Would you sacrifice a reception room for a utility?

[Cheeriosaddict]

We have bought a 1930s terraced house which has the traditional front living room, back dining room and small kitchen. Ours isn’t quite a galley kitchen, it is a like galley with an end part (L shaped) but too small to eat in.
We can’t knock through the dining room and kitchen. My dilemma is do I make the dining room into a large kitchen (big enough to fit a dining table in) and lose it as another reception room (currently we have a dining table, sofa and tv in there)? We would turn the current kitchen into a utility/home office/storage.
Or do I keep the layout as it is with a smaller separate kitchen and have the other space for watching tv.
We have 2 kids and a dog and we are quite outdoorsy (muddy) so a utility would be great but I also like to watch tv in peace.
please help me decide!

I'd prefer a utility room amd big kitchen over 2 reception rooms.

How often do you use that room now and realistically how much would you sit in it as a kitchen?
If you would likely sit in it more now than if it was a kitchen with a table in, then I would leave as is.

I guess it depends what you do in the other reception? Why do you have TV and sofa in the dining room, do you need two separate places for people to sit in comfort and watch TV?

We have a smallish but comfortable closed-off living room -not huge but more than a snug. Then we have a kitchen diner with a big table, which is a sociable area with a bench seat that is quite comfy. It has a utility area tucked away, but quite a separate room but fulfils the same function.

We deliberately avoided putting a comfy sofa or TV in the kitchen diner as it seemed to be doubling up. There is a small in between room that is currently a playroom but might well be re-purposed when my son gets older.

I think that with more and more individual devices, there’s not much need for more than one TV downstairs any more.

So you have side access so that you could enter the house via the utility? Given your lifestyle, a utility/boot room sounds much more useful than a formal diner.

Do you have side access, not so you.

I’d have a big kitchen and utility. There’s less noise in the living room with a utility.

What is threatening your peaceful TV watching? Kids or partner? If you make the kitchen diner nice and comfy then kids might hang out more in there and give you peace in the living room?

Thanks for the replies.
To answer some questions, we do use the dining room as there’s no other table to eat at and the kids do homework and crafts there. There’s a tv and sofa in there because it is a big room so has space for it. I like peace away from DP who watches football and I like to watch my programmes.
It sounds like it is a big issue and we watch loads of tv but we actually don’t.
We have just moved in but don’t have a fully functional kitchen so are keen to make a decision and replace it asap.
We don’t have side access, just access via front and back door as we are mid terrace.
I don’t mind about adding value as we plan to be here for a long time.

I would go with the utility. Especially if you work from home and could make a little seperate office space too. You could put your freezer, washing machine and overflow storage in the utility so you wouldn't need loads of units in the new kitchen. Could you have comfy seating at the table, or even squeeze in an armchair or a built in upholstered bench seat? Have a tv upstairs somewhere if people are watching different things all the time.

You make a good point re individual devices as the kids have an iPad and tend to use those. I suppose the kitchen could be turned into a utility/snug area if we partitioned the wall.

Can you still get in a couple of comfy chairs in new big kitchen? Or for a table have a bench with a back and cushions so can have tv in there . We have little tv and small sofa in our kitchen and this is used when sport is on (either of us decamp) it is brighter too so nice to sit for cuppa during the day or if someone calls . You will be able to have lots of storage in utility so could plan a cosy area

I'd

I'd love a tiny snug I had a friend who had one , not big at all but with 2 sofas facing each other , coffee table , cosy lighting , bookcase and tv, you don't need floor space . Would actually lose part of kitchen /utility to fit that in

Sorry, when I asked if you had side access, I meant could you get into the house without going through the front door and trailing dirt through; I was thinking of a side gate leading to the back garden. You won’t have that mid terrace, but when you say you have access through the back door, is there also a back gate into the garden that has street access?

If we put the kitchen in the dining room it wouldn’t be big enough to fit in any comfy chairs, it would just be an L shaped kitchen and a dining table. Still a decent size though (4.5 x 4.3m).

The snug idea is a shout though. It would be pretty…snug! But perhaps best of both world. We do both work from home sometimes and have a space to do so upstairs but another one would be handy so we could both work from home at the same time.

The general consensus seems to be a utility and bigger kitchen over another reception room which is the opposite of what DP has said. He does the cooking but I do the laundry.

@AndiOliversFan sorry I misunderstood. Yes we have access from the back garden if we want it and do use it when the dog rolls in mud but only occasionally because it is quite a walk round the way the houses are positioned. Otherwise we kick wellies off in the front porch and use front door.

If you could extend the current kitchen that would be ideal. Otherwise I probably would do as you're suggesting. Why can't you knock through and have the space at the back all opened up?

Just realised I make it sounds like we are
mud covered tele addicts!! We’re not but do a fair bit of walking etc.

@Marinapeppina we technically could but the kitchen ceiling is lower due to the staircase and as the kitchen is an L around the dining room, it looks disjointed.
Our neighbours have done as you’ve suggested but I didn’t like it at all so we’ve ruled it out. It would also cost to put steel beams in and cost is a factor even if we liked how it looked.
I had thought about extending the dining room if we moved the kitchen to the dining room but that would be years and years down the line due to cost.

I'd love a tiny snug I had a friend who had one , not big at all but with 2 sofas facing each other , coffee table , cosy lighting , bookcase and tv

How is that tiny? Are the sofas just big snuggle chairs or something?

Could you fit a row of units along one wall of your dining room? Then have a built in washing machine and perhaps extra under counter fridge of freezer and some additional storage for lesser used kitchen items.

Put a big wooden worktop on it so it still feels dining but effectively extends the kitchen?

A utility is nice but having a table to fold your washing on is probably easier in reality.

My kids are currently watching mind numbing nonsense on you tube so we are very glad we sacrificed utility space (which was awful and cramped) to knock our back room into a proper second sitting room.

What are the dimensions of the current kitchen?

I'd go for the kitchen and utility option. Most of us spend a lot of our lives in the kitchen if it's a kitchen diner, it's good to have a nice one with plenty of space. You could put a small TV in the kitchen, maybe?

I'd also go for the kitchen and utility option, but I'd add a downstairs toilet at the end of the utility room and some pantry shelves in the utility room. If you have room for it a corner unit like this would store a lot, so you'd need less storage in the kitchen/diner and might have room for a small sofa.

We did exactly this when we had a 1930’s terrace. It worked really well. The old kitchen was used as half an office space and then the back part utility and downstairs loo.

Our house is double fronted with two large reception rooms either side and a small extension on the back. Same rooms but different layout. Originally the extension housed a small kitchen (about 9ft x 10ft) and the laundry/freezer was in the cellar.

I wanted a downstairs wc and kitchen was too small, and we never used the dining room. We put a big new dining kitchen in one of the reception rooms and knocked through to add French doors into the garden. We then turned the old kitchen into a wc, cupboard for vacuums etc and laundry/utility room.

It absolutely transformed the downstairs, thoroughly modernised it and now we use every inch of the space! The kitchen is nice enough to sit in and do a bit of work or watch something on a laptop, and we chose comfy dining chairs so not a chore to sit there.

I would absolutely recommend it, a nice dining kitchen is a pleasure to sit in and if you have washing machines/dryers elsewhere you won’t be disturbed.