Layout fix? Photos attached!

[Hero1callylost]

Anyone got ideas to fix my ground floor layout?

'Conservatory' is actually a horrid cheap corrugated roof thing, hot in summer and freezing in winter. Currently got dishwasher, washing machine and bins in it, handy for drying clothes in summer and as a mud room but not much else.

Kitchen is small, not really big enough for dining space too. Decor is old, while thing needs redoing really. Tempted to knock through to utility to make a larger kitchen/diner.

Door between kitchen and lounge is hideous (see photo), needs to go - take out to make more open plan perhaps? (Squared or arched?) Think it would have been an archway in the past.

What would you do with it all? Don't particularly need more space except a more sociable kitchen would be nice to have. Don't want to decorate before doing any obvious layout fixes.

Thanks!

[ConkerTriumphant]

I had a house with a similar layout.

I opened up the kitchen across the house (into where your table is) and put a wall up to separate off a smaller, cosier lounge.

Would that work? I also had a similar conservatory space and left it as the boot room/laundry/dog bed

[ConkerTriumphant]

And yes, that is one hideous door!

[Aftershock15]

I guess it depends how much you want to spend! I would take out the wall between kitchen and dining area, but reinstall wall between lounge and dining area. Maybe replace conservatory with brick built extension with tile roof.

[SpartaCarcass]

I'd wall up the lounge making it slightly larger into the dining room space. Knock across dining room and kitchen and possibly extend kitchen into conservatory space and put folding doors into the space created between dining room and kitchen so you could use it as a courtyard space between kitchen there and kitchen. Possibly with glass roof over the space.

[whois]

I opened up the kitchen across the house (into where your table is) and put a wall up to separate off a smaller, cosier lounge.

That is what I would do.

[bombayflambe]

I'd make a kitchen diner and a smaller lounge. Keep the boot room.
Also move kitchen door up so it's flush with edge of lounge and put in a downstairs loo under the stairs.

[yomellamoHelly]

If you can afford it I'd replace the utility with a proper extension. Then put downstairs loo / utility next to the stairs. Would remove the kitchen / dining "door". Move the kitchen towards the extension potentially with a short peninsula / small breakfast bar between kitchen and dining and then I might put a wall between the lounge and dining (would depend on light). Would replace sliding doors at some point.

[EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard]

Totally depends on budget to be fair. I'd get rid of the door arragement between the kitchen and dining space. Square it off. That shouldn't cost too much. The ideal would be to replace the inefficient conservatory with something usable all year round incorporating it into the kitchen and refitting.

Do you need a downstairs loo? Are you planning on staying long term and do you think the cost of those works would be reflected in the revised valuation of your house?

[Hero1callylost]

Budget is tiny at the moment but would rather wait and save up to do worthwhile things.

Yes downstairs loo would be handy! Have thought about putting one behind stairs then extending kitchen out to the utility space.

Light wise wouldn't want to wall off the lounge, and I think it would make it feel a bit cramped.

Have thought about extension across back of the house to relate utility and patio.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

[EnriqueTheRingBearingLizard]

Hope you can work something out. Just think really hard about how you want to live in the house, then plan backwards from the ideal end. Opening up the kitchen into the dining space sounds like a good first step.

[namechangedtoday15]

I know you've said you don't want to, but I would also wall off the lounge and create a kitchen diner across the back of the house. In the long term, I'd save to replace the conservatory with a proper utility and downstairs loo (you obviously already have plumbing there).