Front door enters sitting room from street - creating a small hall area?

[ohhifruit]

I was wondering if anyone here had done this?
The house we're buying doesn't have a hallway, the front door from the small front garden/street opens into the sitting room. It's a good sized room in an end terrace with two big windows one of which we could incorporate into a hall area.

Would it be best to create a hall/dividing wall or a small internal porch area with a door? The stairs are in a different area of the room (they cross the house and enter the sitting room diagonally across from the front door and creating a hallway which would include them would become dark and the sitting room may become small box.

Does anyone have experience of essentially just adding 2m of wall with a plug, light switch, ceiling light, skirting etc.? Or adding an internal porch of sorts? Would this be very expensive in the North West of England?

Any other ways of disguising 2 scooters, lots of shoes and a pram from the view of the sitting room?

Could you add on a small porch instead?

Thereslotsoffarmyardanimals We can add an external porch as it is a conservation area.

Could you add a wall of those glass blocks iukwim?hide stuff from view but avoid faffing around with lights etc?

How about using a shelving unit as a divider, such as this:

www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/80071357/

(there is also a bigger one available)

It would be a cheap and simple solution, and could give you an idea of what living with the decreased space would be like if you did decide to go the 'whole hog' and put in a dividing wall.

Before building a wall I'd get something like a 4x4 Expedit as a divider - you'd have a little haall area but also loads of storage for shoes, bags etc (we use a smaller one in our hall and it holds so much).

Sounds a great idea if you have the space. It's thermally good, too. Ideally you'd close the front door before opening the lobby door, but even if you don't it will provide insulation for the front door.

I actually did the opposite in a house like this. The 'hall' bit took a chunk out of the living room and made it unbalanced/smaller.

I removed it and it opened up and squared the living room off and it looked bigger, obviously. Then put up a nice curtain rail for a quality curtain to pull over in the winter evenings.

It just all felt better and more pleasing to arrange the living room furniture in.

I have recently viewed a place with another piece of the living room taken out, which in my view, spoilt the whole feel and symmetry of the living room. But we are all different of course.

If it's an end terrace can you walk around the side of the house and put a porch on at the back for pram/scooters/shoes?

I'd go for it. It would give you something to put a sofa against, too.

Thank you for all of the replies.
We do actually have a couple of the Expedit out the back of my DH's shop which aren't being used. I wonder if it will look very cluttered in the sitting room though with all of the hallway stuff stuffed in? Could I make it sleek and clutter free in the sitting room?

With regards making it an odd shaped room, to an extent I agree. It would change the shape of the room a lot, however (for us at least) I don't think the flow would change because even without the divide we'd still put the furniture within the room that would exist with the divide - if that makes sense? Otherwise there would be some weird dancing around sofas to get through to other rooms.

Going in the back/side isn't an option I had thought of but it could work quite well actually because there are two back doors. One goes into a very small utility and then the kitchen but the other enters a long corridor shaped room which will become a study and leads into the dining room. That is certainly worth thinking about. Although I doubt I could reach to open the gate from the outside. Is there a way to secure a gate to be used on a regular basis on a main road. Can you involve keys or is that pointless?

ohhifruit in a very posh development near here the homes [about 3-4 of them] are accessed from the main road by a door set into the stone wall which leads to the front gardens. It is more of a sturdy door as opposed to a gate.

The home owners use a yale lock and key to enter. I think it also has a chubb lock too. Seems to work ok. I don't see why you couldn't do the same with a good gate.

Maybe worth thinking about if you have room for a porch and then get a size/shape which suits your needs.

You could get boxes for the expedit or I think they do doors that you could have on the back.

Yes, I was picturing the boxes - baskets are ££ but look lovely but the fabric boxes are cheap and they do a nice Cath Kidston knock-off pattern that looks very nice now. The boxes are big enough even for DH's giant shoes and things like changing bags, picnic blankets, snowsuits etc.