My house feels too small - how to make it feel bigger

[jinglebells123]

I live in a 4 bed detached new(ish) build. We bought it 5 years ago before we started a family.

This is the house type we have - www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/find-your-home/scotland/renfrewshire/paisley/hawkhead-gardens/the-douglas---coming-soon

The upstairs landing looks slightly different so this is probably a newer style but it's pretty much identical.

When it's just us at home (me, dh, dd (4) and the dog) it feels fine - kitchen isn't really big enough to have two people trying to do stuff at the same time but it's otherwise ok.

The problem is whenever we have people round - especially if I have a friend round for a play date.

Downstairs is just a series of seperate, small rooms which ironically appealed to me as in our old house we had a big kitchen diner that we hated because it was always cold just didn't feel like a nice space.

The dining room used to be a play room with small sofa, tv & toy storage but now has a 4 seater extending dining table plus a sideboard plus ottoman so there is limited floor space remaining for dd to play.

The lounge has a 3+2 sofa, ottoman, large dog bed in the corner plus a tall, narrow corner bookshelf - as I sit in it now, it feels a decent size but last night for halloween I invited my friend and her dd round for halloween. Then my parents popped in and with the 4 adults (and my parents are quite large adults) and the 2 kids running around the room plus our dog (greyhound) wandering about it just felt so cramped.

Because of the lack of space in the dining room there is nowhere else for the kids to play (friends dd is still a bit young to go up and down the stairs). I just felt manic and I found myself getting wound up.

I don't often invite people round and this is party the reason - I'm not sure if it's just in my head or if we have just bought a badly configured house - ironically it's waaaaay bigger than the 2 bed flat me and my family grew up in or dh's childhood home and both of us agree that they never felt small.

Would love any ideas how to make better use of the space and have a set up that allows me to have more friends and their kids round without it feeling like a mad house.

Extending isn't on the radar at the moment although I'd love to either convert the garage or extend at the back to give a big sun room. We are redecorating soon though so keen to consider options - perhaps making more use of the wide hallway or adding more seating the the lounge that accomodates more people without it feeling cramped? Having the french doors in the lounge is a lovely idea but you do lose wall space unless you are willing to block them which seems a waste.

We're considering having another child and the thought of having 2 kids in this space just seens insane which given it's a 4 bed house is just unbelievable!

Would love to have some ideas on how to make this work better for us - I love the location and our neighbours and am loathe to move but sometimes it feels like I'm suffocating!

I would stick on a full size conservatory onto the kitchen and lounge.

I'd make it big enough for a decent sized extending dining table. The current dining room could be the office/playroom/storage.

I would have the conservatory tiled and well made and fit decent insulating/reflective blinds.

Do you need the downstairs toilet or can it be moved to end of garage? Could you knock wall through and make it part of the kitchen?

I've gone for smaller furniture, de-cluttered and played around with furniture placement. I've also gone for corner shaped sofa.

Short term, I'd use the dining room as the playroom (again) and as a pp said, it's nice to shut the door on toys out etc. Especially as you tend to eat in the kitchen already.
As you only have 1 dc at the moment, could one of the bedrooms be your office? If not, add a rolltop desk or similar to the hall so you can use it when everyone else is out. Or the kitchen table, depending on what you do, obviously.

Longer term, I'd make the garage into a play room, extend the kitchen into the lounge for a kitchen diner (plus all the kitchen stuff from the garage) and make the dining room into a cosy TV room.

Sorry link didn't work - better luck this time.

i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/c1/80/9fc180ddc34740743df49cb05035092d.jpg

My dB put hidcintegtal garage into the house smoking a big family room across the back and small study. In a similar house. It looked the same at the front as the 2st 6 foot of the garage remained as a big store. I thought it would be awful but it worked really well

Do you need the ottomans & sideboard?

Knock kitchen and living room together, move boiler into dining room-dining room now becomes utility/storage room and convert garage to sitting room.

And sunroom off the back

If major structural work is not possible (you would also have to check your deeds to see if there were any clauses) it is then heist use of space.

Declutter as much as possible. Find furniture that works best for the room. We have a round table with drop leafs that can be pushed up against a wall if needed.

If you want to retain the garage make the best use of that in terms of storage. If possible consider a door from the hallway into the garage.

I have a 3 bed semi detached, 1 living room, 1 large garage. I'm a single mum with 3 kids. I've spent 18 months hard core decluttering. It honestly feels as though I've moved. Amazing difference.

I have big statement pieces ie a large mirror, a large vase of twigs (i know!), big pictures, floor length curtains - rather than thousands of small pieces.

We put patio doors in the dining room and that gives the impression of more space.

It honestly sounds like you have too much furniture downstairs and possibly the wrong kind of furniture. For instance, why is there an ottoman in the dining room? I would start by removing at least one object from each room to see how it feels or changes. Also start decluttering the garage. People don’t even really use their garages for their cars because they have too much stuff.

A garage conversion or big conservatory across the back would be fab but they are not cheap. For the longer term a big conservatory with dining table at the kitchen end and a sofa at the lounge end, with the dining room converted to toy storage/cosy office, could work really well creating a big U shaped entertaining space. I say toy storage because that, in my view, is the main function of playrooms!

However without spending that sort of money, I think you need to use the upstairs more as living space. Make a dedicated office upstairs. Get a gateleg dining table that folds away to practically nothing for occasional use in the dining room, and otherwise convert it back to playroom. It doesn't have to be covered in My Little Pony, you could do smart plain boxes in IKEA units and keep it neutral.

You could also consider giving DD an upstairs playroom. More and more she won't need to be in the same space as the adults when you're entertaining.

Take photos of your rooms as if to sell the house and identify any bits that look cluttered. Clear them out - either throw the stuff away or find somewhere else for it, even if that means throwing something else away to make space. I've never loved my house as much as when we cleared it back to sell.

Could you use one of the bedrooms as a playroom or office?
I also agree that it's worth rethinking your furniture and decluttering.

It could be fairly cheap to convert the dining room to utility and the garage into a room...

All the plumbing is on the current dining room side...

Yes in the meantime declutter, very small extending table somewhere etc.

That kitchen looks like a great use of the space. Is it nice to cook in? I thought we were doing well to get a table in ours, and it's a wee bit bigger.

Floor to ceiling storage is the answer - after being ruthless!

Take wall out between the kitchen and lounge for a more user friendly family space. i.e. kitchen, diner, lounge. Or kitchen with lounge and an island in the middle which you can eat off. Cut garage in half. Front for storage. Rear would be a utility accessed from a new door from the family room.

Exactly this.

Thanks for all the messages. Really helpful suggestions to consider!

I think my ideal would be to either fully or partially convert garage and make a larger living room with dining space.

Full conversion would take away to much storage I think bit could take 1/2 to 3/4 of our leaving room for boiler, freezer, tumble dryer. My only worry is that the converted space would be very dark - because of the positioning of our neighbours house we get very little light into the living room so would need to consider that. I've actually found out someone else in the village with the same house has just converted it to a play room - she's invited me to come and see it.

Would love to do it all - Knock through kitchen plus convert garage to a lounge. Not sure how much it would cost though.

We are also getting our list floored to help with storage.

There is possibly more decluttering we could do. There are currently 3 ottomans downstairs - one in living room and dining room for DDS toys. One in the hall for shoes.

Took some photos to give better idea of space and layout

Kitchen

Dining and living - note the poorly used ottomans

Actually it all looks pared back and clutter free already. Where is all your stuff?!

Dining room becomes utility/store, then open up from kitchen to lounge, which becomes dining, then convert garage into lounge and knock through to both dining and hall. Can be done in stages.

What stuff? Toys etc in ottoman (or on top of it!!)

There are about 5 toys out! What do you do when people visit? If you're short of seating when you have a houseful you could clear the dolls' house off the living room ottoman and maybe bring through the one from the dining room. There are only so many bums you can get on 2+3 sofas. We use squishy cubes from the futon company as extra seating, and just shove them from room to trim as needed, but we could do with a bit more seating really.

In the nicest possible way, I wonder if you are reacting to the sheer number of people in the house rather than the house itself being the problem? 6 adults and a couple of children is a fair number, especially if the children are bigger than babies but too little to play upstairs. And walks after lunch are de rigeur when entertaining as everyone appreciates getting out for a bit and letting the children run off some steam. Give it 2 or 3 years and your DD will be disappearing upstairs with her friends, which will help a bit.

I think the knocking through ideas are lovely and will make the house nicer, but I'm a bit worried it won't fix that manic feeling you're getting. In fact going open plan might even make it worse. You won't be able to get away from the kids and you'll have the dishwasher bugging you when you're watching telly. If you want to go open plan then great, but do it for what works for your family 98% of the time. Don't do it mainly for guests.

I live in a new buildxwatate very close to the one you linked. I went for a different builder as the small kitchen TW offered would drive me nuts. A few of the tw douglas’ have converted the garages and they look great.