How do you use your living space?

[Lauraje1421]

We are 80% of the way through renovating our 4 bed bungalow which we bought 3 years ago. DH fitted a new kitchen pretty much straight away as the old one was horrendous. It is a fairly functional, medium sized room but is a transitional space between the front room and the back of the house where the bedrooms are. It has one south facing window, but tends to get gloomy from early afternoon.

The front room (north facing) is: front door / living room / dining room / playroom / and office space, and is failing at trying to do all of those things despite my attempts at “zoning”.

We got planning permission at the end of last year for a side extension (5m wide by 6m long), but through lack of finding a decent, reasonably priced builder and now lockdown, it’s been put on hold.

The proposed plan is to link to the existing building so the new kitchen / diner would have sun for most of the day and patio door access to the garden. The existing living room would be joined with a central front-entrance space, so it’s pretty much open-plan. The current kitchen would then become a playroom / snug / the transitional space to the bedrooms.

However, since lockdown I think my view of what space we need as a family, both now and in the future, has changed?... so my question is, would you keep it as planned option 1) a sunnier kitchen / diner that is open plan with existing living room, or option 2) a second, maybe more closed off? living room space (and just keep the existing kitchen where it is, separate from both of them).

I know there are more building costs to consider with our original plan, (and DH isn’t overly chuffed with having to fit another kitchen), once we are in a position to go ahead I need to have decided how the space should be used.

Can anyone share any advice / experience of what works best for other families with 2 (currently small) children? I’m just going round in circles depending on what kind of day I’ve had with the littles!

Thanks!

I’d prefer a large sunny kitchen with a dining area open plan to living room, with access to the garden. And a separate utility room. And a cloak room area to store jackets and shoes.

Could you post a plan of existing v planned layout? I can't really visualise it

This is the approved plan for a kitchen, the door from the “lounge” goes into the current kitchen, which you then walk through to get to the bedrooms.

Why are you demolishing a wall and rebuilding it 30cm further in? Just leave it be and save some money!
I'd also put some kind of screen/sliding door between the kitchen and the lounge or it will always smell a bit foody and could well be too loud/bright in there to watch films.

Can the door on left from lounge to old kitchen be moved down that wall?

I agree with the query about moving the wall 30cm in. Is this your main front door?
I can't see any good reason for doing this...30cm isn't quite deep enough to create a recessed porch. The only reason i can guess is the existing line of that wall would impinge upon the window in the extension by dining area, but that window surely could be smaller.
I would also query why you need windows and patio doors on all 4 sides. Plus? skylights if I've read the plan correctly.
2 sets of patio doors creates a thoroughfare and limits your furniture placement options. If you lost one set of external doors you might have room for a proper seating area.

Your current front room is used as front door / living room / dining room / playroom / and office.
New layout - this room is obviously still Front door, I assume new kitchen will provide dining room.
So you need a living room/playroom /office
Options –
1)existing lounge becomes living room and play room combined. Good that you can see the children from the kitchen. Bad that all their toys are visible when you walk in through the front door.
2) existing lounge becomes adult living room with no kids mess on display (Good) and old kitchen becomes playroom (Bad if your children need an eye kept on them)

Depends on how you feel about having a living room with an integrated plastic kitchen and lego everywhere, but this is the reality for a lot of people with young children. Having 2 separate spaces is a luxury.
I’ll outline my perfect layout in a separate post – I’m just doodling on your plan…

Is the dotted part garden? If so, that's three exits to garden in one room. Seems excessive and drastically cuts down on open walls for cabinets.

Also, my experience with playroom is they need to be incorporated into whatever room you will spend most of the day in. A separate playroom will just become a store room. Much better to have the existing kitchen as the evening sitting room for movies/getting away from the dishes.

Then this new space can be family room (inc toy storage), dining and kitchen. With fewer doors to the garden.

Right.
You'll be able to tell I have far too much time on my hands...
See attached picture.

I haven't drawn it, but leave front door wall alone and make glazed side panel narrower.
If possible lose the producing wall nibs in lounge closest for front door. If you have to retain them, there are ways of disguising them.
Move door from lounge to old kitchen down (red lines)
Partition off lounge from hall - I would have either double doors than can fold right back or preferable double pocket sliding doors so that you can go open plan when you want .
I'd use this as combined adult living room playroom. Tuck toy storage in corners nearest double doors to hide it from view at front door when doors are open.
Old kitchen - I'd steal a sliver from this to make a utility room. The worst thing about open plan living is having washing machine on when watching tv / having dinner. Somewhere for noisy messy stuff is wonderful. Rest of old kitchen becomes snug / office.

Thank you for all the replies! Some good suggestions there.
The moving back of that front wall 300mm is an architects idea so the original brickwork on the corner would be exposed. Agreed that it won’t happen ha!

I hadn’t even thought of making a new doorway into the old kitchen! It would definitely give more options for dividing up the new space better.

Agreed the double doors to outside at the front are unnecessary, as well as the ones at the back. And yes sky lights too! so will be rethinking those...

Thanks again!

There is a tendency to go overboard with "wanting more light" With glazing on 4 sides plus skylights you're heading into conservatory territory.
We've just finished knocking through into a tiny extension to make kitchen dining family room. Old kitchen was so dark we had the lights on during the day. We gained light from North facing patio doors and added a 180cm west facing window. Oodles of light.
You'll be fine with 2 thirds of that glazing

Moving an internal door can make a world of difference when integrating a new extension and can open up nre possibilities.
If you're stuck with protruding nib walls they create a good corner to stick a vertical radiator without sacrificing precious wall and floor space

If you lose the front (right hand )garden doors, I'd put your kitchen up that end, either a L or a U shape. You'd still have room for an island.
If you dont have breakfast bar seating at island , I think youd have room for a table and a little seating area by back garden doors

Op I hope you are paying @BruceAndNosh, they have better suggestions than your architect .

Ha! Yes it seems so!

Another question as we’re on a roll... the current plan is to have a pitched roof on the extension to match the existing (which is over the current lounge only and makes a T shape with the rest of the building. The small square with the front door is a later added flat roof (from years ago). But as the new extension is stuck on the side and my architect thought the pitched roof would work best , keeping the fat roof in the middle of the 2... do you agree? I’ve seen some lovely orangery style flat roofs (without the lanterns though) that could go over the whole thing (new bit and re-do old flat roof) but as it’s front facing, would this even work?

Thanks again!

Pics that might help... it was suggested to do a pitched roof over all of it but that would add £££ to join it into the existing...

I prefer the orangery style.

We have just knocked through from having a separate kitchen and dining room, with a lounge attached to the dining room with double doors, so we now have one large L shaped open space. We much prefer it, the flow is nicer, the space more useable.