Please critique this layout

[LemonSwan]

Hi all,

In a bit of a muddle,

Reconfiguring the right hand side of the house to make open plan family living area and put in WC/Utility Room.

Bit of an odd layout and struggling to make it work.

Please let me know if you like the plan we have come up with or can think of any suggestions.

How do you access the loo and utility?
They both look very small

My first thought is how you’ll physically get the food you just made into the dining room to serve it? By the looks of things you have to go back through the playroom? Where is your light source for the kitchen? It looks like it could be very dark in an area you’ll use the most as opposed to the family room which will get some use but not as much as the kitchen? I think you’ll find moving the WC to it’s new location tricky when you consider how you connect to a soil pipe?

Overall, I think if you are repurposing the garage/studio you are being quite ambitious with what you can realistically fit into that space. Maybe start off think about what appliances/cupboard spaces etc you’d like on your new kitchen then consider how you’d lay them out. They’ll have to go into 600mm wide units. Then position/size of sink etc. If you’ve just moved, used taped up empty boxes to physically imagine the space. Think about the space required to operate in the ‘zones’ such as where you’ll keep the hoover/ironing board I think very quickly you’ll see a need for a bigger utility once you consider hanging out laundry to dry etc. The WC should be something family and guests access with ease and if you are locating next to a kitchen it must have a basin to be signed off by building regs.

Honestly OP, you’ve got some great space there but I’d probably get an architect to help you maximise the space so it works really well.

Why a shower? Can the garage area be accessed through the house, and make the pantry bigger? Some way to also get from the kitchen through to the dining room that doesn't involve having to walk through the house with plates?

How do you access the loo and utility?
They both look very small

No idea yet! WC perhaps through the snug and utility false door in the kitchen set up?!

Its a real issue - ideally I would like WC directly off the hall and Utility onto the garden but I cant figure out how to make that work.

Can you leave as us but build onto the back to connect the family room? Glass walkway from living room?

Ignore me. Open plan kitchen/family room. Got way laid looking at the plans.

I'd put the ktchen right at the back and have the dining room where you've put the snug etc

Ah right, are you saying you don’t have a wc downstairs at the mo? What about locating it under the stairs? Quite easy to achieve? Where is the soil pipe upstairs in relation to the floor plan?

Thanks Net - lots to think about there!

My first thought is how you’ll physically get the food you just made into the dining room to serve it?
This is what we are umming and ahhing about. On a day to day we wouldnt use a dining room. Its really only for Christmas and special events.

We were thinking if we put folding crittal doors between breakfast and the 'snug' and buy an extendable table for the breakfast; that we can swap the two rooms if required - ie. extended table in snug and snug furniture (chair, rug, coffee table) in the 'breakfast'

But then the toilet is right next to the dining!

Where is your light source for the kitchen?
The ceiling is all vaulted glazed there so very light already.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with your layout. It won't work for my family because my children can't play that far away from attention for an extended period of time. The toys would be in the family room before the redecoration was complete. Also make sure you've put the doors in the right place.

But here are a few considerations.

1. Do you have enough space in the hallway for coats, shoes, sports paraphernalia, random crap everyone dumps at the door? I'd be tempted to turn either the play room or sitting room into a storage/mud room. Most likely the playroom should be the mud room and give access to the toilet and utility.
2. Is the breakfast area big enough for dining? I'd be tempted to make the dining room the play room with a French or sliding door opening towards the kitchen. When young, the kids want to be close by. When older, the room can change to a teenage hideaway entertainer space.
3. I'd make the sitting room the family space and future adult space when the teens resort to hiding.
4. The current family room can be the new dining area if the breakfast area is too small or an office or storage.

1. I agree with @Netaporter. Soil pipes don't move easily. Maybe fix that structure and try again.

But really why do you need more space? What's making your family feel cramped?
I'm guessing it's not a vanity project so there must be a need for space.

Snap

Ah right, are you saying you don’t have a wc downstairs at the mo

We have one atm in the shower room but that whole layout is not got atm. Utility is actually the kitchen in real life and the kitchen is just a room with an old argar in.

You currently cant get to the studio bit at the back of the garage (purple square / family room) and thats a really lovely space.

Bifolds which look all the way down the garden and I can imagine us sitting there most of the time.

But really why do you need more space? What's making your family feel cramped?
I'm guessing it's not a vanity project so there must be a need for space.

I feel we certainly dont need more space! Plenty enough tbh.

Its that we need to redo the kitchen as its currently in the room marked utility in the existing plan. We would like to make use of the studio area because its all glazed and a really lovely bright space for an open plan living area.

I like the idea of the snug being the mud room, I keep thinking its going to be turned into a glorified hallway anyway.

I think a dining room used only for Xmas is a bit of a waste really. Personally I’d make the snug into a dedicated library/study space as you’ll need this as children get older. I made our dining room a music room - piano/instruments/record player etc all in there (plus a child learning a violin needs a dedicated space with a door ) so maybe consider that? Or a movie/cinema room? A gym?seems a waste to use a room with a window to deal with paraphernalia so I’d get the storage space to deal with boots/kit etc.

You could keep your jee plan, but take some of the playroom/snug to put a corridor connecting the hallway and the utility/WC (swap so access the wc through the utility), door to kitchen on left of corridor, door to now smaller playroom (home office?) to the right. Easier to go from kitchen to dining room too, that way.

keep your new plan, I meant sorry

couldn’t resist attempting a diagram!

You need a boot room/mud room as you enter. Somewhere to take off shoes hang coats dump school bags
I’d be inclined to make the family room the dining room
Have an outside door into the utility which needs to be bigger and boot room. Make the loo into a wet room and then th

I would put the formal dining room at the front of the house. It will look lovely with the bay window.

I'd swap the breakfast area and family room, so the family room is in the center and the 'heart' of the house.

What you have marked as the dining room could become the room you're not sure what to do with. As this room does not have a clear identity yet, it opens options by having a door to the back garden.

Good luck with your plans!

What happens to the sitting room and dining room now? Will they be dead space that’s rarely used?

I can't comment without knowing the sun aspect. Is north at the top of the diagram?

I would knock down the wall between the dining room and the kitchen and put the kitchen/breakfast room there, the snug then becomes the formal dining room. Then I would put the utility and wc where you have put the kitchen, but only partially filling the space so you still have a walkthrough, albeit it narrower to the family room at the rear.

I think you need to knock through into the dining room to allow access to the kitchen from the hall. Something like this?

Where is your bathroom above? Makes sense if you can to pop your loo not far to from that to keep the plumbing cheaper.

Can you add a porch to the front and pop the loo to one side of the door?
Can you add a door to the snug opposite the sitting room door, and then take a chunk off that room by the breakfast room for a door off the hall into a loo?
I'd pop Utility the other side of the wall in the breakfast room area, and have the kitchen in the Dining room. Or pop both in the Snug with doors off the hall. This would leave the whole RHS as family room - I'd arrange folding doors, glazed to keep that room light, so you can shut one off from the other if you so wish.

Hard to know what works best for you without knowing your family situation.

I'd go with something more like this though. Being able to get into the house through the utility is a godsend with muddy children.

Plus the dining room straight off of the kitchen, rather than having to cut through other rooms.

Then the two seating/play areas could switch depending on the age of the children, the amount of time they need to be supervised and how much mess they make.