Ideas for changing downstairs layout

fiveacre

Hi all - I saw some great advice and ideas in response to a post recently about possible layout changes, so wonder if anyone might have thoughts on this property we are in the process of purchasing.

It's a 1970s detached house with a lounge/diner and a second smaller sitting room. We'd like to make the kitchen larger, and it seems natural to knock through the wall between the kitchen and dining area to make a kitchen/diner. Would you then make it very open plan throughout the downstairs, which could be a bit too much, or close off between dining area and sitting room? Is that going to end up having an oddly small hallway and awkward entrance into the kitchen? The rear backs on to a lovely garden so it would also be great to make the garden more accessible with larger doors.

All and any thoughts very welcome and thanks in advance!

GDB2222

In our house, we have a kitchen diner, and that works well for us, including for entertaining.

Assuming the walls dividing the kitchen from the dining room are not load bearing, I'd knock that into one, and put doors between the dining area and the sitting room.

I might also move the door from the hall into the sitting room a bit towards the main entrance door, so the present passage into the kitchen could all be incorporated into the new kitchen diner, and I'd turn the kitchen door 90 degrees.  

Doozergirl

You can lose the  tiny hallway by taking out the two walls of the dining room that form an L.  That creates you a perfect rectangle of a room of 4.57 by 6.7m.  A lovely size. 

Bring the sitting room door down slightly so that the kitchen door is directly in line with the end of the stairs, and the sitting room door directly in front of the stairs. 

Like GDB, we have a kitchen diner, of a very similar size to what yours could be and it's perfect for entertaining.  We have an island and a dining table that will extend to seat 12.    We had friends for the weekend a couple of weeks ago and spent the whole time in the the kitchen.   We've had fully open plan before but I do prefer to have the lounge separate.  

Teapot55

If you’re thinking of having larger doors onto the garden such as bi-fold it’s worth considering the option of being able to have them almost shut apart from one section that’s still fully glazed but is a door with a handle inside & out.

This provides more flexibility for 
• cooler days 
• times when there’s too many flies about & you’ve got food out
• preventing visiting children/ dogs or house cats from ‘escaping’
• preventing other people’s cats from getting in 
• quickly securing your home if you just need to pop upstairs or out to the shop

theoretica

Doozergirl said:

You can lose the  tiny hallway by taking out the two walls of the dining room that form an L.  That creates you a perfect rectangle of a room of 4.57 by 6.7m.  A lovely size. 

Bring the sitting room door down slightly so that the kitchen door is directly in line with the end of the stairs, and the sitting room door directly in front of the stairs.

This is what I though too - a rectangle formed of current kitchen, dining room and a little bit of the hall.  Then maybe another large rectangle from sitting room and snug.

Also think about the wall between new kitchen/diner and sitting room - do you want wall, wall with doors, room divider, wall with window?  If you combine the two sitting rooms you probably don't need three doors in the long wall.

fiveacre

Thanks for all of these, they're really helpful and quite in line with what we were thinking but lots of useful info to think about.

Doozergirl, your kitchen sounds fab, I'd love to see the layout or a pic of something similar. The next big challenge after making a big space will be what to put in it!

Doozergirl

There's some photos of the business end here: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CR9kwayKwc8/?utm_medium=copy_link

And these are some I took back in February.  

I haven't taken any decent photos of what lurks behind the acoustic panels but there are three separate cupboards of about 120cm.   One is a bar, one is a laundry and one is the general pantry that holds the hoover, ironing board, broom and random kitchen electricals.  

Been between the kitchen and the garden all day today, which is much improved on Feb's view.  🙂

scottishblondie

@Doozergirl I love your flooring!  I've had my eye on re-doing our place with a herringbone pattern flooring.  Can I ask what it is?

DRP

Doozergirl said:

There's some photos of the business end here: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CR9kwayKwc8/?utm_medium=copy_link

Very very nice. Underfloor heating? How is it? I would like to have ufh in our at-the-design-and-financing-stage rear extension, but it is hard to find objective information on it…

Doozergirl

It's Amtico. Pale Ash 🙂

Doozergirl

DRP said:

Doozergirl said:

There's some photos of the business end here: 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CR9kwayKwc8/?utm_medium=copy_link

Very very nice. Underfloor heating? How is it? I would like to have ufh in our at-the-design-and-financing-stage rear extension, but it is hard to find objective information on it…

Yes.  It's a brand new house and it was great last winter, but I know that the house is insulated and airtight.  The temperature was ambient and we didn't need anything on upstairs at all.  I'd be much more nervous in an older house. Our old house barely retained the heat from radiators!