Living room size in relation to rest of house

[amazonianwoman]

We're (still) considering moving our kitchen to another part of the house to create a large kitchen/diner/family space. This will measure 6.3 x 4m + 5.3 x 3.5m ie 2 rooms connected by an opening about 2 metres wide.

This will leave us with a utility (staying where it is and a good size), a room 4 x 3.5m - was planning on making this into a playroom (study as kids get older, currently 6 and 8) then the old kitchen which is 5.5 x 3.1m, ie long and narrow.

Are these final dimensions big enough for a living room? There is a chimney breast (recessed by an extra 15-20cm) so we could fit in a woodburner and make it a cosy evening living room. But I'm just concerned it is a bit too narrow? And too small for a 4 bed detached house? We won't stay here forever, so need to think about resale potential.

Or make the shorter but slightly wider playroom the living room?

We will have room in the kitchen diner for something like 2 x compact 2-seater sofas so will probably live in there most of the time...

On the off chance that I haven't already bored you silly, what do you think wise MNers?!

Oh and we've bought a divine ex display handmade Thomas & Thomas kitchen so HAVE to get moving and make a decision in the next 6 weeks...

My PILs have done what you are suggesting with similar size spaces and when I first saw the living room I thought that they had made a huge mistake. It now has been furnished and looks much better but they have very small sofas etc in there. Not sure if that helps much. I wouldn't buy their house because of the living room but I have 3 dc.

We knocked our kitchen into what was the living room to create kitchen/diner/living room and turned the dining room into a small snug living room (3.7 x 3.2m)

We've not yet got round to doing the lounge, but I'd really like to do something like this www.cocokelley.com/2012/08/room-of-the-week-8-2-2/

I think I'd probably go for the squarer room, I'm not sure that the extra length in a narrowish room will make it more useful for fitting furniture. Although I think more important is how many doors in each room, makes a lot of difference to how much you can fit anduse.
Neither room is too small as a living room especially when you have other space for sofas. My living room in my new house will be 4m x 3.1m and a little extra width wake a big difference I think.
Buy some squared paper and draw the rooms to scale with furntiure as you would like and see which works better.

Thanks all

I've started putting the layout onto floorplanner.com, I'll try to link to it later when finished.

Cakebar - that's exactly my worry, someone with 3 DCs might find it too small (and they would be the target buyer)

Ilikebirds - very cosy room you've linked to!

I'm so worried about making the wrong decision - we have a bit of a history of making wrong decisions! (including buying the house in the first place )

We don't intend to sell anytime in the next decade so we've done our house very much how it works for us even though we're aware it wouldn't suit others. However we could just sacrifice some of the kitchen diner and move a single non-structural wall to create a larger lounge if we ever wanted to change it in the future.

Having this layout also means that we can use the lounge as a spare bedroom if we have guests as enough room to entertain everyone in the kitchen diner which is really useful for us (we're only a 3 bed)

waves at amazonianwoman I think either could work - but it may depend on door/window layouts. Neither are massive - but neither are totally titchy either.

We have a big open plan kitchen/living dining room and then a separate sitting room. Ours is about 4 x 3.5 and because it hasn't got to squeeze loads of toys or a desk in it actually feels massive. Our previous house had a 6m x 3.1m sitting room. Didn't feel too narrow as it was long. BUT the layout was a total pain. Had 3 sets of double doors off it and a fireplace - so useable wall was really limited IYSWIM. And it was the only space we had for a desk and downstairs toys - so we actually split the long lenght up about. So our useable "sitting room" bit was probably smaller than your narrow room - and then we had a bit for toys and a bookshelf between the patio doors and the sofa,, and a desk at the other end.
So either of yours could work - and as I like birds said - think as much about what would work for you as what sellers would want. What is the light like? Also where the rooms are in relation to each other - would the children be more likely to actually use the playroom if it was closer to the kitchen area? So floorplan would be useful. And I am v nosy too