Advice on use of space in a house

[Lacoll88]

Hi there is a new build house we love everything about except maybe the downstairs layout. We really want 2 lounges and a kitchen diner, this one has a kitchen diner and a lounge diner, we could put double doors between the lounge and diner and use the dining area as a separate living area but do you think this would be strange have two lounges next to each other separated by double doors? I will attach a pic of the layout so it makes more sense. We would have TVs in both the lounge areas. Thanks

Has the house been built? If the kitchen isn't in could you re-jig the swap the dining room/breakfast area and put a lounge where the breakfast room is now? Otherwise put solid doors between the lounge and dining room to keep noise down. Not ideal though

I think it would be fine. It's a strange lay out anyway - diner with no access to the kitchen???

So a formal lounge and a casual lounge, fine IMHO.

My lounge / playroom layout is very similar to your lounge / dining room
(I then have a separate dining room and a kitchen with an open conservatory which we use as an earing space for about 8 months of the year. We don't use the dining room much so really it's a very similar space).

When my kids were small it was great having the playroom open to the lounge (I have double doors that slide into the walls, usually open in the day then close off at night) as it meant the kids would play in there rather than pulling all the toys through into the lounge.

They are now 14 & 11 and don't use the playroom floorspace in the same way, I've just got corner sofa so it's more like a 2nd lounge, the kids can have friends back and there is somewhere to sit when they watch TV or play on a console or whatever. I think it's going to work well but in some ways it would be better if we swapped it with the dining room so we had a bit of separation.

But if a waffle there - but I think it depends on the ages of your children and how you will use the rooms.

Is there any room for negotiation, or is it set in stone? Because I too think the layout is very odd and not ideal. No access to dining room from kitchen, is just rubbish.

Downstairs layout is really key to whether a house works. That said, this definitely falls into the category of "nice problems to have"!

What you are suggesting sounds sensible but both living rooms could be compromised noise-wise. Our 2 living areas are where your garage and living room are. We use one for music practice or study mainly, so the fact that we have 2 doors between tv and trumpet, or between tv and quiet area for study area/work phone calls, is really key. You might get away with it if you have 2 TVs turned down quite low, or really good doors between the 2.

I think the obvious tweak - and it's obvious because it's "in" - is close off the dining room/living room wall, knock through between dining and kitchen, have a bigger kitchen diner with sofa area across the whole back of the house.