Hello Jonathan,
Do you use the dining room or breakfast room to eat?
Do you have a family?
How does the space work for you at the moment?
Karen

Hello Karen,
We use the breakfast area to eat usually, unless we are entertaining and then we use the dining room.
We don't have a family at the moment, it is in the offing though, hence me trying to forward plan! I would rather get things right before a few kids come along than have to worry about them and sorting the space out!
The space works okay, but we haven't known any different. It is our first house. It annoys me that the lounge is basically a thoroughfare as i'd like a lounge to be a bit of a haven.
And as you can see from the plan, you have to walk through every room downstairs to get to the downstairs toilet!
Also we have a driveway for 2 cars so the garage isn't used apart from storing a few bits and bobs.
Thanks for replying so promptly Karen, and any help you can give me is much appreciated.
Jonathan.

My frst thoughts would be to create an entrance into the kitchen from the garage side. Using your garage for the downstairs cloakroom and perhaps a small office would give you more room to expand your kitchen.......

Thanks slightly quirky! The expansion of the kitchen sounds good. We should also have the funds to maybe extend outwards into the rather large (for a new build!) back garden.

I've rotated image for ease.

Hi Cherry Bloosom Interiors, obviously on the same wavelength :-)

Hi Slighty Quirky, ah yes:D I didn't read your comment. It would look great, really open up the space wouldn't it?

Yep....good use of space

Hi, it's pretty much the same layout as ours - except ours is without the utility area in the kitchen.

Our lounge is also a through fair but we have bi-fold doors on so its cosier when we want to block it off, but great for opening up when we have family over or a party. Might be worth considering that as a cheaper option rather than bricking it up?

We put a door into the garage from our entrance hall (had to be a fire door unless you are going to formally change the use of the garage and need planning/or regs) which works well. Our neighbours have made their garage their en-suite and also a storage office as well so I agree that it's a better layout.

Definitely open plan the kitchen/diner as it will be a much better use of space.

Hi Everyone, thank you so much cherry blossom for your ideas! That is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for but couldn't envisage! Tani, I like the bi fold idea, however I would like the lounge to be a totally seperate space, we're going to need a room that is ours, slightly selfish I know and probably the reality is going to be much different! :-) But thank you all for your ideas and input. Jonathan.

I've tried to make a layout too. Hope you like it.

You can still decide what to do with the garage; turn it into an office, guest room, playroom, storage, a combination of these. Only thing I did was add two doorways.

Kept the utility and toilet in the same location, having a back door is great, a place to kick off your shoes, do laundry and easily walk outside to hang it. Plus that moving plumbing can be quite costly, especially toilets. You don't have to walk through the living to get to the toilet, so it's location is fine as is.

Not knowing if the dining room wall is loadbearing, I did remove it, because the span can be bridged by a beam and an open room will probably look a thousand times better and lighter. This is also the reason I did not close off the living room. If you want some privacy, place french/sliding doors with plenty of glass in them, because the living room only has one window.

Switching the kitchen and dining opened up some floor space and made traffic easier. Now you can cook and look into the living room to keep an eye or conversation. And in summer, you can open up the double doors and serve food outside.

Note: If placing the sink against the outer wall will become too costly, flip stove and sink/dw and create a wide window sill with the plumbing in it.

Rinqreation, thank you so much for this, it's fab! However I do like the idea of having a lounge that is not a thoroughfare, a place where the door can be closed and peace and tranquility can reign! If we chose to have a second lounge/playroom in the current garage space then we would have 2 spaces that are thoroughfares. But i do sincerely thank you for the time and trouble you've gone to, and you have certainly made me think....

What about the kitchen as a thoroughfare?
The space below is a pantry/storage.

Note: in the first layout I posted you can close off the main lounge, just not with walls, because of the daylight. And I'm not too keen on long hallways, better to have a nice big custom fitted row of cabinets with toys and office in it (in this case in the garage).

You could place a sofa against the hallway door, but keep it in case of moving furniture and such. We did this in our own house, we changed the doorhandle for a toilet lock, so it's clear to all who visit this door isn't used, but still possible to open.

Here an unfinished one (I just love playing with floorplans). Even though there are blancs to fill in, I wanted to show you the use of space and walkways when you'd move the kitchen where the current lounge is. A kitchen with traffic is not as bad as a lounge with people running past, right? I also moved the toilet, because when your lounge has moved, a small niche looks better than an opening towards the utility room. Plus a full wall is a better location for a sofa or tv. Again, I left the large doorway open, becauses it lines up with the double garden doors, some french doors will close off the kitchen if you'd like.

This will be the biggest remodel, but at least the lounge is in the back. And when you decide to build out, relocating the kitchen isn't a bad idea either.

Relocating the staircase would open up a new range of possibilities when it comes to central hallway.

From a Feng Shui point of view definitively integrate and connect with an opening or a door your garage with the rest of the house.
Avoid staircase, toilets and mirror opposite the main door.
All the best for this amazing project!
Sophie

Being pregnant does give me some (..) time to look at your floorplan again and again.

What if you'd move the lounge-kitchen doorway? The lounge will still be used to walk through, but not right in the middle. Opened up the dining, now part of a nice size family kitchen. Took a small part of the garage to place the toilet and even an extra shower (for when you decide to build out towards the back or get a dog).

See how there are less/shorter walkways (without chopping up the staircase)?

Oh, the lines against the staircase wall are custom fitted cabinets (with the tv in it?), behind one of the doors is the staircase closet. Just having fun.

Some fabulous ideas there.. looking forward to seeing the results !

Is your lounge bay window so close to your front door? Perhaps check out house prices on rightmove to see if any neighbouring properties have changed the internal layout. There are similar new builds in a local village that have the following floor plans:

Just seen it's a post from 2014! ;)