Will a dining table for here?

[MrsTravelBug]

My husband is driving me insane, we are buying our first house together and he seems to have it in his head that all furniture must be pushed up against walls and anything in the centre of a room is “a massive thing blocking the way”

So will a rectangle dining table with a long bench and two chairs (bench one side, chairs the other) fit in this space? I don’t have the measurements so we won’t buy anything until we have checked but he is dismissing it out of hand.

Of course it will and it will look great! Is he proposing to put even a dining table up against the wall?

Yes - it looks like the extension was designed exactly for that purpose! If a dining table is against a wall how are people meant to sit on both sides? 😂

How big is it? It looks like it'll be fine, but the dimensions will confirm.

Is he launching a new side hustle in teaching ballroom dancing?
That space is just waiting for a lovely dining table. (And there’ll still be room for dancing)

Er yes of course. Your DP is a little nuts if he thinks a dining table should be pushed up against a wall!!

Well, it wouid look spectacularly stupid with a table pushed up against the bifolds!

Without measurements it's impossible to say for sure, but im pretty certain you'll get a table and chairs in that space.

Doesnt the house listing have room sizes on it?

Floor plan might have helped! So I want to consider a dining table in the family room space, he wants that left empty so we can walk around and put a small round dining table in the dining room area, however that are would be cramped because the fridge and freezer is in there.

we don’t have a table yet so would buy one that fits.

Looks like it could go in either. Could the fridge freezer go in the dead space next to the loo wall? (Hoping that makes sense)

The family room space is only 2.4m wide so relatively narrow so he may have a point. If you were to do it it would probably be best if it were a relatively narrow bench type table, with chairs/bench that can do fully under the table. Another option is a round table in the corner between family room and lounge. Top left of the plan. Or a short rectangular table one end pushed against the top wall with chairs either side in the same corner between family room and lounge might also work.

It could work I would suggest mocking it up with empty boxes to get a feel for the space with it in.

The fridge and freezer are built in (the cupboards along that wall)

Boxes is a good idea! I suggested masking tape but boxes would be much better.

He won’t even have a sideboard against the back wall because it will overlap the bi fold doors (slightly).

Actually having seen the floor plan I think he has a point. The family room is pretty narrow - a dining table is about 90cm wide, so that leaves you about 80cm on each side for seating. There isn't room for it in the kitchen end of the family room IMHO, it would need to go at the living room end if it goes in that room. And I think the fridge and freezer being in the "dining room" means that room is essentially and extension of the kitchen, highlighting that the kitchen is pretty small. What would you use that room for if not a dining room? But it would also be really irritating to have people eating a the table and be taking stuff in and out of the fridge and freezer.

I think the pictures are clever, but there's no furniture and it's not nearly as spacious as it would first appear.

I agree.👍

Now we have seen the floorplan, the layout is not as good as first thought.
Definitely go with the boxes, they are physical things to walk around rather than just lines on the floor.
Don't forget to give enough space to pull the chairs out.

What is the space leading into the utility to be used for, it almost looks like an alcove?

I love a good dining table but I think I would struggle to get ours into that layout (excluding the lounge of course) while still leaving plenty of room around it.

From the photo it might fit in front of the doors but now we can see the floorplan, it could be tricky to walk past. You could have a small sofa and coffee table near the kitchen, or a storage wall unit, then the table further towards the living room area.

In my opinion a long, narrow table will fit there and will look great. But since you have a dining room, I’d say it depends on how you’d like to use the space called family room. To eat there? Or to put a sofa in? Is there a nice view to the garden from there? When and how would you like to enjoy it? And if you put a table there, what would you do with a dining room space?

I’m also intrigued by the alcove off the kitchen!

Why do you need a room left empty to walk around in? Can't he go outside to walk around?

He doesn’t want to use it for anything at all, thinks it should be empty. I do agree it’s narrow though.

The alcove serves no purpose at all, we do love the house but wondering how to make it work is starting to make me worry.

you need to walk past it to get from the lounge to the kitchen so you need more than 80cm walkway. However if you place it off centre, you could have 1m walkway on one side, 90cm table and then 55cm the other side with bench seating

Oh hang on there are units in the space as well. So no it’s too narrow. Suggestion above is good though

I concede maybe the husband is right on this occasion. Just this one though…..

Have you exchanged yet as TBH, that layout looks a bit too cramped to me and you don't want buyers remorse?

I know someone who has a ground floor layout practically identical (minus the weird alcove) but everything is just a bit more spacious and they do have a long table across the back wall/doors but in their case, you can pull the chairs out and still walk around them.
They have a sideboard / dresser on the side wall (are they coming back into fashion again?) but the space is deep enough to not overlap the rear bifold doors. If it was my house and it did overlap, I think that would annoy me.

We haven’t exchanged but we really want this house, the downstairs isn’t ideal in terms of layout but it has four decent sized double bedrooms (it’s three floors) plus a loft conversion, en-suite etc it’s not perfect but it suits our needs much more than anything else we have found, in our price range, in the right area - so compromise on the downstairs layout is the price we pay.

I do think we can make it work. DHs dining table is currently pushed up against the wall in the way of the French doors and takes up his whole dining table wall and mine whilst round takes up most of the floor space in my kitchen/diner so it’s not like we are used to massive rooms and are downgrading.

As someone else has suggested, I would move the fridge and freezer into the alcove, if there's space. That's actually a much better location for them, because there won't be anything directly I there way when you want to get to them. Then dining table in there and then the family room could be a playroom if you have kids. If not, then a sofa at the living room end - I don't think there's room for one at the kitchen end.

Fridge and freezer aren’t moveable, they are built in.

They will be removable from the cupboards themselves though (we have integrated and you can definitely remove them!) and could be replaced by freestanding in the alcove.