How to arrange furniture in a Victorian terrace dining room

[forrestgreen]

Hi I'm buying a small Victorian terrace. The dining room is full of doors.
Pocket doors to the lounge, hall door, kitchen door, patio doors to the garden.

I'd like an extendable dining table and a comfy chair to look out on the garden.

Has anyone managed more than a dining table in theirs?

When we had this exact layout, we had bookcases either side of the chimney and a sideboard in front of it (fireplace had been bricked up) for shoes as there is no hallway space. We then had the table towards the left creating a path to the back door and round to the kitchen. We also had a coat hook on the dining room door.

I would really recommend blocking up the living room door to the hallway. It is unessecary now the rooms are opened up and allows you to fit a larger sofa in the living room without looking odd and 'blocking a door.

I'll be putting furniture in front of it, and when I've got the cash I'd like to block it off. I'd like the bookcases in the lounge alcoves I think.
Their fireplace is open but not working atm

Would it fit a small sofa on the wall which faces the window, then a drop leaf table placed against the wall facing the fireplace? Shelves either side of the fireplace would be good.

Is it the original fireplace?

I'd keep the doorway to the hall, but block the one to the kitchen. If there was a kitchen fire and you'd blocked the hallway door, there wouldn't be an exit.

@HollowTalk

I'd keep the doorway to the hall, but block the one to the kitchen. If there was a kitchen fire and you'd blocked the hallway door, there wouldn't be an exit.

Then you'd have to go outside to get to the kitchen, surely?

It's the only way into the kitchen.

They've got the massive table against their fireplace.

I can't get my head around the fact that the room is just paths to get somewhere. It needs its own purpose and to look right.

I've bought a small sofa I'm hoping will go near the window but can't figure out where the table will go

I see the problem OP, it could feel like the dining room is just a thoroughfare. My parents neighbours have got a layout just like this but it doesn't feel like a passage. I think the trick is to make sure you use the room as much as possible: as a dining room or office or place to sit and read. I think it's a good thing you've bought a sofa, you can make a quiet reading nook or calm TV free area. As a previous poster said, how about putting book cases on either side of the fireplace? :)

You know the door next to the one which links the kitchen to the dining room - what is that? A cupboard?

Oh sorry, it's the cupboard under the stairs.

That's an odd layout, isn't it? Is the kitchen an extension? Have you seen what neighbours have done?

That’s the exact same layout as my home .....we sit in the back room all the time in winter as it has a fireplace and log burner....so very cosy. We have 2 seater ikea sofa against the wall in front of the stairs ....we have a drop leaf table in front of the french doors ( only get table out in full when we entertaining) ....we have an easy chair against the front room wall and a standard lamp......in the alcove to the right is a built in shaker style cabinet floor to ceiling and in the left alcove nothing at moment but we looking for a slim cabinet.....it sounds really cluttered but it’s really not....lots of room for my 3 little grandchildren to play on the rug when they are here. I will try upload a pic

Personally I'd chuck up a partition wall to create a hallway to the kitchen. That would make your dining room about 9ft x 12, but with a door to the dining room at the kitchen end you'd have two decent walls to put a dining table against, giving you room by the (proposed?) garden door for a comfy chair. Bench seating for the dining table maximises space.

Mine’s worse than yours, it also has the door to the understairs cupboard, and the kitchen is through a 4’ space with no doors When we bought it there were hideous glazed sliding doors between the 2 rooms and we chose to have that space bricked up again, which does reduce light and flow but gives us 2 more walls for furniture.

It’s a bigger room though, 14x14 approx. We have a fairly long table in the middle, with 6 chairs normally but can fit 8-10 round when the leaves are in. It’s a double pedestal which makes it easier to accommodate all the chairs.

We also have a tall dresser in the alcove by the French windows, Billy bookcases in the other alcove and across the middle wall, and a 4x4 Kallax on the stairs wall - used to have a piano there, which took up even more space, but the last pianist has left home now.

I’ve recently worked out that the space works a lot more flexible with the table running diagonally between hall door and French windows - we have a small tub chair crammed into the corner by the Billies.

The only heat is a small radiator between kitchen and French windows, and there’s a cat tree in front of that, so it’s quite a cold room in the winter. 2 litter trays too. It’s a busy room...

@HollowTalk

That's an odd layout, isn't it? Is the kitchen an extension? Have you seen what neighbours have done?

@HollowTalk It’s one of the standard layouts in the NW (where I am) and probably other parts of the country too. Some houses have a much smaller front room with stairs running across the middle and a full width room at the back. Having a through hall as standard seems to be a London (south?) thing. I would love to have a through hall!

@forrestgreen .....following on from my last post.....these may give you a sort of idea

@GiantKitten, I'm in the NW, too, and live in an Edwardian house here. It just seems like a bad design really as it involves two doors in one small room.

[quote HollowTalk]@GiantKitten, I'm in the NW, too, and live in an Edwardian house here. It just seems like a bad design really as it involves two doors in one small room.[/quote]
Edwardian houses generally are better laid out & more substantial than Victorian, aren’t they?
It is a silly design, but otoh does give more usable living space. Landings tend to be a bit skinny too but then that makes bedrooms slightly wider.
Our original design was worse, believe it or not! What is now our understairs cupboard door used to be the door into the kitchen, so all that floor space was wasted to allow access to the kitchen, which also had 2 other corner doors
Having the French windows and the understairs cupboard door in the back room at least now gives us extra space under the stairs and 4 usable corners in the kitchen (we blocked the other doors off)

@Kitkat151 thanks for the photos that helps. Yours looks like a room rather than a corridor which is what I'm trying to achieve.

Thanks all, I'm not alone in my quandary it seems.

I like the look of that fold down table.

If everywhere is a path to somewhere else (my dining room is too) I’d go for a rounded table and lightweight chairs because at least when you end up bumping into things you won’t get bruises from corners!

I grew up in a house with this exact layout.

It changed over the years but mostly was a round table in the middle with 4 chairs, extended to oval 6 seater when needed. With a desk in alcove near door to garden. The other alcove was floor to ceiling cupboard. Bookshelves along wall with stairs behind.

This is ours. Messier than usual for various reasons.
4x2 Kallax in front of chimney breast (which is shelved behind the blind) is on its way upstairs.
Table is oval (agree completely about getting rounded corners!) & approx 160x100 - leaf is 40 I think, so table extends to 200.
Although it clearly does function as a corridor, it doesn’t feel like one

I'm coming round to the round table, I need to get better measurements to see what fits

I found a picture on Rightmove of our old house that had a similar layout - although we had a window to the garden rather than a door. We squeezed in a sideboard between the hall and kitchen door, bookcase in one alcove, armchair and lamp in the other and a rectangular table in the middle.

A lot of houses like this have had the central wall knocked through, to create a bigger living/dining space. Might be an option if you have the budget / structure in the future?