Best Layout for Family

[motorbird83]

In an ideal world, I'd love to have a combined kitchen-diner-family room and a separate adult lounge to escape to.

Unfortunately, even post extension, that's not entirely possible. We are about to buy furniture for our new house and I am trying to figure out the best way to use the rooms we have.

We have a small front room that is connected via double doors to the 2nd reception room which when open makes it feel much larger.

The 2nd reception room has been connected to the new kitchen extension via a recessed sliding door so you can easily get between them but its not totally open plan to the kitchen. The kitchen extension is large enough to either have a dining table or have a family room leading into the garden. It also has an island with counter seating.

Our options are:

A. Popular English kitchen-diner and have the 2nd reception room as a study or play room- if a play room, I'd keep the lounge doors closed all the time which would make the lounge feel tiny.

B. More typical American kitchen-family room leading on to the garden. The 2nd reception room would be our dining room connected to the kitchen but not fully open plan.

What would you do and why?

Thanks!

[bornagain]

Consider alternating both depending on needs and fancy. We frequently move table and sofa between rooms. eg in the summer we have dining in the dining room and use the sunnier kitchen for family room. Vici versa in winter.

Make sure you buy furniture that go in both.

[Mrs TP]

I would suggest while the kids are young a playroom that can be shut off at night when they gone to bed. When they older have two formal lounges one for them and one for you, which avoids them disappearing upstairs to the bedrooms with the opposite sex when young teenagers.

But also don't set in stone as bornagain says. Our dining table moves from the kitchen to our lounge dinner depending on specific needs.

[bornagain]

Yes, echo Mrs TP about teens. It's good to have rooms that adults and teens retire to separately to avoid conflict. Kitchen should remain neutral space.

[fl0wer]

MrsTP, forgive my failure to grasp your logic here.

Would they be allowed to disappear upstairs to the bedrooms with the same sex when young teenagers?

Could teenagers orientated differently, have any bearing on the way you'd advise the motorbirds to plan their "play"rooms?

[BellendenBear]

I would go with option B if your children are small. We are lucky enough to have a large open plan kitchen/dining room/play room in the basement opening onto the garden, plus a separate living room upstairs. If I had to lose part of the basement it would be the dining table, providing we had another dining area like you do.

It's really great being able to do stuff in the kitchen while keeping an eye on the little ones as they play and be able to let them go out into the garden. They seem to play much more independently if you are present but not directly involved than if they are in a separate room.

Good luck. Not a bad dilemma to have.

[LondonMix]

This is really helpful! I have the same dilemma and was leaning towards a kitchen-family room but wasn't sure if I'd regret it as it seems everyone has a kitchen diner these days. Keeping furniture flexible so I can swap things around as needs / seasons change seems to be the best way.

[motorbird83]

Wow, I am really surprised by the responses. I agree keeping furniture options neutral is a good isea.

[snowboarder]

How old are your children motorbird? We did our kitchen extension pre having children pretty much exactly as you describe and put a dining table in there and had the back of the living room as just extra living space. It turned into a playroom over the years but I often wanted to turn it round.....but then we had carpet in the back living area so not good for baby weaning times!

So hard to decide as you say - having moved out of ED we now have a fab open plan kitchen/family/dining/play area which is awesome!