice piece of furniture that could be used to store some of the kitchen bits. That would take the pressure off the kitchen without the hassle of moving the whole room.

tayforth

Where do you eat at present?

tayforth

rosalie-lavender wrote: »

If it is reasonably close to the kitchen I think I would add a nice piece of furniture that could be used to store some of the kitchen bits. That would take the pressure off the kitchen without the hassle of moving the whole room.

Ooh, this would be good. A nice big dresser.

Owain_Moneysaver

Best would probably be to move the wall, so you have a slightly smaller but still adequately-sized dining room, and a dining (or at least breakfasting) kitchen.

Photos and floorplans please

(Well, maybe not possible - I've just read post no. 4)

jackomdj

Could you use it as a hobby room? Or even separate it in two using a screen, have part as a dining room and part as a hobby room? Or (again partitioning it off) use part as an excercise area (I would love to have our exercise stuff inside rather than in the garage).

Our dining table is in the kitchen and our dining room is used as the childrens playroom. It is great as it means the living room is a grown up room, although the girls come In Here to watch TV, read etc the room is not covered in toys (our old house was open plan so the living room, diner was just full of childrens stuff)

greenbee

Would a utility room be useful? If so, then it might be worth it. You can keep all the boring stuff (big sink, washing machine, dishwasher, freezer etc) out there so you don't need to much kitchen space.

My utility not only has the WM/DW/TD/boiler but also the microwave, freezer, a big sink for washing up and hand washing laundry, cupboards for all my cleaning stuff and the kitchen items that I don't use every day, as well as a long run of work surface with the slow cooker and kenwood on. So my kitchen has more space and room for people to sit and chat while we are cooking.

If the space isn't used at the moment, you're right to think about changing it to make it more suitable for your family.

And a utility room is great for when people come in with muddy clothes and boots rather than traipsing dirt through the kitchen!

Brighton_belle

I'd go for a kitchen you could sit in myself. Sounds very sociable. But then that's because I know I would love a kitchen with a table in it rather than a galley kitchen we have.
Your layout sounds a bit similar to ours and we use our 'spare space' not as a dining room but for laundry drying and a woodwork/craft workshop and hobby/interests storage room.