Also forgot to mention that it’s semi detached so the right hand side of the plan is the shared wall so no light. The current dining room is pretty dark and not much natural light.

If possible I’d also like to be able to see right through the house when coming in through the front door.

Thanks in advance :)

Hi Leigh,

I would borrow some room from the current toy room, dining room and living room and create a generous entrance area. The entrance area would have a built in coat area and have direct access to the stairs. I would turn the front half of the current living room in to small living room and make the rest of the downstairs open plan. I would turn the dining room double doors 90 degrees and have them mostly glazed giving you a grand entrance in to the main living space and great sight lines from the front door through the living area and down to the garden. I would tuck the WC in under the stairs and have it and a utility room on the "dark" side of the house. I would have the kitchen follow on from there with large kitchen island and bar stool seating. The back wall of the house would also be almost entirely glazed with bi fold doors with skylights in the single storey part of the extension, giving you a spacious light filled house with great flow and great sight lines.

Thank you for your response. I love your ideas! The only thing is, and I didn’t draw it correctly on the sketch is that the bottom of the stairs are actually where you’ve drawn the WC. They curve round at the bottom and end in the current dining room. Not sure what to do about that?? Thank you :)

Sorry my bad.

In that case I would flip the stairs the other way so that the open into the toy room. This only requires the bottom few stairs to be rebuilt and not the entire staircase.

I would turn the toy room window into the front door and make this into a generous front entrance with built in coat closet. The door to the living room would be glazed to give the sight lines to through the house. The existing front door would be converted into a window and the entrance would now become the WC. The new toy room would be part tucked in under the stairs to create an adventure space ( I used to love playing under the stairs when I was a kid!). The utility room would be built with the door facing the kitchen for easy access.

Great thank you for your ideas. We’d like to keep the toy room as it is or use it as a snug because there are currently french doors in that room opening up onto the front patio area.

Do you think it would work if we turned the stairs and have the stairs in the snug or would it be too cramped? Could maybe remove the wall as well to create a bigger hallway and somehow incorporate some storage for coats etc??

You could move the french doors to he new snug on the left and have the patio on that side? It's hard to say too much about the stairs without a proper scale drawing and without knowing the layout upstairs, but yes the house has a lot of potential!

Unfortunately we can’t move the french doors to the other side as that’s where the steps up to house are so the french doors wouldn’t open onto the patio. I did consider that as it would work perfectly! We won’t be able to do the front garden at the moment so can’t change the location of the path and steps.

This is from rightmove when we bought the house so you can see where the path and steps are in relation to the current french doors

Is it an issue having the stairs coming into your kitchen? We have that in our house, considered moving the stairs but since it would have list a room upstairs we kept them. We now still have stairs from our new open plan kitchen diner room

We’d rather not have the stairs in the kitchen. We will probably spend most of our time in this area particularly for socialising. We have 2 young children and think it would be too noisy. Also don’t really like the idea of the cooking smells travelling upstairs.

I appreciate your input though thank you. If you have any other suggestions I’d love to hear them! :)

This is where the stairs are position now

Does the rightmove listing have the floorplans too?

We did quite a bit of work before we moved in so they’ve changed a fair bit. We kept upstairs pretty much the same though. Here’s the layout. We don’t want to touch upstairs at the moment as we did a lot already to get it how it is now.

This gives you an idea of what the house looked like when we bought it!!

Hi Leigh,

I thought I'd add my 2 cents! I've mocked up something on Floor planner which I think would work within your current layout. Some suggestions below:

1. The wall on the right of the front door isn't a wall as such, it's about 1m high to allow in light and act as a shelf for keys, phones etc. I popped a bench on the other side of the wall.

2. Hack some tall wardrobes (to ceiling) to use as cupboards for the hallway for bags, shoes, coats, outdoor wear etc. (Far right corner of hallway)

3. Remove the french doors from the front of the house and replace with windows matching the living room window (now the playroom window!)

4. Full length picture window (or fixed glazed door) in living room besides a single glazed door. It'll bring in light from the kitchen without the need for french doors.

5. Utility room and WC accessible from the hallway and kitchen/diner. Popped a little desk in the corner as well!

Hope this helps.

Option 2.

I've switched the kitchen and dining space around to keep all the services (water, drainage, gas etc) in one area).

You could also just keep the patio doors in the hallway. The kids can have a dedicated play room to keep their toys contained and the hallway could act as a breakout space for playing on the front patio / front garden.

Thank you for your input, I like these designs, especially the hallway. Think we will keep the double doors at the front as they open onto the patio. Could possibly have a sliding door between living room and kitchen so we could have it open or closed to make it cosier!

I have just drawn up the below floor plan. What is your opinion on this layout? Was thinking there could be a sliding door from living room to kitchen and double doors at the end of the hallway into kitchen to let the light in. Wumi Donald, how easy is Floor Planner to use as I’d like to try and draw it a bit more to scale if possible.

Or this one, slightly different but the living room is smaller and the hallway opens up to the left and the right. Could put a unit or bookshelf and a little chair at the other end??

Hi Leigh,

Floor planner is a doddle to use and is completely free for the basic version (one level floor plans).

With regards to your floor plan, I wouldn’t put a WC directly off a kitchen. I had a dilemma last year trying to think of a way to enlarge my kitchen which had an unused downstairs bathroom. I was advised against it and was glad I took the advice!

It looks like you have a wider hallway than I thought. With the above configuration though you end up with quite narrow a living room (where about are the chimney breasts located and what are the dimensions?) and a huge hallway (5.2m long!) which I think cheats you out of living room and utility space.

What age are your kids? If you don’t mind me asking!

Hi Leigh,

Just saw your latest comment. Have a go at using Floorplanner. At the moment your living room is the size of a small double bedroom and your kitchen/dining is the size of a large flat - over 55m2!

You should definitely hire an architect to design your space. Moving of internal walls - even if not load-bearing - is expensive and can sometimes be as expensive as extending. A good architect together with a structural engineer will advice you on the best design layout for your home based on your needs/lifestyle, building regs and what's realistically feasible on your budget. They can also push you out of your comfort zone and allow you to explore some alternative options that you wouldn't have thought of. At least, that is my experience with consulting an architect!

Wishing you all the best on your project. It looks like an exciting undertaking :)

Hi Leigh,

Try using graph paper to get an idea of scale if Floorplanner is not an option.

Thank you both. I will give it a go with graph paper. I would like to use an architect however they are extremely expensive and will take a huge chunk of our budget so may not be able to afford what we want. Is it right that they take 10-12% of overall budget? £7k + is a lot of money!

Different architects charge different amounts. Most charge a fixed price and not percentage. A standard extension on a standard build property with structural calculations could come in at about £2k

It also depends on the complexity of the project and how many services you buy off them e.g. design, 3d modelling, submission to the council etc. I would recommend picking a reputable one that is local to you and getting a few quotes. I doubt any will charge you £7k.

Great thank you, I will send a few enquiries.

Wumi - you’re designs are amazing!

*your - damn autocorrect

Thanks Jules!

Thank you so much! Love that idea. To be honest I didn’t realise how big the space was as the extension isn’t there, it’s so hard to visualise. Appreciate all your help with this. Think I will speak to an architect/designer to have a look and possibly produce 3D drawings to get a better idea but this is brilliant thank you so much 😁

Sounds like a good plan 👍🏾

If you want the design file I made, i believe I can share/send you the file (if you’ve got an account). You can play around with stuff and see how things look 3D.

Yes please that would be great! Do you need my email?

If you create an account with Floorplanner, send me through your username and I can copy over the design to your account.

Sorry for the delay, think the username is Leigh

Huh, I will actually need your email address (the one you used to sign up). Sorry for mix-up thought I could just use your username.