Would you change layout in this house? PICS

[BlueRaspberry7]

Sharing the floor plan of a house we're interested in. The location, footprint, and garden are big plus points for us.

The layout is unusual, with kitchen at the front (useful for bringing the shopping in!) and front room/dining bit at the back.

Would you:

1. create a kitchen/diner along the back of the house and create a utility room in the long L of current kitchen? or..

1. Leave the rooms as they are and consider putting folding doors across back of the lounge (and maybe across the dining bit too)?

1. Any other ideas?

2

also, nothing unusual about the kitchen being at the front! Two of our houses have had this. Lounge at the back - nice and quiet!

I'd change nothing. What would be the benefit of moving the kitchen? Just getting a utility?

I'd change nothing. What would be the benefit of moving the kitchen? Just getting a utility?

@LookingOldTheseDays I agree with you and like having privacy away from street and my garden view from the lounge.

When I shared to another forum about half responded to put a kitchen/diner along the back.... it seems to be the thing these days. curious to see opinions here.

I would put doors out to the garden in the dining room end of the kitchen, purely as I’m not keen on entrance into the garden from the front room it’s also limits furniture placement.
utility room is definitely very useful is that quite a large cupboard in the hallway if so I would make it a utility space.

That floor plan was really blurred - here's a clear one

@dontcallmelen I like that idea of garden access off from the dining room which has wooden floors, rather than the lounge - which is carpeted, thanks.

Might be a bit of a squeeze around the dining table to get in/out though

I'm sure I've seen a query about a very similar house recently, but it had photos of kitchen, and the central bit was much more of a corridor than the plan suggested

I'm not convinced I would change anything. But I have my kitchen at the front of my house and it works well.
The layout looks good. If you put folding doors across the back of lounge wouldn't it make the lounge quite dark?

@MajesticWhine my mistake - meant bifold glass doors along the back of the study on to the garden - or even right across the dining area as well.

@BruceAndNosh that's may well have been a a post about this house when we first saw it

I think I would consider putting the kitchen diner across the back, so move the kitchen into the current dining area and the dining room onto the current study area.
I would then use the current kitchen area as the study and put in a wall across to separate it from the corridor between the current kitchen diner and use that as a utility and keep the living room where it is due to the fireplace.

Given the current cost of building work, you need to be sure that whatever benefit you'll get will be worth the tens of thousands it will cost. And I'm not sure that's the case here.

I like it. Garden is beautiful and be lovely to look out on it from the living room.

The study area could have a couple of nice arm chairs and a low table for reading/ having coffee etc.

It would be lovely if the door between the dining room and study area could be widened to double doors or pocket doors so you can link everything together if you want but close away when you don't.

What direction does the back face?

I would have to change it to a big kitchen/dined/family room along the back and smaller snug tv room at the front. Cooking in your own or not watching the kids eat/play just seems strange to me

I wouldn't change anything.

The kitchen practically runs down one side and the lounge isn't behind another room iyswim?

The only thing you may want is to separate dining room and kitchen but that would limit the lovely light you'll get from front to back room.

Garden is gorgeous too.

Looks perfect. Lovely view of the garden from both dining area and sitting area. Best of both worlds.

Cooking on your own seems perfect to me ... I hate having people watch me when I cook

What a lovely garden!

I wouldn’t change anything majorly. The space between the kitchen and the dining area: is it a narrow corridor or a useable space? Could you install a bench along the wall, push a dining table up against it, chairs into the room? Then your current dining space I would have as a TV space/ lounging space facing out into that gorgeous garden. The study/lounge I would leave as they are, maybe open up that back one if/when the time is right (ie when construction costs stabilise and builders don’t keep you hanging for 6 months at a time).

@Calmdown14 the garden faces west

@Partyandbullshit the area between kitchen and dining area is currently eaten up by storage units/double fridge.

I would like to rip that out and somehow use that space. Like your idea of putting table & seating against the wall if it would fit, thanks.

We had a house almost identical and had big glass doors across the whole back of the house. Was wonderful.

We've just moved from a house with a lounge at the back to one at the front. It was lovely having the lounge at the back - although I now know much more about what the neighbour's get up to.

I wouldn't move the kitchen. I would invest in good window coverings for the kitchen.
Big windows/doors out of the livingroom and dining room are a good suggestion.

I wouldn't make the massive changes to move it all around.

@MyFlagMeansIceCream that sounds wonderful. Love to see what glass doors across the back the whole house looks like - were yours sliding doors or opening outward?

They were bifold ones. They must have been expensive, but we bought them with the house... it was lovely in summer but they were very cold in winter. I suspect you could get much better ones these days

I really like the layout as it is, and I like that both the livingroom and kitchen are accessed from the hallway.

Much nicer to have the garden view from the livingroom, bifold doors across the back would be great.

I don’t see what you’d gain by moving the kitchen at all, I think it really works.