Struggling with extension layout... help!

5 months ago

We're planning an extension to our Victorian end terrace. It's a big house but very top heavy with too many bedrooms and not enough living space. We are extending to make a big kitchen dining family space but struggling with the layout - it's a large space but we don't know what to put where! Any help or clever ideas appreciated

we're worried the snug and cloaks will be dark as although were "end terraced" there's a church next door who have extended at the first floor to join our wall so windows on the side are not an option!

We think the dining table would be better in front of the patio doors

To give some scale the house is 8m wide and the kitchen wall with the run of units on the left is 7.1m. The angled wall from the back of the WC wall is 4.6m

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Comments (15)

PRO
The Living House
5 months ago
Hi Rachel,

The plan looks great and this will be a fantastic space with the long kitchen and angled wall. Is there any way to glaze this wall to bring more light into the room? This would make it a real feature of the house. The snug might benefit from this extra natural light and you can then look at ways to help the two areas link and flow.

If you would like some personalised help for this room or any other room in your home you may find our affordable interior design packages interesting. You can see more about how we work here. - Becky
H A
5 months ago
I agree - get rid of the lobby and wc in the extension. It might be nice that the snug is a bit darker - you could decorate with light-reflecting white/cream paint and light neutrals and it could still look snug and cozy. Have a look at ‘letterbox windows’ for letting in light in your utility and possibly your angled wall. Think about some doors or windows on the angled wall - you could do something with that side of garden, so you have something lovely to look out onto! Looks a fab space!
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Rachel Miller
Original Author
5 months ago
Unfortunately we can't glaze the angled wall at all because it looks out onto our neighbours back garden and not ours. The only glazing will be to the rear and we will have roof lights too. We entertain a lot so two loos are really handy as upstairs on first floor there won't be a family bathroom as that's on the top floor
Jonathan
5 months ago
Personally I don’t like this plan at all. You say your house is top heavy but this extension does not resolve that problem because if your front living room becomes disconnected from the new bigger kitchen it won’t get used…… so you are basically building square footage to make the best space in the house redundant replacing it with a snug. I also don’t understand why the extension is lower than the main house- you may well be trying to create more head height under a mezzanine level but this further division of the ground floor exacerbates the problem of dividing the downstairs and it seems like additional steps would be necessary to access the utility and in turn this would displace the second WC. I agree the second WC is redundant- why not just have one really impressive one rather than two tiny loos? A house this size probably warrants an extra sitting space but I don’t like the snug and the front living room next to each other as I think one of them will never be used (likely the better one), it appears there is a desk arrangement in the area of the extension with the best light but if the house is top heavy then surely any homework or work from home space can find a better space upstairs? And that same argument applies to the laundry- why not have that closer to the bedrooms where all the dirty laundry is generated? And I don’t like the narrow corridors- for me this seems like a wasted opportunity to create a grand first impression when you enter the house, to create longer sight lines and a feeling of space, create a cohesive connection between the front and back of the ground floor and to get light into the centre of the house.

I think this plan would be significantly more successful with a dining hall in the middle of the house where the snug is. This would have several benefits- the hallways and the first impression gets much grander, you remove the barriers between the front and back of the house, you create longer light lines and a bigger circulation space where you need it and glass doors to the front room could help connect it to the rest of the house and bring light into the middle of the house. I would also be looking at moving the kitchen to the opposite side of the extension in order to have a tidier/nicer/lower sight line between the entrance and the garden.
Jonathan
5 months ago
Like this
Rachel Miller thanked Jonathan
Rachel Miller
Original Author
5 months ago
Thanks Jonathan - I'm just a bit worried about all the steel needed to take down all the internal walls. Attached are the latest designs but we are thinking now to have a large double sided glass fireplace between the snug and the kitchen/diner.

We would quite like to keep the large living room more as an adult space so don't mind that it's not totally connected.

We had a laundry chute in our old house so may do that from our bathroom upstairs.

Ignore the kitchen layout - we're maybe thinking to have a U shaped island with some seating and a separate dining table in front of the doors - i think we may need a kitchen designer!

Any other feedback welcome now you can see the whole house!
Jonathan
5 months ago
I love Victorian houses. And I love the first floor bathroom. But there is no obvious main bedroom as four bedrooms are so similar and the only bedroom with an Ensuite is the smallest. Are the upper floors already finished or is this the future layout? Could the front two bedrooms be combined to make a master suite?
Joe S Batt
5 months ago
last modified: 5 months ago
For me there are too many little corridors and the plan is disjoined. I must agree wit Johnathan’s plan. It makes much better use of the space and will make a greater impact on the eye, not to mention be more usable.
PRO
Plews Garden Design
5 months ago
I’m not sure how large or what age your family is, any / how many pets, accessibility needs for residents and regular visitors, budget, etc, etc – so I’m making suggestions somewhat in the dark. But I’ve made some ideas for sorting this at the end

Re Wc

I agree 1 x ground floor WC is an excellent idea, not convinced about needing 2 when 2 of the upstairs bathrooms are not ensuite (appreciate you don’t want visitors in your ensuite).

However, I would place it where its easily accessible from the garden end of the house.

For eg,

get rid of the WC at end of cloaks – that way you could extend the cloaks area for more coats, wellies etc and potentially further storage on the wall up to ceiling (depending on how you lay it out)

Re utility & WC

reconfigure layout so washing machine is in insulated cupboard at the far end to minimise noise / vibration coming thru to habitable rooms. There is presumably room for a drain / soakaway there as you were planning a WC.

I’m guessing you’re having a sink in there I’d recommend one big enough to be useful for handwashing delicates and for washing dirty items (including small muddy dogs) that you wouldn’t want to wash upstairs or in kitchen but that need a bigger sink than the one in WC.

If sink is up near the washing machine they can share the drain. Having these and the units on the external wall will reduce & hide the pipe run.

I’m presuming the new WC at end has direct drainage to outside?

Re the snug

I’d make a feature of the enclosed-ness for snuggling in front of the fire, whilst still having the necessary light. You could achieve this by having a part glazed dividing wall. Glass could be clear at the top to max light and opaque / decorated lower down (eg down to shoulder height for privacy when sitting). Check the up to date requirements, but I think its glass equivalent to about 10% of floor area.

Kitchen / dining / living area

List your requirements, for eg –

Be realistic as to whether you eat together as a family or not – this may change depending on ages of your kids (if any). How often do you entertain? And is that informal or formal?

Plus mundane things like will the recycle stuff go in here or the utility & removed once a fortnight or straight outside?

Importantly, I’d suggest that you sit down and make lists – of what you would like to achieve by the end - be specific, perhaps naming up to 7 things. Get partner and kids to make their lists too and look at them all together. As the adults who are paying for it you obviously get the final say, but what this will do is help you to focus on what you do want / need which in turn will help a designer achieve that for you.

And then consider hiring a designer and a project manager (unless designer does both) to organise and direct the whole thing – it’s a lot to do and lots of different elements. You may well be organised and motivated to manage it yourself, but do you also have the time and the knowledge? It’ll be exhausting enough ‘just’ being the client with decisions to make!

Btw I’m a garden designer, writer & gardening teacher currently 1 year into a 4 year plan for renovating a previously uncared for house and large garden – I feel your pain and indecision!!

Marie
HU-29309451
5 months ago
It would be impossibe for anybody to advise you on a solution when you haven't properly articulated what the problem is.

You need to explain exactly what you are missing, and why you think you need it. We can then calculate what the best solution might be.

Also, you might find that when you actually commit your thoughts to paper, you can see clearly why your current plan might or might not succeed.
Anna G
5 months ago
Curious about your comment that there won't be a family bathroom on the first floor? And would love to encourage you to provide more info to inspire more ideas. Looks like a costly, disruptive extension so well worth getting all the free advice here you can. Maybe share your current floor plans so we can consider steels too. I was glad I was told before doing my extension that steels kind of cut the space under them - imagine a change of flooring in the same position and how that affects the space. Ours ended up lower than anticipated so it really did matter that I'd aligned my zones with them.
Jonathan
5 months ago
If it were my house this is how I would lay out the upper floors
lsericson
5 months ago
I too question the need for 2 loos on the ground floor. And I agree that a kitchen designer is called for. Is it possible to put clerestory windows into the slanted wall? That provides more light but doesnt affect privacy of the neighbors. And somehow, I'd like the island (possible peninsula) to be parallel to the back wall, thereby letting the dining table be near the doors to the garden.
Jonathan
5 months ago
Alternative for the ground floor