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Open plan living space at entry dilemmas

6 years ago

Hi there, we have a large open place living space at the front of our house that encompasses our main living area, dining, kitchen. We have struggled with the orientation of the living room since we moved in (lounge 2 tv too far but if we were to put tv on side wall, the lounge would likely be smack bang in doorway). Now that we want to buy new furniture and renovate the kitchen (which opens the possibility of moving things around) we want to get it right. We have been procrastinating on this for so long, i am hoping to get some opinions to help us on our way!

We have just finished our house facade, which is similar to stock image shown below, so time to start inside!

We love this room being at the front of the house, it is north facing and get lots of sun, just not entirely sure how to best create distinct areas.

Door in kitchen opens into laundry and door in living room opens into garage (very useful so we don't want to get rid of it, though likely replace for different door).

Appreciate any ideas -thanks!

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Comments (4)

oklouise
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
my suggestion moves teh laundry door into the hallway and moves the kitchen door and removes the L shaped island for a more open connection to the dining area, the new kitchen has a pantry appliance area, broom cabinet to replace lost storage from laundryand a 750 deep counter and space for big fridge and stacked wall oven and mw with a small island and stools ...simply rearranging the lounge with suitably smaller sized furniture could allow for the TV next to the front door, making the TV viewable from kitchen dining and lounge but not the first thing seen as you enter the front door
Hayley
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you OkLouise for your suggestions and your efforts!! I do like your laundry and kitchen suggestions a lot.

I am not sure how we would go with the tv against the front wall. There isn’t a whole heap of wall space and the windows are large and not overly high but you have given us plenty of food for thought.

Thank you!
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Removing the walls as you've suggested should be ok as long as you check will an engineer first. They may be load bearing. This isn't a major issue to remove them as builders do this type of work regularly but definitely seek professional structural engineering advice first. Privacy to entry will be affected but not too bad. I'd do a furniture layout first and foremost to see if it the rooms will work being so open plan (i.e. noisy perhaps, where to put lounges and dining tables, etc.). People like open plan to look at but they are noisy in many cases as even talking noise travels. Even worse if you have children playing on one side of the area and you're trying to have a conversation with others in another area.
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I would move couch away from wall and place lamp in between it and wall, I'd then move dining table a bit back towards wall. I'd put a table behind couch. I don't think you'd need a chair in corner of you did this. need Need photos of the right hand side of room to see if this works.
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As for interior designers, I don't know any in your area but you can find some on Houzz or look into online interior decorator. A friend of mine used ' Havenly' with great success. Here's a good article about those services on apartment therapy here :https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/online-decorator-makeover-we-tried-3-internet-design-services-to-decorate-this-rental-241478 You can also ask the Houzz dilemma community and they will be very happy to help you out!
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Have you considered taking away the cavity door beside the stairs and open a section of the wall opposite the stairs to create a 2 way open ended shelving with some down light for displaying purposes? A series of full height vertical blade screening beside the shelving can then help add visual depth in the living room and still define the living room. It will also help frame the tv cabinetry with the existing nib wall on the other side. You will have minimal issues with reducing structural integrity of a potential load bearing wall. The existing fireplace is too nice to remove or make alterations to as it nicely divides dining with the living room.
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Imy
6 years ago
Wow, that's a very tricky layout! I love OKlouise's change to the laundry and kitchen! I can see why the TV won't work though. I don't think there's any perfect solution here.
What about some open shelving, housing the TV, coming out adjacent to the garage door - this will block an unsightly door way and create a bit more of a nook for the living room.
As a slight adaptation of OkL's plan could you put the TV on an angle behind the front door and move the furniture around to suit, perhaps?
And another idea - getting the TV off the floor and onto the wall would help enhance the feeling of space - you could keep existing furniture arrangement and invest in a bracket that swivels the TV out from the 'garage door' wall, it'll be closer for viewing, then you can push it back flat against the wall when not in use.
Best of luck! :)
Hayley thanked Imy
siriuskey
6 years ago
Hi Haley, My suggestion for your new kitchen is to move the laundry as per OKl plan and change the entry into the kitchen to the end of that space this will allow youto have a lovely long island bench to seat 4, the fridge/Pantry and wall oven backing onto the hallway wall, the return with cooktop and sink in original position with DW next to that. Put down from fridge is the island bench and wall oven onto bench next to that.

This is a basic layout for appliances fitting into this new space it can easily be changed
Hayley thanked siriuskey

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