How do your family use your house?

[Wallykazam]

We are currently renting and have had our offer on a house accepted. We have 2 young girls (3 and 5) and want to remodel the downstairs to allow us to socialise as a family, entertain adults and let the kids have their own space as well. We also have an amazing garden that we want to take advantage of. We have several ideas for example, partician off part of the current kitchen to have a kids room, rearrange kitchen and open plan it with dining room and have a tv and sofa in the corner, plus small dining table, add a conservortory and use as formal dining room, leave sitting room as is and only for adults.

So we have these ideas but no real experience of how this will work as the girls get older, before we engage with architects and builders etc we just want to make sure we know what we are asking for and know how families 'live' I.e what works, what room is hardly used, what is the flow of your house and what would you change if money was no object? Of course we have a budget but hopefully we can prioritise the important stuff over the nice to have. Hope this makes sense?

3 DC here - preteens and one still at primary.

All separate rooms when we moved in, then we knocked through the kitchen and dining room. Also have separate lounge, separate utility and the worlds smallest downstairs loo under the stairs. Everyone usually gathered in kitchen diner, we use the lounge in the evening (for H and I to watch TV) and children sometimes during the day watch a movie in there.

In the process of creating a bigger kitchen diner with bifolds into the garden. Will still have separate lounge, utility (small) and downstairs loo. For me, I would NEVER be without a utility (but thats because I always have washing hanging around and would never want that in the kitchen - its not just the washing machine & dryer that you need to think about IMO, its all the paraphernalia that goes with that) or a downstairs loo no matter how small (means visitors don't have to traipse upstairs to use the loo).

For me, it was also important to have a social space. Before we knocked through the kitchen diner (typical 1930s set up), I hated when people came over (usually with children) and everyone was in little, separate rooms - its an antiquated way of living imo.

Haven't RTFT but your needs will change as your children change. With small children we wanted to be able to see them, with teenagers you need to be able to block off space for homework etc.

Hi all, can I have your thoughts on this layout? It's not to scale, and not accurate in terms of size/furniture door openings etc.... We are not even sure if all this can be achieved (meeting with an architect at the property this week) but wanted to get opinions on how the layout would work for families, with young children then with older teens. Thanks.

I've just moved into a house that has a conservatory. I hate it! It's either too hot or too cold- sometimes both in the same day.
We've got a room off the kitchen that has most of the toys in it. This means our lounge is toy free. It's great. It tends to mean we don't even open the door until the kids are in bed.

Hi Watchingitall - yes I am out off with a conservatory as well, other posters have said similar.

Hmmm
I'm going to go against the grain here
I really dislike open plan
I know it's all the rage atm - along with bifold doors and large kitchen/diners but that's all they are- the latest fad
You need to think long term - your kids won't be young forever and I can assure you having separate rooms with doors is very good for the teenage years!!!
Seriously though - everyone needs space sometimes and open plan can be a nightmare for that
We always seem holiday in open plan barn/houses and I'm always so glad to get home!
It will also be harder to heat unless you do underfloor which is £££££
Don't get a conservatory! Either a sun room with roof or proper extension bitter experience or you will freeze in winter and bake in the summer
Downstairs We have a conservatory (previous owners) a smallish kitchen, 1 tv room/boys sitting room, a large lounge/diner and a wc/utility area downstairs
There are 4 of us - me dh and two boys aged 7 and 13
My advice would be to think long term
Good luck

Oh wrt large kitchen diner....
We had one on our old house-we extended and it was thewhole width of the house/ massive.
I hated it
Sitting eating looking at all the dishes waiting to be washed
And the smell - at least in a dining room you can shut the door
It took a LOT of cleaning too - I had a range oven which I had coveted for years - it was a NIGHTMARE
Took 2 hours to clean the damn thing!
I had a Belfast sink too - I broke nearly every plate and glass in the house within 2 years
And for the love of god don't get real oak worktop - looks amazing but so so unsuitable in a family kitchen
I love my IKEA kitchen in this house
Fab self cleaning oven and wonderful induction hob
Stainless steel sink with posh tap
Lovely and so very easy to use and clean!!

Thanks Badders very useful tips! Much appreciated!

Good luck! 😀

We’ve also tried out having a separate playroom and adult room. We weren’t comfortable with it. It felt like we were separated. Maybe because we just got used to chaos.

I love our study off the kitchen. It has a door but it can be shut. It was a bedroom when we needed to rent out rooms to make ends meet when DH was made redundant. DD is now 11 and it is somewhere DD can do homework quietly, if she is on the internet we can keep the kitchen door open and keep an eye on what she is doing. We love our kitchen diner, it is where we mostly congregate but I also love my separate living room when DH has his mates round to watch a match - and they are in the kitchen I don't really want to get in the way. Our kitchen diner is about 15ft by 20ft plus an extra bit where the washing machine and tumble drier go. I have had one friend suggest we knock through to the living room which is next to the kitchen but I don't want to do that. Most other friends think we have a brilliant combination of spaces. When we have guests the separate living room is a nice place to repair to after dinner and leave all the mess behind in the kitchen out of sight. When DD was little one end of the living room was adult in style and then her toy box and mats were at the other end. Now she is older, the piano and music corner is where the play area used to be. We do have a dining room too but are using that at the moment as a downstairs bedroom for grandma. I'd say our hub of a good but not excessively large kitchen diner plus lots of separate other rooms downstairs has really helped us live in our house in lots of ways that we could never have predicted when we first bought it (we extended to the side to make the kitchen diner and study so we didn't buy it like that).