Help me work out what's wrong with this house

[househunter202]

We are looking to move to a bigger house due to a new baby on the way and are looking to spend up to £1.25m in Surrey.

We like everything about this house except I can't quite get my head around the downstairs living space.

How would you go about making two very big living spaces flow a little better? I feel like it's just got two big huge rooms and I'm not sure how they'd get used day to day.

We'd need a dining space (to be honest I'd prefer a more open kitchen/diner), a kid's playroom and a TV room. My husband would use the outbuilding for his hobby room (don't ask 🤦‍♀️). I'd like a gym room but not sure it would work in this setup.

Any ideas how to make it a bit more homely?

We will only have two kids but #1 is a real firecracker and he needs space to be set loose.

Cunningham Road, Banstead, SM7
www.rightmove.co.uk/property/106281287

Oh yes and we'd need at least two WFH spaces ., ideally not in the same room. Two of the bedrooms could be used for work room / guest bed / maybe a gym space for me I guess.

I think I’d have the big room on the right chopped in half. Back half joined with kitchen to make a kitchen diner and front as a formal dining room or playroom, depending on what you’d prefer. Then you’d have one large living room and one snug/office. The living rooms are long and relatively narrow though. Needs a bigger/feature fireplace maybe?

The living area on the right is long but so narrow. If funds allow, I’d knock kitchen into half of that that space to make a kitchen/diner, put dividing wall in (or bifold) and use the rest as a playroom.
The lounge at the front is your tv room, the one on your left (currently lounge/diner) is your lounge.
DC 1 runs off steam in the garden.
Outside workspace is divided in half, one part for you, one part for DH.
2 of the bedrooms repurposed as office spaces (or split the larger top-floor bedroom in half if you want more guest rooms).

Or alternatively... is it really the right house for you?

Thank you both for the comments. I agree the kitchen could do with being joined to a dining room, and then maybe a smaller room created at the front. Such a shame it's not already been designed properly :(

With all due respect, if you have 1.25 million quid to spend abs umpteen rooms, there are dozens of great solutions you could afford to implement. Or employ an architect to suggest...

What NaturalBlonde said. Then the little reception room and next door bit from the long room could be offices.

I'd also consider chopping the huge room on the left in half - or rather reinstate the original division - I hate a long thin room like a runway. Then one could be grownup snug and the other a kids playroom.

Knocking through lounge and dining room was big for a while, when kitchens were definitely not places you wanted your guests to be.

Yeah, I'd change the layout to break up one of the long thin rooms and give dining space in/attached to the kitchen. You could do that in the existing footpront or extend.

I am not a fan of laminate floor + leather seating + glass tables. It feels cold and tinny. Some decent upholstery, rugs and depth of textures will help.

Those rooms do seem long and narrow - making it more 'horizontal' than vertical would be nice , it would be more 'front section and back section' of house rather than those long, deep spaces.

Would you really use a playroom? The people I know who have one seem to use it for toy storage - but the kids want to play near the adults so just drag everything into the kitchen/main living space anyway.

Chop one of the long narrow rooms in half to make an L shaped kitchen diner with a play room at the other end. Use one bedroom as one WFH space and the outbuilding as the other.
I very rarely comment on layout threads because other posters suggestions seem better but this is so simple.

Attic rooms office space with a sofa bed for extra guests. It's really nice to work on a different floor from the floors you live on.

Middle floor kids in the small rooms, you in the second biggest room, biggest room becomes a guest room with en suite at front of house.

Downstairs split the longest thinnest room in two, knock back half into kitchen to make a kitchen diner, knock front half into smaller reception room to make a good sized reception room. Other long thin reception room I'd also split, front part becomes the playroom/family room (we have older DC and they use the playroom all the time and DH and I are barely allowed in it). Back half you might want to think about a utility room/generous loo/gym there (your choice).

I would make it two even bigger rooms... I'd know the kitchen into the living through space on the right of the floor plan and make it a big open plan kitchen diner and casual play / lounge area and then the through room on the left I'd make a "posh/smart/formal" lounge and dining room for entertaining (when we can do that again).

The smaller single reception room if make an office or if you have any gym equipment / bike / treadmill etc - use for that

First, chop the long right lounge in half, to make a great kitchen diner.

Second, knock down the wall between what would then be the front half of the above room and the smaller middle lounge, so that you end up with a gorgeous large normal shaped front lounge that has two bay windows.