Help me decide how to lay out my house.

[chaosisawayoflife]

We (me, dh and 20mo dd) live in a small terrace house. You come straight in the front door to the front room (currently our dining room). Through a door to the bottom of the stairs, then the back room (currently the living room). This leads into the kitchen. All rooms are small. At the moment we don't really use the dining room apart from as a dumping ground and dd's toys are taking over the living room. We have stair gates on both doors into the living room to stop dd going into the kitchen or upstairs. I'm thinking of swapping the rooms round to make the front room the living room and the back room the dining room/playroom. This would give dd more space for toys and would mean we could get her some bigger stuff like a toy kitchen which i know she would love. It would in theory also mean i would spend more time interacting with her and less time sitting on the sofa mning/watching tv as a dining chair is much less comfortable than a sofa! However, drawbacks to this idea as i see them are that we would lose the storage area that the dining room currently is, not sure where i would put the buggy, shoes, coats etc. Also new dining room/playroom would likely become very kiddified and full of toys and primary colours. Also, would it annoy me having no where comfortable to sit during the day? Argh! Don't know what to do! Anyone got any advice?

I would do what you are planning to do - turn the front room into a more adults-only living room and make the room off the kitchen into a playroom. Another benefit is that anyone calling to the door will see a fairly tidy living room (in theory!) without toys & baby equipment everywhere.

Do you need to have a dining table in one of those rooms. If space allowed it would be better in the kitchen - then you might have room for a sofa or armchair in the playroom?

Can you create a sort of false hallway next to the front door with a tall shelving unit? You could then put up a shoe rack & hooks for coats on the wall by the front door and they would not be as visible from the rest if the room.

Don't suppose you have a cupboard under the stairs for the buggy?

But, yes, I agree, go straight in to the living room, through to dining room/playroom and through again in to kitchen. It sounds as though you are only really using two of your three rooms at the moment. Also, it will be nicer for you and dd to be closer to each other if you are in the kitchen cooking and she is just next door to you rather than in the next room along.

It sounds like you've already got a good idea of how you want to have things set up. I'd agree with what 'DecorHate' has already said - have the front room as an 'adult' living room and the room next to the kitchen as a playroom so that dd is nice and close :-)

If you'd like a few visual ideas of designs for your lounge you could have a quick look at these - bit.ly/ax0VJP - up to you though. I'm sure you've already got everything sorted out in that department.

I'm sure everything will work out great for you! :-)

Liz from Harveys Furniture