Ideas for renovation

6 years ago

We are thinking of renovating and extending. We are thinking of extending the lounge forward to be in line with the garage and then have an open plan kitchen and play room.

Would also love to have a larder, utility and office downstairs...

Any ideas how this would work?

Featured Answer

Jonathan

6 years ago

One possible layout subject to planning and budget

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Comments (18)

Chris
6 years ago
I would be concerned with the lack of natural light if you extended the lounge it would create a very gloomy space in the old lounge.
Is the property detached
any flat roofs?
rjs_home
Original Author
6 years ago
The garage is a single storey flat roof. The house is south faving and does tend to have a lot of light in general.

Heres some more photos
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I wouldn't be tempted to follow the current trend of grey, it's been very popular and has been used for all manner of houses (some quite ill advised choices) but it is now on the wane which will look dated soon. Also it wouldn't have been used in the original house when it was built. I think it would make it look very "grubby" looking. I agree with Jonathan, white would be my preferred choice, much more in keeping with the age of the house and the surrounding houses. Again, I love Jonathan's idea of the steps. Would you consider a small extension closing in the porch, which could enable your front door to be on the front of the house and perhaps at the top of said steps?
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ghesp
6 years ago
I guess a lot depends on your budget, and what you can get planning permission for.

Personally, if it were me and I wasn't restricted, i'd look at pulling the whole of the house forward:
- Bring the house in line with the garage
- Move the kitchen diner across the whole back of the house
- Where half the kitchen is in the middle of the house, turn this into an office
- You will have a nice big entry way now, so plenty of storage room for coats, shoes etc
- Alter the stairs so they become an L shape so it cuts into the master bedroom, goes back over the stairs
- Make the master bedroom extend over the garage and call it bedroom 1
- Bring bedroom 2 over the new lounge, extend the ensuite over the porch making it bigger and call this the new master bedroom
- That should give you enough room to make bedroom 3 bigger and also give you a bigger main bathroom
Again, depends how much you have to spend :)
rjs_home
Original Author
6 years ago
That sounds good. Would you recommend leaving the conservatory in or taking down?

Any ideas where we could put a play room?
rjs_home
Original Author
6 years ago
planning will most likely only be granted for a single storey extension to the front of the house and back. They don’t usually allow for double storey in that area as far as I have been made aware from neighbours...
ghesp
6 years ago
What type of conservatory is it, and do you use it?

If its one of those PVC too hot in summer, too cold in winter types that is quite old, i'd probably either pull it down or turn it into an orangery

As for the playroom, do you use the garage as a garage? If you just use it as a store room, you could look at shrinking it and using part of it as an office or a playroom.

If double front extensions aren't allowed, you could still probably adjust the stairs in the bigger entry area to make way for a bigger bathroom upstairs if you wanted
rjs_home
Original Author
6 years ago
It is one of these conservatories
Jonathan
6 years ago
https://www.planningportal.co.uk/info/200130/common_projects/17/extensions

You should investigate what is likely to be possible as I don’t think that your neighbors opinion is reliable. The enclosed link illustrates what is permitted development (ie. what normally doesn’t need planning permission- although every area is different so check your local borough councils planning portal for a local guide.)
Building a two storey extension may well get permission at the front but it is easier to get permission at the back of the house. I notice the building line of next doors bungalow and it is likely this has set the limit of your extension.
You might also consider how much extra space your budget will build and then get a concept planner or designer to help you with a layout. The professionals part of this site can help you find one. Then an architectural technician will be needed to prepare plans for your planning application and your builder may be able to recommend one.
PRO
i-architect
6 years ago
Hi,

Getting planning permission for extensions to the front can be quite difficult to impossible! Give your planning department a call to discuss it with the "day officer" if they still have one. If they don't then they will probably charge you for a "pre-application enquiry". To get the most from one of these you are best having a few different sketch plan options to discuss with them to find out what is most likely to get permission. You can waste a lot of time and money submitting applications and appealing without this step so you might as well check with the planners first.
Emily
6 years ago
Have you said which way the house faces? I like Jonathons idea and it will make a generous kitchen area. And it is currently very desirable to use the best space for the most often used area which is the kitchen. But sometimes I wonder if the kitchen should go in the more difficult spaces (l- shaped or long and narrow) because then the squarer space can be the living and have the sofas and chairs set out with room to manoeuvre behind and around. ??
Just throwing that in the mix
rjs_home
Original Author
6 years ago
the house is south facing...the only thing is the garden is quite small so if we were to extend to the back then it would only be up to the line of the conservatory
rjs_home
Original Author
6 years ago
I would like to add that two houses down they have done a single storey extension to the front hence why i am thinking we might also get planning permission
Resh
6 years ago
As others have said, you will need to solve the natural light problem for the lounge. We had a similarly dark mid-house lounge between a garden room and fromt living room in our last house, with no windows of its own. It actually worked very well as a TV room, where you don't want too much light. Internal glass bifold doors kept it quiet but still allowed light in when watching television.

Extending out front leaves you with the car port in front of the front door now boxed in. That could be a rather nice space - think the canopied dropping off points at a nice hotel, on a smaller scale, with interesting lighting, foliage etc.

Great potential in that house: changing windows and doing some exterior work (think cladding rather than problematic rendering) will make it a really smart, modern building.
PRO
BetterSpace: The Floor Plan Experts
6 years ago
Why extend to the front? it will create a very long and narrow space.

I would consider extending the lounge and dining area to the back and create a beautiful spacious open space with glass doors to the garden . You can go up to 6 meter under permitted development.

I hope this helps, please let me know if you have any further questions, I will be more than happy to help. just drop me a line or visit www.betterspace.co

Good luck, Avi
PRO
i-architect
6 years ago
Hi again,

Yes it may well be possible to get planning permission to the front for your home. It is best to check first though as the planners deal with applications on a case-by-case basis, which means that there is no such thing as precedent in planning as a different site, property, architect or planning officer can make the difference between getting approval and not - for pretty much exactly the same thing. Best to check with them first with some initial sketch plans, before spending a lot of time, money and mental effort on developing a design that won't get permission.

For rear extensions there is an amount that is permitted development. Permitted development is restricted in some places so again it is best to check with the planning department on what would be considered permitted development (PD) in your case. 4 meters is the typical PD depth of an extension for a detached house, and this has been extended to 6 meters for a limited amount of time, subject to an application to the planning department for them to carry out a neighbourhood consultation. It is not automatically possible to extend 6 meters back from a detached house. In effect you basically need to submit pretty much the same information as you would for a planning application to get the extended PD option of 6 meters. However, since you prefer to maximise your garden space this doesn't seem to be your preferred option.

You can always add some windows to the side elevation to get in some natural light mid-plan if you extend to a depth that starts to make it dark in the middle. You could also look at adding some of the circulation space into the rooms that you'd prefer - it looks like a large hall so perhaps some of that could be incorporated into the kitchen.
PRO
Opun
6 years ago
Hi there!

You have a wonderful space to work with and it sounds like a very exciting project.

We would love to help you figure out what can be done with it! The first step could be us sending out one of our expert surveyor who will 'explore' with you the space and help you crystallize your ideas and dreams for the space. All this is free of charge and we will leave you with a quote for the work as well :).

please let us know how this sounds to you.

You can also play around with our free design tool to bring your own ideas alive.

Opun - your home improvement experts
Immi Taylor
6 years ago
Hi,
I think you should knock a wall from the dining room to the kitchen to make it flow more and make the kitchen bigger

Ideas for renovation

Jonathan

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Chris

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