WWYD with this downstairs layout?

[Twentytwentytoo]

We’ve effectively bought a house that’s only slightly bigger than our existing house with big garden (and not enough money rn to extend!)

So am curious to know what you clever folk would do with this downstairs layout?

We will have about 30k and will most likely be spending
5-10k converting detached garage to office (both WFH)
5k painting and decorating modestly
Needs fuse box and garage roof fixing (price TBC)

We’d love to have a bigger kitchen diner and then add a wall in to have a (very small) snug. But won’t have money to extend for a few years.

Would it be mad to knock the wall down between kitchen and dining room, or use the existing units in middle with half wall (am I talking silly talk?) to see through to dining room?

Basically, WWYD in this house with limited budget?

Thanks in advance!

ps, that square footage is wrong 🥴 think it’s about 95sq metres..

It is a bit of an odd one. I would move in and live in it and that might help you work out what would be best? A doorway from kitchen to living room might be useful. But obviously you would lose kitchen units.

You could put a stud wall in to create the snug by cutting the living room in half side to side and then put a doorway in from kitchen to new dining room? Stud wall will be easy to take down if you change your mind.

I am guessing the wall between the kitchen and living room is a supporting wall so you will need someone to check before you put a door in.

@Geneticsbunny That’s not a bad shout! I don’t think we’ve got the units to spare but I’ll defo bear that in mind when we’re next in there. Good point on stud walls not being a perm fixture. Thanks for idea!

I'd start by considering your doors.

Do you need the side door from the kitchen? Would you be happy to walk through the living room to kitchen?

Where do the stairs go up? The plan shows from porch but should it be from hallway?

The entrance area seems wasteful in a small space . I would consider hiving a bit off for a utility cupboard. This would get rid of noisy washing machine from more open plan space.

The side door in kitchen makes layout awkward. Without it you could have all the tall cupboards, fridge, oven on this wall then an l shape or even u shape with deep peninsula (assuming wall between kitchen and living room comes down).

I think that rather than full stud wall I would try partial or broken plan using clever furniture arrangement.

Will the fireplace be staying?

@Calmdown14 great questions.
Ok, so the side door in the kitchen isn't completely necessary, there's side access to the garden (gate) and obvs through the french window in living room.

Re the stairs, yep, you're right, they go from the hallway not the porch. It's totally wasteful, mind you, I don't quite understand where you mean for the utility cupboard to go. There is a bit of storage under the stairs (it's labelled storage in pic but is hard to see) but it's slanted, cause of the stairs, so don't think we could stack washer/dryer, or even a full height fridge freezer, but I like what you're suggesting. But without the door, this becomes a none issue.

Defo like the u shape idea, maybe more of a J and think we'll get rid of fireplace ideally, it's annoying slap-bang in the middle of the rooms.

Thanks for thinking of ideas!

Thinking about it though, we'd perhaps need that side door if we were to later do a side extension. Hmmm, tricky!

I think living there for a while before deciding what to do is good advice.When we moved into our house the first thing we did was knock three tiny rooms into one to make the kitchen bigger.
A few months after completing the job we realised we'd have been better off moving the kitchen to the back of the house.It wouldn't have cost much more,we'd have a bigger,more usable space and our dining room wouldn't be a weird shape.

how about this?

U = new utility room with access to the understairs space . Washer & dryer can be stacked in the space marked W with access from U.

A is a new archway between kitchen & dining room. Just take out one cupboard worth from the kitchen - you will gain more space back from moving the laundry out.

S = sofa with a view of the window and the TV

T = dining table.

If it was me, to save on removing structural walls which would immediately take up a lot of your budget I'd be tempted to swap the kitchen around with the living room like this, especially if you get good light at the back of the house. We did this in a previous house and it made the space work so much better.

I'd build in a bench seat in the window and have a dining table there like the one that Matilda Goad has in the other picture. You should have space for an island if you want one if you have 60cm run of units on the wall next to the existing kitchen then 90cm gap then 90cm island then 90cm on the other side of the island. Do the patio doors currently open inwards? If so they would probably need to open out.

The circle in the living room is a reading corner and I might be tempted to fill in the side door and have an l-shaped sofa with a tv. Or you could patio doors in where the back window is and have the furniture work more around that.

I love the idea of the utility cupboard in the hallway too so I'd definitely do that.

@WickedSerious I think this is right. It’s really easy to think how things will be but I would imagine things will become apparent as we live there 👍

@parietal I think the archway is a great solution to getting more flow.
also love the washer/dryer location, wonder if we could even build on that and put a tiny loo in the storage space under stairs 🤔

@SollaSollew ooooh, that’s interesting! I have to say, I don’t think I’ve got the balls to move all the plumbing/services to the opposite room but I do follow your logic. I think your window seat under the bay is inspired though, especially as the front of
the house is South facing, would make a lovely sunny spot. 👍