Will this devalue our property?

[Partypartypartypartyparty]

Currently, we have a living room, a large kitchen/diner/living area and a large study (4m x 4m) downstairs.

We no longer need the study.

I’d love to knock through and turn the study into a large utility/boot room and turn our current tiny utility into a pantry (1m x 2m).

DH says this will devalue our property when we come to sell as we are essentially removing a living space.

Keen to see what mumsnet thinks!

IABU - yes it will devalue your property
IANBU - no it won’t, the house is still the same sq ft.

That’s certainly the dream set up for me AND I potentially agree with your husband.
who is your house going to attract when you come to sell? How long will you be there?

Are you planning on selling though ? If not you need to have the house the way you want it.

if you are planning on selling in the next 1-2 years then due to the amount of people of wfh then I would leave it as a study (or it could become a playroom if the house is a family house when you sell)?

I personally love a utility/boot room and plan to create one (rather than extra study or living space) when renovating shortly. So I would love it. Surely you can keep it fairly flexible (maybe freestanding units?) so someone could easily revert it back if they wanted? Are you planning to sell anytime soon? I do think a study is attractive now lots of people WFH but my conclusion for our house is that I am going to do what makes the house best for us not what is hypothetically most valuable

Depends how long you are planning to live in the house really.

With an increase in homeworking studies are really valuable.

But if you are likely to live there a long time them set it up to suit youself. Are there enough bedrooms to potentially use a space somewhere else as a study?

I think your way sounds more attractive for a lot of people.

But either way, you can’t just live for the value of your property. You have to do what is right for your family.

Maybe but what are your plans re moving house? If you have no plans in the near future then I’d do what I wanted to do in order to make the house work for me. Not live with something that doesn’t work for me because of someone I might sell it to in 10 yrs.

I don’t think you’re reducing living space so much as changing the space into a different kind of living space, which will appeal to some people and not to others - just as your current set up does and will do.

Ultimately your home has to work for you. If this is your medium to long term home then maximising your own enjoyment and use of the space should be the focus, there are so many other variables which will affect how different groups of future buyers view the value of it.

I have quite a large utility OP and credit it with keeping the rest of the house running well! However 4m x 4m is a lot of space, would dividing the room up so as to have a small home office area be more useful? We sold our last house to a young couple who needed an office each!

A 2x2 office and 2x2 utility are plenty big enough! Just use the space more wisely rather then create an absolutely enormous utility which is dead space

I think it depends on if you have 3 beds or 4 up the stairs. If 4 beds, then I doubt it will make much of a difference in value , it's simply changing the living space.
If 3 beds upstairs then you are also cutting of the folk looking for 4 bedrooms.

Your DH is right in that more people WFH and a study would attract buyers more than your new plan. That said, are you planning to move anytime in the next 5yrs? If not, make it work for you.

I love my large utility and walk in larder and hate pokey rooms so dividing into 2 x 2 m metre ones wouldn't suit me. Your house needs to work for you.

OP, can you explain why you need to knock through to do it? Can't you still do what you want without making structural changes? 4x4m is a good space and other people might use it as a playroom, proper dining room or extra bedroom. As pps have said, it all hinges on whether you are likely to move in the near future.

If you want a pantry and larger utility why not carve the space out of your kitchen/dining/living room rather than removing a separate living space that is much more flexible.

Do you live rurally? If so, I would definitely go with your plan. I think i probably would anyway tbh. I can't see much difference in popularity between the two options that.

I think in a family house that a living space would hold more value, it can be used as a snug, bedroom etc. unless you don’t have a downstairs loo / shower room in which case I’d change it into a utility/shower room with plenty of space for coats and boots etc

It depends how long you plan to remain living there as to whether it’s worth designing how suits you or holding out for a sale.

DH and I both work from home and wouldn’t consider somewhere without a study. Hybrid working is so normal now, many others will feel the same.

Sounds fabulous. Wont add value but wont devalue either. You home should suit you.

Is my maths out, surely if you split it you create two room which are each 2x4m

Not two rooms of 2x2m?

Im not great at this

If you aren't planning to move in the next 10 years, I don't see why you'd have an unused empty room instead of using it as a boot room. You don't need to knock through the study for that, do you? So it could be easily used as a study again.

You're right - 16sqm would be 2x 8sqm rooms

It might do, but could you do it in a way that would be fairly easy to reinstate if you ever come to sell? We recently knocked a two small bedrooms into one, as it suits us better for now, but if we ever come to sell, we will reinstate the wall. But I appreciate that may be a much simpler job than the work you will need to do.

Ultimately though, unless you are planning to sell soon, you need to live in the house with it being the way that suits you best.

This is what I’d do , split it in half

4x4m is massive - bigger than my living room. It seems very big for a boot room.

Any way you could keep both? A 1.5x4m boot room (sink/washing machine at one end, and coat hooks etc down the long wall), and 2.5x4m study?

If the rest of the downstairs is all open plan, which it sounds like, then I’d keep this room.

As others have said … why knock through?