Looking at opening up the 1st floor kitchen area in to the living area. There is also a stairwell that would be great if it could be open too but not sure if fire/building regs allow this as there is a garage and bedroom on the ground floor and bedrooms on the second floor. All thoughts, opinions, advice and ideas would be good thanks. 1st pic: Design idea to knock through kitchen and lounge (stud wall) for open plan. 2nd pic: 1st floor measurement including stairwell. 3rd pic: Lounge as it is now. 4th pic: 1st Floor landing/stairwell as it is now (Door to lounge and door to kitchen).

How large is the bed in the master bedroom? If it is a standard size double you may wish to consider reconfiguring to fit a superking bed. This could be achieved by reducing the height of the 'his dressing' cupboard (assuming you have no full-length garments), something which may make it easier to fit larger rooflights (if allowed). As minnie101 points out the existing floorplan gives you loads of storage but do you need it all? A more radical step could be to share the 'hers dressing' 50:50, have built-indrawers running along the top of the property (where 'his dressing' is), make the top right storage area smaller (or even eliminate), and have even larger windows/rooflights than One Plan suggested.

Thank you so much for all of your comments. OnePlan, you said what I fear (and what my mother would tell me!!) - the aesthetics of floorboards may be nice but the practicalities, not so much. I definitely think people are more likely to complain about being unable to sleep due to kitchen noise than the way a carpet looks!! I didn't know you could get a sound-reducing underlay so thank you for the suggestion, and to CreatePerfect for the link - that product looks great! Yes, I had thought that hard flooring would be easier to maintain as well as looking attractive (but perhaps that's more a case of new hardwood floors rather than existing floorboards??) Stephen, it's a good question. What concerns me is that in the sitting room (on the ground floor) I've discovered that the floorboards are the original Victorian ones and it looks like they stretch right across the house, under the internal walls, and I guess it'll be the same on the first floor. If so, presumably taking them up would involve sawing them at the walls, rather than just prising up, which would be very destructive... I could be wrong though, I've never done anything like this before and am learning as I go!!

That is a hard call. I slightly prefer the three bedrooms. But I do not like the long Hall way inside the double doors of the master bedroom. I feel this will be rendered a useless space by the swing of the double doors. It might be better to give this to the landing. But then your making the bedroom smaller, which isn’t good. Alternatively use a single door. You will still be walking down a corridor thou to get to your bed. I prefer the orientation of the bed in this design. For such a beautiful and spacious home, your walk way up to the bed in one design is quiet tight. I’m not sure you are quiet there yet. You don’t want to go to all this bother & cost and not tick all the boxes. Ask yourself some questions; The extra bedroom is very small in comparison to the grand size of the other bedrooms. Will it ever be used? The en-suite has a toilet under a window. Are you happy with that position? How large a space do you need for clothes, shoes, handbags etc? Do you need a space for a dressing table? Do you want ample room to walk around the bed? Consider the orientation of the master bed from two points. A when you walk into the room & B when your in bed. Do you want the main bedroom to feel spacious or is storage etc more important. Sometimes asking questions finds clarity and then you can make the right choice for you. I hope this helps.