Floor Plan Ideas

[WhistlingBrooks]

Hello there knowledgable people

I have a lot of respect and admiration for some of you here who have such a creative bend of mind when it comes to property.

I have recently moved into our forever home and while it's all exciting, at the same time it's quite daunting to know.

The house needs a lot of maintenance and renovation work – not much was done in the last 15 years or so that the previous owners had it.

In terms of square footage, there’s lot and enough for my family of 4 (2 adults and 2 dc). However I am getting a bit lost in trying to make this space work for us.

The living and dining rooms are on the smaller side (but are snug) but I have already got these rooms set up and going and I think these two rooms work per se.

The family/office room that is to the right of the property is currently being used as a storeroom (for the unopened boxes) and playroom.

What use could I make of this room, can you advise?
The kitchen is a galley style kitchen (I don’t like that style at all unfortunately) and eventually I see myself changing the kitchen entirely. Do you think I could make use of the present kitchen as well as the family room to create a bigger kitchen? Or should I let the family room be, and maybe use that as a separate lounge?

The first floor of the house has 5 bedrooms, of which 2 are twin rooms (I planned to make use of 3 bedrooms and use the smaller twins as a Study and Walkin Wardrobe/Laundry room).

If you have a look at the floor plan, can you throw me some of your ideas please?

Could you turn round the built in cupboards upending into the kitchen toopen into the hall? That would give you a lot more wall space without losing storage.

Opening!

Thanks Pick

I actually need more storage in the kitchen, thee units in the ktichen hardly suffice for me now. Probably will need to rip it all out anyway.

Let me guess - garage conversion?

I think I would make the office in to the kitchen diner, with a utility room behind. Split the kitchen so the bit behind the office is the utility and the remaining bit is an office. Either keep the current dining room as a formal dining space or make it a family room

Alternatively you could not have the office but instead knock through between dining room and the left half of the kitchen, square the whole lot off in line with the dining room wall and make that a big family living room. Existing living room could be a second grown up lounge or a formal dining room according to preference.

Gosh that's and awkward floor plan!

And bedrooms 4 and 5 are just one room?

I like statistically challenged first idea but would have the utility at the front, make it a midtown utility. Rest of the existing office and current kitchen be kitchen diner, I think it's nice to have direct access to the garden from the kitchen.

I agree pocket - if it's feasible and affordable I'd switch it. I was guessing garage conversion and possibly supporting wall as it's drawn very thickly, but looking at room 5 above it might be fine. Depends what you can afford to spend!

And for long term, upstairs I'd be making bedroom 4 an ensuite for bedroom 5 so it becomes the master suite, and separate bedroom 3 off from 4. I think tgeres a height difference between 4 and 5 but it's hard to tell how big this is. If it's only a few steps it could still work fine.

Thanks, I have some ideas off you. I quite like the idea of knocking down between dining room and kitchen to make it a bigger space.

Yes, bedroom 4 and 5 are the same room with no doors in between! Still classified as 2 separate rooms.

This floor plan doesn't mention the Loft room which is separate headache altogether.

I'd make the kitchen and dining room into one - eventually with those concertina doors across the whole back wall into the garden. I'd also move the entrance to this room more forward into your hallway so its in line with your lounge wall iyswim. [taking out the cupboard]

I'd use the study as a playroom with a sofa etc and reinstall a wall in the bit behind your study to use as a utility room.

Upstairs I'd want an ensuite in the back part of the master bedroom and I'd lose the 5th bedroom and incorporate it into the master suite. I'd also move the bathroom door to the hallway to make the bathroom bigger and so that the shower is in the room itself.

Rather than working out how the rooms could be reconfigured, I'd decide exactly what you need from the house and then work out how best to sort out the ideal arrangement. Do you actually want a formal dining room, or would you use the two equal sized reception rooms as one casual living room and one more formal kept for adults? It all depends. How old are the DCs?

It's no good us suggesting play room, study or utility if those things aren't on your wish list.

For myself, I'd be looking to change upstairs so the two DCs had the bedrooms on our left, which are fairly equal size and then change the remaining three front and right side rooms for a larger master with ensuite shower and dressing room out of bedrooms 3 and 4 utilising the plumbing connection of the downstairs cloakroom and moving bedroom 5's wall to just the right side of its entry door, losing that small window to give it to bed 4. If that was feasible of course.

Downstairs is more tricky. I'd probably prefer the small front reception room as a formal adult space and to knock the rear reception and kitchen together, losing the door from the hall to kitchen and separating off the current dining end of the existing kitchen. What you want out of the left over office and rear of office space would be determined by how you want to live and if that second access door to the garden is best used for leisure i.e. from a study or as a utility access i.e. for a laundry/utility/bootroom affair. If you really want to keep a formal, separate dining room, then I'd have to give it more thought depending on what budget you have and if there's scope for a small garden room type extension at the rear?

Can you open up between the kitchen and office to make one large kitchen diner, then use the current dining room as the play room. Both will have direct access to the garden without needing to run through the house.
Upstairs I would remove the wall between the master and bedroom four, reinstall it at the other end of the room and put in an ensuite next to the current bathroom. That way you have a good size bedroom with dressing area, and the plumbing is still at the same end of the house.

Thank you all, for your suggestions. I think there are quite a few possibilities to work with these spaces. Having just moved in, I think I will give us some time to understand our needs and then work towards achieving it.

My priorities are having a larger kitchen area, but if possible retaining a formal dining space as well and if possible to have an ensuite. I think most of you agree that giving up on one of the smaller two bedrooms is the way to go and I would agree on that too. Specially, if we get the loft converted on the top floor, we would need to take some spcace off the first floor for installing a proper stair case. I'd much rather have fewer, usable rooms.

The existing kitchen as a utility room. The office becomes a kitchen, with a dining area towards the back. The dining room becomes a second living room/playroom. As your kids get older it is great for them to have somewhere to hang out with friends. Upstairs use bedroom 5 as the master. Put an en-suite beside the bathroom. Remove the wall between it and bedroom4 and build a wall for bedroom 3. Basically loose a bedroom but gain a more usable master.

I'm going to see one, tomorrow, that has pretty much done that (seems to be a bog standard 70s semi floor plan that we're seeing loads of in our search area, and I bet you have a weird platform in bedroom 4 where the airing cupboard used to be, too!) Only in this case they've confined the actual kitchen to the tiny old utility area behind the garage and got the wide room as a family room. I have my reservations about where I'd put everything, but yours sounds much more sensible.

We actually discounted an unextended one because, despite having at least the same square footage as our current home, all the tiny rooms mean that we wouldn't have fitted in it without getting rid of a lot of stuff. Opening up the space so it flows better would be much more sensible and, as I said, turning round those cupboards so they're accessed from the hall, rather than the kitchen, gives you more wall space for units.

This is what I would do if it was my house. Make the awkward rooms upstairs into a big master bed leading through walk in wardrobe (bed 3) into ensuite (bed 4). then you have 2 good size kids bedrooms. downstairs the play room could double as a spare bedroom. the 'loft room' could maybe be an office if you need one