Beautiful Victorian downstairs design dilemma
Hi friends,
We've recently moved in to a beautiful 1881 Victorian house that has only had 2 owners from new! As such, there is a lot of original features and we unearth more every time we do a little work. What we're really struggling with is how we get that big, bright family friendly kitchen and seating area.
The current kitchen is small and in an extension (circa 1920s) at the north facing rear of the property. It's very dark and cold but has nice views of the garden. I've considered a few different layouts but all have compromises, and our most favoured (extending again) is both unaffordable and seems ridiculous when we have as much space.
Anyone seen an en-suite dining room before? :) Might be handy for the elderly parents staying in the future.
Any inspirations or ideas would be much appreciated! Here's what we have so far:
Rough floor plan from when we bought the house:
Scaled floor plan, note the 600mm stone walls of the main house:
kitchen in sitting room - nice and bright south facing, but doesn't seem to sit right:
Kitchen in current breakfast room - probably ideal space, but so many doors in way that it is comprimised:
Use all of existing extension - good option, but dark in the extension and makes the current breakfast room in to a corridor. Also loses the decent downstairs loo (the wc in the utility feels like it's outside, but I can sort that). This option has been costed by a QS at circa £30k
Extend current kitchen and open up in to breakfast room. This would probably be the best use of space to make it more practical, but it's outside our budget at circa £50k an the current breakfast room could become very dark indeed:
I thought I would ask you good people for some inspiration before getting an architect involved. I'm sure the solution is in here somewhere and we're not precious about any of the walls, but would obviously want to keep all the period features.
Thanks a million, looking forward to hearing what you've got.
Greg
Comments (18)
PRONest Estimating Ltd
3 years ago
Greg ory
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Victorian knocked through living and dining room design same or diff?
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Comments (25)Hi, I live in a Victorian house too with a bay - and had a similar dilemma. Someone on a forum recommended a company in Wales (I think!) that make lovely iron curtain poles - so that’s what we did, and we’ve never looked back!! The company have a (basic) website - it explains how to measure (you have to do several measurements which they then use to ensure a perfect fit!). The pole arrived as one solid piece that was bent at all the right places. We chose a gorgeous white with simple small white balls as the finals. You can choose different thicknesses of pole too. It’s attached to the wall with 3 fittings - one in the middle and one at each end. In theory we could have just two wide curtains on it, but in reality we chose to hang 4 curtains - one on each end and one in each corner to pull across the back. We went for white as we didn’t want the heavy look of the black poles - our house had those when we moved in and we wanted something a bit different and more neutral. We hung light white curtains to start with but currently have a heavy dark grey velvet. Both looked great with the pole as it’s very unobtrusive. I can’t remember the cost but I do remember it being cheaper than I was expecting - more than Ikea (!!) but less than John Lewis - and it’s totally bespoke and one one solid pole. They are called Celtic Dreams... https://mob.curtainpoles.co.uk/index.html...See More
E D
3 years agoGreg ory
3 years agoGreg ory
3 years ago
rinked
3 years agoLet's say this is 'affordable', could this be an option?
The former kitchen could be left alone for now, reconfigure or rebuild that side when 'elderly parents' are in the planning (then move shower room door towards former larder and break out for example, or simply rebuild the whole thing meeting modern standards).
rinked
3 years agoGreg ory
3 years agoGreg ory
3 years agoJonathan
3 years agoPersonally I would want the low ceiling parts of the house to be rooms you sit down in and the kitchen to be in one of the best spaces as for me it’s an important room. And I think being able to circulate around the house helps you use more of it.
If it were mine I would have the kitchen in the whole of the left side and use the former kitchen as a dining room.
You might consider moving the laundry upstairs and turning the current utility into an entrance near your parking.... you could even use some of this space for a big guest wc too.
I would get rid of the downstairs shower room because I think when parents become too frail to get up your stairs they won’t be prepared to travel. For me it’s more important to connect the areas so I would get rid of the shower.I would open up the two reception rooms on the right to each other but I concede a family might prefer separate spaces.
And rather than extend I would be investing in the garden. I would put a patio in the sunniest part and create some new doors to the back from principal rooms (as opposed to going through the back lobby or utility as you must now).
CWD
3 years agoCWD
3 years agoGreg ory
3 years agorinked
3 years agoThe idea of breaking open that sweet old kitchen area is not a bad idea either. Plumbing and such is already in place. I would consider decent insulation, hr+ double glazing and some more windows, perhaps even some french doors or something more modern like bifolds, imagine a patio with a second dining table. I tried to create a kitchen in scale.
No worries as the parents are not moving in straight away, might always use part of the utility for a bathroom, right? The breakfast room is quite the thoroughfare, but the sittingroom would make a very good sized bedroom for them. By that time, add a doorway towards the breakfast area. But having said that, perhaps the livingroom should go where the playroom is? So playroom could become bedroom? (I have massive overthinking qualities, noticed?)Greg ory
3 years agominnie101
3 years agorinked
3 years ago
Greg oryOriginal Author