Two rooms or one big room

[Skittlebug]

Recently purchased an relatively untouched Victorian house, do I keep the two rooms as small separate rooms so I can have a playroom and a living room or knock through to have one large room? Can't decide

Personally I hate it when people knock through walls - open plan living sounds like a great idea until you have kids and want some peace and quiet or at least not to have to stare at toys every evening when they've gone to bed

I'd keep 2 separate rooms that way you can shut the door on the play room and have a glass of wine and Netflix in peace!

Keep the two rooms - when your children become teenagers, you will be glad of private space.

It's such a personal decision and really depends on your circumstances and on the space in question. Many people seem to go for the single bigger room but personally, I'd try to keep two.

For us, that has meant having a little used room for a while, but it's come into its own during lockdown and beyond, as it's provided additional quiet office space without encroaching on the rest of the household. It's also at times worked to accommodate guests when we've had a houseful. And a playroom where you can just close the door the enormous piles of tat that children seem to accumulate sounds like a good use of space to me.

Aha! A problem I'm wondering about at the moment. We bought a place and renovated and extended; the architect, as one of his plans, suggested breaking up the lounge into two rooms and we instantly rejected it, we wanted a huge lounge! It's 8x4m and now I'm sitting in it and thinking perhaps I could have lost 3.5m off one end.... it's still a great lounge size plus another room to use. The good news is that a stud wall is a piece of proverbial to put in so I might still go for it

I think it ultimately comes down to how sociable and how tidy you are.

Folding doors have a lot going for them. We have solid oak doors between lounge and dining room, one is a bifold so they open neatly out of the way but it's easy to have privacy. Just in the original six double door frame.

Find some reclaimed double doors that match your house, put them in and you can have the best of both worlds and change things as your family needs change.

I would look at folding doors as a pp suggested. We have this and I love it....prefer an open large room in the summer when the sun is shining through but prefer 2 smaller rooms in the winter when you just want to cosy up! Folding doors make the space more versatile.

2 rooms with pocket doors so it can be one one large room when needed.

We lived in an edwardian house with double doors between the two rooms - it was great as we had them open all summer and at christmas but inbetween Could seperate into two rooms which was cosier in winter.

2 if you can. When the kids are older they and you will want your own spaces.

I would keep the rooms separate, but if you have to open it up then I would add doors as possible have suggested
Presumably one is a dining room leading off to a kitchen? Perhaps open the kitchen up more to the dining room.

Depends on the size of the rooms really I think. It was the first thing we did when we moved into a relatively large Victorian semi - put the wall back in!

It was echoey and too large, difficult to heat. Two rooms was much better with kids - we had an adult space in the front room. We eventually turned the back room into a dining room that was used most sundays and for homework, ironing etc.

How do you live as a family? Would one or two rooms work better for you? In Victorian houses, I quite like the layout of having a separate reception room at the front and the one at the back knocked through to a large kitchen extension.

Consider too that if you open the wall up then you will lose two walls that otherwise would hold pictures and against which furniture can be placed etc.

Unless the rooms are v small, two is more useful, I think. We have 2 rooms, so 2 TVs downstairs. Means I can watch period dramas which DH watches the cycling. And all the kids' clutter is out of sight when I want it to be.

Double doors - best of both worlds?

I have opinions about rooms. The perfect room size is 3x4m.

Much bigger than 4x5 and you find there's spare bits that just don't get used. For example our living room is 5x8, but there's a good 3 metres at one end that 's just empty, with nothing we can really think to put in it that we'd want in the living room.

I'd keep the two rooms for now; live in the house for a while and see how it works for you.

As others have said, Take the wall out and install bifold or French doors this gives you the benefit of both open plan and a single room, Bifold’s are especially good if you want to entertain, you then have all the space to use, and go with glass in the doors this then gives you more light and you still get the feeling of space even when closed

Have two separate sitting rooms with a TV in both. We have a Main Sitting Room and a Snug. Its so nice to be able to be on your own in one when you want to watch one thing and someone else wants to watch another, or you've had a row or whatever. 😁

Personally i would keep the room at the front as your Main (child toy free) sitting room as that presumably will also be below your bedroom so you can watch TV in the evening a bit louder without disturbing your kids.

It depends on how big the kitchen is, would it be better to knock one through to the kitchen instead.

Tried to find the floorplan but I've mislaid it, so I've drawn you a picture instead I'll look into the door idea, I have two children ages 2 and 1.

Ours (mid-terrace 3-bed) was knocked through when we bought it and we put the wall back.
We don’t have a through hall though, which is common round here, so kitchen & back room have quite a wide wall between them which can be fairly easily opened up for a bigger space. Ours has a 4’ opening, some take the whole wall out. You could either knock an opening/doorway in your bit of adjoining wall, or possibly incorporate a bit of the hall into a combined room?
Definitely keep the separate front room

Or have a proper side return extension instead of the lean-to, but I’m guessing that would be way more expensive.