Anyone want to comment on a floor plan?

[FranklinTheCat]

We're planning a ground floor rear extension to create a kitchen-diner, downstairs loo and utility. Would love to get thoughts on our tentative floor plan - we've done a lot of thinking about what we want from the space but are new to this and will have missed stuff! All thoughts welcome (I can post alternatives if anyone is interested).

I like it - looks very practical and well thought out.

DP being an architect and seeing many of these I would say looks good!
Can't see any issue..

Have you considered large bi-folds?
(Would obvs mean a rejig)

I like it, functional and well zoned.
Is there any particular reason the double doors at the back are recessed in and not in line with the kitchen window?

Is that to scale? Three seater sofa in the snug makes the lounge look very small. What is the ft foot print?

I find snug areas are a bit of a waste of space. Anyway you could achieve a larger living room instead?

I like it. I would maybe move the hob to the centre of the worktop but that's personal preference, and I would add a utility sink as you have the space. I love having one to deal with mud, vomit, cat stuff, paint etc separate to the main sink.

Maybe err on the side of a smaller dining table - it'll quickly get annoying if the corner of the table obstructs the thoroughfare.

I would seriously consider pocket doors for the WC and utility as they will save you having opening doors taking up space in small rooms. We have put the, in our extension and they are fab.

I'd want an extra door to the downstairs cloakroom from the utility, so that you can access it from the garden without trailing round through the snug.

I appreciate many people would hate the idea of two doors into the toilet as the wrong one would be locked or unlocked.

How many people live in the house? The snug is effectively a corridor, which means if there are more than 2 of you, it may be anything other than a nice 'snug' space. If you have young children, could this be a playroom type area? Or rejig slightly and have the dining area here (rotating the table 90 degrees vs the current plan) and have one of those nice big armchairs, or a couple of chairs, nearer the doors, so someone can chat to whoever is cooking, or you can enjoy looking out to the garden.

We used to have a layout similar to yours in an old house, and no-one ever sat in the thoroughfare- it wasn't a nice place to sit!

I’d move the dining table into the snug area it’s not a space people will sit it as it’s a corridor and you could watch tv etc with people going back and forward. Move the patio door wall out to on level with kitchen and use that area as a family room.

If you can, I'd extend so that the rear doors are level with the rear window, and have bi folds all across the back of the house.

I'd also swap the kitchen and snug over. The snug as it is, is a corridor and a galley kitchen (or a peninsula if you prefer) would be a better use of the space. You could relocate the utility room door to be off the new kitchen.

Your snug/family room would them overlook the garden.

Can we see the alternative options? If it was my extension I'd want to make the doors into the garden as big as possible. My DM has huge glass doors (think grand designs style) and it's great to have the garden be so much part of her home. In the summer, they're open all the time and it makes the whole place feel bigger, and the rest of the year round it's lovely to see the seasons change.

Agree about the snug becoming a corridor, better to have the dining table there as people are at least made to side down!

Agree with others that the snug is a non area really, would prefer a wall between it and the dinning area, but you would then need a hallway to the kitchen. I can see how is laid out now uses every inch of space, but it makes the snug area impractical.

Don't like having to go through living room, then snug, then diner to get to kitchen.

Looking at this again, we had some friends who did something similar, they kept a corridor direct into the kitchen and closed the door into the snug. They could then put a corner sofa in the snug and it was used loads more. They managed to fit a utility/wc combo in the space under the stairs, but admittedly didn't have the external door on the side.

I don't believe your snug area will work. We did something similar a while back and this area basically became a washing dump and we ended up switching the kitchen back to where it was.

Your dining area is hanging a bit too (in the middle of nowhere)

If your dining area is like a breakfast room area too - ie family dining not just guest dining, I would move this to where you have the kitchen windows, and reorintate the kitchen, maybe 90 degrees to the right. Maybe put an island in (though I'm not generally a fan of islands).

I would put the snug by the doors to what I assume is the garden.

Something like this, so sliding pocket door to the utility and flip the WC round 90 degrees using the slope of the stairs. Obviously doesn't work if you need the external door

This is very similar to a friend’s extension but like PP’s suggestions the snug area is accessed only from the kitchen diner - in your plans the snug would be more of a corridor which is anything but snug. I agree that you should try and rejig to make the hall lead into the kitchen then you access the snug from the dining area. It works really well in my friend’s house and looks great.

I’d also want to extend out and have more glass onto the garden.

Dining table in the corridor area instead of a snug.

Couple of arm chairs near the doors onto the garden so people can chat to the cook.

Ooh, lots of responses! Thank you all so much for taking the time to respond.

It seems that most people's biggest concern is the snug area turning into a thoroughfare, which is one that we share. We have eliminated the idea of using that end of the room as the kitchen, as we would probably need to remove a chimney breast and it would involve more serious structural work. We are keen to keep costs down so have decided to site the kitchen at the rear.

Our idea for this space is less of a snug, more of a functional space - one of the alcoves is shelved, we would add in a desk for the other alcove and ideally would put a piano on the wall between there and the utility, with perhaps an armchair or love seat type sofa on the wall separating it from the sitting room. This would also keep the floor space clear (preschooler DC).

I will post an alternative as I'm not sure whether we should go with the above or have this area as the dining room and have the seating area within the kitchen extension to benefit from the garden view. Because of the need to extend existing pipework, I think it would be more expensive to have the kitchen on the other side - but it might be worth doing. Thoughts?

Oh, and for square footprint, downstairs is about 40 square metres and we'd be adding about 24 square metres with the extension.

We like the idea of an outside door from the utility for garden stuff and to take the rubbish out as bins are at the front. Not too keen on a second door into the loo as it will be more restrictive in terms of where we site units in the utility and appliances.

And no, the furniture is not to scale! There are three of us who live here and we won't be having more than one more child if that - so we would not be having an eight-seater table.

These are two of the alternatives. We are very much playing around with ideas at the moment. One of the reasons for not squaring it off at the back is that the original house juts out slightly on one side and I was wondering whether we should mirror that. The next door adjoining property has also extended on the ground floor so question is whether we go out as far as them or further, and whether we square off or jut out (and, if so, on which side). Mirroring the original layout as per the first floor plan would affect evening sun on the patio - kitchen is north-facing.

I like your last option with dining area in centre of the house, although you seem to have allowed space to put an 8 seat table. Do you need that?
Don't skimp on kitchen space to leave room for a mammoth rarely used table. (unless you gave loads of kids or dinner guests)
Allow a comfortable 6 seater with the option to extend to 8 even if it's a squeeze

I don't know why our architect has gone for such massive furniture! We would definitely not have anything bigger than a six seater max as there are usually three of us - and we would be going for an extendable table.

Oh, and ignore the window seat on the second plan - we would have glass doors there.

Op we've just submitted plans under permitted development and funnily enough our layout is pretty much exactly like yours! Our extension will be 6X6 metres and then reconfiguring to create utility/ wc, snug and front lounge. It has been useful hearing about others opinions on the snug area. Will have a think about it more. Sorry about rotation of our plans!

Threesocks idea is s similar to what I was thinking. The utility door would be handy but if only for putting the bins out a couple of times a week not really necessary.