Floorplan ideas

[Circle3]

We are thinking of buying this house. I know the layout downstairs needs improving, but I can't think how. Kitchen needs knocking through to dining as both rooms are not that big. Conservatory is dated and tired, and bizarrely blocks out light to the living room. The garden ends to the right of the conservatory.

We mainly needs to make the kitchen more open plan. I love it when light flows through the house from front to back from the front door. The living room is a bit soulless. I want to leave the garage as it is for now.

The garden is a wraparound garden but really sunny on both the kitchen side and the living room side. I'm nervous about extending out from the kitchen as the garden is quite shallow (about 4 or 5 metres from the house) but it definitely needs some more light coming in and the garden is really pretty.

Does anyone have a creative eye and can see an instant solution? We will use an architect but I just need to know what the possibilities are before we commit. There seems to be a lot going on. Entrance into kitchen can be closed off if we knock through. It's a 1990s property, a little bit twee so some fresh ideas are needed!!

I think it's lovely as it is. The layout is very balanced. I would possibly knock through from the kitchen to the dining room and then put doors in between the dinning room and lounge. I love the large entrance hall.

How many people are in your family and how old are the kids?

moving the doors to the kitchen/diner once you've knocked the two together would help light come through. George Clarke always waxes lyrical about having a clear line of sight from front door through to garden so maybe having a window/door on the back wall in line with this will create the "light flooding" look you're after.

If the conservatory is crap, get rid of it. Put an outside area in its place - you seem to have enough inside rooms anyway.

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Yes the large entrance hall is lovely. At the moment, we have to stand on the stairs when visitors step into the hallway! There are 4 of us..2 adults and 2 (nearly) teenagers so there should be room for them to have their own space. @Geneticsbunny
Good idea about moving the door to the kitchen opposite the front door @SoupDragon Yes the conservatory will probably have to go! I'm a bit bothered about how long and thin the living room is and the conservatory just makes it longer!

Think it’s a great layout for soon to be teenagers cos you have separate spaces ie the family room and lounge. I think when children are small then open plan seems to work well.

I like @SoupDragon plan however I would probably do away with the door from the kitchen to the utility. There is already an exit to the garden from the dining room part of the kitchen diner. There are too many doors in the utility area which affects the flow. Our washing machine is in a different part of the house to the kitchen and it works great. It would also free up more wall space in the kitchen.

You could possibly just have one door to the whole downstairs loo/utility area, with the toilet coming off the utility area if that would free up room for a downstairs shower which could be useful if the teens are into sports or you have a messy dog. At the moment that area feels like it has too many doors for the space available.

Something like this, although you would need to play around with the placement of the washing machine/ tumble dryer. S is shower and the red are the doorways I would block, with blue being the new doorways. It is still not quite right but hopefully a little more useable space.

I have a downstairs shower. It is never used despite having rugby playing DSs and a dog. As the utility space is small, I don't think I'd bother squeezing one in (my utility space is also small and I do wonder why on earth the previous owners put a shower in there)

The utility space can definitely be used better on this floorplan - there seems to be a lot of wasted space and a lot of doors!

Where so coats and shoes go? Is there an under stairs cupboard

I would just open up the kitchen/ diner. Can you add another window on the longest side of the lounge to get more light in? If the conservatory is not in good condition and you don't need the space I'd consider getting rid of it.

Slightly different approach and not sure if it would work but...

Could you move the utlity and loo into the back end of the garage? Then you could open up the family room and kitchen and have one very large kitchen/dining/ living room with side and rear aspect. A pocket door arrangement between the current dining room - which becomes a TV room/snug area and the main living room so that they can be open or shut off as needed?

Just combine the kitchen and dining room and knock the conservatory. Have a wall of glass and doors out to the garden from the living room and the same in the dining section of the kitchen diner.

Yes there are definitely too many doors in the utility area. I like @Unexpecteddrivinginstructor 's idea. I wonder if we keep the toilet where it is with a large coat cupboard, and just move the utility into the garage, like @londonmummy1966 suggested. Just thinking that a loo off the hallway is still a good idea for guests, rather than being directed through another living room. Then the kitchen would be a little bit deeper.. at the moment I think you'd have to squeeze past any sort of kitchen island in the kitchen.

@Geneticsbunny The only cloak cupboard is just by the toilet which is really not big enough for 11 pairs of teenage Nike Air Forces! There is a small low level under stairs cupboard which doesn't seem that useful.

@seethingmess seems the most simple solution, and money is a big factor in this. We have about 100k. I have no idea how far that will go.

I'm wondering if it would be a crazy idea to have a pocket door going across the living room to make a study looking out from the front.
@circular2478 Nextdoor house is about 1.5 metres away so not much to look out to if we put in a side window but I agree the living room could do with more light

I’d split the living room in two and have the front as a snug for the adults. Then open up all the back rooms into a kitchen/dining area with a sofa for when everyone wants to hang out in the same place. Family room then becomes teen den/games room. Get rid of the conservatory and have some big doors out to the garden.

Interesting, thanks seems like a doable option @AutumnLeaves5@Autumn

I was about to suggest this, gives essentially 3 living spaces.

if the conservatory is bad you could look into extending that part of the house out with some skylights