Playroom or utility room

[Faye0411]

Advice needed. We moved into our property about 7 months ago. It is a 2 bed end of terrace. It has a reasonable sized living room with an open archway leading to a dining room/playroom. My 4yo uses this room a lot.
Our current kitchen is small (8'7 x 6'6). We are planning to turn the dining room into a kitchen/diner because we don't currently have the space for a full size fridge/freezer, dishwasher or tumble dryer in the kitchen (all are currently in the garage).
The question is what to do with the current kitchen? It is a small space, we are considering a small utility room with downstairs loo or a playroom.
When we first bought we planned to extend but have decided that we don't want to invest that much in this property and will eventually need to move to a 3 bed, as we are now expecting number 2.
What do you think would add value or be more appealing to potential buyers? If we have a playroom we would fit a single bed or sofa bed in as a guest room but don't think it would be big enough to count as a third bedroom.

Any thoughts/advice?

Utility and downstairs toilet.

Utility & downstairs loo.

Utility, making space in the dining room for toys.

Utility and loo.

Utility. No question. There will be other places to play. There won’t be other places to put a washing machine

If you plan to move, save the money and live with layout as it is. Stick the fridge freezer and what it into the dining room, you can spend a bit of money to get built in cupboards if need be.

Thank you! I was inclined to go with utility and loo. Just need a toy declutter and to add some more storage I think.

TBDO that is the other option. Going to get some quotes and weigh it up. We want to move eventually, but realistically won't be for at least 2 years.

I wouldn't turn the dining/playroom into a kitchen, I'd extend the current kitchen. If you can't do that then leave it as it is. You'll be sacrificing a whole "living space" room and effectively sticking a kitchen on the end of the current living room.

My house is a similar layout downstairs and I toyed with that idea too. An estate agent friend advised against it if I ever wanted to sell my house as it would make the downstairs living space more cramped. They advised closing the arch between the two rooms to separate them properly then extending the kitchen.

Another vote for Utility and loo
Playrooms are nice to have but utilities and downstairs loos are on my must have list

Utility and loo.

I'd go for utility and playroom if you already had more bedrooms but think in this case I'd go for playroom/bedroom.

If for whatever reason moving in 2 years time doesn't happen but you have 2 children but that point an extra room for their bits and pieces will be so handy. And in the very long term give the option of a room for one of the kids. It probably depends on the long term view of the property market where you are though.

Thanks for all your advice. All really helpful. I definitely have to give it all some more thought.

My house layout is like this. I widened the opening between kitchen and dining room and made it into a kitchen diner with a large pantry cupboard in diner bit which stores all of the food. There’s then space in the kitchen for pots and pans. Enough room for toys in the diner bit, sofa and table and the kids play in there. We use the lounge as more of an adult space and watch telly in there. I also weighed up whether to extend or do what you are considering and make kitchen into utility but the space as it is now has worked well.

I do think Harriet has a good point though.

I agree Hariet has a good point. Losing the 2nd reception space was a concern because it is rare in my area and was a selling point for us when we bought.

Unfortunately, the kitchen and dining room don't share a wall (dining room is an extention from previous owners and was built off the living room. Otherwise knocking through would have been a good way to go.
I need to get quotes for a kitchen extention and consider if it's worth it. When we first found the house we had plans for a double extention increasing the size of the kitchen, bathroom and adding an extra bedroom. Since moving we have had issues with parking and terrible neighbours, which seem to be resolving themselves, but put us off making too much of an investment. Maybe given time it will seem like a possibility again.

Can you look on Rightmove and see what others have done?

Can you post a floor plan - I can't visualise it now you've described it? I was imagining the standard terrace layout.

Another vote for utility room. Children usually want to play where their parents are so you can put the toys in the playroom all you like but they’ll still end up in the living room with you eventually (voice of bitter experience )

Utility room, loo and built in storage. A shower if there is room.

This is the floor plan. It is slightly misleading because the dining room is actually as big as the living room and the kitchen is much smaller than both rooms.

Buyers I don’t think there’d be a doubt - utility and loo, unless you can make it an official bedroom.
If a three bed for you is on the cards anyway I would save on effort as much as possible

Hmm, didn’t realise the utility would be a room away from the kitchen - is it too small for a box bedroom and a downstairs loo? Though I quite fancy a laundry room at the foot of the stairs, never understood why it needs to be as far from the bedrooms as possible...

The trouble is you’re losing a reception room in an already small house, where I think living space would be more desirable than a utility room.

However a downstairs loo is always a good feature.

We had a more traditional terrace with another room off the back of the kitchen - had been the bathroom at one point. It was little but we took a section off for a small downstairs loo and then had a little space that was originally a study and later became a playroom (mainly just toy storage really).

It’s also worth thinking about how much moving all the services will cost and whether that is really worth it.

Can you use the space under the stairs for a built-in laundry cupboard to stack washing machine and dryer? And then have built in ff in kitchen?