Help me with my house layout

[User543211]

Hi all,
I'd love to know your thoughts on our house layout. We've been slowly DIY renovating for 5 years and have had 2 kids in that time.
Sorry for the dodgy diagram!
We took down the wall between the kitchen and the room at the front of the house which we now use as a playroom area. However we're nearing completion of the cellar and have talked about putting a couple of sofas down there and using that as a playroom. It's insulated and has heating etc so not a dungeon or anything! Stairs are also fine going down.
That would give us 3 'living' areas as such including the living room and the current playroom which seems silly to me.
Our dining table is very small and a nightmare to clean around - I'd love a bigger one or at least more space around it. Would you...

1. Use the living room as a dining room, then have open plan kitchen/living room area (I'm not so keen on this option as I like the separate space for watching TV in the evening without hearing the dishwasher or seeing any kitchen mess).
2. Use the current playroom as a dining area, move the playroom downstairs. Could probably still fit an armchair or something in the window.
3. Turn the living room into a playroom, put a dining table in the current playroom and use downstairs as a evening space/snug (I will miss the wood burner though and it means we can be warm in the current living room without having the heating on).
4. Leave as is for a couple more years when the kids will be old enough to use a cellar playroom more independently. If we do this, what do we do with the space in the meantime?

My concerns are keeping an eye on the kids if I'm upstairs and they're downstairs. They are 2 and 4 atm.
Kitchen is new so no layout changes can be made there.

The current playroom is south facing and has a lovely bay window. The current living room is dark and a bit of an awkward space but cosy and we don't keep any toys in there.

I would move the dining table to the playroom as that's the main thing that's not working for you at the moment. We use our kitchen diner as a play area too as it's convenient to be able to keep an eye on the kids while cooking, and it's fine because if it's a mealtime, they're eating not playing, and we don't keep all the toys in there so it's not a mess. Other toys can go downstairs, with the expectation being that they'll use it more and more as they get older.

Echo moving the dining table to the playroom as well.
It seems a bit disproportionate the kids have this big area to play but the family table is quite small.
The WC also looks it's an odd place!

I guess that would require more investment, but I would move laundry room to WC area, playroom to laundry room, WC under the cupboard, and have the playroom as lovely dining area for the family.

Thanks both! Diagram isn't really to scale but the WC is tiny so wouldn't fit washer and dryer, and utility is v small so probably wouldn't work as playroom. It currently has washer, dryer, sink and a larder cupboards which we use for coats and shoes and the mop etc. Also the cupboard in the living room is small but v high, and the door is blocked by the sofa as it's the only place the sofa can fit, so probably wouldn't be practical as a WC but it's ok for stuff we don't get out too often!
Love this old house but is an awkward layout.

I wouldn't put the play area down in the basement until the children are older and I'd look for the cheapest and easiest fix for now. Without scale it's hard to say, but on the face of it I'd leave your living room as is, and keep it as your sanctuary.

Will the sofa in the play room swap with the table and chairs to the kitchen with a tiny side table in front of it, or is that a non starter for space? Otherwise will the table and chairs fit in there keeping the sofa? might need to try a few configurations. Or, would the sofa go in the cellar for a year or two and maybe make that a kind of den with extra space for toys that are being rotated?

That play room space is too big a proportion of the ground floor not to work hard for you. You may need to invest in better toy storage, maybe some kind of bench seat with a lid instead of the sofa or to push under the table when not used as a seat, or a drop leaf table that can grow when you need it to. All depends on the room sizes, where the doors and radiators are etc.

I'd find a way to get a bigger diningroom table for now, then move the playroom downstairs in a couple of years.

I'm not sure it's big enough, but could you split the playroom into a diningroom, low ish kalax unit ir otherwise, and playroom on the other side?

This is definitely something we could try, thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks! When I say 'playroom' it's just a living room that we keep toys in. I'm quite minimal about toys, there's a kallax 4x4 in each alcove and a play kitchen. It's tidy and spacious and looks nice. We spend all of our time in that area and the kitchen, then when the kids go to bed we usually sit in the other living room for hour as the TV is in there.
I'm v keen to try a dining table in there but worried we'll miss the space on the floor, but maybe they'd just do more playing at the table with jigsaws etc.

Our kitchen/dining room/playroom is quite small, so we have an extending square/rectangular table which we do put back to its smaller size when it's not a family mealtime. We actually also have built-in bench seating next to our kitchen peninsula instead of a breakfast bar, so the dining area uses less of the available space, and there's space to play on the floor.

The utility and bathroom are weird. You've created a visual block by adding in two doors. You only need a door to the utility. Lockable for visitors etc. That makes a nicer space and less pokey. The playroom is a waste of space. It has a lovely bay window and is south facing - turn it into a nice lounge with storage for toys. Then the living room becomes snug/extra room for visitors.

@ChicMiss thank you, it is a nice lounge really, I just think it's a bit much to have a lounge with sofas/toys, plus a snug with sofas then potentially a sofa area downstairs as well as I don't know what to with that space otherwise!
Appreciate your point on the utility and w/c, we didn't add in the doors or change the layout there. This is a Victorian semi and I presume the WC was originally an outhouse (there's an original external wall between it and the utility) then the utility has been built in the gap at a later date.
We could consider knocking it down.