What would you do? Floorplan minds unite!

[Margaritawithlime]

Hi all
we have had planning permission granted for first pic. Second pic shows current space. I’m not happy with the ‘snug’ room on the first plan it’s been pushed back thanks to planning and is now not really a room we can use as intended (was going to be play room and occasional bedroom / study)
so back to the drawing board - sort of - I want to keep the lounge as is but what would you do with the proposed L shape which would be left?
absolute essential is a downstairs loo and utility. The rest i am open to, the dream being a large entertaining space. The playroom I don’t think will happen so if it goes, it goes plus by the time this is done our kids won’t want one!
i wondered about a utility/ loo top left and the diner kitchen moving to a sort of lounge extra. I’ll try draw it out…
Thanks if you can help

Have taken everything off to see the space and done a weird mock up with cardboard furniture…

Just a gentle bump to see if anyone has inspiration!

I don't really understand- is the snug room on first plan not allowed due to planning? (Is it currently an integral garage?)

If that's the case, I'm confused by why your mock up is using that space as part of an open plan room!

I love floor plans etc but finding this hard to grasp!

For what it's worth, I liked your original plan with the back of the house as an open kitchen diner, with a nice separate living room and study. I really don't like things being "too" open plan and if I understand your model correctly, that looks a bit too formless and open imo!

It is just really really little. 330 cm by 332. We wanted it to house a sofa bed and desk for it to be used as an office with some storage for toys etc. once I plotted out the size of a standard desk and sofa it was obvious it would be too little.
Originally it was going to be flush with the porch but the planners said no and pushed it back. We will be spending close to 150 grand when this has been built (not including the new kitchen etc etc) so I want it to be future proof and right - as much as we can!
Right now currently the lounge is open into the dining bit (where the sofa is in the plan) so the idea is to block it off and make it a proper room. I have visions of TV not involving barbie or teen titans but we shall see 😂
I take your point about the formless - ness of the mock up. Just not sure how to use the space.

Oh I’ve put the wrong flipping plans up. It’s 330x 270mm now they’ve pushed it back not 330x332.
This is feel is too small.

*cm

Can you regain some space by pushing back the utility and WC? I’d loose the corridor part in there and just have two doors off the kitchen.

I think 330 x 270 is fine for a study. Ours us not much bigger than that and we have a desk, IKEA sofa bed, full size keyboard and a small set of drawers.

It makes a good spare room, although I do have to take the office chair out for it to be a useable bedroom

Which corridor do you mean? I don’t love the idea of the toilet being accessed through the kitchen either if I’m totally honest. We could put it under the stairs but then no utility

That’s good to know! It’s hard to visualise and just smaller than I originally wanted

I think your existing plans are good. A small snug / study will be just fine and the rest has a sensible layout. especially as you have a formal living room already that is entirely separate.

That bit just looks a bit more like a corridor to me and could be used better but I get that you don’t want toilet door off kitchen. Our extension is almost exactly the same layout as this just on a slightly bigger scale but we have our toilet door from the hallway as the stairs are slightly different. With my three kids I wouldn’t want to loose the two additional rooms we have downstairs alongside the open plan kitchen/diner/sitting room for all of the reasons you have said previously.

Ah! I see what you mean. No it’s a utility room with a sliding door within into a toilet.
I think you’re right about the two downstairs rooms and I know we will want the separate space. I can’t keep them both away from me at the moment being under 8 but I know this will change in time 😭

Have you appealed the planning decision? Most planning appeals win. It’s ridiculous you can’t go flush with the porch.

I actually think the proposed plans are fine BUT I would put a sofa bed in the living room and use that as a guest room and leave the study as a study - realistically are you likely to be using the living room if you have guests - we have loads of rooms in our house and we pretty much live in the kitchen which has a table and sofa in it! We don’t have a tv in the kitchen but don’t feel we need one. Whenever we have guests round we NEVER venture out of our huge kitchen!

Not as open-plan, but a quick picture of a more divided layout. Extra hall area could have built in storage for bags, coats etc.

Ah, just saw your later message about pushed back wall line. In that case, swap over kitchen and dining room. 👍🏼

We are currently planning a study doubling as a 4th bedroom with slightly smaller dimensions than yours, 2.2x3m with a daybed at one end of the room, a 1.5m desk at the other and a small wardrobe next to it, pocket door in the middle of the room opposite the window to maximise floorspace. We don't have plans drawn up I'm afraid but have tried it with furniture in what's currently an oversized (10x32) guest room.

One option would be to put the entrance door in the utility room and gain the whole wall bordering the entrance hall, playroom off the kitchen and as a guest room there's access to a private loo without going through the social spaces?

Sorry getting confused, 10x32 is in feet! It's more like 3x10m

Could you fit a downstairs loo under the stairs OP? It’s a bit tight but then you could have a utility ‘cupboard’ with pocket door which would gain you some more space in the snug.

Also worth taping the room size out on the floor and using boxes for furniture - makes such a difference.

That being said, as a PP suggested we appealed and were successful. I didn’t feel we were being cheeky with what we were asking for as another property just up the road, but in a different council/borough, had already done this. So I felt we had a reasonable chance.

Honestly I didn’t even think about appealing. The architect / designers we used said they’d had to give one thing to gain another and I hadn’t realised it was even an option, I sound quite naive I realise but I’ll just say it was a stressful time at work and I wasn’t really concentrating.
the house across the road pushed their front room flush with their porch so I don’t see why we couldn’t, apparently the planning team said that wasn’t precedent which I really don’t understand as it seems to me to be the definition of precedent! I’ll chat to DH see what he thinks

How fun! The layout looks great.
The playroom / study size is just fine: loads of room. We have similar and now the kids are older they use it all the time particularly when friends are over - movies, gaming etc.
Personally I would make the hallway slightly longer, so you can create access to the WC from the hallway (doorway under the stairs). You won’t lose any meaningful space from the kitchen / diner but would gain a much more private WC.
The kitchen / diner / family has the potential to be trying to do too much. Perhaps the dining table could be repositioned into the family area, and placed landscape to generally create more space (and allow a longer table,’too). A small sofa or seating could be placed when the table was, or that area just left free and airy.
TVs I would place in the living room and playroom/ study. In the kitchen / diner I’d rely on screens rather than a telly tbh.

Or something.

I absolutely agree with you about the back room trying to do too much. It’s a lovely idea in theory but the space isn’t that big and I think it will look too cluttered. We are having French doors to the garden so a landscape table would be nice there and ours extends to 10 seats so again more space would work well.
I wonder if we could create an access point to the loo from the cupboard under the stairs? I wanted to keep it for storage as it houses our vacuum and general bits and pieces but if we were canny with the storage in the utility we could do that there perhaps?

You mean access the utility/ loo from the playroom?

I think it is all looking good.

The small study/playroom - it may not be as big as you had wished - but it should be able to work. Don't forget, you will not need as much storage (eg wardrobe) as a full on bedroom. Think about it's main use . Guestroom only 2-3 times a year or 20-30 times a year? . Occasional office or 3 days a week wfh office? And then plan around that/with that as your focus. Toy store - you plan around your space (billy book case depth not full depth cupboards.
Do you need a further sofa - if not, would something like a murphy bed -work rather than a sofa bed.? Some fab ideas on here. Love the shelving that rotates to a double bed https://www.livinginashoebox.com/10-murphy-beds-with-integrated-desks-combine-your-home-office-and-bedroom-into-one-neat-piece-of-furniture/ They are not cheap - but if you think of the price of a bed and a desk/shelves...maybe dealable with?

You could have some fun (and MN help) getting creative with the "small space" rather than just going back to the drawing board. Especially if it is "new" and therefore you are starting furniture wise from scratch.

And yes - maybe think about PP idea - to have the door into the study from the utility area - not the hallway. Then, guests/wfh person/child can just pop quickly to the loo rather than the full loop around the house.