So the large area is tiled but dining room and living..carpet ?

cheap "Indian" style fine patterned rugs are soft and very forgiving of spilled food etc and, while the children are small, the family meals area feels like the best place for everyday activities with a small extendable dining table with space for high chair, play pen (good place to store toys when not being used, lounge, wall hung TV and storage cabinets (screwed to the walls) and keep the living area for adult retreat and the dining for study or activities that need to be kept out of reach of small hands and, as a very experienced old mum and grandma, may i suggest that the toys be reduced to a few favourites in daily use that are rotated from storage to keep the children interested and, when funds allow, the big second bedroom could be made into two small bedrooms and the existing third bedroom would make an ideal playroom when the children are older

thanks oklouise! I like your idea, we have the TV in the living room but perhaps we could just make that a sitting area.

You could try checking with carpet companies for end of runs and pick up a cheap large square of carpet that they can edge for you, I used to do my own hand stitching a wide woven cotton tape over and under the edges, did this with sea grass matting as well. Your house has lots of lovely rooms for your growing family. cheers

Thank you siriuskey, it is a very large house for us, at least 25sqm bigger than what we've ever had in the past and we are minimalists with not a lot of furniture or stuff so it's quite strange. It was the best value house we could buy when we moved to this town, we actually plan to move to a different area in a few years due to work commitments but for now I'm trying to make the most of it without spending too much money

Lots of good ideas here. If you do have a carpet remnant overstitched along edges, be sure to specify the thread is to MATCH the colour of carpet. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, BUT we had long and wide carpet runners made up, colour was dark brown. When we unrolled them, low and behold the overstivhers had used WHITE thread. We were stupefied. Who knew one must specify the obvious! Anyway, hubby had a brilliant idea: he used black magic marker and carefully coloured over the white. You would never know it had ever been anything but!

He's a thinking keeper!

Hahaha, you too are making me laugh! Yeah he is a keeper...most of the time!

If the dining/living was used as the play area, it would be easier to close off when not in use. However, while you are working in the kitchen, it would be easier to watch the children if the meals area was used instead. A thick underlay could be used under a cheap rug for more comfort. A carpet remnant which fits across all the tiles would be preferable. You should encourage the children, by making a game of it, to tidy up each day before dinner time to avoid tripping over toys.

If you want to visualize what your layout will look like we have great options using 3 d renders , 3 d animations and Virtual reality , for more information go to www.aok.net.au

I like it but perhaps a little less cramped in the kitchen