Living Room Size - Too Small?

[buyinghell]

I've just had my offer accepted on a house with a big kitchen extension/dining space. Great, but looking around with family made me see how small the living room is.

It's 12.5 x 10 11". Is that ridiculously small for a tv/sofa?

The 12.5 is into a bay window, so not the whole width of the room either.

What do you think?

Mines only a tiny bit bigger and we have it as a dining room too so I wouldn’t say it’s too small if you also have a dining space.

I think that is pretty small, especially measured into a bay window. But if you have a big kitchen diner/family room it should be big enough to be a cosy area for watching TV.

It depends on the layout of window/door/radiator/chimney breast etc. It sounds small (though bigger than mine!) but cosy & perfectly fine since you have the kitchen-diner space elsewhere. But layout will determine whether you can have a roomy, squishy sofa the length of a wall or whether you'll have to settle for a less generous sofa.

Sounds pretty typical for the terraces and semis round me. Wouldn't bother me as I prefer a smaller cosy room as a living room myself.

That is quite little but ours is only a little bigger (approx 4.5x4.5) and it is a lovely cosy snug in nice contrast to our big kitchen / dining / family room. So for us it works very well and is nice to have the 2 defined spaces.

The radiator is in the round bay and it's got a chimney with a tiny alcove each side.

I suppose I could have a sofa opposite the chimney, but I'm not sure if a three seater would fit. It might have to be a two seater and arm chair. There certainly wouldn't be any room for anything else.

Arrrgh, the trouble is the kitchen diner is big with an island etc, and great for family dining, but I think that would be cramped to fit in a sitting area too. So it's not great any way.

And I'm supposedly moving out of a lounge that's 20 x 22 feet.

I'm now thinking I should cancel the whole thing. Agggrh.

I've got a buyer too.

Ours is 12 ft 6 by 12 ft 2, which seemed small when we first viewed the house and it was full of the vendors clutter. It's much smaller than the large kitchen but I like the fact that it's separate and very cosy. In some period homes, a small lounge works because the ceilings tend to be high. You just need to ensure that your furniture is the right scale I think. I'll try to post a pic.

As long as you've got a large kitchen, it'll be fine op. I think your concern comes from the fact that you're moving from a large lounge. You will adapt the way you live, honestly. We moved from a large lounge with a dining area and tiny kitchen to a large kitchen and small lounge. We now spend a lot of time in the kitchen and when friends and family visit, they gravitate to the kitchen and naturally want to sit at the table. I actually have to SUGGEST sitting in the lounge as the kitchen has just become one of those 'sociable' ones all by itself iyswim.

I think the main issue isn't the length of sofas but the depth – so many are more than a metre deep and take up half the floor space.

How many people does the room need to seat? Look at 2.5 seater sofas and loveseat style ones –roomier than an armchair.

We have the sofa.com Fingal (160x70cm), and the Made Gertie as a sofa/loveseat (140x80cm), in a 3x3m room (measurements into bay/alcove so actually smaller) & can throw wild parties of up to 5 ppl.

Ours is a little bit bigger because it's full width no bay window, but we have two sofas (a 2 and a generous 3 that takes 4 if needed) two bookshelves, tv and side tables, with a decent square of empty space in the middle so it's not all on top of each other.

Furnishing it again, I would put in a full 4 seater and an armchair opposite to leave slightly more room for the TV and v importantly a Christmas tree!

If you can post the layout I'm sure we can help? Placement of doors etc can make such a difference. Certainly sounds doable though - I am a massive nerd for room layout, and would love to get my teeth stuck in!

Pic of my small lounge. 2 x 2 seater sofa,
2 small console tables and bench in the window plus tv unit.

It isn't huge for a lounge in a family home OP, but it needs to be looked at in context- how many people are in the family/how old is the family/is there scope to extend the lounge in the future or borrow space from elsewhere to extend it? Can you put really comfy dining chairs in the kitchen diner around the table as a sort of extra seating area even if there isn't room for extra sofas? Will you have to spend extra money buying new furniture to fit?

How does it compare to other houses you've seen? IME when house hunting there is ALWAYS some compromise for your budget. Is this the only compromise or are there other things which aren't quite right that are giving you doubts? Is the lounge a deal breaker? Are you feeling hurried into buying somewhere as you already have a buyer?

Sorry lots of questions but hopefully that might help your decision process!

The key to gaining space is to buy a settee with small arms. No huge arms for coffee mugs! It does not really matter how many seats it nominally has, it is the overall width and depth that matter. Two large cushions always make a settee loook bigger than three small ones even if the length is the same. It still can seat the same number of people. Small "occasional" armchairs are fairly useless. See if you can get a love seat. They seat one adult or two children and then free up the settee for adults. Can you get a settee into the dining/kitchen space for comfort whilst chatting? Then the lounge can be tv viewing area.

It sounds like it's more of a snug in an otherwise open plan floor plan than an actual lounge. Depending on door placement, you'd probably manage a couple of 2 seater sofas. What did the vendors have in there?

Agree with Bubbles. We had to search for a while for a sofa with narrow arms instead of big squashy ones that invaded both seating and floor space.

Mind you, we did get flat ones, so you can balance a mug on there.

How many of you are there and how old? And can you squeeze a sofa into the kitchen diner?

My small room is about this size. I have got a small 2 seater in the bay window and a bigger one on the wall opposite. Two substantial cupboards, one a corner cupboard in there and an upholstered footstool that doubles as a coffee table.

It is DD's favourite room in the house, she finds the other living space too big/not cosy by comparison.

Ours is 3.6×3.6m. Chimney breast but no bay. We fit a 3 seat sofa bed (small arms so only 202cm long) and a 2 seater sofa, a Tv unit and a small unit for record player and vinyl. No room for coffee table or book case etc. Would fit better if we had a corner sofa on back and side wall looking out at the windows but it feels a really good size.

Ours is this size too and absolutely fine for 4 of us. The 3 person sofa is along the wall behind the door and then two easy chairs on the short wall. TV is in one side of the chimney breast. Its completely normal.

We moved from a big soulless open plan rental and I much prefer it.