Changing layout of 1930s semi - what works / what doesn't?

[MarvinKMooney]

We live in a 1930 semi and we need to make the house work better for us.

Currently, the living room and dining room are knocked into one running from the front to the back of the house, with a french door out onto the garden.

The typically titchy kitchen has a conservatory tacked onto the end of it (about 3m square). The conservatory is freezing in winter and boiling hot in summer and the kitchen itself is very dark.

We have the original 1930s garage down the side, which is currently a store for bikes, half empty pots of paint, and the washing machine (which won't fit into the kitchen!).

We've been in the house several years now, and really need to make it work. We love the area and the schools are great, so we don't really want to move. (Any buying a house already 'done' would be far more expensive that doing it ourselves, I reckon).

Our initial thoughts are to reinstate the wall between the living and dining room with double doors in it. The front room would be the living room. We'd then knock through between the kitchen and garden end of the living room to make a kitchen / diner across the back. We'd like to look into the option of incorporating the garage, with the back 2/3 being absorbed into the kitchen, and the front 1/3 being for bikes (and a lot less clutter!).

Haven't got a clue what to do with the conservatory - perhaps flatten completely, or make it more 'permanent' looking with a tiled roof. It has access out onto the garden, so perhaps it could be used as a playroom while the kids are small.

So, those are our ideas. Extending out the back would be wonderful, but we don't really have the cash for that right now.

Have you done something similar? What did you do that really worked for you? Is there anything you wished you had done differently? Any hints / tips, anything to avoid?? Thanks!

Is the garage the full depth of the house or not?

It's in line with the original line of the house at the rear, and is about 4 ft short of the house line at the front. It's probably about 15ft long by about 7ft wide.

No - more than that. About 20ft long. Sorry!

Is the garage on the kitchen side?

Yes to reinstate the doors between diner and lounge and then knock through diner to kitchen.

Need to explore garage options more as well though...

Could that be a play room & utility room
Do you have garden space for a shed for bikes?

we live in similar but haven't knocked anything down- just stuck an extension in the loft

I'd do what you're doing- have living room and dining room separate but knock the kitchen through but I can't because I've spent all the money

ooh and a utility room instead of conservatory

that way you can keep the kitchen area smallish so it doesn't encroach too much on dining space

We have kept the living and dining room separate. We knocked down the garage and shoved on a massive two storey extension, so now have a full length kitchen/diner and two more bedrooms upstairs. We had a downstairs loo under the stairs amd a larder cupboard which were knocked out to make the new entrance into the kitchen. The miliscule kitchen will be a utility room with loo, and what was the original dining room a man cave to hide all the crap the husband hoards. Would like a conservatory but this would be total overkill!!!

I think for you it would be best to reinstate the wall between the living and dining room and make a kitchen diner. If you could convert the garage that would give good additional living space, a play room is always nice so you arnt tripping over lego all evening.
My neighbours have taken down all the interior wall so the downstairs is totally open plan - do not do this!!!

My neighbours have taken down all the interior wall so the downstairs is totally open plan

this looks lovely imo BUT it makes for difficult family living

it's ok at centerparcs for a weekend but I really don't want to listen to anime soundtracks, big band theory repeats and instagram idiocy all day long- you need some space to get away (we've been stuck indoors today- can't you tell - I'm in the dining room with the dogs)

big bang

tsk

actually big band theory sounds like an improvement

I have a kitchen diner across the back and the front sitting room seperate and I like that layout. Works for us.

Sounds exactly like our 1930s house. Almost every one on our street has knocked through to the dining room from the lounge yet still kept their tiny kitchen. Instead we kept our lounge as it is and knocked through the galley kitchen and dining room. We blocked up back door and dining room door and just have the one door going into kitchen and original dining room patio doors to get outside. It's a now gorgeous family kitchen with room for loads of worktop space, American fridge freezer, dining table and chairs and an armchair. Absolutely love it and makes so much more sense layout wise. We're not entirely sure what to do with the garage yet but to make it more attractive in the garden we painted it all white and attached lots of colourful wall pots with geraniums in. Google images of sail shades in conservatories - might be cheap way to keep it cooler in summer rather than investing in bespoke blinds.

i think some 1930s houses are just a bit too small (well, ours was) to have totally open plan. i know so many people with 1930s semi homes and if youre not adding a large extension on the back, the best way is to keep the dining and living room separate. i love having a "front" room to escape to.

just my opinion on converting the garage, round here, houses are more in demand if they have the garage as a garage but i suppose it depends on how long you are planning to stay. maybe ask an estate agent if your town has helpful ones (we brass necked asked when we made alterations/extended and they were happy to advise).

we still have our tiny galley kitchen and are thinking to extend it just enough for a few extra cabinets and a breakfast bar or small eating area - desperate to have even one room downstairs that isnt joined on to the party wall.

we replaced our old crappy conservatory. Rather than having doors we opened the whole opening up, extended the wall along one side for the entire length of the new conservatory and half way up the other side - so it's more of a large L shaped window at the end of a proper room than a conservatory really. This meant we could have a radiator in that room too. The roof is glass but of some cover material that lets in light but regulates the heat and UV coming through. It's made the kitchen much much lighter and is now a proper kitchen diner with an area for a sofa and plants at the end. It seems very spacious now, but the footprint is only a couple of feet longer than it was before. The old conservatory was very draughty and cold in the winter, whereas now it's lovely. I definitely recommend it!

We built a single storey extension on the back which is a big kitchen diner. Kept front/back living rooms separate, have glass doors between back room and kitchen. Old small kitchen is now utility ( also with door into new kitchen). Also fitted a downstairs loo.

We also built over the drive to get an extra bedroom.

We reinstated the wall between the front room and dining room. We have a large kitchen diner which runs across the back of the house and leads into the dining room. We split the garage, so the front of it is used for storage of bikes etc, the back of it now houses a study and downstairs loo. We also have done a loft conn.

I would reinstate the wall between the living and dining rooms then look at reconfiguring the back of the house.

With a garage on the side there is the space, should you or a future owner need it, to extend above the garage. Personally I wouldn't convert the garage to living space, I think you lose valuable storage unless you have cellars instead.

You could extend at the back to wrap around the back corner of the house on the ground floor with a pitched roof, giving you a much better sized kitchen diner and space for things like a separate utility room and study area. You can still have the under stairs cupboard for a loo or coat storage.

Thanks for your replies! Really interesting reading.

I definitely want to have a 'front room' that can be closed off in the evenings, and to knock through across the back. As a PP said, whoever is cooking / washing up always feels isolated from everyone else, but I wouldn't go completely open plan.

To answer a couple of questions: yes, the garage is on the kitchen side of the house. Our house is the left hand semi as you look at the front of the house from the street, with the kitchen on the left at the back of the house. We don't have any cellars, and we are looking to convert the loft into another bedroom.

Good point about checking whether getting rid of the garage is a good move. We live in a cul de sac and we have off-road parking for two cars. Our garage is too narrow for a modern car, so we've never used it for that purpose, and many houses round here are the same. Unfortunately, we can't build sideways to make a wider garage, as we're already up against our boundary on that side.

We don't have any other access round to the rear of our house (currently we have to go through the garage), so our bikes would need to be accessible from the front of the house.

I just don't know what to do with the garage. If we put a door into it from the kitchen, we lose valuable wall space for units etc. If we open the whole thing up, we have to access the garden through the kitchen - including pulling green bins through, etc etc.

Miaow - when you say you've partially knocked through, how does that work? Have you left some wall in place? And is your conservatory at the back of the kitchen, or in line with the dining room at the rear?

Any plans we can see?

I too have a 30s semi and thinking of knocking dining room into kitchen.

The garage.

You make it longer - front half storage for bikes & wheelie bins - can even keep the garage door if you prefer

Back half is your kitchen extension with French doors etc.

Friends of ours have similar footprint, but no garage. The conservatory has been replaced with a small extension covering that area and the wall between the original kitchen and dining room knocked down. Kitchen in whole of original kitchen / extension area with a peninsula over some of the opening. Front room is separate. Is a really nice space.
When looking for a house we saw a couple where they'd knocked the kitchen through into the back of the garage (and then had a utility / WC in the middle space) with nothing on the back.
Our garage doesn't come far enough back to be accessed from the back of the house (would mean a 5 foot high door) so not an option.

We're in a 30s semi too.

Here, because its quite an expensive area, consensus is to maximise living space. So on our cul de sac of 40 houses, I would guess that 80% of them (certainly those with young children) have converted their garages either wholly or partly to living space / demolished them completely and created a proper extension. The idea suggested above as bikes etc in the front part of the garage and the back part incorporated into living space is the standard format.

We've knocked through between kitchen and dining room, keeping the lounge separate. Think it works really well. About to start a 2 storey extension across the back to get an extra bedroom and an ensuite, but that's only really because we have 3 children.