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Original poster

Which layout do you think is better?

16 replies

emkana · 09/03/2008 21:53

We are currently having an extension built, which will result in a very big living room which on one end will have french doors opening to the garden. We also have a seperate front/dining room, and a kitchen large enough to eat in.

Dh and I are divided on what the layout should be like once we the work is finished. Until now we had a living room and a dining room, but we hardly ever used the dining room, only at xmas or when we occasionally had people over, otherwise it was more of a junkroom/place to fold washing in, which seems a shame. So now I am thinking instead of having the front room as a dining room, we could have the front room as a playroom, and use the very large living room for eating as well, with a table by the french doors. Dh wants to keep it as it is.

Thoughts? Our children are nearly seven, nearly five and 21 months btw.

OP posts:
Posey · 09/03/2008 21:57

If it was me, I'd make the dining room into a bit of a "family" room, where you can have toys, a telly, sofa etc, but which can be messy. Then have the other one as a smarter living room and dining room too.

DoubleBluff · 09/03/2008 21:58

I'm with Posy

BoysOnToast · 09/03/2008 21:59

i agree with posey

a space for kids to be kids and you to relax a little about the bomb site slight messiness that will always be in there... and the rest of the space to feel a leetle calmer for your peace of mind.

fingerwoman · 09/03/2008 22:00

I would def have a playroom and then use the extra space for living room/diner instead

Original poster
emkana · 09/03/2008 22:06

Glad to see you agree with me

OP posts:
Original poster
emkana · 09/03/2008 22:53

I think dh can be talked into it as well.

We're going to get those kind of french doors that you can open up completely, and I really like the day of opening them and then having dinner there....

OP posts:
PrettyCandles · 09/03/2008 23:00

HAving a playroom is brilliant. I do miss being able to seat more people than just the LOs and us, but from the point of view of day-to-day life, the playroom is far more valuable than a rarely-used dining room.

I think we'll get some trestle-type tables that we can keep in the garage, so that we can use the playroom as a dining room when we have my family over and need to seat 10 or more people.

We find that we tend to use the kitchen-diner and the playroom-with-archway-to-study as our 'daytime' zone, and the livingroom is more of an adults-only evening zone.

ecoworrier · 10/03/2008 13:11

I'll go against the flow, because I would never want/buy a house without a separate dining room.

I also would never ever have a table in the living room, that's my pet hate. Living room/diners are just awful!

That's not really helped you has it!

Original poster
emkana · 10/03/2008 14:12

You could always turn the family/play room back into a dining room though couldn't you?

I'm glad to hear people's opinion though, so might keep bumping.

OP posts:
Original poster
emkana · 10/03/2008 20:10

.

OP posts:
BoysOnToast · 10/03/2008 20:30

absolutely. if selling, just turn it back into a dining room, if thats what sells, but actually i think most families are after big open plan living spaces and would find an extra playroom a real bonus.

PrettyCandles · 12/03/2008 13:51

I agree with BoT. FWIW, when we bought this house, the room that the estate agent described as 'dining room' was being used as a bedroom. We walked in and immediately labeled it 'playroom'.

Flum · 12/03/2008 13:55

Play room, defo . we use our play room as a dining room about once a year. clear up toys and glam it up. It looks great but would be such a waste to leave it empty all the time. and kids trashing rest of hou8se.

Oliveoil · 12/03/2008 14:02

we use our dining room as a playroom as well

toys are shoved away at night though as we do eat there every day

but if it has been a rainy day and a den has been created, it can stay there and we eat in the other room

you can then shut the door and pretend all is well

Prufrock · 12/03/2008 14:33

Playroom definately. We have a large room that was the living room, but we now use as an adults reception room - so we have our dining table in there, and it's where my laptop is, and books and chairs (and I'm having folding sliding glass doors put in next month). Children are not allowed (well obv. they are if we are having lunch with friends at the weekend, but they know that it is a space where they behave) Then the sitting room has the TV in, and the family room is the kids area, with a huge cupboard to stash all the toys away. We all tend to eat at the kitchen table anyway unless we are entertaining.

If your dh is worried about space, you can always get a long thing dining table which you can put back against the wall (like a big console table) when you are using it as a living room. And if possible don't have your TV in there

BexieID · 13/03/2008 11:49

Hmm, photographic studio! Or playroom/dining room. If only. We live in a flat with only 5 rooms.

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