Floorplan - Help Needed (before I give up and move)

[FloorplanHelp]

All you floorplan experts......

Help! Been in this house 8 years and we are going round in circles with how get the space to work better for us. Extended 1930's semi.

Room sizes are:

Living room 14'2"x 13'2" - currently playroom
Sitting room 14'3"x11'3"
Dining Room 15'2"x9'4"
Kitchen/Breakfast 21'1"x14'3" (maximum) 9'7" (minimum)
Utility 9'7"x6'4"

Hopefully floorplan has uploaded with the post.

Issues are:-
-No downstairs loo - I don't want to shoe horn under the stairs.
-Need a bigger utility room - hardly any cupboards and space seems to be taken up by doors.
-No space to hang coats/store shoes
-We need to have a back door somewhere for a cat flap - ideally off a utility room space
-Prefer living space at the back as lovely garden (hence playroom is at the front)
-Would like some sofa space in the kitchen/diner if possible

Open to convert some of the garage space it does have a window and side door just not on the plan.

Dining room is the least used room of the house and only gets used a couple of times a year for eating otherwise it's just used for homework.

I feel there is enough space just don't know how to configure it. We could extend as plenty of room but don't want to spend ££ if we can somehow get what we want in current floorplan and house needs total refurb anyway.

Everyone we've asked just says take down the wall between kitchen and sitting room but the sitting room is our favourite room and cosy in the winter.

So all you amazing creative lovelies please let me know your ideas before I get fed up and just put the house up for sale and buy a new build!

I would move the utility (water supply permitting) to the dining room, and make the utility a dining bit.

Unfortunately as I mentioned the water supply might cause issues, but if not, you could put a loo in the larger utility.

If water supply is a problem you would have no option but to rearrange the kitchen side to fit everything in.

You could create coat storage in your hallway by stealing a few feet from the living room to create cupboards. Push back the wall between the kitchen and dining room to create sofa space in your kitchen while leaving the tensing space in the dining room as a study. Push back the wall between the utility and garage to leave you with a half-sized garage space and a larger utility, installing a toilet or bathroom in the enlarged utility space .

Remaining not tensing

I’ve got half a solution:
Move the front door to where the dining room windows is and have a supersized hall with lots of storage. Garage becomes half utility and half downstairs loo or even wet room. Existing Utility incorporated into kitchen as living or dining space (square it off with small extension?)
Haven’t figured out the right hand side yet

Current kitchen becomes downstairs toilet accessed off hall at one end then rest of it is new utility , probably with door where window is or either side of it.

Hall extended for storage in line with dining room window.

Open up rest of dining room, garage, breakfast room and utility room into one big room with kitchen bit at front end of house and big opening into garden at the back which is dining area and sitting area.

The utility is accessed through current breakfast area.

one of things you could do, (sorry no pic as on my phone, I've tried but its intelligible)

is take the wall out of the dining room, put it back half way down, making dining room a study, put the kitchen in the end now opened up.

bring the wall out from existing utility to just before the french doors, put a wall across (from back door to kitchen door)were the utility is now, and have WC in were the utility was.

create a door into the garage from the now corridor (which can be a boot room) put a wall up halfway down the garage and make this your new larger Utility with lots of storage.

put a dining table in front of the French doors and opposite the new kitchen, were the old kitchen was, make it a sofa area.

sorry it's bad, but to give you and idea of which walls I'm talking about.

What's the space under the stairs like? Is there room for coat/shoe storage there?

This would depend if the current kitchen is wide enough to fit a row of utility, walk way through and dividing wall to create a downstairs loo.

I would follow the wall through from the existing diner to create an l-shaped kitchen/diner/family room wrapped around the garage. Then divide the remaining bit of the kitchen next to the sitting room into two - 1) a toilet (and possibly shower room) and also your larger utility which can lead out onto the garden via the old kitchen window if you wanted. Toilet can be accessed either through old kitchen doorway or through a new doorway into utility, both work. Leave the two rooms on the right of the plan as they are. I tried drawing it out (attached hopefully) but it all went wrong on my phone!

I'd steal the utility to add on to the kitchen - giving you 30 ft in total so a good sized kitchen dining room. Get rid of the side door from the utility. Knock a door through from the bigger kitchen into the garage and steal space from there to make a utility with plenty of storage leading into a downstairs shower room.

Knock through between the sitting room and playroom and put pocket doors into the opening so you can have one through space ot shut it off without losing floorspace to normal doors.

Friend of mine who did a knock through installed a drop down cinema screen into the space above the doors and below the ceiling so they could use the playroom as a movie room when the children were older.

Make the utility room bigger so it's more useful (red). Chop off the front bit of the dining room to make a study (you said it's 'just' used for homework but they suggested somewhere to do homework might be handy (green). Take out the doors/wall through to the rest of the dining room so it's an offset part of the kitchen (purple) where you can still fit a dining table (weird purple bug thing).

You definitely have enough space. Nobody needs a garage anymore and your dining room isn't used. By bringing those into play you'll increase footprint by 50%. I'd get a nice big square by pushing into garage and dining room. Have a lovely kitchen with island down side of house and TV snug area where kitchen currently is.

Then use front of house for massive cloak area, toilet, utility. Exact configuration will depend on drain choices.

Build shed in garden for the rubbish in your garage. And bikes.

I’d split the dining room so you have a loo/ coat storage at the front, accessed off the hall, and utility at the back accessed off the kitchen. Then I would take the utility area back into the kitchen and refit the kitchen into a kitchen diner with big windows/ doors on the back (and if necessary a separate cat door) or, if budget permits, square off the room by extending at the back so the room is an oblong shape and making it into a beautiful kitchen diner.

One of my former neighbours managed to split their garage. They kept the up and over door at the front and then partioned halfway down. The front was then a storage area and the rear was accessed (to the back) via a door in the lounge.

I am in a 3 bed - with the converted garage used as a 4th bedroom. We have a bathroom downstairs off the utility and it is very useful, if you can get another shower room in it will be beneficial.

How many bedrooms do you have upstairs?

I would take space from your dining room
and garage. Turn these into a utility with toilet off it respectively with access to the utility from the kitchen.

I’d move the kitchen to the end where the utility currently is, maybe a U or L shape with an island or peninsula and change the doors to a window.

Did you see last nights Your home made perfect on BBC2? (If not, it’s a great program for reimagining how your home could be).

They put in bifold WINDOWS (not doors) in a kitchen diner which looked good and would be great as you could then open them up fully when cooking and have guests over in the garden and treat it like an outdoor breakfast bar etc.

I would then put doors in your bit that sticks out and a dining table (possibly even sofa too) at that end.

In the new study I’d have built in storage along the new back wall and also utilise space under the stairs with Clever Closet style storage.

Any good?