Floor plan reconfiguration advice

Nnenne1

Buying this flat, it’s in my preferred area, but it needs work and the flat configuration isn’t right. 

Is it possible to reconfigure, with permissions of course? I’m hoping to move the living room, where the bedroom is. I can’t figure out, best course of action. 

Last picture is the entrance and brown door is upstairs door. 

Please help! 

Doozergirl

Is there any way of moving the front door to the lobby area before the bathroom? 

kimwp

Doozergirl said:

Is there any way of moving the front door to the lobby area before the bathroom? 

I think that's where the door and stairs to the upstairs flat is. 

Potentially you could see if you could get a door from the side passage, but it might need agreement from the neighbour if they have rights over it and would mean you are going into a little passageway to get to your front door (how safe is the area?)

Cairnpapple

The current living room looks big enough that you could use some sort of room divider to screen the doors and make a corridor between the front door and interior door: screens/curtains/IKEA Kallax. Maybe even some sort of clothes storage system like IKEA Pax? Though you wouldn't want to block all the light from the corridor.  Worth looking at studio flat interior design solutions to see how they divide. 

Maybe consider a daybed type of bed styling so that you could open everything up if friends were coming in during the day, but keep the curtains or screens closed if just answering the door to the postie or whatever. 

silvercar

Swap the bedroom and lounge around. Either by changing the entrance to the lobby area or moving it down and cutting a square out of the front room. That way the conservatory is off the lounge, which makes far more sense.

Section62

kimwp said:

Doozergirl said:

Is there any way of moving the front door to the lobby area before the bathroom? 

I think that's where the door and stairs to the upstairs flat is. 

Potentially you could see if you could get a door from the side passage, but it might need agreement from the neighbour if they have rights over it and would mean you are going into a little passageway to get to your front door (how safe is the area?)

Unless it has been legally changed, it looks like the passageway gives access to the rear of at least 10/11 properties, and is very probably owned by the neighbour.  I suspect the 'legal' changes needed to make that the primary access to the flat could be messy.

From a practical perspective, it isn't very wide, so having a standard doorway directly into it would be quite restrictive in terms of getting furniture in and out of the flat.  Using the passageway to access a principal door at the rear of the property might be better for practical purposes, but not sure what effect it might have on the property value if it had no 'front' door. (Interesting the EA hasn't used a photo of the frontage of the property in the listing)

Cairnpapple

Really like the idea of using the back door (conservatory doors I guess) as your usual entrance, I'd still keep the front door for post etc but there are plenty of parts of the country where everyone who knows you uses the back door. I lived in a 2-up 2-down miner's terrace as a student that was like that, the room with the front door was set up as a bedroom and nobody ever came to the front door except the postie and TV licensing.

Nnenne1

kimwp said:

Doozergirl said:

Is there any way of moving the front door to the lobby area before the bathroom? 

I think that's where the door and stairs to the upstairs flat is. 

Potentially you could see if you could get a door from the side passage, but it might need agreement from the neighbour if they have rights over it and would mean you are going into a little passageway to get to your front door (how safe is the area?)

Area is very safe, the alley way will be my last resort because it’s long and narrow, not looking forward to that being my entrance really. 

@Doozergirl what kimpwp said really, can’t move the door because upstairs door is there. Upstairs has the long corridor indoor, which isn’t ideal. Probably the in thing when flat was converted. 

Section62

Cairnpapple said:

Really like the idea of using the back door (conservatory doors I guess) as your usual entrance, I'd still keep the front door for post etc but there are plenty of parts of the country where everyone who knows you uses the back door. I lived in a 2-up 2-down miner's terrace as a student that was like that, the room with the front door was set up as a bedroom and nobody ever came to the front door except the postie and TV licensing.

I know, it would be a good practical solution.  But going to the back door isn't really the done thing in this area.

The main problem is that the (padlocked) gate in the passageway is effective at keeping people out of the back gardens of maybe a dozen houses.  Although the area is reasonably safe, not having that gate locked may increase the risk of those properties being burgled, or at least would probably make the occupiers think they are more likely to be burgled*.  Installing a new lockable gate in the alley just past where the new access is made to the flat wouldn't work, since once you are through the enclosed passageway it would be possible to climb over gates/fences at will.

(*the fixed panel above the gate suggests security was the original driver for having the gate fitted)

Nnenne1

Section62 said:

kimwp said:

Doozergirl said:

Is there any way of moving the front door to the lobby area before the bathroom? 

I think that's where the door and stairs to the upstairs flat is. 

Potentially you could see if you could get a door from the side passage, but it might need agreement from the neighbour if they have rights over it and would mean you are going into a little passageway to get to your front door (how safe is the area?)

Unless it has been legally changed, it looks like the passageway gives access to the rear of at least 10/11 properties, and is very probably owned by the neighbour.  I suspect the 'legal' changes needed to make that the primary access to the flat could be messy.

From a practical perspective, it isn't very wide, so having a standard doorway directly into it would be quite restrictive in terms of getting furniture in and out of the flat.  Using the passageway to access a principal door at the rear of the property might be better for practical purposes, but not sure what effect it might have on the property value if it had no 'front' door. (Interesting the EA hasn't used a photo of the frontage of the property in the listing)

Here’s a pic of the entrance from Google map

Twixty3

If you are not that fussed about the conservatory. When funds allow you could perhaps shorten the bedroom, conservatory area could become a proper sunroom/kitchen ( maybe even extended), bathroom could be at top end of were current kitchen is and it would gain a window and the old bathroom area would become part of the corridor with perhaps floor to ceiling built in storage or not.