Floorplan help

[May1984]

Hi All

What would you do to improve the ground-floor?

The house is down a small hill, we have a tiered garden. The light is West-East, so the hallway and kitchen (through bay window) are light. However, the living room is dark in the afternoon. In fact, it is the darkest room in the house. Upstairs the light is fine all day in all East facing rooms due to the elevation.

As you can see, the kitchen is narrow. It doesn't bother us in terms of the kitchen itself, but the dining area (by the bay window) feels cramped.

The plan is not quite done to scale. The hallway is 2m wide.

I have considered opening up the living room door into a big arch to let the light in from tbe front door but I have read here that not having living room doors may detract potential buyers. We are not thinking about selling but even so, we are reluctant to doing works that would make it harder or impossible sell.

Not entirely sure how to sort the dining area situation.

It is a 39 sqm ground floor and it somehow feels that there should be a better way of managing the spaces and the light.

Having a utility would make my wildest dreams come true but I don't see a way at all to pack that in. So would be happy just managing the spaces better.

Extending not an option due to our quickly garden layout.

All suggestions welcome!!

Thank you so much!!

Could you put an extra window on either side of the ? French doors? In the living room? Even if it is east facing, you would get a lot more light.
if you put another run of units going across the kitchen, to make a u shape, you could move the whole kitchen back maybe a metre to make a better dining area. Change the door into the dining room from the hall to a sliding one or failing that smaller double doors , so you have less protrusion into the space.

If you don’t mind a galley kitchen, you have room for extra units on the living room wall. 90 cm is enough for the passage between ( Ive had two kitchens like this and they are very ergonomic) if you didn’t need extra worktops, you could have 30cm cupboards floor, or even up to ceiling, they take an amazing amount of stuff and are easier to access than 60cm deep.

What's in the storage cupboard in the hall? Would moving the front door be too radical?

If not, I'd move the front door to where the storage cupboard is now. Then box off the area below the stairs into a utility (stack dryer on washer).

You could make the living room door to the hall a glass one (or a pair of glass doors) to get light in but keep it closed off.
I’d shift the kitchen back door to the centre of the space, get rid of the small unit on the back wall & have units running either side as a galley, leaving more room at the bay end to make that your dining space (given the light is there) with maybe a window seat/bench in the window.
Moving the front door so you can create a WC/utility under the stairs would also make sense.

Thank you All!

Yes, I considered extra windows in the living room, but because of the down slope, not sure they would add that much light.

We currently have a galley style kitchen, the plan is from before we bought and doesn't show this. But it doesn't help with the dining area.

The idea of moving the front door is great! Thank you. The waste pipe goes through that 'storage' which is actually in the wall space rather than eating up the hallway (floor plan is not accurate) so not sure that can be changed, but I will look into it. Having a utility under the stairs would be amazing! Great tip, thanks.

We always have the living room door open (and all other doors as we have pets) so a glass door alone in the living room wouldn't do much. Adding another one yes, though. The issue I see is that the current door is so close to the wall that it only has just over 90 degree angle. I have always thought that double doors would need both doors to be able to open fully?!

Thank you All for the help!

I would remove doors from both the living room and dining nook area. Keep it all open to the hallway. If you have no plans to sell, then do what works best for you and your family. Doors can always be added later.

Do you have side access down the side of the kitchen? If so, I'd take the back door off where it is and put it closer to the dining table. This way you can run cabinets down across the end of the kitchen and up the wall adjacent to the lounge (use wall cabinets here at ground level so it's narrower).

Pp suggestion of more windows along lounge wall would work too.

You could also have some internal windows placed high up on the lounge wall (the one adjacent to the kitchen) to draw light in

Thank you so much Bernie :)
Hubby is also a fan of knocking down walls... I agree thay would solve my two big issues with the house, light and bigger dinning area.

Question though, is it not odd to come to the hall and see the dining table? But in the other hand, very much agree that if it works for us... then who cares, no...!?

Hadn't thought of window between kitchen a d living room area! Another great idea! Taaa

Would the bay window be suitable for built in seating? If so, that with a round dining table plus a couple of extra chairs would take up less space than a full table with chairs all round it.

Do you get much morning light in your living room or does the hill prevent that? If it gets morning light then just make sure you have lots of lamps etc for the afternoon/evening. If it's gloomy even in the morning maybe you need to embrace that and paint it a dark colour and go for cozy (and also have lots of lamps etc). What colour is it at the moment? And make sure there's plenty of room to pull the curtains back. Agree with a PP that even at the bottom of the garden windows either side of the door will help. Also, think about what is in your garden, would a strategically place mirror or light coloured garden furniture or a light painted wall or fence help bounce light in?

I like the idea of a WC or laundry cupboard in the hallway, but think about routes through to the garden if you like to hang things out. Or would you stack a tumble dryer about the washing machine?

Would a different sized or shaped table make a difference in the dining area? And I know it sounds daft but sometimes having more furniture helps a room feel better, would a sideboard or low bookshelf with picures above make a dull wall seem more interesting and so less claustrophobic.

I wonder if you closed up the door into the dining area and moved the wall over a couple feet (as far as the door from the hallway into lounge), would it open up the dining area a bit more (brown)? It then no longer acts as a walkthrough space into the kitchen but is its own dedicated dining space. Reconfiguring the kitchen to a shorter run of cupboards will also open the dining space and you could compensate with an island (blue)? Knocking the wall between the kitchen and lounge would open the whole space up. And then as pp suggested a utility in/under the stairs area (red)?

This is a great suggestion, and I think quite a popular style at the moment.

Also, if you have space outside at the front, a long enclosed porch from after the bay all the way to the end on the right would be nice, for shoes and coats etc.

Wowzers Tattoed Lady! That layout was a revelation! Love the idea of keeping a dining room wall but moving it further back. We had not thought about it at all! Thank you!

Bernadette, yes, and enclosed porch is definitely on the cards regardless, and specially is we knock walls.l in the end. I think this will be the cheapest as they don't seem to be load baring ones!

I definitely should have written in the board much sooner!

Will also consider adding windows. The living room is very bright in the morning, but I didn't think it would make much difference given that the sun is at the other side in the afternoon, but I think you are right that it will make it brighter.

Thank you all!

Hi All

Architect came today for a consultation. He was very impressed with your suggestion, Tattooed Lady!

He did think however that we could extend two meters or so to the side, and after discussing ballpark figures we think it maybe worth it in the long term.

It would give us the width for the dinning area, and we would be able to put in a utility towards the back. (There is not enough space under the stairs).

The thought of embarking on such a big project is a hit daunting to us though... Will see.

Thank you all for your time and patience!!

Fantastic work OP! Good luck on the works, keep us posted!

Hi all

So six months later we are back to square one and a half... and need your help again! Proposed floorplan pic attached.

The priority is actually to just redo the manky old kitchen but if we could get (1) bigger space in the dining area (2) utility area for washing and (3) more light in living room then that would improve things a lot overall. We chickened put of thr extension works due to huge building costs and general chaos of a side extension. We don't think that fully open plan would work for us (and would also add a fair bit to the costs due to the structural works)

Soooo... we have thought of a variation on a theme that Tattooed Lady proposed, putting the dining space wall further back (which sorts the dining space nicely) but not going totally open plan.

We are thinking simply to remove the living room door incorporating the dining space into it. This would expose the living room to some West facing sun that comes through the dining window, solving problem 3.

We then have thought about adding a thin wall at the back of the kitchen (possibly without an entry door despite my poor design) so to house washing machine and one of the big clothe racks that can hang from the ceiling. Having the laundry on show is my pet hate.. it would eat part of the kitchen so we need to factor that in. But, what do you think?

Would the "broken" open plan be too off putting if we were to sell? We remain undecided and plans might change also depending on DC secondary school. (Some years away still.)

Please flag any issues, or let me know your ideas! The hallway will be smaller but is a bit bigger than in plan and we would make a large porche to compensate.

Thank you all!

Forgot to add, the light blue line would be wall/sliding door into the kitchen/living space area