How to reconfigure this layout?

[lifeafterdivorce]

I'd like to work out how to make best use of this layout. I really need a utility room (ideally a separate room but could be part of a bigger kitchen) and at the moment the kitchen is very small. Would it work to turn the kitchen into a utility and the dining room into the kitchen? Or would it be better to close off the living room as a separate room and knock the kitchen/dining through to add enough space for washing machine / utility storage etc? I'm not good at visualising use of space so would be grateful for ideas. And maybe an indication of likely costs!!

The orientation is throwing me off. Where’s the front road and what’s the lobby?

What’s the width of the lobby? Could that become a utility? Then wall between dining room and living room
to be two separate rooms. Knock through kitchen into dining room to become kitchen diner.

The lobby is a kind of side passageway from street to garden, not really usable space to bring into the house layout. The street is where the front living room bay window is.

@OMarina I thought that might be the best answer too, though it doesn't give a separate utility area. Do you have any idea what it might cost? (South England, but not London)

Turn the loo into the utility room.

Take part of the lobby as a downstairs loo or put it under the stairs.

There's too many doors to outside. At the front there is the front door (albeit around the side) and a door into the lobby. At the back there's a door from the lobby to the back garden and one from the dining room too.
I would block the door from the front and back of the lobby. Use that as a pantry/utility room.
Then block the gap between the dining room and lounge.
Open up the wall between the kitchen and dining room. If you leave the kitchen sink where it is that would save on plumbing costs and its not too far away from existing plumbing to plumb the new utility.

a sliding door at the dining room end and a picture windows above the sink.

Yes this is what I would probably do and it would create a nice kitchen/diner.

As a very cheap/quick/temporary fix, is there space in the cupboard under the stairs for the washer/dryer?

Why do you want a utility room? For washing, for muddy boots and coats? For putting all the washing up? For storing food? Is there space up stairs for a utility cupboard.

Ps. You can't take the toilet our as it is now a building regs issue if you remove a downstairs loo as it makes the house less accessible. Obviously if you move it somewhere else that would be OK.

Thanks for the suggestions and good to know about the downstairs loo. A utility would make life much easier as I have two very messy/muddy dogs and I’d like a place to towel them off without going through the entire house. It would be good to store their food and leads and towels etc away from the kitchen I’d also love to keep all the laundry stuff and households tools and things in a separate space. A proper utility room basically! But maybe just not possible

You could maybe make the lobby into an amazing bootroom and dog space without perminently blocking access? So lots of hooks, and some shelves and maybe install a wet room shower tray at one end with a hose and lock one of the end doors? You could put a ceiling mounted airer out there too to hang the washing up.
Then could you fitter a stacked washer and drier under the stairs.

If you want a bigger kitchen, knock though to the dinning room and then seperate off the lounge.

I agree that there are too many doors but your comment about the dogs does add a different angle to things.

I would block up the opening between the current living and dining room to make a separate sitting room.

I’d knock a hole in the wall between the kitchen and dining to make one big kitchen/living/diner at the back of the house.

Id block up the door on the garden side of the lobby. At the garden end of that space I’d make a utility “cupboard” with a washing machine in the bottom. The top half can be cleaning supplies on a bit of worktop/shelves OR have a stacked tumble dryer. Id leave the side towards the street as a boot room /wet room with a dog shower. A nice to have would be to move the kitchen door closer to the street to give more space to the utility area/space for ironing/laundry baskets etc. But this will depend on your drainage points….

Not sure how to layout the back room but opening up the existing windows to make 2 pairs of French doors would be nice.

Prices at the moment are horrendous. I reckon you’ll be quoted somewhere in the £10-20k ball park on top of the kitchen…

I don’t know re costs but when we blocked up our entrance between our living room and dining room to make two separate rooms we paid £3k exclusive of VAT. This did not include repainting of either room, but did include plastering. This was in early 2020 and we are in the SE. Of course if it’s part of a scheme of wider renovations to the rest of your downstairs there’s probably an economy of scale to be had.

I would think of the dog needs and the laundry needs separately. You don’t want to be doing laundry in a space that also has muddy dogs in it regularly.

I would probably try to use the lobby for the dog stuff. Makes sense as it goes through to the garden. Put some shelves and hooks on the walls and you can store towels leads food etc.

Then for a laundry/utility room, one option is to close off the sitting room and take a slice off the back of it to make a long skinny utility. It’s a large room which is lovely but you probably don’t need it to be that big, not as much as you’d like a utility anyway.

I would definitely knock through the kitchen and diner but then I like big family kitchen diners, some people like a separate kitchen so it’s a matter of preference.

Another option is to make the loo into a utility as a pp said and put loo elsewhere but I suspect the plumbing for this option may be hellish - you need the loo to go somewhere where it can be connected to the soil pipe fairly easily.

here a drawing of my idea

It makes more sense if kitchen & dining room are knocked together!

Your long skinny utility- the washer & dryer go stacked at one end, then you have space for shallow (30cm) shelves or cupboards along the length. Can be used to store dry foods and household bits & bobs. You might just be able to fit a hanging drying rail on a pulley.

Stack a washer and drier at the front end of the lobby and then it graduates towards a boot room. You could separate off with a door of some sort? Is there enough height to have a laundry dolly on the ceiling to hang stuff and move it out of the way? Then wall mounted fold out hanging racks? All it would need is some sort of plumbing/drain work from the loo to the washer area which should be a straightforward job for a builder.

Then make the kitchen open plan with an open partition to the sitting room. Crittal internal doors or sliding door of some sort which would let the light in.

Would this work?
I wondered if by opening up the wall between the lobby and what looks like the upstairs cupboard and closing up the doorway, you could create a utility room area that you could access separately from the main hallway to keep muddy dogs out of there. You could still have access through into the garden.
I would open up the wall between the kitchen and current dining room and put in double doors opening into the garden. I'd then add doors between the dining room and living room, so you can have separate rooms but open up if needed.

I’d extend the lobby to the end of the house and make that the utility. I’d have a back door or window for light at the end of it. I’d then knock down the internal wall to the dining area and move the kitchen a long a bit making it open plan with a large island separating the 2 areas. Then I’d put bifolds across the back to allow natural light into the kitchen / diner.
I would also consider if the existing part of the corridor could be used as an office space.

Thank you everyone for some great ideas and suggestions. It’s a house I want to buy so I need to see whether I get it, and if I can get it at a price that would allow me to make these changes but I have a much clearer idea of options now. Some of these suggestions could make a lovely living space. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to help.

I really like the idea to open up the hallway cupboard into the lobby to use that space, and putting French doors between living and dining. The consensus seems to be that knocking through the kitchen / dining is going to give a much better use of space there. And the lobby/ garden passage as dog zone makes sense too. Lots of options I wasn’t seeing.

Two ideas,
Option one: is to open up kitchen/dining - you don't need access to kitchen via entrance and lobby, so block off one to give you a walk in pantry, use lobby for a dog/boot wash area and dog/garden storage and turn downstairs loo into utility with a stacked washing machine/tumble dryer and mini sink.(or get an eco loo with sink/cistern combo).

Option two
More radical (and expensive) but if you use the lobby as your main entrance you can move the stairs and create an extra bedroom/playroom/study) which will increase^ house value. The en-suite can be enlarged to add utility and shower.

Be aware of which are your load bearing walls - non-load bearing is cheaper/diy to knock-thru, load bearing requires steel beams and is more expensive.^

Bear in mind that knocking through from
the lobby into the main house you’ll
be knocking through the main exterior supporting wall of the house - probably 2 layers of brick at least. So not a small job and will need structural support.

If the lobby isn't part of the main house, then to integrate it in any permanent way will probably mean that it needs to be brought up to current building regulations. This is not cheap and I would also personally avoid anything that impairs access between the front and back of the house.

I would also avoid blocking access from the hall to the kitchen because you'll turn the living room into a corridor and carrying shopping through will also be a PITA.

Without knowing dimensions of the hallway and downstairs toilet I'm not sure whether this would work but I would:

Move the front door closer to the stairs and then move the toilet wall into the hallway to create a larger lootility, possibly with space for cleaning dogs off.

The big downside to this is making the entry area narrower. You might be able to add a turn on the bottom of the stairs so that they begin in the wider part of the hallway.

Removing the wall between kitchen and dining room is a no-brained. I would put room divider doors between the dining room and living room to make it semi-open plan.

An option ...

I would double the space of the cupboard under the stairs -enroaching along the kitchen wall towards the door into lobby. Then remove the wall between the lobby and new cupboard and build a wall along the opposite length of the cupboard.
The lobby/cupboard/utility then becomes wider for a bit and large enough to house a laundry/dog space.

Remove the wall between the dining and kitchen.

Leave dining space where it is and change kitchen.

Kitchen ..
Leave sink under window and put stove halfway along the wall on which the lobby door is positioned. Build a pantry and fridge space along wall that now houses the doorway into kitchen from front entrance. A short island could fit in the centre of kitchen if you want one, parallel to the sink wall, leaving space for the dining table.

Make doorway into sitting room wider if you wish.
Add a sliding barn door exactly opposite the dining room window to section off the sitting room when you want quiet time.

This makes room beside the stairs to fit a storage cupboard.
This also makes only two clear ways to enter the kitchen - through the lobby/utility or through the sitting room. The hallway directly into the kitchen is blocked.