Hi Sabrina, really good layout for the flat with loads of potential. You could definitely open up the space between the lounge and kitchen and also open up into the hallway by moving the bathroom door to where the large sink is and install a smaller sink between the radiator and new doorway. You could even take out the cupboard in middle of room if you don't need storage or it doesn't house the boiler. It is a large bathroom for flat. Rehang a few doors so that they open up onto the wall. I have attached a rough sketch not to scale of course. Hope my thoughts help. Good luck!

Hi again! Sooo speaking to the architect today this seeems to be the latest, slightly tweaked to incorporate a cupboard into the tiny room stealing it from the corridor slightly. We can't see a way to make access to the third bedroom not go through the long room, so a door from there will have to do! kiwimills - i really like your ideas. however the twin bedroom at the top needs to have a window to officially be a bedroom? (also, what's WR stand for, sorry?) We have a rooflight there because it's over the single storey side extension. OnePlan - thanks so much too. I love your ideas but we are not keen on having to re - make up the bed everyday by using the front lounge as a murphy bedroom and lounge - But I do see where you are coming from! I like the simplicity of this design actually. So the kitchen island and table, would they be the same height? Like higher barstools? Jen P - Thanks so much too! However we are pretty keen on the play area looking out over the garden, and having a single bedroom there means we lose that view. But i know we have to compromise somewhere... We can't knock the bathroom walls without huge costs with steels which we are trying to avoid. We can knock a doorway but not the whole wall down. Jonathan - Me and my sister spent all night talking about your ideas earlier, we keep revisiting them. Thanks soooo much for your great ideas!! Here's the latest version that we are thinking of, slightly tweaked, but still really considering everyone's thoughts so I'm sure it will change again! Ensuite now in middle room and kitchen bigger (thanks Carolina). The tiny room now has an inbuilt cupboard which i think makes a big difference...? Thanks so much for your time!! :)

I agree with Jonathan, you probably aren't going to get everything you want. My plan leaving the shower room and swapping the kitchen and bathroom is good. It leaves you a good sized bathroom for three beds, and a separate shower room. We all prefer our own plans and I like mine because i've used every inch possible. Plus, I only knocked down one small wall down between kitchen and living and put one wall up to make two bedrooms at the front. The master gets a nice big window with a private patio....nice feature. It also utilises the side entrance as a pantry gaining space in the kitchen. However, as Jonathan says either of the plans with no extension will leave an undersized living / kitchen / dining area. Thus an extension is necessary, but even that's pushing it. The budget just isn't going to stretch to all of the work in one go. I'm guessing you can just about do all the internals, which requires a new kitchen and bathroom, neither of which you could go mad on. Some of the rooms need better windows as you pointed out. It would still leave the undersized space at the rear, which would require an extension at some point, but the bulk of the work would be done. Either way, it's a very tight budget, it's an old house, and stuff crops up in those all the time that you don't expect. A healthy budget to achieve all, including the extension............with a contingency included for small disasters should be £60-80K

Hi Natalie, This is actually a hard one. I know this was posted some time ago, but in case you are still in a conundrum about this, a radical possibility is as follows: My intial idea was to open up your back area with the following extension (detailed below), so that your family could live facing your garden. But given that you are on a busy road (unless you want to reconsider using the front reception as a bedroom which you can test by pulling your mattress in there and sleeping in it for a couple of nights), this may do the trick, if you are willing to change your garden differently than you had intially considered. Here is how to get what you want - 3 bedrooms & open plan reception space to plan a kitchen with an island / breakfast bar, lounge & dining area. Knock all the walls through from your front reception room & your first bedroom area. This will give you one huge open-plan reception space to take advantage of and configure just the way you want to include kit - dining - living. Extend the hallway through the current kitchen - dining area to the back of the flat (and slightly beyond into the extension (detailed below). Out of the rest of the kitchen dining space, you can create another bedroom that can either retain the current window or have double doors opening up onto the garden. On the left side of the garden - all the way down the length of the garden - do a 1 room extension (13'6" long x 9' wide) with large windows or sliding doors onto the courtyard garden. This will give you the 3rd bedroom you desire and also with planning permission approvals or under permitted development (must find out what applies in your area), possibly give you enough space for a small ensuite shower room too. The extended hallway into the new left-side extension should be used to create access & a door into the courtyard garden. Your court-yard garden will still then be about 13'6" x 10' (rather than 19'9 x 10' as you suggested with a 1m back extension across the rear of your house) and you can still use your side return for light. Not doing the side extension will reduce the cost significantly - and as you know getting the 3rd bedroom out of the size of the side return extension was very difficult. If you do what to also do the side return extension, you can enlarge the kit - diner converted to a bedroom, and also add a small ensuite to that room behind the other bedroom (if you retain the courtyard area on the side from the current large bedroom, past the bathroom & 2nd bedroom windows, upto the fireplace). If you do decide to use the front reception as a bedroom: You can create a lovely open-plan living - dining - kitchen in the garden extension I suggested above & the current kitchen dining area - putting in all glass (sliding or concertina) in both areas facing your courtyard garden. You can configure your kitchen - diner in one side and the living area in the other. Both areas will have full light and exposure to the courtyard, and offer indoor-outdoor living when weather is nice and doors are all fully opened - giving you an L-shaped open plan living around your courtyard. Also if you do the side extension as well, this will extend this reception area even more across the back of the house, give you more options for skylights & allow you to add a small ensuite or w/c in the side return too. The rest of the blue-print of your home would remain the same & you would use your front reception room as a bedroom. Well, hope this helps and best of luck! Best wishes,