Open kitchen into dining room.

Turn study into a study/ home office.

Use conservatory as a utility room?

Is the garden at the back? Where are best views from? Are you wanting sliding/patio doors to open onto garden? If so, which wall would be best for them opening from to allow for best views?

Thank you, Ellie.

Best views are from the dining room/kitchen side and also on to the garden at the back of the house.

Unfortunately, the conservatory is very old (more of a 60s lean-to) and needs to be dismantled asap so isn't useable space.

I'd love patio doors, sliding doors or bifold doors on to the garden - these would have to be from the back wall of the current kitchen and/or study if we don't extend.

When we lose the conservatory space, it's squeezing a utility in that is causing me the biggest headache. I really feel like we need one so that I can dump our muddy stuff in there in autumn/winter!

Hi, do you need to keep a lounge as well as a snug & soft seating in the kitchen-diner?

Hi tamp75,

No not at all - we'd like space in the lounge for our children's computers and our pet guinea pigs, but the lounge can become the snug, or be sectioned off broken-plan style into computer/pet area and a separate snug - I've tried doing this now actually, but it is quite cosy!

The soft seating in the kitchen-diner would purely be for me to enjoy a cup of tea whilst keeping an eye on the children in the garden so it isn't an absolute must...just a dream of mine!

Add external door into Study so it becomes the utility, and carve a bit off that for small study - or just add a desk with some office storage in the utility room? Depends whether you need a proper home office which is quiet and separate or if it's a desk space and some storage for dealing with house and kid admin. I had my office in mudroom in previous house and it worked really well. Laundry was upstairs in laundry room though - might not work so well if you have to do Zoom calls beside a washing machine.

And knock through kitchen and dining to create big welcoming open space. Separate lounge with a door.

Or how about carving out a proper front hallway as you come in the door, with lots of storage options for getting rid of the muddy boots and clothes. Then the stairs would come off that, rather than be included in open plan kitchen/dining? I'd steal a bit of the study to put washer/dryer there though as you don't want that at front door - but separate it from the remainder of the Study so it can be nice and quiet.

Remove the wall between the kitchen and the study to create a lovely room looking out on to the back garden. Section off to create a utility room the left of the kitchen which has a window in it anyway. Perhaps move your back door into there and archway through to the kitchen. Subdivide the lounge into a study and a snug. Use the dining room as your lounge.

My suggestion woukd be to knock through your kitchen and dining room. Turn your existing study into a utility/bootroom/pantry. Put a door with a keypad lock on it (similarly the side gate) which will really encourage you/the kids to use it raher than the front door. Put your kitchen cabinets floor to ceiling along the stairs wall and continue to the back of the house with the last door being a ’secret’ door into the boot room. At the bottom end of the stairs ne of this run of cabinets' , build a lower level cabinet to house the guinea pigs (following the kitchen cabinet line but not tall so the stairs don’t feel narrow). Don’t worry about your comfy chair but definitely Use the money you save on not building an extension to tidy up your patio and get some comfy chairs out there. Maybe even a glass veranda cover if money allows. Similarly, buy comfy bar stools for your island and you’ll sit there all day. Make sure you have a socket in your island somewhere to plug in a laptop. The kids can do their homeweork there while you potter. The rest of the dining room become a dining/sitting room and your living room becomes a snug/study. These two activities rarely happen at the same time but it means that working from home is not confined to a cupboard. Your front door is then a non-muddy entrance for grown ups and guests. One last thing, if you have a dog, put a hot/cold mixer tap outsude the bootroom to rinse the dog outside before bringin him in. Good luck with it all.

Thank you for all the suggestions so far - I will be drawing prospective floorplans again later today!

@CWD- I like the idea of carving out a proper hallway - how much for the current kitchen/dining space do you think should be given to the hallway instead?

@Beverley Alexander - I like the idea of having the whole of the back of the house as one large space that looks on to the garden - would you also remove the wall between the kitchen and current dining room to create an l-shaped space, or keep the wall there? At the moment, the room is a sort of "through space" and I'm finding furniture placement a bit tricky other than a narrow dining table and my piano tucked under the stairs.

@g b - the hidden door is a great idea to maintain the visual flow and still allow access into the utility space. When you say the cabinets would run along the stair wall, do you envisage that the lower level cabinets tuck under the stairs? Or would the cabinets wrap-around the stairs? Also, where would you position an island/breakfast bar - I agree it would be lovely to sit on a bar stool and look out to the garden.

I think you've all given me some great ideas - thank you. I'm now hopeful that an extension (with its mess and financial implications!) is avoidable :-D

Thank you @faye_lloyd - your picture is very clear! I had wondered about adjusting the staircase but just don't have the vision to figure out how that would work, but your suggestion makes great sense. I'd also love to have the front door at the front so the switching of the porch area/WC could work well. Hadn't even considered trying to link the two sides of the house externally, but the wraparound deck/patio would work really well as we have a small side garden and then a larger back garden and this would join it all together. Thank you for your time :-D

Oh amazing! I’m glad it wasn’t all rubbish 😁 I would really suggest the show my home made perfect on the BBC, especially episode 1.7 and 2.6 Laura the architect changes the stairs there and it’s so simple but give you so much more usable space x

Hi, once you have decided on a potential layout, we can provide you with a budget cost estimate. The budget cost estimate provides a detailed breakdown of works and expenses as well as highlighting potential areas where you can save money. If this is something of interest please send the plans and photos to hello@nestestimating.co.uk and we can provide you with a quote. Thank you

Thank you @faye_lloyd I shall try to look those episodes up over the weekend :)