Archway, instead of door, from hall to living room? Bad idea?

[POPholditdown]

The doorway into my living room is in the middle of the wall, which really hinders my options for layout (basically whichever way we have the door open, it is in the way of something, so everything needs to be on one side).

I feel like I’m missing some major cons of just having an archway there instead (of the same width).

The two major factors I can think of are potentially noise and heating, however:

We very rarely close the door anyway. The only time we do is cat related (vet home visits for example) but this can be solved by using the kitchen instead. The only noise ‘issue’ we have with the door open is hearing the tele upstairs, but this doesn’t bother either of us and we can obviously close the bedroom doors.

Re heating, there are two radiators, one on each side of the left wall and the house is generally warm anyway, so I can’t see it being any colder by being more open.

Am I missing anything?

This may or may not be a forever home, so we do need to think about the effect on selling in the future.. Would it put you off?

One more thing to note is that we don’t yet have DC but we are hopeful. Is this something that could have an impact later? I suppose if we needed to, we could always add a stairgate on or something later on (getting way ahead of myself)

Floor plan added just incase!

Why not have a sliding door?

I would hate it - I like to keep the living room door shut for heat and noise and 'cosy feel' purposes.

I don't see how the door is any more in the way than an arch woudl be.

I remember seeing something like this on an interiors show recently. The owner has a similar problem with the placing of furniture, circulation space etc.

They solved it by bricking up the existing door and moving it further towards the corner. Could you do that? Perhaps moving it so it is opposite the door out of your hallway and at the bottom of your stairs?

I'm not sure I'd like an arch - what serbska said!

Would rehanging the door on the other side help?

Do you not even close the door at night? We do to keep the heat in. Having a separate hallway to living room is a major selling point to me so I'd never dream of doing this, but it's your house and you don't have to think about buyers so do what works for you. Or just take the door off and see how you get on through the winter. I think a square gap is more modern than an arch anyway.

Pocket door. Or move door way to opposite front door.
I'd keep the door particularly if you ever plan on having more than 1 over night guest (we have sofa beds which are invaluable over Christmas/kids birthdays) And for noise - 3 pre teens playing Xbox definitely require locking away!

Have a kind of barn door arrangement where the actual door is in the hall and slides to one side to open?

I don't see how the door is any more in the way than an arch would be.

Sorry, should have clarified but was trying to not ramble!

If there was no door opening into the room, I’d have more options for a nicer layout (for my taste) for e.g my sofas are currently against the opposite wall, and the wall between LR and kitchen. Leaves little room for other furniture, so it’s very bare/lacking storage. If the door wasn’t there, I could have the sofas facing opposite it each other, it wouldn’t feel as tight.

The left hand wall is ‘wasted’, some good space there for say floating shelves or a small sideboard, but as the door opens that way, it would hit whatever we put there now.

We can’t have it opening on the other side as it wouldn’t open all the way due to the sofa.

The room size is about 3.5 by 4m so not the best of space to begin with.

As I say the heat isn’t an issue, the house is very warm naturally. So the only problem is it looking cosy, but would you say that outweighs the benefit of more efficient space?

I suppose I could look into the cost of putting a door back in if we were to ever sell (not a case of more money than sense honest!)

If it's not a load bearing wall I'd just move it to the position that suits you.

Doors are useful.

I would block that door up and move it further back towards the front entrance.
I saw it on a refurb programmes recently and it worked well, it opened up options of where to place furniture etc

We are building an extension and where our French doors are currently we are having to have an arch bit given a choice I would prefer doors to keep it separate.

Don't do it!
We had an archway and absolutely HATED it!
We had a loft conversion last year and had to have a door put back and we are thrilled. Keeps so much warmth in the room, really separates it from the hallway which is a massive plus for us with 3 children!
Seriously, keep the door 😂🙈

Why don't you just unhang the door and try it, store the door somewhere. Even in a spare room temporarily. I wouldn't change the door frame itself at least until you've tried it. Then if you move, you can just rehang the door. Wouldn't cost any money, and you could try out the layouts without expensive building work.

You have a few options. In The short term you could take the door off its hinges which would give the same effect as an opening/arch, to try it out.

Other options:

• Change the side the door hinges are on
• install pocket/ sliding door in existing position
• move door opening to the most convenient place along that wall
• depending on what’s in your hallway you could have a top hung sliding door with the mechanism in the hall way. This would free up all your wall space in the living room.

I think I’ve answered some of the new questions already (slow typing)

But I’ll try and go through some more:

-I did consider moving the doorway completely. It’s a load bearing wall, so I’m not sure how much impact this would have (particularly cost wise). Moving it opposite the entrance door would be difficult as there are radiators on each side of the wall there, so there’s the additional cost of relocating those, and possibly having to take up the floor to put in rads else where.

I could look into moving it nearer to the kitchen however.

-No we never shut the living room door, unless it’s to shut the cats in there for whatever reason. Even in winter, house heats up pretty quick and stays warm.

• A pocket door is definitely something to think about. It’s a single brick wall so I’ll have a google if this is possible and how much disruption it’d be to the walls.

-I’ve had a look at the sliding doors (that hang on the walls) and not too keen on the look tbh, but thank you!

There are definitely other options, but the archway seemed to be the cheapest way whilst getting some more useable space.

-We gave 3 bedrooms so space for now is fine for guests (but the only overnight one we have on occasion is my nan when I’m taking her to the GP the next day)

Would you still feel the same it was a square gap like a pp suggested? Rather than curved at the top?

We recently had a sliding door fitted in our kitchen. I would highly recommend it!

Yes we’ll take the door off first to see how the space works and if it is actually worth it, but I wouldn’t like to leave it that way ‘permanently’. Itd look incomplete to me whereas if I were to have the archway it’d have a nice complete looking border (though I’m not so sure about it now!)

Can you have it opening into the hallway instead?

nowtygaffer is it the type that hangs on the wall on one side? Or more similar to wardrobe sliding doors?

It's kind of built into the walls on a frame. Then plastered over.

GlitteryFluff no, not in it’s current position, as the staircase is too close. Which is a shame as that would have been the best solution.

Notonthestairs sorry think I may have missed you, it is a LB wall as far as I’m aware. I think it could still be moved but at a much higher cost?

I would move the door to either end of the wall. We recently moved a doorway in a load bearing wall and it wasn't too expensive (similar or perhaps even cheaper than putting an arch in?). The difference it made was brilliant!

Like this one nowtygaffer think these are the pocket doors pps suggested

Looking at it more I actually love the idea, I could look at doing it for both the living room and the kitchen (kitchen door is a pain in the arse too tbh)

If you don’t mind me asking, what was the cost of fitting them?

If the staircase is in the way of opening it into the hall, what about a door that's hinged on both sides and opening in the middle to open out into the hall?

The cost of an archway would be more as more waste to dispose of and a larger more heavy duty lintel required to cover the wider gap. Also the plastering and finishing of the arch.

Sorry I've no idea of cost as it was part of the kitchen fitting by our builder. Ours is just a single one.