What would you do with this layout?

[mayflowerinjune]

I'm thinking of making an offer in this place, as it ticks a lot of boxes for me overall, but the layout is clunky and I think I would have to change it (probably over time because I wouldn't have the money immediately).

I need a reasonably sized office downstairs as often there is myself and a colleague WFH together and obviously a sitting room with room for play/family time rather than a snug. Ideally it would have a kitchen/diner but I'm not sure how that would be achieved - the 'diner' bit wouldn't have to be massive, max 3 people. On the very occasional occasion of entertaining more we could just temporarily improvise.

How many bedrooms do you have upstairs or is it a one bed house/flat?

I'd keep looking. The layout of this property is terrible.

I agree with PP, I wouldn’t buy a property where the layout didn’t flow for me. Although anything is possible, it can be expensive to make changes. I would keep looking. Good luck with your move OP.

There's 4 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs

And very very very few 4 bed houses that ever come up in the area that I could afford.
I'm bursting out of the seams of my current house and building an extension would be more expensive and give me less room than this house, so would love any ideas about how I might be able to cheaply adapt the lay-out downstairs (the upstairs is fine) I don't want my office upstairs - I occasionally have clients visiting or colleagues working with me and so need it to be downstairs.

Without knowing budget etc its hard but things that stand out are moving the loo to under stairs cupboard and making that one big space including weird bit of hall. Sacrificing utility room and making that the office - separate entrance might be good for clients. Incorporating patio doors in hall into sitting room and splitting it but you'd have a darker hall.

i would long term make the room at the back into a kitchen / dinner and the kitchen into the office, you could put doors between the new office and utility or do away with the utility completely and have that as the entrance to the office for clients, though I would prefer to keep the utility personally. Or how big is that part in the hall with French doors ? Could that be blocked of with double doors and become an office space ?

Downstairs bedroom into kitchen diner.

Kitchen into office.

If I had the budget I would knock through all the rooms on the right to create a big kitchen diner with existing utility and move the toilet into one of the stores.

I would then put the office in a separate garden building.

Having watched one of those VR house renovations shows last night I’m wondering if you could move the entrance/ front door. Then that entrance way part could become the diner part of your kitchen- it looks like a big space. Could the utility be the front door with a small building behind it to come into the house where the current downstairs toilet is. You then have 2 big size rooms downstairs to play with - living room and office for example?

So the bedroom isn't needed as a bedroom?

Given the utility location, I'd knock out the loo (can it go in the store next to the stairs?), and build a new wall across the bedroom at the position of the livingroom external wall. Room at back becomes the office, and refit the kitchen with space for a table.
Loo under the stairs, or in the utility, if possible?

If there’s only three of you - why do you need 4 bedrooms?

That layout!!!

I'd do this but go further
Turn the the utility into a cloak / boot room and get rid of all the cupboard and doors so it's more open.
Expand kitchen into hall and fit pocket doors to access stairs.
Put double doors / whatever in the lounge back wall for access to the back garden # and reclaim back half of the hall.
As per my bad drawing...

If you wanted a more open flow you could also fit pocket doors along the blue and green lines between kitchen and lounge this could then be opened up when hosting.

I’m normally pretty good at this but there’s no easy fix without some major remodelling. My best suggestion would be to move the toilet into the utility room and extend the kitchen into that space. Entrance to the study through the store. Seems odd that it’s 4 bed (5 if you include the study?) with one reception room and a kitchen that’s not big enough for the people living in it. Estate agents are great at marketing!

I would not have a front door opening into a kitchen. It’s better to get rid of the loo position and incorporate all the the kitchen and bedroom into one space. The loo position is dreadful but no doubt easy for plumbing. I would put the cloakroom to the right of the stairs and utilise space under the stairs.

The back external doors should be in the lounge but depends on your budget. Use the front of the lounge for business and get a room divider. Go into the lounge from the hall by getting rid of a storage cupboard and make a new doorway. This is keeping the workspace separate but the kitchen handy. Keep the utility. This is a much cheaper option and gives you what you need as long as the loo can be moved.

If you have extra rooms upstairs I'd make one of them a utility room. Upstairs utility rooms are great, most washing just gets taken downstairs only to come back up again.

What kind of budget would you have for the works OP? The best thing you could do is pay an architect for advice, and get a builder to quote. Moving kitchens and wc/bathrooms isn’t cheap.

I’d definitely knock the kitchen and bedroom into 1 to make a kitchen/ diner/ living space-this will mean moving the downstairs loo either into the utility (in which case you may need to block one of the doors in the utility) or into the store by the stairs.

Then if you need a study downstairs I would either fully partition the lounge one side of the fireplace so the lounge becomes a snug (the bigger bit, with the fireplace in, either at the front or the back) and an office. Or you could have your office at one end of the lounge if you’re not bothered about having a totally separate space. Or you could have obscured sliding doors.

I would move the toilet into the store next to the stairs. I would take out the fireplace in the living room and partition the living room room - the front half of your living room is the office and the back half becomes a snug/living room. You then knock through the existing toilet and make a large kitchen/family room. I’d also get rid of the first store in the hallway next to the living room and put a door into the office there. I would do this layout to limit the space in my home that colleagues and clients would be using. If I had a bit more money, I would explore putting a small toilet and kitchen in the office and use the French doors so people weren’t in the main house at all but that might not be possible depending on what is on the left wall.

Unfortunately the 'store' under the stairs isn't big enough for a WC, but I love the idea of putting the laundry into the bathroom.

Turn utility into a storage/ 2nd snug or game room etc. Remove exterior door in that room. Yellow for walls out.
Move toilet to side of stairs ( remove exterior door and block up)
Remove storage cupboard and add to new kitchen and create a kitchen/ living room diner ( if big enough) add french doors to garden.
Add french door from lounge out. Extend old toilet and create new utility room.

How wide is the store then? Does it have a door? It’s a shame to get rid of the doors to the outside.