Found house.. worried about big kitchen/small lounge layout with small DCs! Advice pls!

[Callipo]

After just two brief years of lovely renting (not), have finally found a house with location/price/garden/upstairs that DH and I can agree on!! But now, as I obviously always have to have something to worry about, I am worrying that it is a very different downstairs layout from our rental and how we would get on with day to day life with DCs aged 1 and 2 (and one on way) in this house...it has a big light kitchen/living/dining room (7 x 5), and another much less bright lounge (5.5x 3.8). There is also a playroom/study (3.8 x 3.5, but this is across the hallway away from the kitchen a bit..So far with kids we have had a tiny kitchen for eating and cooking and then all chilled together and played in a bigger lounge/diner. Can the kitchen room have a playroom section with a sofa and rug? Is it big enopugh to fit a kitchen/dineing and chilling zone? Whilst DCs are tiny I am worried that I might send all my time trying to keep an eye on the separate playroom and that the kitchen room might be either a bit too big or not big enough IYSWIM... But I think this is quite common room layout in new houses? How does it work? Where do the kids play? How best to lay out the family room?

The kitchen is a lovely room to have a play area in. Course you can have a rug and sofa in your kitchen, I managed to have a sofa in my kitchen years ago and it was very well used!

it sounds perfect to me. This is just what i'd like to create when we can afford to extend. Good luck

can you link then we can picture exactly what you mean.

Have a look at babydan playpens - they also make room dividers, so you could actually 'fence off' a safe area and throw all the toys and kids into it when the oven's on or you're doing stuff which can't be spilt. And when the kids are older you can make a big deal of setting up their own special room (where you can't see or hear them )

We've got a sofa and dining table in the kitchen, and it's quite hard getting visitors to go anywhere else

We practically live in our kitchen - computer/TV area, 2 sofas, coffee table, dining table - great for craft etc - plus kitchen. Playroom just used for storage most of the time and kids bring toys through they want to play with. Sitting room is lovely calm adult room.

It sounds perfect - kitchen big enough for a play area but also space for a playroom. It really won't be long before the two bigger children can be left for a wee while in the playroom - my two are nearly 4 and 2.9 and I happily leave them (and have done for quite a while now) to play by themselves in one room while I'm cooking/having a shower etc) in another.

I would love to have space in the kitchen for a sofa. I can just picture myself cooking and pottering in the kitchen with a glass of wine chatting to guests while the DC play (quietly and serenely, of course).