One large sitting room or two small?

[BeautifulandWilfulandDead]

We're renovating our new house and it's been the intention all along to knock through the two reception rooms (12x12 and 14x12) into one long sitting room, as this is what we had in our last house. At the 11th hour we're now wondering if we are making a mistake and would get along better with two smaller, separate room. We already have a dining kitchen and workspace, so don't need room for these. What would you do?

Two rooms.

My kids are adults now and two smaller rooms was great during teenage years, much nicer than them having to go to their bedrooms all the time.

Im not keen on long narrow rooms. Big square lounge fine. I'd have two smaller ones.

We are currently renovating a place with a big lounge that was 2 rooms initially and was knocked through by previous owners but I love it and it was one of the reasons we bought the house! I have 2 DD’s and I’m envisaging the bigger space being used for us all to do yoga together and the dance videos they like! So there’s a definite use there if you know what I mean. But we do have a separate ‘snug’ which will be a purely TV/chill room. I’m also looking forward to having a nice big Christmas tree without it taking up half the room and obscuring the telly like it does in the current house! I know what you mean about the budget though and it’s tempting to cut down on costs but my philosophy is not to cut costs on things that could make a massive difference to you in the future.

@Retrievemysanity I was thinking about the Christmas tree too! Thanks so much for your help everybody, your thoughts have been really useful.

@BeautifulandWilfulandDead glad it’s not just me! Good luck with it all.

Oooh pocket doors so you have the best of both worlds!

I jus put doors so we have a choice of either.

We have two downstairs living rooms. Not possible to knock them through as there's a big hall in between them and anyway the house is old but we find having a second sitting room invaluable - now the children are older (one teen) there's another space for them to hang out. If you have kids a second room is always great,

2 rooms without a doubt.

I knocked mine through when the kids were little, but put it back when we needed two lounges more. Not everyone wants to watch the same thing on tv.

We had one long room when we moved in, but have divided them again and knocked the back room together with the kitchen. So we have one very large kitchen/diner/snug room and one smaller cosy sitting room.

In your shoes I would keep the wall but put double doors in. It’s not nearly as much building work as taking the whole wall down as it just requires an opening with a lintel, not a massive box beam. If you make the doors glazed or part glazed then you benefit from the light coming through too. You’re right though that it limits furniture placement.