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At the beginning - ground floor extension!

8 years ago
Hello! We are planning a rear ground floor extension on our 1930s semi detached property. The roof of the extension will be flat for 1 m then pitched towards the rear wall which faces south-west. The doors are intended to be bi-folds (budget won't stretch to the Cristal style that I love), 4 m wide. There will also be two large skylights in the pitched section of the roof. Two things we need to design around are a fairly modern oak dining table that is 1 m wide (1.6-2.1m long) and... a mahogany baby grand piano (!)

I'm looking for advice in three areas: 1 - the layout of the middle area currently shown as the dining room; 2 - the colour scheme throughout ; 3 - the flooring throughout.

1 - we want to keep the living room for lounging as we often have friends and family round, and need as much sitting as we can fit. We plan a couple of armchairs in the bay window, a long sofa along the wall adjacent to the hall and another receipt of some description to zone the living room from what is currently shown as the dining room. Today we have a corner sofa performing this function, but my husband has his heart set on a Chesterfield! So, this puts the piano in the current dining room and the dining table alongside the island in the extension space. How can we make the piano space feel like a destination rather than a thoroughfare? I like the idea of a cocktail station, some bookshelves, books, brass - I little bit 1930s perhaps? I do think there might be space for a sideboard of some description between the dining space and the piano space.

2 - since my dreams of a blue sofa have gone out the window with the advent of the Chesterfield, supposedly in oxblood, I have decided that we're going to go for inky blue walls all around the living room. We only really tend to be in there in the evenings so I think this will work well despite the fact that it is a north east facing room (thoughts welcome!). My question is, how do we work this with the rest of the ground floor space? Originally, I had been thinking of a Hague blue kitchen island with white cabinets on the outside wall, potentially shaker or handleless. However, I am now kind of in love with the Valencia kitchen from Charles Yorke. IKEA's Laxarby units could offer a similar look at a fraction of the price. On the other hand, this dark wood look could fight with the oak dining table and piano. Would it be better to stick with the original plan? What I love about the dark wood look is that it brings a bit or glamour (I'd introduce antique brass door furniture, etc.), makes the kitchen almost bar-like in the evening (which I like). Could this be achieved with the blue island? The white on the outside just feels too 'kitchen-y'... blue all over? My husband might struggle with that... ack! Help, please?

3 - we would like wood flooring throughout. Given the above, what colour flooring should we go for? I was thinking something mid-tone or a bit lighter than our dining table. What pattern, if any? Bearing in mind the fact that we may have underfloor heating... so many complications!

Any thoughts very much appreciated. I'm probably not seeing obvious answers because I've been thinking about it for soooooo long!

Thanks in advance!

Comments (17)

United Kingdom
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