Floorplan help! Internal wall placement, and ensuite or not?

last month

Hello all!

We are currently mid-extension on our 2-bedroom split-level bungalow to turn this into a 3-bedroom house with open-plan living space. Below you can see the walls in solid grey which are staying (back and right side of the property), checkered grey for the new walls (front and left) and then in mustardy/olivey green for the internal stud walls we 'intend' to place. This creates a new open plan space on the left, with some space for a small walk-in pantry, a small shower room, and a laundry cupboard, and then turns our old lounge into a bedroom. This essentially solves all of our issues with the house currently (i.e., no social cooking space, no spare guest room, no second toilet, no laundry space and not enough food storage). We are two adults, with no children or pets, although we are hoping to start a family in the next few years. I work from home so the second bedroom is used as an office.

Our question is: have we overlooked the placement of the internal walls to create the pantry, laundry and showroom? Could we do this better? Should we be placing the bathroom in the back of the bedroom to create an ensuite? The kitchen units are set but everything else, including the internal walls, can be moved and we are very open to any suggestions! We are keeping our master bedroom in the back left bedroom as we love the view of the garden.

Long term we plan to do a loft conversion (stairs go above the closet) and create a master upstairs with an ensuite or add two extra bedrooms and a bathroom (already approved in planning) and then turn the bedroom on the right into a second lounge, which is why we have been apprehensive about placing the bathroom in that space, but would like a second toilet now (and for guests to use rather than the family bathroom at the back).

Below is the kitchen layout we have gone for. So the kitchen is now set, and units ordered. We have a ceiling extractor hood.

Bathroom Idea:

Here are also the furniture placement ideas we currently have

For reference here is the original floorplan:

Any help is greatly appreciated on anything we can do to improve our ideas!

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Comments (8)

Isla Cherry
last month
I think the actual living space is now too small. It was quite a decent sized two bedroom before. By adding the third bedroom you have compromised the living space. It all depends on how you use your house of course. A sociable kitchen/dining/living suits a modern way of living more than the separate rooms. Think about how to visually zone the areas as well as storage issues which may arise from having very few walls other than external to place storage against.
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katlucy
last month
last modified: last month
My first thoughts were the open plan kitchen living area would work well in the bedroom bathroom area overlooking the garden, and the new build becomes two bedrooms, two bathrooms. Could you maybe have viewing window over the lower floor as a study area in the centre of the upper floor. The kitchen youve ordered, would it fit in your current bedroom rotated 90 degrees and move the patio doors to the right side?
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Hi I think you have chosen the best and really only layout for this space. My suggestions are to look at ways to make this space the most comfortable you can, think about a minimal shallow shower tray so there isn't a big step, with the shower screen door opening into the shower and a small wall hung vanity so you have more floor space. Think about the WC position, when you sit on the WC your knees don't want to bang on the sink so I think you have to keep it fairly central on the back wall. You can get space saving short projection WC's like the Villeroy and Boch O.novo. It looks like you have a window on that wall so making sure the WC fits under that and so on will make the space look fabulous and perfectly formed!
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Wow, that is terrible! I think keeping the ensuite will help with your house value and I assume you'd have people stumbling up and down the stairs at night without it so keeping a toilet upstairs is a good thing. However, it's an easy fix! By straighening the fronts of the wardrobe and bathroom door, it will calm the whole room down. Also scribe to the ceiling so you don't get that very weird gap which makes the bathroom look like it's in a cupboard! Potentially look at not having the shower and just keep the toilet and basin if you feel something needs to go. However, from the sketch, you might only need to make the wardrobe fractionally deeper to fit the shower tray in (there does look to be a very deep panel behind it from the photos so maybe not) If you want to see this sketched up so you can really get to grips with the space, it will only take a few hours and could save hundreds of pounds if you get it wrong! Feel free to get in touch www.coveykitchens.co.uk Good luck Emily
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Rhiannon A
Original Author
last month
We really want to make this into a three bedroom house. So we can have a separate office as I work from home and a spare bedroom which will eventually become a nursery in a a year or so...

Although we did consider moving everything to the back, this just didn't work. While we are semi-detached, we can't have any windows at either side of the house, so all the other rooms were awkward sizes and layouts when we tried to fit these into the front part of the house. However, we agree that when you enter the open plan space where we placed the sofa felt quite squished, so we are trying to rethink the front section. We have moved the bathroom to make a ensuite master bedroom, but with the flexability that we could move the door later into the hall if we decide to turn this into a second lounge space, and do the loft conversion we have approved (2 bedrooms and a bathroom). This is the long term plan, but for now, we need to try to fit in the third bedroom!

This is our current idea for the third master bedroom and we have some flexibility to go into the hall to make a bigger cloest space too in the master.

However, our biggest challenge is this open plan space. Below I have put the fixed structural of the kitchen. Although the two dark grey units are two tower units (fridge frezzer and oven unit) and could be moved elsewhere (600 x 600 each). In yellow is the idea we had to fit in a utilty of the hallway for washing, and then a pantry area off the kitchen. This also allows us to move the internal wall slightly forward so it was less squished (from 2500 to 2900 as you enter).

Is there any better way in the space below to place:

- Utility cupboard for laundry with space to dry some clothes (1200 x 650 is fine)

- Pantry cupboard/area with second under counter frezzer

- Sofa area with TV

- Dining area
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minnie101
last month
When are you planning on doing the loft conversion? In your new plan is the idea that your existing bedroom overlooking the garden becomes a living room in the future and your office becomes a nursery? Just thinking when you have a baby you will want to be on the same floor as them for quite a few years so would build that into the plan personally
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Rhiannon A
Original Author
last month
Well that is the great question! We started this process in 2020, and since then, as you will all be aware, mortgage rates have skyrocketed alongside building costs and the house market is a bit unstable. So we essentially can't afford to do the loft conversion, and don't know if we will ever be able to or if it would be worth it anymore, as it may be spending above the houses value. We have been quoted around £70k for this by a few builders (South East England).

So what we are trying to do is turn this into a 3-bed family home now, that solves our issues, but I guess could be converted by us with ease (or someone else after) to add the extra bedrooms upstairs, and then convert the new bedroom downstairs into a second lounge space (or whatever people want). We put the downstairs extension and loft conversion in the same planning application, so as we have started works, planning permission will stand even if we sell on.

So our issues with the house were no social space to cook and entertain, no private guest room, no laundry space (or space to dry laundry) and no second toilet. So we are now trying to solve all of these in the extension and in the space we have without the loft conversion.

But I 100% agree with you Minnie, and we would keep our bedroom at the back and then convert the current office at the back to the nursery. We could then use this 'bedroom' at the front for a office/guest room. I think a lot of the issues is that we are trying to balance so many moving parts: what we want now, what we may need when we have a child and making sure we don't have to 'undo' building works to do the loft conversion!
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Rhiannon A
Original Author
last month
I find it hard to explain things! I hope this is making sense. So I guess the real question is, is if we can move the bathroom out of this open plan space at the front, how can we best configure this space?

Below I have put the fixed structure of the kitchen we planned: 3515 run of units, 2400x1200 island and then two 600x600 tall tower units (fridge freezer and oven unit). However, all of these in theory can still be moved elsewhere in the room, although the window, rooflight and back door are already in place. The backdoor offers lovely views into the garden and the front window nice views onto the town and south downs.

In yellow is the wall placement for the idea we had to fit in a laundry area off the hallway, and then a pantry area off the kitchen. This also allows us to move the internal wall forward when you enter the open plan space, so it is less squished (from 2500 to 2900 as you enter). However, we realise we may be missing things that are very obvious to others!

However, is there any better way in the space below to place:

- Utility cupboard for laundry with space to dry some clothes (1250 x 650 cupboard is fine)

- Pantry cupboard/area with second under counter freezer

- Sofa area with TV

- Dining area

- Social cooking area
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minnie101
last month
Very tricky

So i think for the loft I would use that as a guest room with ensuite and an office if that ever happens

So for me that would mean losing the closet from the guest room. Have the ensuite full width with a shower one side and loo and sink the other. In future if this bedroom becomes a lounge you knock through from the existing office to make that an ensuite room. Personally I’d use good quality sofa beds now so you can make use of the room when you don’t have guests as the living area in the open plan is tight

With this plan I would still keep a loo, so shrink the larder back to the original and have the loo to the left of the front door. Absolute min loo size is 130x70, i think you can go slightly bigger?

Are the worktops also ordered? What is the overhang depth of the island as the table and stool area is tight?

I’d opt for a pedestal table so you can push it back against the bench. Again, I’d swerve the L shaped sofa to improve flow to the dining area and garden
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Rhiannon A
Original Author
last month
Thanks for the ideas Minnie! So the house is a split level bungalow, so there are 7 stairs between the front and back of the house. So I would never be able to join the current office/future nursery at the back of the house to this new bathroom area. We also don't need 3 toilets in a 3-bed, so I think we have a toilet/showeroom in the right hand side of the front in a layout that could be accessed from the hallway or room, would give this most flexibility (i.e., can be a ensuite or just 2nd bathroom if you moved the door). Then it frees up the most space in that open plan area/front extension to fit in the pantry area and laundry space.

We already plan to have bench seating (I love this!), and very happy to get rid of the L-shape sofa in time. The kitchen units are ordered, but not the final worktop, so we can change the configuration of the kitchen units. At the moment there is a overhang along the long 2400 edge of 30cm.
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Floorplan help! Internal wall placement, and ensuite or not?

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