Awkward home layout (with pics) any ideas?

[Braindeads]

Currently we have the attached layout.

Negatives
Back lounge is where we mainly sit - if there’s more than 3 or 4 of us there’s not enough room
The door from the kitchen through lounge to hall is a rat run.
So few places to put furniture
Kitchen noises can often be loud
Hardly ever use front room except when WFH - it’s a wasted space
back room can get a bit dark of an evening but it’s cosy in the winter.

Positives
Two reception rooms (house value)
Separate space to WFH or watch TV if you want something different
front room sunny from mid afternoon onwards, back room is lovely looking out into garden and when it’s hot we can open doors and live outside

im considering knocking between the back and front room to create one big room and moving the WFH space to by the kitchen door area. Not sure whether to close up door between hall and back room.
not sure if this will be a waste of space or a bad idea.
Any good ideas what to do here? I should say we’ve lived with it for 24 years and now the kids are grown I’m not sure if it’s time for a change (the front room used to be their play room)

Scale isn’t quite right, the back room is deeper in reality, overall bigger than the front

If you are going to do that would you consider creating a shorter hall by moving the door to the lounge nearer the front door and knocking out widthways to the stairs? Would save having a long dark corridor.

Yes that would be a good shout

That would give you a study space that wasn’t squashed by the kitchen door.

Don’t make it all one space! You never have any respite from each other, lose flexibility etc.

Here’s what I’d do - excuse the poor image!

• Pull the hall shorter so you make that usable space.
• double glass doors/ window from the front room into the hall (light)
• move the front room wall towards the front to make the back room more equal in size and give you more flexibility there
• put double doors (with frosted glass, or pocket doors that can be kept open or shut) between front room and back room to make it either one space or a closed off space, dependent on what you need

Thanks dreamersdown but where do I put my furniture? There are so many doors

It looks like a fairly classic layout to me.

I get why everyone wants to be in the back room. Hard to see how to make it better though - maybe put an extension on the back.

I think making it all open plan is a bad idea it certainly won't be cheap to heat that way.

I think this problem in living is a common one, how to get enough seating in a small space around a TV. You could maybe move the TV in the back room to the centre of the wall and put an L shaped sofa there. But the people walking from the kitchen to the hall would be very distracting.

I wouldn’t knock it all together. Can you brick up the kitchen door, replace with a window and make that a useable space? Or, failing that, I would still get rid of that door, but could you make a space under the stairs for a desk space? Will see if I can find a pic…

Ok like this…

Could you move your kitchen door to the right, where the chair / sofa label is, and block up the door from the hall. You could then move your WFH area under the stairs.

Would installing french doors between the rooms give more light but enable you to keep heat and noise levels down?

If you want light but still want walls to put furniture against, how about a crittall glass wall between the lounge and hall and / or between the front and back rooms?