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Hi all!
We're trying to brainstorm how we might fix a certain awkwardness in our current house's floor plan. Here's a plan (as done by the r/e agent when we bought the house):
The main entrance is off the Covered Verandah, and our main living area is the Family Room. We find that we end up dragging visitors through the laundry (ew!), or all the way through the Lounge, Meals, past the Kitchen and into the Family Room (seems a long way around). We're planning on renovating the kitchen soon, and were thinking there might be an opportunity to fix this, somehow involving the laundry. We're quite happy to end up with a "laundry in a cupboard" (whatever these are called
) so long as we can fit the washer, dryer, a trough and broom cupboard.
Any bright sparks out there have a suggestion on how it could work?
Thanks in advance,
Nic
OK - so this is really really rough, and something I've done in about 10 mins....
But what about something along the lines of swaping the meals area & laundry and moving the kitchen back against the new laundry (will also give you more room for the kitchen).
A very rough edit to your floor plan...
Thanks so so much esg, i really like your way of thinking!
Unfortunately, that would put the laundry in the front yard - a little detail i probably should have specified on the plan! Yes, our whole house layout is a little unorthodox
I'm definitely going to take your idea and see how we could make it work though - opening up that area would be amazing
The simplest way would be to just make the laundry in a cupboard that you talked about and make what is currently the laundry floorspace a short passage.
Then it would just be walking through there with what looks like a wall of cupboards on the side (concelaed laundry).
If the rest of the layout is working for you, this would be the cheapest, quickest and least disruptive option.
Or else you could move the kitchen to where the laundry is and incorporate the laundry into the kitchen behind cupboards.
If you are not on as slab and it's easy to add plumbing, you could put the laundry in a cupbaord in the double cupboard that is already there (backing on to the entry way), move the kitchen to the laundry area and increase the overall size of the kitchen. Then put some built in cupboards in the family room to compensate for the lost cupboard.
These are some ideas that don't involve massive structural changes. Unless that's what you want!
This is probably a wayout idea and totally unfeasible but is there anyway you could change where the front door is and put it over near the lounge or family room ?. I know it's drastic but a new path / entrance would allow you to convert the current entrance way into a private rumpus room / play / study area (if you could take out the cupboard and insert new wall) with access to outside (via current front door).
Just a thought
Thanks joles, you've got some really good ideas!
The simplest way would be to just make the laundry in a cupboard that you talked about and make what is currently the laundry floorspace a short passage.
Then it would just be walking through there with what looks like a wall of cupboards on the side (concelaed laundry).
If the rest of the layout is working for you, this would be the cheapest, quickest and least disruptive option.
Yep, definitely the simplest and if the wall in-between turns out to be load bearing, that's exactly what we will do!
I really hope we can do more though!
Or else you could move the kitchen to where the laundry is and incorporate the laundry into the kitchen behind cupboards.
Ya know, this one could be a goer! I guess we'll just have to weigh up the pros and cons of having the kitchen and laundry combined. I mean, they do it in the UK all the time (according to the property shows i watch!) so it can't be so bad!
If you are not on as slab and it's easy to add plumbing, you could put the laundry in a cupbaord in the double cupboard that is already there (backing on to the entry way), move the kitchen to the laundry area and increase the overall size of the kitchen. Then put some built in cupboards in the family room to compensate for the lost cupboard.
Getting more radical, but interesting...
These are some ideas that don't involve massive structural changes. Unless that's what you want!
Hehe, preferably not. My husband is already feeling anxiety over spending the money to do the kitchen
Reno shows make it look so easy to knock out a wall here, move a doorway there - i wish the reality were true!
This is probably a wayout idea and totally unfeasible but is there anyway you could change where the front door is and put it over near the lounge or family room ?. I know it's drastic but a new path / entrance would allow you to convert the current entrance way into a private rumpus room / play / study area (if you could take out the cupboard and insert new wall) with access to outside (via current front door).
Just a thought
Well, great minds and all that... I had thought about moving the entrance to the lounge, but really hadn't considered doing anything with the remaining space. Very interesting, but possibly a little too drastic!
Not an easy one to alter but I thought maybe flip the kitchen and laundry and change the linin cupboard and wall. Also maybe not have the door from laundry to the lounge.
move the kitchen into the laundry place laundry hidden under stairs
Looking at the plan it looks like a 2 story house so I would assume that all the wall downstairs are loadbearing making structural changes both costly and hard work.
I would suggest leaving the laundry in the same spot (no need for plumbing movement etc) and just creating a linen cupboard style room for your laundry.
You could make a real feature out of this 'mini hallway' with portraits etc or just tone it down and make it a passway.
Like this:
This is really showing us how little imagination we have for these sorts of things
Thanks so much for all the suggestions, we have lots of ideas to work with now!!
Sooo... incorporating the laundry into the kitchen or putting it under the stairs are two appealing propositions (and also hinge on being able to knock through the wall between the laundry and kitchen).
Do you think though, that in a 4 bedroom house, future buyers would discount the house because there's no dedicated laundry room? We're quite happy to be without one, but when we come to sell (won't be for years yet!), i'm wary of doing anything to decrease the property's value/reduce our market.
increasing living areas whilst keeping bedrooms will always increase your value
a hidden laundry not a big deal definately not a deal breaker
I was going to suggest the same thing as Matt, but possibly with the wall between laundry and kitchen removed (assuming it's not load-bearing) to open up the kitchen more. If it's a load-bearing wall, you might still get away with it, leaving a beam below the ceiling, or just doing a large cut-out in the wall to bench level.
That would make the kitchen seem much more spacious, and if the laundry is hidden behind cupboard doors that match the kitchen cabinetry, would be a seamless approach.
The lack of laundry space would put some people off buying (I'm one of them), but it probably wouldn't bother many, especially if the rest of the house was faaaaabulous.
Question: Do you use the lounge much? If not, I'm wondering if that space needs re-jigging too?
Yeah, it's balancing act: adding fabulousness and keeping practicality!
kek - at the moment, no. We have a dining table in there at the moment, but don't really need a formal dining table, and imagine we'll use it as a second living area one day. What did you have in mind?