Garage conversion ideas!

3 years ago

Hi all,

We have just moved into this property below. We are going to be converting 2 thirds of the garage into a habitable area and are looking to reconfigure the ground floor layout. We have the option to knock down the two walls as pictured in the proposed plans.

At the minute, we don't like walking through the front door into the kitchen, so we have thought about some sort of hallway.

The only other thing we would like is a WC. Eventually, we will have bifold doors into the garden but one of our main concerns is light. We are terraced to the left so no chance of windows there, and detached to the right, however we look over our neighbours so any windows would have to be frosted.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

annabellaamy
3 years ago
Hello,

Do you need an extra room downstairs or are you happy for full open plan ?

Are you doing a full refurb as in new kitchen etc ?

How much room is there under the stairs ?
Cameron Stafford
Original Author
3 years ago
Hi,

It would be good if we could fit a speaker 'living room' in however we understand that it might not fit.

Ideally would like an open plan kitchen/diner and the whole of the kitchen/downstairs will be new.

I don't think we would be able to fit s toilet under the stairs as the stairs slight breach into the current kitchen. A section of the wall adjacent to the stairs also needs to be kept as a pillar for the steel to go in.

Thank you!
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Hi Stuart, I want to start by saying I prefer to be frank when I give advice, but I understand that people can be offended by frank advice, so I would like to apologise in advance if my advice comes across as harsh. It is not my intention to offend. I come across a lot of poorly designed houses in my line of work. Whether they are poorly designed because the developers who built didn't care about the people who would eventually live in them or because the owners tried to better their homes, but didn't get the right guidance, and ended up making them worse. There is really no substitute to hiring a reputable and experienced architect when looking to better your home. Designing a house is not something that most people can do successfully without the help of an architect. Home renovations are among the biggest investments people make after they home purchase. An architects fees are only a fraction of cost and could potentially save you from a dysfunctional home that doesn't serve you and your family well as well as very costly mistakes. I think its commendable that you have taken on the challenge, but my honest advice would be to take your ideas to an architect and ask him/her to review them with you. I will post here what I can see wrong with your design and offer some solutions but this would really be a two way process between you and your designer that would take much more time. So, firstly the doors! I have counted 13 individually swinging doors in your design. Just to put things into perspective, my parents live in a similar size house to yours and they have 6 doors and after upcoming renovation they will have 5. I live in smaller house and I have 5, but really only need 4. In your design if someone was to close every door behind them, arriving home, freshening up in the wc, making a coffee and then going to sit down in the living room, by my count, they would have opened and closed a door 8 times before they'd sit down! The downstairs loo. If the door to the toilet is a standard door i.e. approx 760mm wide. The space left between the wall and the door is 14cm. The smallest sinks I have seen are 18cm deep and they are barely functional. Either your knuckles hit the sides or you end up with water all over the floor. Also where would someone stand after entering the toilet and attempting to close the door. What about taking a child to use the toilet and wanting to shut the door? If the intention is to use the study as a guest room, how comfortable would it be for a guest to use this wc. The porch. I'm not a fan of porches. Thermally inefficient and neither an internal part of the house nor an external part. The living room. The living room is a nice size and the only place to relax, but how to enjoy the garden from the living room? If the children are playing in the garden and the adults watching TV, how would they supervise? Its nice to be able to close off from the rest of the house but it makes it difficult if one person has to cook while the other wants to sit and relax but they both want to talk. The space under the stairs. This is currently only accessible from the living room. The living room door swings into this area so it cant be used for a desk or reading nook. This door also means that furniture cant be placed along the this side of the room. A portion of the living room becomes a thoroughfare between the hall and dining area The kitchen. The kitchen is a great size, but the vast majority of it is just empty space. The space is essentially just a thoroughfare. This thoroughfare serves the same function as the one in the living room. The large cavity wall. This very thick cavity wall is right at the centre of the house. Would be great to be able to give it another function or thin it down. The conservatory. I am not a huge fan of conservatories. They are too cold to use most of the year and when the weather is warm enough to use them its also warm enough to sit outside! The are thermally very inefficient and take the same heat to warm up as it takes to heat the entire house. Although they have large amounts of glass in them, they will significantly reduce the light levels in the room they are attached to. The back doors. Oh the doors! The house has one door at the front. This one door alone leads to the great wide world and the universe beyond, but at the back of the house, however, there are 3 doors right next to each other, used to access only one small patio! If you consider each of swings then there are 5 doors leading to this one patio! (Apologies, I've had to split this long post up as I tried earlier and broke the submit button!)
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I would probably do something like this. As you have to keep the garage door I would block off and keep a mini garage (useful for bikes etc) this could also house utilities. then open up the rest as much as structurally possible. putting the dining room in the darkest section and kitchen can go under your existing to make drainage and wiring all a bit easier (cheaper!)
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annabellaamy
3 years ago
Here's something which may help you start your ideas off....

Your lighting would be the most important decision with a layout like this. I'd propose a huge oversized mirror on the dining room wall. Keep your colours light and airy. A pocket or sliding door would work best between the hall and wc. Also the wall in the kitchen backing onto the hall need not be wasted space. There are some very clever wall hanging storage options out there.
PRO
Paul Reed Architects Ltd
3 years ago
Technically your windows to the side on the ground floor don't necessarily need to be frosted to comply with permitted development rights... only usually applies to upper floors but check with your council first.
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Tim Summers
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I'm currently going through a garage conversion project and it's a good idea to call your local estate agents to ask if you would see a drop in value to your house should you remove the garage. As we have room for a number of cars up our drive, and also a lot of on-street parking they confirmed that it would only add value to our property, however they said that others with no driveway parking or permit holders then they have seen the resale value plumit or make it nearly impossible to sell. Just worth thinking about.
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Garage conversion ideas!

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annabellaamy

Cameron Stafford
Original Author

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Garage conversion ideas!

Comments (5)

annabellaamy

Cameron StaffordOriginal Author

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annabellaamy

Paul Reed Architects Ltd

Tim Summers

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Cameron Stafford
Original Author