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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what I should do with this room? (with diagram)

75 replies

Cruelstepmother · 29/05/2019 15:45

We're planning to build an extension for our new kitchen so we can turn our current poky little kitchen into a shower room. If we get permission we'll add a front porch too. This leaves a rather dark room in the middle of the house, but I can't think what to use it for. It's nominally the 'dining room', but we don't 'dine', we eat off our laps by the TV and will prob eat in our new kitchen/diner once we have it. We can't knock it through into another room in any useful way, and it's too small for a snooker table. My DH and I are 65 and 57 and may eventually need to make the sitting room into our bedroom as he is disabled with a progressive condition (Parkinsons). It's about 10' by 11'. Any ideas?

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BlingLoving · 29/05/2019 16:18

Is the front porch where the front door is? In which case I'd split the room (hallway) in half so that as you come in from the front door you have a decent size hall to hang up coats etc. The back half I'd add to your new kitchen/diner, allowing you space to include a small sitting area, additional storage or whatever might work.

nancy75 · 29/05/2019 16:19

If the front door is in the existing study what does the new room look out on to? Is it garden?

TurboTeddy · 29/05/2019 16:22

What about a utility room? Or could you reduce the size of your extension (and save money) and incorporate it into your new kitchen diner?

TurboTeddy · 29/05/2019 16:26

Looking again I wonder if creating a hallway and having the shower room there might work and then use the current kitchen as a utility room.

RainbowWaffles · 29/05/2019 16:29

If the sitting room has to become a bedroom is due course, seeing as you are renovating, I would bite the bullet and have the whole downstairs floor plan finalized to include a downstairs bedroom. If you know it has to happen, it doesn’t make sense to plan something that you know has to be redone. I would have a professional look at it to optimize space and layout, it’s amazing what they can do.

TeacupDrama · 29/05/2019 16:31

if the study has the current front door and stairs it is not suitable as a bedroom at any point
I would decide that if or when DH needs a downstairs bedroom is it going to be the current? or current sitting room, would a wheel chair go through either of these door ways, as that may make decision easier or would it be easy to fit a stairlift so upstairs bedroom would remain viable

does the ?? room have a window / view as if someone becomes confined to a room they need a view/ window ( natural light is really important for long term health; so it maybe DH will need current sitting room as a bedroom

make sure new shower room will work for a wheelchair

in the mean time what sort of thing would space be good for, hobbies room

Idontwanttotalk · 29/05/2019 16:37

I don't understand, if your front door opens into the current study, why are you putting a porch onto the side of where the current dining room is. Is that where the door is to the rear of your property/rear garden? It strikes me as a little odd.

Even though you may believe you are and indeed may stay there forever, please make sure the rooms flow well. Somebody will one day Inherit the house and I assume you want it to be as saleable as possible.

MyMushroomsInATimeSlip · 29/05/2019 16:40

Please reconsider having a step down to the new kitchen when your DH has a progressive condition. In future that one step could be the difference between access and being stuck.

Bedsheets4knickers · 29/05/2019 16:41

I would have a fitted wardrobe along one side with a coat rack and shelves for shoes and things like that , and then one the other side for storage .

TwoBlueFish · 29/05/2019 16:42

Could you flip the stairs so they go from the ? Room, then study becomes downstairs bedroom with access to shower room. I’m presuming that your from door will be moving to where the new porch is. ? Room then becomes a large hallway with space for books and a chair possibly.

HollowTalk · 29/05/2019 16:47

I'd have a spare bedroom by the shower room and the room with a question mark should be the study.

UCOinanOCG · 29/05/2019 16:49

Have you had architects do plans? I wonder if you need it to be looked at with a view to it being 100% suitable for your DH should his condition deteriorate. The layout seems very higgeldy piggeldy with a step in the kitchen.

NoSquirrels · 29/05/2019 16:49

Can you upload it again with your front and back doors marked? I agree the flow seems strange and the access is unclear...

Graceymac99 · 29/05/2019 16:56

Current sitting room as potential future bedroom and ? room as open plan sitting room leading to porch.

Bluntness100 · 29/05/2019 16:59

Personally I'd create a hallway there. Then I'd make the study a spare bedroom, or your library with a sofa bed and armchairs etc, multi purpose it, and then make your mystery room your study as it will be smaller. But as said put a hallway in or it just becomes the hallway itself.

And the hallway needs to go from thr front foot to thr kitchen diner with doors off for the other rooms. Even if the front door is in the middle it's fine, you just make your hall upside down L shaped. So the corridor runs down the side.

HardAsSnails · 29/05/2019 17:05

As you're looking at 'future proofing' I would caution against making rooms smaller by adding corridors, which will be a PITA if your mobility is hindered. You can always zone spaces with furniture.

nancy75 · 29/05/2019 17:10

We really need to know where the front door is!
If it’s not in that back room you don’t need a corridor (or a porch)

UCOinanOCG · 29/05/2019 17:14

OP has already said the front door opens into the area labelled study.

the study is more like a large hallway as it contains the staircase, front door, door to ? room, door to old kitchen and door to sitting room (under the stairs).

CourageAndKind · 29/05/2019 17:17

I have a tiny box room and would love to turn it into a peaceful relaxation room. Comfortable chair, throw, cosy rug, books etc

Hobbes39 · 29/05/2019 17:39

@Cruelstepmother - if you can mark on the location of doors and windows on your plan it would help a lot. Also some dimensions would help too..!
It's hard to know what could be done with the space without that info.
I suspect your front door is on the side opposite the bottom of the stairs? (I'm assuming the bottom f the stairs is on the right of your pic?)
Does your upstairs cover the entire existing ground floor or is some of it currently single storey?
Are you having a porch at the front to create a new front entrance?

gubbsywubbsy · 29/05/2019 17:40

Is the new room your old garage ? Is it big enough for a kitchen diner ? Can you jsit use the ? Room for the dining space ?

ghostyslovesheets · 29/05/2019 17:57

I’m baffled why the porch is randomly on the back? Maybe no porch but a lovely patio door so the space is light

HardAsSnails · 29/05/2019 18:13

It might help to know not just where doors are but also where the garden is.

Original poster
Cruelstepmother · 29/05/2019 18:46

The old front door is at the side of the house (whyyyy???) and the new porch will be at the front. The new kitchen will be at the back, with a bit of the back demolished to make way for the extension, which will be 2-storey with a big back bedroom and new bathroom above.

To ask what I should do with this room? (with diagram)
To ask what I should do with this room? (with diagram)
OP posts:
Original poster
Cruelstepmother · 29/05/2019 18:50

I'm so very pleased I harnessed the power of MN, I would not have thought about doors/wheelchairs but of course it wouldn't fit :(

We wanted to replace the crappy modern doors with old Victorian inner doors but won't be able to if they need to be widened.

OP posts: