Removing corridor to open up sitting room

[Lettherebelight]

We live in a terrace and at the moment you walk into a small entrance hall and then down a small dark corridor to the stairs and open kitchen. We see thinking of taking out the corridor wall so after the entrance you would walk straight into the sitting room. There would still be a door from the sitting room to the stairs and from the sitting room to the entrance. The advantage is that that I hate the narrow corridor and it would make the sitting room feel a bit bigger. Are there any disadvantages we haven't seen??

Would part of the sitting room still act as a corridor to the kitchen? If so it might affect how you place furniture but I don't see any major issues given there is a door separating the sitting room from the front door. Assuming it is not a load bearing wall, obviously!

That sounds like a great idea. We have bought 2 houses that had more living space instead of the corridor through to the back of the house.

Would it reduce any potential to put a loo under the stairs? If so, that's the only downside I can think of really. Think about where the furniture would go - it can't go up against the cupboard under the stairs, for example. And the living room floor will get a bit more muck with you bringing shopping bags through, but that's v minor.

Oh yeah, how are your neighbours on the corridor side? Because there is potential for them to hear your noise more, and you to hear them more. You're bringing your living rooms next to each other.

I did this. Best thing I did in previous house. It opened up the sitting room and make it larger and brighter but we also managed to put a table and chairs next to the understairs cupboard which had originally been useless empty space in the hallway
I had no issue with the front door opening into the sitting room
It cost me about £300 to have the dividing wall removed and a radiator moved too

That's really encouraging, thanks for things to think about too!
That sounds an amazing price troubles, we've had a quote for £1200 though we will need to put in a door (otherwise we'd do it ourselves)

I think the only downside is to ensure you have a well fitting front door as you don't want draughts. Or add a curtain over the door. Or a porch outside.

Would you walk straight from the outside into the sitting room? I discounted several houses when we were last looking because of that - drafty, and where would shoes, bags & coats etc go?

You'd walk in to the existing small entrance hall so shoes and coats would stay there. I think you're right on needing a decent front door, we'll have to factor that in cost-wise

Sorry that's not clear, I don't think I mean entrance hall. I suppose it's like a little porch.

We have a small Victorian terrace that has had the hallway wall removed.
It's a lovely space now and I couldn't ever see a need to have a corridor hallway instead of a larger lounge area.

Thanks spring looking forward to getting this done now!

Have you considered building control implications in terms of means of escape from fire etc? Making open plan may have implications.

@OliviaBenson this is only the case if the living accommodation is over 3 floors (eg a loft conversion to a bedroom)

If that is the case walls can still be removed and get through building control with the addition of a sprinkler system or hard wired smoke detectors depending on your building control

I really wouldn't like that as i hate houses where the front door opens onto the living room. Potential for coldness/draughts, lack of privacy and having to look at coats and shoes all evening unless you are amazingly neat people.

How big is the sitting room? In a house with grander proportions I think it would be a mistake. The relatively smaller gain in sitting room space would be counterbalanced by losing the functionality of a hallway. But in a more modest house opening up the living space would be more adventageous.

I think would improve it and make space more useable.

I use to live in a lovely Victorian terrace. The one thing I hated was having no hallway.

I did this - I thought I would hate having the front door open into the sitting room, but actually I love it - it meant that the side window now adds more light into the living room, there's fewer doors meaning I can put things more places, I like the open stairs much better as well.

I do have a porch though - so shoes and coats stay out there.

@SkylightAndChandelier
We open right into the living room.
We hope to add a porch sometime soon but for now we manage with a nice tartan basket underneath a side table next to the door that houses our shoes and we have an inset door mat so we don't dirty the flooring when we come in.
Coats are hung up in the rear lobby or cupboard.

Having a porch would definitely mean a corridor is a waste of space though.

Good point, Fosco. We used to rent a much bigger terrace and it wouldn't have worked there or been necessary because the corridor was really wide too. The problem with ours is that it's quite small so the corridor feels cramped.

I just spotted this on Instagram and thought it looked like perfect inspiration for no corridor in small terrace house.

That's lovely spring. We have a horrible glass door from entrance to corridor for light and having seen that I've just realised we can swop for a solid one

As Olivia says , I think if you have 3 storeys there is a fire regs issue with removing a ground floor corridor wall.