Help me decide on the best downstairs layout please?

[25BeautifulGnomes]

We have front room, dining room, and large eat in kitchen.

Currently trying to decide whether to knock through the wall between the living and dining room or to knock through the wall between the dining room and eat in kitchen.

Reason is that the dining room is fairly small, and has mostly toys in it, but I can't see/be near kids playing when I'm in the front room or kitchen.

What do others find works for them please? I realise that we are fortunate to have this sort of dilemma but it took a LOT of hard graft and a relocation to get this sort of space on our budget!

Currently toying with side return extension ideas too, but this will be money dependent and won't happen for a very long if at allwhile.

Thanks

strikeout fail :)

Depends where you spend most of your time - kitchen or living room? I'd be inclined to say knock kitchen into dining room, but it depends on how you use the spaces at the moment. Knock through into whichever space you use most.

Hi fresh, hmmm yep I suppose that is how to decide isn't it? Spend more time in kitchen really.

Kitchen into dining room definitely. We had that in our old house - which gave us a massive u shaped space. The best thing about it was that it meant that we had a tidy living room to bunk off to in the evening. Almost a toy free zone.

We'd eat in the kitchen area most of the time, has space for armchairs or a small sofa for during the day, but family meals, and dinners with friends were still in what was clearly a dining room.

Thanks jenny - v useful.

So my next question is, and this might sound a bit daft - what happens to the hallway/dining room wall? Does it just stop at the entrance to the kitchen? Do you access the knocked through space through both the dining room door and the kitchen door? I just can't imagine it. Might have to look through some home magazines.

Definitely between the kitchen and dining room (in my view). We have the same lay out at the moment (having come from a more open plan house) and it drives me insane! I love having the "grown up" lounge without toys on view and its usually relatively tidy when we have unexpected visitors compared to the kitchen which looks like a bomb site most days. Having said that, we have people over for playdates or friends for dinner quite alot and its weird leaving parents/toddlers in the playroom (which effectively our dining room) while I go and make a coffee, or when we have people for dinner, its seems much more formal because they're seated in the dining room (despite being surrounded by toys!) and I'm stuck in the kitchen. Not easy to maintain a relaxed atmosphere or quite casual.

We have a massive chimney breast in between the kitchen and dining room so lots of mess / expense to get rid, have to wait until we have an extension and do everything at the same time, but I would do it in a flash if I didn't. I'd say then you'd block up the door from the hall into the dining room, and just enter the extended room by the kitchen door. With my layout, that would mean I could have extra storage in what was the doorway for the ever-present toys!

The arangement we have always had is a door off the kitchen into the childrens' play room.

Dont knock down the whole wall down between your kitchen and dining room though. Just do a door that you can close or put a stair gate across. If you knock it through completely then you will not be able to keep toys out of kitchen.

Thanks Mandy and MoreBeta, all useful tips!

It sounds as if it is a typical Victorian house with the "back parlour" area being the room that is notionally the dining room. If this is the case, is it possible to knock through to the back addition kitchen. Often these rooms are several steps higher and the kitchen has lower ceilings meaning that knocking them together isn't really possible. (I may have totally misread your layout, it sounds very similar to all the endless Victorian terraces around my neck of the woods and, yes, that back room ends up not being used very well.)

Kitchen into dining room. You could always add a soft lounging chair in the corner.

Keep the lounge as a snug.

What Lala said.

Edwardian houses are better for this than Victorian.

If you're determined to do it, you'll probably need steps from the dining room into the kitchen and you'll probably also need to excavate the kitchen floor to gain a bit more head height if you want your side return, as the RSJ will reduce the height some more. Big problem with this is that pipes running underneath can reduce how far you're able to dig down.

Couldn't you build into the return next to your kitchen? You probably wouldn't need planning permission for that.

Like this www.sigma-builders.co.uk/box-kitchen-extension-cost.html

Well we have largish house for London and there is a study upstairs and the DC have their own sitting room in the skinned and refurbished cellar.

We have fold-back doors between the "old" dining room and the posh front room. The DC are nearly 18 and 14 now. Those closable doors have been worth their weight in gold, along with the great big table. It's where the dc do their homework - they like to be near the hub of the house to asks questions, etc.. Forget desks in bedrooms and all that stuff - ours have liked to be within easy shouting range and near the fridge when work is concerned.

"Forget desks in bedrooms and all that stuff - ours have liked to be within easy shouting range and near the fridge when work is concerned. "

Absolutely. Desks and computers in bedrooms is a big issue for us. We dont allow them and only quiet reading is allowed in bedrooms after going to bed or before they get up. No electronic devices or video games or internet.

Are they likely to take up musical instruments when they are older? If so, it might be good to have a separate room they can do their practice in, without it being too horrific for the rest of the family.

Keeping it a separate room could also allow you to have a teenager's den so they can have some privacy without being shut away in their bedrooms.

Doesn't it depend on the proportions of the rooms? If you add the dining room to your existing kitchen, won't it be too large as compared to the sitting room?

What about leaving it as a seperate dining room, but having two sets of french doors, from the sitting room and kitchen into the dining room?

I think it really depends on you as a family and the proportions of the rooms.

The strange layout of our property meant we knocked our kitchen and lounge into one larger kitchen diner and turned what was the dining room into the lounge.

So we have one large room with kitchen, dining table and a corner with comfy chairs and coffee table then a 'snug' lounge with sofa. It works well for us, we don't really use the lounge.

The other advantage of this layout for us is if we're squashing visitors in we can use the lounge as an 4th bedroom because we have seating space in the kitchen/diner.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, it's really useful to hear what works for others etc. Got to make a decision now!