Layout advice and ideas

[PollysDolly]

We have recently moved to a Victorian end terrace which needs total renovation. It has a slightly unusual layout in that the kitchen is the middle room (rather than at the back) and we are trying to decide if we need to extend to make it fit our needs. We are a family of 5 and I need to get at least a breakfast table in the kitchen.

I've attached the ground floor layout. For scale, the kitchen is 12'5 x 11'7, living room and dining room are both approximately 15' x 14'.

We are open to the idea of extending/moving rooms around, but we are in the north so it depends on whether the benefit would be worth the cost!

All advice/ideas greatly appreciated!

Side return extension and knock through from kitchen to dining room.

If it were me I would either look at squaring the back of the building off and having a nice big L shaped kitchen diner or squaring off the back of the house, knocking through the kitchen into the living room and that being a kitchen diner and the back room being the living room.

For us we'd have the kitchen diner at the back as we'd have tiles in there and then the dog if he got wet in the garden wouldn't get carpet muddy.

Extend at the side of the dining room and knock through into the existing kitchen, put a pitched roof and a couple of velux in and have an U shaped kitchen if you block up the kitchen door. Have a dining room table and some lovely French windows out onto the garden for the rest.

Do the stairs say "Cellar"? So the stairs to the 1st floor are over the stairs to the cellar?

Can you use the cellar for a utility room?

I agree with Cathpip with the caveat that I wouldn't have a big open plan space with the kitchen space incorporating a living space if I had to have my washing machine and dryer in the kitchen (also a family of 5 and washing machine is never off).

Thanks everyone, loads to think about there. Yes the stairs to the cellar are directly below the staircase going upstairs. Would have to check about whether the plumbing would be ok in the cellar but it is pretty big with good head height so has potential for a utility.

I thought people might suggest a side return and knocking through, my only problem with that is we have just moved from a (smaller) house with one reception plus dining kitchen and at the moment I really enjoy having a second reception (dining table/kids stuff etc) and a 'grown up' living room. Plus this is a 5 bed house so I wonder if one reception makes it a bit unbalanced if you know what I mean?

What would you think about a side extension just knocked through to the kitchen? Would that be too small to squeeze in a table and chairs? Or a side extension as separate utility leading through to the kitchen?

I think its probably a bit unbalanced to start with if you have 5 bedrooms and that amount of downstairs space - I presume the house was built as a 2 storey house and the loft has been converted?

I think its more important to have a room where you can all "be" without falling over each other and getting in each others way.

How wide is the side return? You could perhaps get a table and chairs in there - long ways if you see what I mean but it looks like it would be narrow.

No, it was built as a three storey house (2200sqft). It actually feels a lot more spacious than it looks; the hallways are wide, ceilings are high and on the top floor the landing is enormous so we are going to convert that to a kind of teenage den with sofas and a separate shower room on the top floor.

Sorry, got a bit defensive there

Ooh sorry, jumping to conclusions but normally, I'd have expected the downstairs to be slightly bigger for a 5 bed house.

How many children do you have? I think if you're going to convert part of the upstairs for a teenage den type thing (I would SO love to have the space to do that), then are you still set on having a separate 2nd reception downstairs if it compromises the kitchen a little bit? Would the dining room / kids room get used?

Do you entertain? Do you often have family round etc?

:) We have three children under 7 so a while away from using a teenage den yet but at the moment it's a great play area. Family all live miles away so we need space to have people stay over but not at the expense of what we need the house to do for our family iykwim? At the moment two kids share and we use one bedroom as a study and one as a spare room. This will obviously change as they get older. Decisions decisions. Although I would love to get all the building work done asap, thinking about it, we should probably live here a bit longer before making any major decisions...

Thanks for your input btw, it's been helpful!

In that case I would extend out into the side return, knock through to create a kitchen-diner, poss with room for a sofa and/or work area, and keep the sitting room separate.

How wide is the side return? As a cheaper option I would extend the kitchen into the side return for a couple of metres, creating a dining area, if width allows. This would leave your two large receptions intact. Only downside is lack of space for a downstairs toilet.

Hmm, I think I need to measure the side return properly and get a builder to see how much useable space we could create. Definitely a possibility though. I've reconciled myself to no downstairs toilet. There will be 3 other toilets and this was a compromise we were willing to make to tick other boxes that this house filled.

You really should live in it a while I reckon, it massively helps when deciding what to do.

I think I'd go for extending into the side return and knocking through, making it a huge kitchen dining area with a living room at the front.

What are you doing with the cellar? If it's a utility can you fit a loo in?

Dstairs loo so useful!

My house is pretty similar to yours. Built as 3 floors, kitchen in the middle. Stairs that curve round with a basement underneath. Mine has an extra reception next to the dining room, so a big corridor in the hall. The previous owners put a toilet, utility and shed in the side return, leaving the kitchen with no window. There is a suggestion of what not to do!

OP I thought exactly the same as you when we moved into our house - having a separate dining room was lovely. Now, if we weren't moving, I'd be looking to make the kitchen bigger, either by knocking through or extending to the side.

ftm123-No window in the kitchen?! Why would you do that? Ours has a window to the side at least. Interesting to hear yours has a similar layout, as I've not found any others (while nosing on rightmove) that don't have a kitchen at the back.

Wicked-The cellar is big and could be converted (potentially at a later date), but it's whether it's worth the cost given our location. Hmm, maybe that is the best thing to do to balance out the living space and bedrooms and I should be thinking longer term. Definitely worth getting quotes in I think.

Thanks all!

I would do a side return extension and take out wall between existing dining room. I would then swap kitchen and dining room, so kitchen is at the back with new dining area. The old dining room could then be a separate snug.