To ask how you’d use this space?

[Goosethemoose]

We’re moving into a house with this double room. It is adjacent to the kitchen-diner (so we don’t want to use the non-bay room as a dining room). We have two young DC, but they will have a separate playroom elsewhere for their toys.

I’m at a loss as to how to organise the space and arrange furniture?! Especially as we are planning to mostly use the door in the non-bay room, which means the route to the kitchen cuts right across that space…

Any thoughts please? Am lost.

Is the room with the bay window going to be your sitting room?

If so, I think I would use the room behind as a sort of study. Big attractive bookshelf on one side and a narrow desk and chair on the other - might be nice if you have DC who like drawing or older DC with homework/revision to do but who prefer being downstairs with everyone rather than in their room.

snug/study (believe me as the kids grow you will welcome the escape) - put double doors with glass in between.

Thanks for the ideas! Yes, room with bay will, I think, be the sitting room… I’m wondering how to arrange soft furniture in it to maximise use of space, however?

I think the non-bay area could be like a study space, but we will have a separate study as well. I was thinking of some kind of reading book? Just feels like a tricky space and I’m shoe-horning something in…

Maybe a second seating area but without a tv, a more quiet place or as other have said a kind of study/reading place. You could have a nice arm chair in there with a reading lamp behind, a nice side board/bookcase etc. make it nice and cosy but without a tv so you could have a separate place for when anyone is watching something in tv you hate 😂😂 xx

Definitely a reading nook/library. Pinterest has some fab ideas for them. I'd love one but don't have the space.

Have you got a floor plan?

Library. Floor to ceiling shelves all round – you could do IKEA Billy ones and add trim/coving/etc so they look built-in. And a rolling ladder! Fancy times.

Then a reading chair set up in the middle so you can still use it as a walk-through space to get to the sitting room. Are you choose not to use the sitting room door in the bay room so you can have a longer sofa in front of it? If not I’d also be tempted to close up the gap between the rooms – or install wooden doors so you’ve got the option – and have the smaller one as a home office and the sitting room properly cosy and sequestered.

How young are your children? They never seem to stay in the playroom when small, they just want to be wherever you are.

Otherwise I'd do tv down one end and other sitting/reading area down others. Contrasted seating- so slouchy tv sofas and then a more solid sofa or chairs down the other end.

Yes, reading room. Or, do any of you play music? We'd use it as a music room. Bookshelves, piano, DH's cello, comfy chair with a reading light....

Nice house, OP!

Is non-bay room the living room? I like pp’s idea of glass double doors, I know someone who has something similar, then you have some separation in the non-bay room from the noisy living room. You could even have a tv and sofa in there.

Could you not just continue to use it for storing decorating equipment - as you do now?

Second seating area for me I think.

@TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

Could you not just continue to use it for storing decorating equipment - as you do now?

With a separate playroom and separate office, this is 100% how this space would end up in my real life: clothes horses, broken things for the tip, stuff on its way to the shed, giant boxes from deliveries waiting to be squished for the recycling… 😭

@stuntbubbles are you looking at my spare room?

@sarahc336

Maybe a second seating area but without a tv, a more quiet place or as other have said a kind of study/reading place. You could have a nice arm chair in there with a reading lamp behind, a nice side board/bookcase etc. make it nice and cosy but without a tv so you could have a separate place for when anyone is watching something in tv you hate 😂😂 xx

This is what I Would do. Lovely!

I suggest you wait and see how it evolve s when you are actually living there.

Yes reading nook!

If it was me, I’d probably end up with using it as a space to dry clothes!

Library walls with rolling ladder as suggested by @stuntbubbles. I’d definitely build a window seat in the bay (with hidden storage inside).

Pocket doors would be good fitted between the two spaces. They’re slide into the wall so can be hidden but can section of an area.
I’d have the same flooring throughout, if your kids are young then bazzing up and down on a wheely toy will be ace and imagine the amazing train track you could build!

Pocket doors

More loveliness.

Love @Stath’s inspo pics and will add Beata Heuman’s gorgeous house with pocket doors:

Never underestimate the need to go “what is that person doing outside”.

So nosey neighbour nook

Library/reading corner.
Didn't even see the other replies before thinking bookshelves, books and a super comfy and cosy armchair or 2.
But, I really love books and reading so it would be what I'd do with any spare downstairs space, which I don't actually have in my house.

Thanks for all your ideas!

I do agree it’s a fetching pile of decorating paraphernalia But maybe we’ll find it another home. There’s a dark wooden floor throughout the double room. I’m not convinced by the doors as we like open plan. DC are 3 and 4- I fully agree that they will be following us around but DH wants to keep the downstairs as a tidier, more adult space. I think the idea of a reading book, perhaps with some child-sized furniture for homework, could work…

Knock it through to create a larger family sitting area, the bay room looks quite compact, and sounds like you already have separate rooms for everything else (playroom, study).