Design paralysis on how to use my rooms!

last year

I have quite a small living room and a large dining room (and a teeny kitchen). Up until now I'd decided to have my dining room double up as office too by having my desk on the opposite wall and place some shelves to partition.

My only concern is I feel like a living room is the real entertaining room - currently when people come over they sit in the dining as it's bigger. I'm wondering should I make my dining room the living room and have my small living be the dining? I just think the flow is so off though as you'd have to walk through the living room to get to the dining room...

Any advice?

The dining looks bigger as it's wide angle but the floor plan gives an idea of measurement

Featured Answer

tamp75

last year

I would keep it as it is as, like you say, the flow is better. I wonder if there’s room to fit a small sofa or a couple of armchairs into your dining room to make it more of a relaxing / entertaining space too? If your desk could be moved elsewhere, that would definitely free up some space.

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Comments (10)

S Z
Original Author
last year
Thank you! I agree I wish :( I currently have a spare room I plan to rent out so need to find a way to incorporate my desk downstairs!
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I think curtains similar to the previous owner would work if you keep the colour or background colour close to the wall colour. It's hard to find pictures of a bay with a lowered ceiling without shutters etc but you could also have a pelmet and curtains on the main wall outside the bay or have curtains on the main wall maybe with romans on the window. If you take the curtains higher than the bay ceiling it will make the windows appear visually taller. There are lots of rooms with the coffee table much further away however as you actually want to use the tables for tea etc you may want to keep the 45cm gap but have wider coffee tables. My table is 44cm away (to be precise!) and I couldn't reach much past that comfortably TBH. I would try it! I've just attached 2 pics showing the sofas overlapping the chimney breast and not to see what you think. The chairs in the bay will be fine if the main seating area is zoned with a rug. I've seen your other posts re David Linley, his silhouette chair is rather lovely!
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PRO
Carla / kolours.space
last year
I would make chimney room dinning/ work because has a closed door and can also hide mess if busy at work, however the office cupboard could be more like open/closed office that looks dinning when closed... if makes sense.

The lounge will need a breakfast bar / sofa concept for your breakfast and as drinks stools when with friends
Sonia
last year
I agree I think it’s better the way it is, but I think you could change the layout in the dining room to make it more comfortable for your guests as tamp75 suggests. You could add a couple of armchairs maybe? Nothing bulky. Or create a bench seating. Or, and this is a big or, I can see the kitchen being extended sideways and the wall removed between the kitchen and the dining room to create a big social area. Of course it won’t be cheap, but just a thought!
PRO
Oui Design London
last year
It might be an idea to swap the existing lounge and diner, furniture for a lounge needs to 'spread' around a central space, allowing the space to be sociable, smart joinery could assist with giving you a hidden desk, but a table and chairs is always in a central space, therefore it should go in the smaller room.
mii2
last year
With a lodger in the dynamics in your future plans, I would consider moving your desk to the current living area to give you a quiet work space away from the communal kitchen area. Try the dining room table in front of the window in the dining room and then 2 small sofas at right angles, grounded on the white rug in a position along in front of your cupboards and wall opposite current desk position so you can have eye contact with guests seated on sofas while you are in the kitchen. This is probably why you end up staying in the dining room when entertaining - your guests get settled as you are organising things in the kitchen and don’t want to leave you on your own as they get parked next door. With a lodger you would have 2 entertaining spaces that would allow you both to feel not in the way when either of you have friends round.
Rosy W
last year
I'm with Tamp75, Sonia and mii2. Would your existing desk fit into one of the sitting room alcoves? If not, get one built in and fit shelves in above, for a studious looking nook. The cream rug might look nice in there too.

I'd move the dining table over to by the patio doors and add the sofas or bench seating in the space opposite the kitchen as suggested above. Are the cupboards there essential? I can't see but are they under the stairs? If you can spare them, take them out and use lighting to make that whole seating area its own intimate space. If you need the cupboard space, could one be fitted to the left hand side as you exit the kitchen?

As mii2 says, this would give you two sociable spaces.

I'd like to see what you go with!
S Z
Original Author
last year
Ahhh you're all giving me so many ideas 😂 i will be trying to mock up/render these to visualise but thank you. And I'll defo update u all!
Leonie
last year
If you’re willing to do works it might be worth considering moving the kitchen into the dining room to have a dining/kitchen and using the current kitchen as a study? You could make the window french doors on to the garden.

Without works I think the desk might be better under the stairs with the table under the window, that way the first thing you see isn’t the desk dominating the space.
Susan Pietrzak
last year
I would make your current dining room into a living/dining room, it looks as if you could incorporate comfy seating there and then you could have the smaller room as an office space.

Design paralysis on how to use my rooms!

tamp75

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S Z
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Design paralysis on how to use my rooms!

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S ZOriginal Author

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