Would an architect be able to help with this?

[Dancergirl]

We've lived in our house about 11 years and have done quite a bit of work over the years. However I'm still feeling a bit niggly as there are a couple of things about the downstairs layout that aren't quite right.

The kitchen is at the front. It was in the front originally and we did think about moving it but it was too costly. So we re-did the kitchen leaving it where it was. I haven't got a problem with it being at the front per se, it's a quiet cup-de-sac so pretty private and there is a nice view out the front. It's a lovely big kitchen with nice units etc but it's still a bit darker than I would have liked in spite of putting in a few roof lights.

Behind the kitchen is the dining room with double doors leading to a playroom/tv room. Sounds ok but you have to go through the dining room to get to the playroom. These are all on the left as you come in, then there is a separate lounge on the right of the house.

I don't particularly want to knock the kitchen and dining room through. I know everyone's doing it these days but I quite like having a separate dining room away from kitchen smells/noises etc.

Would an architect be able to give me a few ideas so it flows a bit better and how to get a bit more light into the kitchen? How do you find a good architect?

architectinthehouse.org.uk/

Shelter run this scheme whereby you make a small donation (think we paid around £70) which goes to Shelter, and an architect comes to your house and talks about what is and isn't possible.

We used it a long time ago and didn't go further but found it v helpful.

That's such a great idea thanks. But unfortunately it looks like the offer is now closed

If the amount of light coming into kitchen is not limited by any trees or walls then there is v little you can do about it, probably because your house front is facing North. The best option is to move it but as you mention its costly and you have just redone yours.

I assume you have a corridor running at the middle of house. For the play room at the back, can you knock down a wall between the corridor and playroom to gain access? or even create a large room by combining the play room and lounge? A builder should be enough for a simple job like this, if you want to minimise your cost.

There isn't a corridor, the hall is sort of square with doors to kitchen, dining room and lounge. The playroom is at the back of the dining room overlooking the garden and there are double doors between dining room and playroom which we keep open most of the time.

It sort of works having it like this - my dds use the dining room table a lot for playing games, doing loom bands (!) etc so if we're sitting in the playroom it's sociable.

Maybe I'm over-thinking this, maybe it is actually fine as it is!

Yes kitchen does face north so doesn't get a lot of sun. Good for keeping food fresh though!