Need inspo for our house.

[InNeedOfInspo]

Have been in our house for nearly 20 years. Me, husband, teen and dog.

We’re struggling to use it for everything we need to, with 2 of us working from home and hobbies etc. DH thinks the answer is a garden room, but I want to explore other options first.

Attached is the floor plan as it is now. In addition we have an extension on the back of a double garage that measures 4.5m x 3.5m and has a multipurpose room downstairs (currently a gym) with a shower room and an office upstairs with a sofa bed and an electric piano.

DH and I both work from home - him more or less 100% of the time and me 60% of the time. The desk in the extension is the only one with additional monitors so we end up fighting over it. I have a tiny standing desk at the back of the living room but can only fit a laptop on it.

We don’t have enough storage in the kitchen, so the dining room has become the overspill area, along with the utility room. We don’t sit to eat in the dining room, partly because it is cramped but mostly because our schedules mean we all end up eating at different times.

Upstairs I have Bed 1 and the en-suite, DD has bed 4 for sleeping, books and clothes and DH has bed 2. Again, this is due to schedules and everyone getting enough sleep. Bed 3 has DD’s toys, the family Lego, a desk and sofa bed. It’s mainly used by DD. DD and DH share the family bathroom.

We have too much stuff, and need to declutter and we need to replace the windows and doors within the next couple of years. This has led to a discussion about potential garden room (garden faces north so would take the only sunny spot) or extensions, and I’m thinking about internal layout as well.

We need a proper working space for me which is separate to the outside office. We need to house the musical
instruments more effectively and ideally together (at the moment there is a drum kit in the living room, piano in the office and smaller instruments in bedroom 3).

I would like a more functional kitchen and utility room with significant storage (the quote I had from a designer for kitchen, utility and dining room had 36 units).

We intend to stay in the house for at least another 10 years, possibly forever. Happy to spend money to make it work better for us but not so much that we never realise it at resale. We’ve biggest house on the street and the existing extension probably took us over the ceiling price.

I can’t help but think that with 3 of us in a relatively large house we shouldn’t need to extend or add a garden room
to achieve these objectives but I’m struggling to see what could be possible.

Any thoughts or ideas welcomed.

Best attempts at showing the furniture etc.

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, but if your daughter needs a calm room to sleep in could you combine her sleeping room with your office space? You use it in the day and her at night.

You could even have folding doors to close off the office section at night (so it's almost like a shallow office that runs along one entire wall). They did something along those lines on an episode of "Sort your life out".

ok, here is one possibility. I haven't made major changes, because as many people have already said, decluttering is going to be a major part of this.

So here, I've re-arrange the kitchen / utility doors a bit. This gives you a big fridge/freezer (F) and island (I) in the kitchen. Also a new cupboard (C) and still space for a decent table in the dining room.

In the living room, I would try to declutter one end of the room as much as possible and then designate it as a space for music (M). Put all music related things in that space. And probably one sofa - you could replace it with a smaller sofa or a nice chair.

and upstairs, you've been pretty clear that you can't re-arrange your DD or DH's spaces (even though they use a lot of space). So instead I've re-arranged your bedroom to put the bed (B) in the corner (only one person sleeps in it) and give you space for a desk (D). there would also still be room for 2 cupboards and this would give you a nice private space of your own for work and sleep.

In the long term, it would still be better to declutter and find a way for your DD to fit into one room not two, but the bedroom re-ordering might give you a quick way to get the desk you need.

One more thought - your floor plan had 'storage' written on a lot, but is that good quality storage? little flimsy things like IKEA-Kallax or a set of shelves that go half way up the wall and are too narrow can make things messier rather than more organised.

As you declutter, maybe decide if you need to replace any small / inefficient bits of storage with BIG well ordered storage (stick labels on the shelves etc) so that you can fit things in properly and find them when you need them.

Are the drums and piano both your DH’s? If so he needs to fit them into “his” space rather than shared space. If they don’t fit then he needs to get rid of something. I appreciate that this is easier said than done. Maybe put them in storage while he decides on what he really needs.

Could you get rid of the mezzanine in the extension and extend the upper floor? You could then get rid of the sofa bed and put the drum kit there.

where the drum kit is currently could then be your home office space with a unit like I posted a picture of earlier where the current storage is.

The drums and piano are DD’s. She has weekly lessons so they can’t go into storage. It’s an electric drum kit at the moment but she’s at the point of needing to switch to acoustic, which is a lot bigger (and louder).

Can’t change the structure of the mezzanine because it’s in the roof space so there isn’t the head height to put anything in the void space. It’s literally the height of the desk on the other side.

Would have to lose the radiator at the back of the living space to fit anything there and as that’s the north facing end of the room (plus wall almost entirely made of glass) won’t it be freezing?

Thank you. Some interesting stuff here.

in the kitchen that provides fewer units than we have now as we lose one side of the U? Currently have a fitted fridge freezer in the kitchen and a second one in the utility room. Eye level oven with cupboards above and below and a narrow pull out larder thing (which I hate) in that one block of units. In the U there is a normal single base unit, a set of wide pan drawers, base unit (half hidden in the corner), dishwasher, under sink unit, base unit (half hidden in the corner), wine rack and another normal cupboard. Three narrow wall units and a set of open shelves. The utility has an under sink unit and a narrow set of drawers.

what can you put in an island because what we have isn’t enough already?

There’s no clutter in the living room. The storage is built in Ikea - I’ll try and find the name. Cost about £1500 I think.

My bed is a superking. I don’t think it would fit turning it around. And I really don’t want to work where I sleep. Did quite a lot of work on the impact of it during Covid and it’s not something to recommend, I don’t think. like DD I try to keep my bedroom calm. It’s not great for someone that has their best ideas at 2am and is likely to switch the laptop on to “research”. I also lose more than half of my other functional storage with this that I need.

The storage in the dining room and bedroom 3 are kallax units. They’re fine for what they’re used for and easily
replaced.

What’s the “B” in the utility room, please?

i actually really like the back door change you’ve suggested. We use that door 90% of the time and I wanted to put a dog bath in the utility (she’s a mud lover) so coming through there would make so much sense.

gosh, i can't convert feet in my head. i need it in metres 😅

Do teens need toys? My young twins share a bedroom which houses 2x beds and the vast majority of their toys and all of their clothing. Im struggling to see how one teen needs two bedrooms. Move her to a bigger bedroom to house ALL her things, then use the smallest room as a study.

If all else fails, and no one is willing to make changes, and you have the money, just get an architect in to go over your options. £40k doesn't go far now though, so I'm with the others who are saying declutter and think about using space more effectively. Most of the population lives with far less space than you have, it's 100% possible to get what you need with what you already have.

It’s Besta storage from Ikea. There are 3 square base units, 2 deep drawer units and another square unit. On the top are 3 glass fronted cabinets for display purposes. They hold bird games, company documentation, the printer sits on it and there’s paper and stationery in the drawer below. I have camera equipment in another cupboard and my small
musical instruments. And then we have one for all the important personal papers like passports and car V5s etc. It’s probably the most well organised part of the house and also beautiful. So I’d like to keep that.

We redecorated that room just before Covid and I love it.

She’s a teen with ADHD and an emotional delay. So yes, her toys matter to her. She’s slowly getting more into her art and online stuff but she’s not ready to lose all of her toys yet. she’s also an only child so has more toys because she often has to entertain herself.

The ADHD means she needs no distractions at bedtime. At present if she can’t sleep she can read a book. That’s it. Can’t put her in a room with anything else because she will be up
all night. Again, that will likely change as she develops appropriate strategies but she’s only a year post diagnosis and it’s tricky. She needs to go at her pace.

She also has a newly-diagnosed ADHD mum who was never taught these strategies and is having to learn them as well as support her with them.

I can see I’m going to have a night of stressing about radiators. What do you do when you don’t have walls where they should go?

I think I meant the boiler.

Ah. That makes sense. Thank you.

I’m trying to work out where this leaves us in terms of kitchen opportunities. I like that there is only one internal corner in that layout but I think we lose units overall. Would a breakfast bar be a viable option rather than the island? Can a breakfast bar also be a dining table?

(I used to have several subscriptions to house magazines years ago but stopped them because I never had time to read them. Maybe I need to buy a couple for the train journey later.)

presume my your daughter is on meds OP?

(I used to have several subscriptions to house magazines years ago but stopped them because I never had time to read them.

i suspect you still have them somewhere in your house! 😆

I’ve just started. Her paediatrician didn't think they were the best option for her.

They’re long gone. 😂

I’ve read back my OP and I’m not sure why people think my house is rammed with stuff. I said we had too much and the dining room has some overspill from the kitchen but we can see the floors! There are doom bags and boxes and any flat surface is a magnet for stuff to land on but it’s not at hoarding levels!

what on earth?

there’s lots of med option and your paed thought a blanket all would be inappropriate?

whats she taking?