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Design Dilemma Dining Rooms Kitchens

Knock through - trying to get within budget

last month

Hi, i have asked a few questions on Houzz regarding a knockthrough we would like to do in our new home and have got some great ideas from people so thank you!

We are in the midlands and have had a couple of builders in and a SE and recieved one builder quote so far. We wanted to knock all internal walls down at the back of the house so the entire width is open plan (knocking 3 internal walls down) however our obstacles have been, cheaper we could have a pillar but it would be in an awkward location and the one quote of £63k that we have had so far. This has shown us that knocking all the walls down, with other things such as swapping window and patio door locations would be over our budget of around £40k. we are pretty gutted but now we will have to compromise and knock only two walls down making a smaller open plan than we wanted. Also we are not going to be able to get out of expensive price for knocking the walls down because of the awkwardness of the existing steel that runs the span of the kitchen so will still need to do that which will be around £12k. we are just trying to get the quote down for eveything else.

I am asking for ideas and opinions on how to layout the small open plan area (we will now be keeping the toilet and side hall on the existing plan inc their walls obvs). We would still like to divide the converted garage and have half as a utility keeping the office. attached is our existing plan and just because, the plans we were hoping for.

we have even looked at an extension for half the width, where we could push to £50k but we would still need to sort existing rooms and a new kitchen so would take us over budget again. We are looking at option of buying kitchen on finance too.

thank you for any help/ideas/opinions you have.

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Comments (20)

Rebecca W
Original Author
last month
Hi, the entrance and stair location are not ideal but we have had to move down the priorities list after the open plan space and making a bigger bathroom upstairs. I would really appreciate you looking at it, i have attached the upstairs floorplan, thank you
Rebecca W
Original Author
last month
Thank you :-)

Our main priority is to have an open plan family room with kitchen and space for dining table and a small seating area near a TV, even if just a couple of chairs. More storage as just had a baby so somewhere to store pram etc. Also more light, perhaps side lights either side of patio doors. Our second priority, which we will have to save for, is making the bathroom bigger with a shower as well.

We would like a social family space as well as having our separate lounge.

I dislike the entrance, steepness of stairs and lack of light at the back of the house although we have a sloping roof which comes out very low.

thanks
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Hi. Your kitchen to me looks large, certainly big enough for a table and maybe some seating (from what I can see in the pic anyway!). I personally wouldn't knock through unless rooms were small and needed space for furniture. I cook a lot and would hate the smell travelling, the noise and the mess etc. if the house has 2 living areas it's also nice for family members to have their own space at times. That's just my opinion though and what works for me and not you! ! Have you looked at pics where people have done the same thing with similar size rooms? Or is there anyone in the road with a similar house? Re paint, are you painting the units or just the walls? I would probably change the kitchen floor regardless if you knock through as its absorbing some of the light.
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Rebecca W
Original Author
last month
Thank you, the plans look ideal, perfect even! we are in regular communication with a builder so i will show him and see what he says. Do you have an idea on layout just for the space if the walls in red below were knocked down and the green kept?
Rebecca W
Original Author
last month
Absolutely!
rinked
last month
Hi Rebecca :)

Where does the soil pipe of your upstairs toilets go? (blue dots)

And how do your ceiling joists run?
Rebecca W
Original Author
last month
There is so much detail thank you! We have discussed it this afternoon and would work. we will be speaking to structural engineer to check what support we might need should we want to reduce the chimney wall! Thank you!
Rebecca W
Original Author
last month
Hi Rinked, the joists run front to back of the house. The soil pipes run in a ceiling void as per the below photo, another photo below of outside where you can see the soil pipe outside and the bathroom windows upstairs. the third photo is inside, where the ceiling comes down before the end of the house, that is where upstairs rooms finish.
rinked
last month
idea:

Closed off lounge by creating a hallway, door to kitchen at the end. New staircase (pushed into former utility area), laundry and separate office in the garage (though could be kept one space). Side entry hallway wider for coats and shoes, perhaps boiler could be moved to wc, but/and there's plenty space under the stairs as well. Removed kitchen-dining wall, could keep chimney intact. U-shaped kitchen with peninsula. Dining area with extra storage. Sofa is lower, so placed that near the garden doors, as table would block view and 'traffic'. If tv is on your list of wants, it could go in the peninsula.

Upstairs changes: The bathroom from your previous post somewhat tweaked, moved window on the side because of shower (or simply close off), corner bath under the rooflight. Because of the new staircase i moved the bottom right bedroom door, which would allow to move the other bedroom doors as well (which makes the master bedroom slightly larger).

Hope it may inspire you!
Rebecca W thanked rinked
Rebecca W
Original Author
last month
Thats really interesting Rinked. An actual hallway wow, that would be ideal. The kitchen shape is what we have been thinking. This has really helped, thank you!

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