Open plan kitchen and living room.

[Knownoone]

Hello All,

Need you suggestion in designing this house. Please suggest if the kitchen space would be good enough for a kitchen and living room. We cannot convert one of the bedrooms to living room since we need 3 bedrooms. Looking for suggestions renovating this house. Adding the floor plan and current kitchen for your reference.

Really appreciate your help.

What is the cellar like? Any chance of making a reception room or bedroom down there? The current reception / kitchen doesn't look ideal.

The cellar has no windows. We can definitely have a family room there and small laundry room but bedroom won't be ideal since it has no windows.

I don't think the kitchen is big enough to fit a living room too. Could you use the cellar?

The cellar needs renovating. Attaching the pic for the same. The roof height is around 6 feet and we need to increase the height atleast by another half a foot. Also it has no windows.

If you can take a couple of feet off the adjacent bedroom it might make enough space for a small corner sofa and tv area at the far end. It only needs to be small as you can have another sitting room downstairs. A clever kitchen designer can probably get an eating area in there too, maybe a banquette seat and a fold down table.

Sounds like a good idea. Thanks.

One of the problems with having a joint kitchen/living area is having a TV in it, if it's a 'working' kitchen, as in you're going to be preparing, cooking, generally clanging about and someone wants to watch TV noise can be a problem.

Another one, probably just IMO, which you probably don't realise until its not there is sometimes its nice in the evening to just disappear to the kitchen and tidy up while enjoying a bit of piece.

A built in window seat with dining table in the kitchen would be nice. Move whatever you can from the kitchen to the cellar ( washing machine etc).

We plan to have the TV in the cellar.

Is there any way to put a light well into the cellar and then make that the main living room? If there is plumbing in the cellar could you move any noisy appliance (washing machine/dryer) into the smaller cellar room to free up some kitchen space?

4.77 x 3.25 m is tight enough for a kitchen dining room, never mind trying to add a sofa also. Maybe go with a comfortable built in bench at the table.

Thanks a lot

Doesn't look like possible

You cannot put a bedroom in a room with no windows, it contravenes building control. Better to have a cinema room in a cellar!

Yes definitely. Although you never know - i loved near lots of houses that had little pavement level windows in their cellar.

Thanks everyone.

Is the cellar pavement level or is it below ground? It’s a relatively quick and easy job for a builder to knock through brick and add a window.

It is below the ground. The cellar has an opening which has exhaust fan fitted in it.

Tricky. It’s a two bed house really, not three.

Yes but looking to move the reception downstairs and convert the reception to a room.

The layout is a bit arse about face isn't it. I think you're right to consider moving the reception downstairs.
How important is having the en-suite?
Depending on the ages of the people involved and the amount of time they'll spend in the communal area, I'd be considering converting the current kitchen/reception and adjacent bedroom into 3 x bedroom at approx 9ft by 10ft, leave the bathroom as is, then everything behind the bathroom as kitchen/dining/living space. If you have small ones, this makes supervising them in the garden much easier too.
DH and I could survive happily with a broom closet as our sitting room as it's only us and a small dog and the telly. But 20 years ago when we had small children....

I agree with the PP, I think you need a total rejig. Current kitchen and bedroom area can be turned into 2 bedrooms and bathroom, taking space from the middle of each to create a bathroom.

Current bathroom converted to bedroom taking a little bit of space from the bedroom.

Everything else at the back then becomes open plan living kitchen diner opening to the garden.

Presumably you need 3 bedrooms because of your children. How old are they? Can they share for now and you could use the 3rd bedroom as a lounge while you sort out the cellar?

17 years and 12 years :).

In that case I would put a nice table and comfy benches in the kitchen for spending time at and make the cellar into a family reception room asap.