How could we change this layout

[Ladyof]

We have seen a house we like, the upstairs is perfect but downstairs feels smaller than i would like so I am wondered if the layout could be more open. If I knock the wall down between kitchen and reception room it wouldn't have a separate lounge as the dining room is too small. What would you suggest?

Here is the layout

Do you need the garage?
If yes, then I'd knock the kitchen and back reception together for a kitchen/diner.
If not, I'd do as above but also create a large living room there. I'd then use her front reception as a snug or study.

Yes unfortunately we need the garage. This was my thought but then I don't think the front room is big enough so we would have no lounge, I can't think of other options x

If you have a look at ‘Your Home Made Perfect’ on BBC, I think the latest episode had something similar and they knocked though the back, possibly losing a bit of garage too.

How small is the front room for you to say you'd have no lounge if you knocked the kitchen and rear room together?
You could open the front room into the hall but that can be noisy upstairs

I would have the reception room at the front as a ‘grown ups’ front room. Then a kitchen/diner/living room by moving the wall. To be honest though I like it when you had a large serving hatch with doors between 2 rooms so you could block off sounds and smells from the kitchen if needed. Depending on the kitchen layout, this should be the easiest thing to do.
The other option, which would be more fiddly and expensive, is to put the utility in the back of the garage and have a door through from under the stairs. Then rip the utility walls out and have a kitchen/diner/living room from front to back. Keeping the living room at the back intact. that’s a lot of work though but you’d end up with 2 larger rooms. And you’d need lots of structural advice.

Do you need the whole garage the size of is? If you just need a store room for bikes etc, then maybe you could move the garage wall forward and combine the kitchen, back reception and part of the garage into a kitchen/diner/living room, keeping the front room as a grown-ups' sitting room?

If you don't need that side door out of the utility you could make the kitchen bigger by have the utility areas behind sliding doors and reclaim the hallway space into a room too.

I'd take out the utility and part of the hall and have (double?) doors across into a large kitchen/dining sitting room that goes the back

The obvious thing to do would be take down the wall between kitchen and larger reception room and make into nice kitchen diner. Then use smaller reception as lounge.

Move the utility into the garage. Then you can knock through the kitchen-utility-reception.

Assuming the garage is for storage not a car, this would work as you’re not using it all up.

I'd ditch the utility room altogether. Separate the garage in two. Use the front half for storage, perhaps have a washer and dryer there, but they could go in the kitchen. Move the kitchen into the back reception room and knock through into the back half of the garage to create a bigger kitchen diner. Knock the current kitchen and utility room together to create a lounge. Use the front reception room as an office/snug/playroom etc.

Seems like the double doors to the front reception are a big waste, and the hall area also a waste. Depending how things are configured I'd be looking to lose that hall area and remove the wall between the kitchen and the back reception. You could leave the utility area where it is.

If the back of your garage is not taken up with other necessary stuff (eg ours has all our boiler and tank) then I'd be inclined to take a chunk off the garage and create a sliding door into a large walk in larder and storage. You could have an extra fridge freezer in there too. It would massively free up the living space.

I would move the kitchen to the front reception room and knock through the old kitchen in to the back reception room and have that as the living space.

I think you could get a slim sofa and a TV in the front reception room. How big is your family though? Are you thinking of extending out the back at all? You could just extend the kitchen backwards by 3m to make a proper kitchen diner and leave everything else how it is.

I would leave the larger reception room (with the french doors) where it is and then knock through all of the right hand side of the house into one large kitchen/dining/family space.

If you need a utility room create this as a smaller utility cupboard instead.

You can leave the kitchen where it is now so that you don't need to mess with pipes, have the dining section in the middle and play/family space at the front.

Are you planning on getting a new kitchen? If so, I would knock through the whole right side and make a large kitchen diner. A utility is nice but is a waste of space in relatively small house and you don’t need side access. Put bifolds to open up the garden. You still keep your bigger lounge then if you like separate spaces.

I used to live in a house with the exact same layout. If it was me I’d take out the utility and knock through to the smaller front reception room.

Thank you all for loads of ideas.

Would you consider it a decent size house or small really?

There is 4 of us so not exactly a big family but I did want it for people to come round and entertaining etc.

I was thinking of just extending the kitchen by 3m as someone has said and leaving the rest as it is but then thought will this add much to it?

I'd extend all along the back making a bigger livingroom and kitchen/dining room.
I'd be loath to get rid of the utility room.

It's perfectly decent as is for a family of 4.

Short term I would change the utility room into a utility "space" and lose the side door. Perhaps go open plan to the room with French doors it would make a spacious kitchen diner family room with separate snug at the front.

Live in the house for a while before spending out on an extension that may not add much.

1400ft inc garage is never going to feel maaaaasive. People will be along to say it's huge and they can only dream of a palacial mansion of this size - it's really it's not.

Personally I'd extend 3.5/4m (honestly 3m feels small and cramped) out across the back to make an L shaped kitchen diner across the back and have a kids room and an adults room. Get a good kitchen designer and a nice dresser!

It will also let you have a decent size table for hosting guests.

I'd also put pocket doors in the "reception room" and keep the utility.
Agree with others the hallway has a lot of doors going on so would maybe change access of utility so it via the kitchen using another (beloved) pocket door

I'm wondering whether you could turn the staircase 90 degrees, half way down. This should allow you to move the wall for the front reception room and open up that space.

Is there any chance of extending the living room forward, so it sits level with the garage? Have I read it correctly that the garage door sits proud of the rest of the house?