Adding a hallway back?

[ohsitdownnextome]

Hi there,

This is a photo of a house I'm looking at this is a really good layout and size, except the front door opens straight into the living room, which is 13.5ft wide and 11.5 foot long.

Other houses on the street have an 11.5x 11.5 living room and a hallway.

I would like a hallway, definitely. A living room the front door opens straight into means more noise, cold, and nowhere to dump shoes and coats.

What would it involve to add the hallway back?

The stairs you can see here are directly in front of the front door.

TKVM

I’d imagine it will involve a stud wall and electrics (if that’s where you’d want the TV). Then plastering.

I think max £5000 and well worth it.

Watch last night's Location Location Location.

Love It Or List It last night featured exactly the same issue and they reinstated the hall.

Sorry, it was LIOLI (as stated above) not LLL.

We did the same around 7 years ago. Just used a loc handyman was very easy, didn’t have any electrics etc as they were on the otherside already. Took about 2 days, stud wall structure built (hollow wooden frame) then boarded and plastered and skirting added to match rest of house. It’s been a game changer, proper hallway can take shoes off etc and keeps cold and noise out.
I couldn’t bare walking straight in to my living room! It cost us at the time I think around £900 plus materials and yes was 2 days of work.

On your picture I’d probably switch the room around too. Where the wall will be I’d have your sofa against that and telly on a stand in that corner bit on other side. Makes way more sense to walk to to the room and sofa is backed on to the stud wall.

I’d probably have an L shape sofa to maximise the space (L section against the outer wall)

hope this helps!

Could you add a porch instead?

Yep I’d do this too actually!

I think in LIOLI they just shut off the front door from the lounge, rather than creating a hallway with the stairs, but I might be wrong!

A stud wall is a simple DIY job if you don’t need an electrical socket on the wall.

If you are paying for the work, I would consider using the budget for a large porch with storage as an alternative that saves losing living space.

This is very valid.👍

My parents had a separate hall/stairs but they liked the idea of opening up and creating a larger living room. They got rid of the old porch and had a much larger, more integrated one built which meant that coats/shoes etc could all be removed before opening the internal door.
Built using the same materials as the house itself, was completely in keeping and looked like it had always been there instead of the earlier, more lightweight structure.

A more expensive solution but worth considering?

Great idea!

I think a porch actually looks quite dated, and mostly unusable and awkward to fit in to
id go with the hallway idea, best money I’ve spent on this house by far