How to change this layout

[Swrigh]

Hi good people of MN

Looking for your advice on how to reconfigure this layout. I want to add at least two ensuites, convert garage to usable space - living or bedroom, make the kitchen more user friendly (add an island, sorry I know that’s so predictable).
The lack of bathrooms is real big problem here but I want to fix this without making the bedrooms too small.

Open to all suggestions as the house needs a full renovation anyway.

Thanks

Maybe this? But I would be wary it wouldn’t be seen as a ‘true’ 4 bed?

@YellowFish12

Thanks, that’s interesting. Does the ‘true’ 4 bed issue come from moving a bedroom downstairs?

Could you put a master bedroom and ensuite into the loft, and then move the wall between the bathroom and bedroom 1 slightly to make the bathroom into an ensuite to bed 1 and a family shower room? I don't think a converted garage ever counts as a true bedroom 4, they always look like a converted garage, sorry

Where's the extra space on the downstairs? I'm assuming there's a one storey extension for the kitchen?

You could go a second storey out over this and get 2 en-suites and some increased bedroom size for the back bedrooms.

Have an open plan downstairs and turn the garage into an enclosed snug and office.

Could you take a bit off bedroom four to make an ensuite to bedroom 1? Then have the second ensuite downstairs? That way you have 4/5 bedrooms. I'd also consider widening the utility to include the door outside. If you have young kids having folding doors to the snug from the kitchen (yellow fish design) could make a good hideaway play room.

Or if you didn't want to loose a bedroom upstairs put en-suite to bedroom downstairs

Downstairs;-
1 (blue) - kitchen, diner, family room sofa etc
2 (green) - bigger utility. Remove loo. Keep external door
3 (yellow) some of old lounge now turned into a full shower room
4 (red) Living Room
5 (grey) 4th bed or office with en suite.

Upstairs all I would do would be to use the far right bit of bed4 to add an ensuite accessible from bed3.

Anything else up on that floor would be too much.

How many bedrooms should there be? Is joining bedrooms an option? Which walls are load bearing?

Could you put a jack and Jill type ensuite between two of the rooms?

I don’t think you have enough space with the current layout. But if you wanted two ensuites then you could do them in Bedrooms 3 and 4 by taking space from Bedrooms 1 and 2. I think Bedroom 1 as a box room would work to give you a fantastic sized master in Bedroom 4.

How many bathrooms and bedrooms do you need in total, and if you get say, 3 bathrooms, do 2 of them need to be en suite, or would you be happy with additional family bathrooms?

How big do you want the bedrooms? Do they need to stay doubles?

Would you be prepared to convert the loft /build over the kitchen/living room extention to get more upstairs space to give you more bathrooms without losing a bedroom/having to have large singles rather than decent sized doubles.

Also are you planning on living here a long time? (Because then you don't need to have an eye on resale value for the money you spend.)

Upstairs I’d take a chunk out of bed 4 to make a family bathroom and then split the bathroom at the front to make 2 en suites to beds 1 and 2. They wouldn’t be massive but big enough and fine for a shower room (use pocket doors). You could have 1 big en suite to bed 1 and then put another downstairs. All beds would be a good size.

Downstairs you’ve got more options but I would be tempted to try to open up the whole of the back like this, move the utility and loo forward and make the loo walk through to the utility to use the wasted corridor space and create a study/ playroom in the middle of the long thin room.

A PP best me to it but I was also going to suggest a jack & jill en suite upstairs.
I don’t think they’re very common so, in case you haven’t seen one, it’s on bathroom with two separate doors - so you could out it between two bedrooms and both would have access to it as an en suite.

I’ve also seen it where one door comes off the master bedroom and another door comes off the landing… so it’s a family bathroom / en-suite for the parents.

I like the plan from Apples but I'd keep the family bathroom in its current location and keep the remainder of bed4 as a small bedroom. And make the downstairs bedroom have an en-suite.

How many bedrooms do you want to end up with and how many will be used all the time vs a guest room/ occasional bedroom?
Do you need a family bathroom or would a shower room do?

Thinking about it - am assuming you've not got a bottomless pit of money, so I was told when doing work, moving ovens and toilets are expensive. If you can keep those in current locations, its easier.

So downstairs : take out the wall between the lounge and kitchen, making large kitchen diner living room, with an island around where the current wall is, putting your stove on the island.

Take out the wall between the utility and downstairs loo and make a shower room.

Move the back wall of the garage forward to give a wider corridor and make that a utility corridor. Put a door from current garage at the bottom of the stairs (near front door), turn that room into a study or playroom.

Use the current dining room as a grown up drawing room, unless you want dining room and kitchen diner (most people I know with 2 dining tables end up only using the posh one for Christmas and easter, always feels a waste of a room unless you host a lot of people who are too posh for kitchen table meals).

Upstairs:
options - 1) turn current family bathroom into 2 en suites for bedrooms 1&2, leaving 3 and 4 to use the new downstairs bathroom.

2. turn current bathroom into a big fabulous en suite for bedroom 2, then turn half bedroom 4 into a new family bathroom (which think is directly over the current downstairs loo and utility so should be relatively easy to sort plumbing), using the other half as a en suite for room 1. This option drops you to 3 bedrooms plus the study/playroom downstairs you could sell as a 4th bedroom but it's unlikely many will see it as that.

3. turn half bedroom 4 into en suite for bedroom 1, making bedroom 4 into a box/single bedroom.

4. go into the loft and put a bedroom and bathroom up there. You might be able to get 2 decent sized bedrooms plus a bathroom up there, depending on your roof shape.

Basically, wanting 3 bathrooms upstairs in a 4 bed house is going to cost you living space. If you have an eye on resale, there's a point when adding bathrooms doesn't add value if you take away bedroom space. It's more how you want to live.

@justchecking1

Extra space downstairs is a full length extension at the back of the house. I could extend over it, but I understand that structural checks and building on top of existing extension can often be as costly as just putting a new ground extension on. At least that’s the anecdotal advice I am hearing.

I would take down the wall between kitchen and lounge, put a U shaped kitchen in (yellow) or L shaped plus peninsula have a dining table on the left (green) and tv area (blue). I'd keep the dining room as a formal sitting room. Put a wall up in the garage and have an office at the front (purple) and a shower room at the back (orange) open up utility and WC for a larger utility (red). If possible I'd combine the two storage cupboards and have built in coat storage and have nicht double doors at the end of the hall opening into the kitchen/dining area.

Upstairs I like Heronwatcher's suggestion, but think I'd split the current family bathroom into walk in wardrobe and en-suite from bedroom 2 to make that a proper master bedroom. Then you've got two other large bedrooms and a smaller one plus a decent sized family bathroom (if you split bedroom 4 as suggested above) and further shower room downstairs.

@muddledmidget

Could you put a master bedroom and ensuite into the loft, and then move the wall between the bathroom and bedroom 1 slightly to make the bathroom into an ensuite to bed 1 and a family shower room? I don't think a converted garage ever counts as a true bedroom 4, they always look like a converted garage, sorry

Agree, that would be the ideal. In the first instance trying to make the best of the space without going down the planning route.

@MargosKaftan

How many bathrooms and bedrooms do you need in total, and if you get say, 3 bathrooms, do 2 of them need to be en suite, or would you be happy with additional family bathrooms?

How big do you want the bedrooms? Do they need to stay doubles?

Would you be prepared to convert the loft /build over the kitchen/living room extention to get more upstairs space to give you more bathrooms without losing a bedroom/having to have large singles rather than decent sized doubles.

Also are you planning on living here a long time? (Because then you don't need to have an eye on resale value for the money you spend.)

4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms needed. To be honest shower rooms would be fine, baths not needed. 1 family and 2 ensuites would be perfect, although Jack and Jill as suggested by others also sounds like a good idea. I would definitely like to keep the bedrooms as doubles. With 2000 sq. ft. of space, I am hoping to be able to achieve that but it’s tough.

Loft conversion would probably be costly as I don’t think there ls much space in the eaves but I guess large dormers would solve for that. Extending over first floor extension was always plan A, until I realised just how long planning permission is taking and then the wait time with builders to add to that. But I haven’t totally written it off yet. Just getting more ideas from as many people as possible to make sure I don’t miss a trick with re configuring the existing space.

Planning on living here, so immediate increase in value is not a priority.

@Heronwatcher

Upstairs I’d take a chunk out of bed 4 to make a family bathroom and then split the bathroom at the front to make 2 en suites to beds 1 and 2. They wouldn’t be massive but big enough and fine for a shower room (use pocket doors). You could have 1 big en suite to bed 1 and then put another downstairs. All beds would be a good size.

Downstairs you’ve got more options but I would be tempted to try to open up the whole of the back like this, move the utility and loo forward and make the loo walk through to the utility to use the wasted corridor space and create a study/ playroom in the middle of the long thin room.

This is an interesting concept too. Thanks

@givememarmite

I would take down the wall between kitchen and lounge, put a U shaped kitchen in (yellow) or L shaped plus peninsula have a dining table on the left (green) and tv area (blue). I'd keep the dining room as a formal sitting room. Put a wall up in the garage and have an office at the front (purple) and a shower room at the back (orange) open up utility and WC for a larger utility (red). If possible I'd combine the two storage cupboards and have built in coat storage and have nicht double doors at the end of the hall opening into the kitchen/dining area.

Upstairs I like Heronwatcher's suggestion, but think I'd split the current family bathroom into walk in wardrobe and en-suite from bedroom 2 to make that a proper master bedroom. Then you've got two other large bedrooms and a smaller one plus a decent sized family bathroom (if you split bedroom 4 as suggested above) and further shower room downstairs.

Another interesting idea, thanks

So many good ideas, thanks all. When you have been looking at something for so long, it’s amazing how many things you miss that a fresh pair of eyes can find.

Keep the ideas coming.

4 upstairs bedrooms, 2 with en-suite, an open plan family room/dining kitchen, home office/occasional bedroom with en-suite, formal lounge.
You'll lose the downstairs loo while the bedroom is in use this way but depending on the drain layout you'll be able to change the downstairs en suite/utility layout so both are functional.