If you could have a separate cosy room, or a bigger main room… which would you go for?

[Jessforless]

We are imminently stating our extension, can’t actually wait and can’t believe it’s finally happening.

We currently have a through lounge diner and a separate kitchen. Adding to the back to create L kitchen-diner-seating area with TV.

I had planned to wall off the living room part of the through lounge diner, adding a doorway from the hall and making a snuggly separate room with the fireplace, TV, sofas, blankets etc…

Our builder is amazing and has said that because this is internal we can decide what we want to do right up to the wire..

So there are three options…

1. close it off, add a door to the hallway and make a separate room.
2. close it off, but do glass double doors to the dining / kitchen and have the ability to open it up…
3. leave it all open, light from front to back, no separation.

DH and his friends regularly meet around the dining table and DC really moan about this and the noise meaning they can’t watch TV…

what would you do?

Double doors to seal it off when needed, definitely not all open plan.

i'd close it off as an entirely separate room. double doors or no doors will definitely lead to lots of noise between the spaces.

maybe if light is a concern, i'd do the double doors but also have a heavy curtain that could cover the doors to block light and more sound if needed.

Separate cosy room.

Separate room 100%

I’ve got a living room and a kitchen diner. I wish we had extended the kitchen, but left the dining room separate.
so I’d go for lounge , dining room and large kitchen I realise it’s not what you asked, but as the kids get older and working from home and home work come into play, it would be much handier

Separate snug

Separate cosy room

Definitely have some separation - you’ve already identified that that’s what you need.

Definitely a separate room vs completely open plan downstairs space. Especially as dc get older, it’s really useful to have separate spaces that can be closed off.

Separate room but make sure there is enough light to enjoy it.

Thanks so much for responses so quickly!

Amazing - I really want to have a totally separate space but just trying to convince DH. It will be slightly less light, of course. But I think it will work well for our family.

I can't visualise the layout, have you got a floorplan?

I added an extension onto my lounge, creating 2 rooms with double doors between (approx 30ft x 12 ft space, split into 18ft lounge and 12ft playroom) - both with separate doors to the hall as well.
The double doors are pretty good at sound insulation, enable the rooms to have been used separately over the years but also opened up and used as a through room.
Best of both worlds.

I put pocket doors between the 2 rooms which slide away into the wall space (doors next to the tv) so really open up the space.

Separate. As well as the noise and privacy aspects, depending on the type of house, open plan can be draughty. We're in a Victorian terrace with all original walls up, neighbours are knocked through and it looks better than ours but they're always cold.

I’m grateful our ancient cottage has a sep living room and a dining room that connects to the kitchen. There’s enough space to chill and listen to Radio 3 while DC are in living room after dinner.

Separate. Fully open plan is awful, especially with older kids.

Option 2 sounds perfect.

we have full open plan and our adult kids drive us demented cooking in the evening while we’re trying to watch Tv. I’d love a snug!!

I like double doors - can then be sectioned off, but also fully opened up too

What size room are we talking about? Sounds claustrophobic as hell.

Option 2 is good. Sliding doors if at all.possible to open up as fully as possible. Or entirely without walls but not as one megaspace. Some sort of demarcation is usually good, for instance by having the extension slightly lower and separated by a couple of wide steps.

Windows light?

Either completely separate or very good noise blocking double doors. As kids get older separate spaces are really useful. It sounds as though you will have room in your kitchen diner for a sofa or easy chair - we found this useful with teens as we hosted their peers a lot - closest home to school, often hosted youth group and church teen groups - 2 spaces meant we had somewhere to be rather than going to bed!

@Jessforless I have a large lounge for visitors adjacent to the dining room with no television in it!! I dont think have a tv on when you have visitors is very good. I have a much smaller cosy room towards the back of the house which we call the tv room with two sofas in and a tiny coffee table. It works great having a separate tv room

We have 2 in what sounds like a similar set-up. It works really well. I was concerned a completely separate room would lead to the internal end of the L shaped room being dark (if you see what I mean - the original part of the house. It also means we have the capacity to allow for more flow between the rooms. But it is invaluable for the ability to have a cosy room at the front which is much warmer in winter (these bigger open plan spaces can be hard to heat.

The only thing to bear in mind, from my perspective, is that furniture layout is more restricted if you put in double doors rather than walling off the separate room. You’re essentially losing a wall (or most of one) for furniture placement purposes, depending on the size of the rooms.

I have a large family room, L shaped with kitchen dining and sitting room together. It's gorgeous to walk into and TV architects are obsessed with light and open plan but in reality like other PPs say its really annoying. I'm trying to watch TV and someone boils the kettle, or just constantly being intereupted. We have a separate sitting room at least but there are 5 of us. I'd love it sectioned off into smaller pockets or ideally a sliding or folding door to open when we want.

Separate room

I don't like huge rooms, I tend to use and area of the kitchen rather than our main living room. It always feels too big unless have people in.
I watched a TV programme, ages ago going on about a psychological reason for people preferring smaller spaces hence holiday caravans and lodges are so popular.