What do you use the back of your sitting room for?

[bigTillyMint]

If you live in a house with front and back reception rooms knocked through to make a long thin sitting room (ours is a Victorian terraced house) what do you use that back bit of the room for/ what furniture do you have in it?

When the DC were small, it was a play area and then had a table and chairs for them to do stuff on. It just feels like a wasted space now.

inspire me!

We have the same problem design. When we first moved in we used it as a dining room, then playroom and now it has a piano, storage and a dog crate and no real function. Looking at other houses on the road they're either a separate room or they've done some sort of complete open plan knock through to include a kitchen. I think it'd be good to put up a wall and have a study/office in the other half

I used to have houses like this and had a dining table and a desk in the alcove. In another house I had a playroom that turned into a teen/watching sports room with another sofa and TV.

We did think about putting folding/sliding doors in, but I’m not convinced you could have people/TV in one half and not find it still loud in the other half IYSWIM

It could still work, say one of you wants the football on and the other one wants to read/not have the football on etc.

Study area. It's got a computer and bookshelves

It's our home office area, with desks for me and DH. I would have preferred to have 2 separate rooms still, or at least a sliding door - it feels intrusive to have guests being able to look over at my papers. But it was already knocked through when we moved in.

When we had one it had a desk for work, bookshelves and the piano. Dining room was on the floor below next to the kitchen. If we didn’t have that then it would be the dining space.

We had a dining space. If you already have a dining space then I'd use it as a reading or music space, playroom area or work area.

I have one end for watching TV (TV unit is literally a divider between the two spaces as my cottage has very low ceilings) with my settee in next to the window at the front. Behind the TV half is a dining table and chairs, a desk and Turtle in his tank. There's a door from there to the kitchen.

Oh and the family who lived here before me had two TVs, one each side of the 'divide' and they'd watch whatever with headphones.

I’ve seen a couple of houses with double reception areas (doors open) using the extra space as a breakfast or afternoon coffee “nook” with bench seating, a bit like an American diner booth.

In my case the back of the sitting room is WFH office space and a cosy winged armchair for when you don’t want to join the others on the large corner sofa.

We have a built in “computer station” as well as a sofa down there, but in reality you couldn’t work in that part if anyone was in the front half, and no one ever goes to sit on the sofa (they just dump stuff on it!)

🤔

We've got a bookcase and a dining table and chairs in ours .

Once my young adults move out l will divide mine into two separate rooms again and have the back one as a casual garden room. It overlooks the garden and l will reflect that theme.