1930s to open plan or not
Hello
We are moving into a 1930s semi detached house and are trying to decide how to configure the downstairs space. Either reinstate a separate living room with a stud wall, keep open or keep open with a glass door.
I haven’t seen many examples of a glass / partition wall done well and so are unsure how this would look. If we had a separate lounge we would gain wall space for sofas but there would be less light and flow between spaces.
We dont yet have kids but we do plan to. The main issues of keeping it open plan I suspect is noise / smell from kitchen / washing machine etc, but benefits would be the nice flow between spaces and the fact more light would come through due to then front of the house being south facing. Also presumably lower cost to not reinstate a wall, although a sliding door might be expensive. Once we have kids and they get older then I foresee the benefit of separate spaces, but I guess we could change things in say 10 years time. Presumably the sliding doors would help with noise / smells from kitchen but I would foresee these almost permanently being open so potentially a waste of money..
I have asked an AI tool to mockup some images which are attached. I thought white wooden sliding glass doors might be nice to match windows / doors / skirting boards.
Any design help would be much appreciated!
Comments (8)
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Help on extension for open plan kitchen/living on 1930's house.
Comments (19)If you are not willing to share your living space with a lodger perhaps you shouldn’t have one in your house- if you give them a bedroom, living room and build a new shower room for them it does seems like you are going to a lot of effort and expense, plus giving up a quarter of your house in order to earn rent on one room which could be £400-700 (depending on where you live) seems overly generous to the lodger. I don’t think your budget is enough for all of your plans. I think when you get a builder to cost it out you will easily spend £20k widening the kitchen and opening up some internal walls. I think £25k could quickly be spent on a kitchen, flooring, lighting, a new door to the garden from the back reception and furniture. Another £5k will quickly go on an oversized shed for the mower and skis and bikes and a patio outside your new garden doors. This means you will have to consider the laundry room and new shower room for later on. Consider if there is enough room upstairs for a washer and dryer- I bet you have a big bathroom...See More1930s remodelling/floor plan ideas
Comments (13)Hi zack, I like your roof idea. (Vaulted and flat) best talk to a design person to see how achievable it is. We are having a roof lantern in the middle of the flat roof extension and went to see one with it. It looked amazing, making the ceiling look a lot higher. If your original house has high ceilings like ours, you might need to reduce it a bit in the extension as PD allows 3m for eaves. For a flat warm roof, you might need to go down in ceiling height. I found out that you would learn so much during planning! As for your utility, if you don’t mind the utility closet idea as opposed to a room, it is a lot easier to fit in without side extension. We toyed with side extension too for a utility but didn’t want to loose side access to the garden. So we are putting a utility cupboard in where your ‘dining room’ is. But it will also function like a hall way to the extension. I would go for an island to define zone too if there is room. Although in our case, it is more because I succumbed to island envy....See MoreHelp with plan 1930's semi
Comments (2)Its unfortunate you've got so many load bearing walls to go through, that will always be expensive I'm afraid. There are some things you could do to trim costs (some I think you've already worked out which is good) Changing the wc so the toilet is on the outside wall will make it much cheaper then trying to go inside. keeping the french window the size the window currently is will be cheaper as widening a window is arguable harder then putting a new one in. I'd back what Sarh123 said, if any were helpfull / friendly ask them if they can work out a way to trim the costs, it could be as simple as knocking a foot or two or the length of one of theose major beams....See MoreThoughts on wood effect Porcelain floor tiles?
Comments (1)Have you considered getting it all sanded and oiling it with Osmo oil? Can you post a photo? Perosnally, I wouldn't put in a floor that is the greyed looking wood as above, I think it makes it very difficult to add real wood items to the room....See More- last month
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Thanks. We’re planning to re do the kitchens too and are assuming to keep one style of flooring throughout the whole ground floor so wood in the kitchen too. Would wood work in the kitchen? See attached a clearer picture of the AI rendered design (albeit with glass doors I don’t like the look of). Thanks
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Engineered hardwood is typically recommended for a kitchen although my brother had solid parquet which was finished on site and it hasn’t been an issue in 10 years, not that I’m recommending it! I like the critall doors! You’d just need to be careful of the size of the parquet planks for the kitchen as it’s narrow plus the direction it’s laid
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Thanks for all the ideas. On the pocket door idea would you have the middle of the door of solid wood or of glass? I imagine we’d most want to close it due to noise / smell from kitchen rather than to block out light. I’ve seen some examples of having these doors the same colour as the darker living room wall or kitchen units which might look nicer than black? See attached another image I’ve made. I think I prefer a continual wooden flooring rather than the transition to tiles, which seems like it leads us to engineered wood throughout for the sake of the kitchen, with underfloor heating? We’ll investigate the condition of the original wood before making a decision on the floor
Juliet Docherty