flora_poggio

design dilemma: carve out a second bedroom without (re)moving walls

Flora Poggio
3 years ago

Hello!

Thanks to this wonderful community I believe I have landed on possible solution, although I keep going back and forth between 2 ideas.

CURRENT LAYOUT
Challenge(s):

  • flat is a 67sqm purpose-built 1930s maisonette, with all the walls being load-bearing (except for the little one between the kitchen and the bathroom, which I am highlighting in yellow in the first picture “current layout”).

  • There has been subsidence so the freeholder upstairs won’t agree to any reshuffling of the walls.

-Extensions on the side of the bathroom are out of questions, as he has right of passage right outside of it to access his garden.

NEW LAYOUT
This is the idea that convinced me the most and would make the flat look a bit more proper:

  • move the kitchen in the living room
  • move the bathroom in the dining room
  • have the second bedroom in the former kitchen + bathroom space

Dilemmas:

  • Will the bathroom be big enough?
  • Will it be unthinkable to have the works done while living in the flat?
  • Will the chimney look completely odd in between the second bedroom and the playroom?

NEW LAYOUT 2
If we were to move the kitchen alongside the long wall instead, closer to the patio, we would be able to use the existing plumbing without lifting too much of the floor, leave the bathroom where it currently is, make a second bedroom out of dining room + entrance and have a tiny studio for guests/work.

Dilemmas:

  • We would have to move the entrance to the rear of the property and accessing the flat through the kitchen (awkward)
  • We would have the kids (we have a 3 year old and a 10 month old) sleep in a room with no windows other than a small internal one (attaching picture of dining room, so you can see mentioned window) and play in a room that feels like an attaché - lower ceiling, narrower walls
  • It will probably be less valuable should we decide to resell one day (though more cost effective to us now)

Comments (9)

Ireland
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