Merging Kitchen & Living Room

Diego Murphy

Hi guys,

The long term plan in my house is to take down the wall between the kitchen and the 2nd living room. It's been done in a lot of houses here, so there's no issue from a construction perspective.

It will be a couple of years before I do this, but the reason I'm looking for ideas on this thread now, is because I'm going to be tiling the hall, straight through to the kitchen.

As you can see from the attached photo, the living room has a wooden floor at the moment. My dilemma is, that when that wall eventually comes down, should I be extending the tiles into where the wood flooring is now? I know it would make the place feel much bigger, but would it make it very cold? I don't have underfloor heating. And if it's a bad idea to extend the tiles, should I just be putting a straight divide between wood and tiling?

The reason I'm asking this now is because the tiles will be done in the next couple of months and I'd need to buy extra tiles if I intend extending into the other room at some stage.

Note in the photo that the kitchen cupboard section of the kitchen actually extends out further than the living room so wouldn't be that visible from the living room once the wall comes down.

Any advice welcomed

Roselm

Diego Murphy wrote: »

As you can see from the attached photo, the living room has a wooden floor at the moment. My dilemma is, that when that wall eventually comes down, should I be extending the tiles into where the wood flooring is now? I know it would make the place feel much bigger, but would it make it very cold? I don't have underfloor heating. And if it's a bad idea to extend the tiles, should I just be putting a straight divide between wood and tiling?

Th

It's going to look cold and feel cold underfoot if you have tiles in your living room.You could probably find google images of what it might look like.
The only way you might make it work is if you had a big rug over the tiles going almost to the edge of the sitting room area.
Pale smooth tiles might also look less harsh than dark.

Diego Murphy

Roselm wrote: »

It's going to look cold and feel cold underfoot if you have tiles in your living room.You could probably find google images of what it might look like.
The only way you might make it work is if you had a big rug over the tiles going almost to the edge of the sitting room area.
Pale smooth tiles might also look less harsh than dark.

Agreed. A lighter tile will look much better than what's in there at the moment. what I should have made clearer is that room isn't really used as a living room. The main living room has a carpet in it and that will remain. The room that I'm looking to extend into is more one that I'd use on a sunny day with the doors open to the garden

firlodge

You are right it will be cold but presumably you are doing it for practical reasons & don't have other options so you need to make good choices with the tile.
I would suggest something like this http://www.martinmoorestone.com/terracotta-5.htm

Natural/warm/light & works well leading into a garden.

Is there any way you could take the wall down before tiling?
It would give a better finish in the long run.

Diego Murphy

firlodge wrote: »

You are right it will be cold but presumably you are doing it for practical reasons & don't have other options so you need to make good choices with the tile.
I would suggest something like this http://www.martinmoorestone.com/terracotta-5.htm

Natural/warm/light & works well leading into a garden.

Is there any way you could take the wall down before tiling?
It would give a better finish in the long run.

Unlikely to be honest as taking it down now would add a lot more cost so that's why it's more of a long term plan for the wall. It's only a plaster stud wall, but I'd imagine it would cost more to take down than I'm willing to spend in the short term

firlodge

If you've had the wall checked out structurally & it's ok to remove it - you might be surprised about the cost compared to everything else.
Ultimately managing your project in the right order will pay off in the quality of finish & detailing - granted that's not easy though.

Woshy

We're in the process of merging our kitchen and dining room/sitting room (that's one long room going from the back of the house to the front). The builder is starting this week (hurray!).

We currently have tiles in the kitchen and nasty lino laminate effect in the dining room. Personally I hate tiles in anything but bathrooms, I think they're cold and they get dirty so easily. We currently have stark white tiles in the kitchen and I hate them with a passion. We've decided to get grey coloured laminate flooring (one that is suitable for kitchens) in the whole room, the kitchen/dining room and into the hall. The sitting room is being closed off by pocket doors and we're getting new carpet in there.

I'd hate to have tiles in the sitting room. My husband comes from a country where loads of people have their sitting rooms/living spaces tiles because it is warm but I think here it would be very cold looking.If you do want to I'd agree with other posters that you'd want a warmish colour.

It would make more sense to me to get the wall taken down and then do the flooring, even if that means living with your old flooring for a while. I think the finish would be very odd if you did it the other way around. If it helps we're looking at a cost of about 1800 for taking down the wall between our two rooms.

Diego Murphy

Woshy wrote: »

We're in the process of merging our kitchen and dining room/sitting room (that's one long room going from the back of the house to the front). The builder is starting this week (hurray!).

We currently have tiles in the kitchen and nasty lino laminate effect in the dining room. Personally I hate tiles in anything but bathrooms, I think they're cold and they get dirty so easily. We currently have stark white tiles in the kitchen and I hate them with a passion. We've decided to get grey coloured laminate flooring (one that is suitable for kitchens) in the whole room, the kitchen/dining room and into the hall. The sitting room is being closed off by pocket doors and we're getting new carpet in there.

I'd hate to have tiles in the sitting room. My husband comes from a country where loads of people have their sitting rooms/living spaces tiles because it is warm but I think here it would be very cold looking.If you do want to I'd agree with other posters that you'd want a warmish colour.

It would make more sense to me to get the wall taken down and then do the flooring, even if that means living with your old flooring for a while. I think the finish would be very odd if you did it the other way around. If it helps we're looking at a cost of about 1800 for taking down the wall between our two rooms.

The cost you've quoted has Changed my thinking. For some reason I thought it would cost a lot more to take the wall down. Might hold off to do the whole lot together so.

Woshy

Yeah, that's the problem I've found with getting work done to the house. You've no idea how much things cost to do when you start out so it's hard to know what's possible until you speak to a builder/get a quote. If you could hold off and get that money together it would probably work out easier and better for you in the long run, plus it's done and dusted and you can just enjoy your house!

Diego Murphy

Woshy wrote: »

Yeah, that's the problem I've found with getting work done to the house. You've no idea how much things cost to do when you start out so it's hard to know what's possible until you speak to a builder/get a quote. If you could hold off and get that money together it would probably work out easier and better for you in the long run, plus it's done and dusted and you can just enjoy your house!

Yeah you're right. It probably works out better value to do a big job rather than a few smaller ones anyway. And as you said, all the upheaval is in one go.

firlodge

Keep throwing your ideas out on Boards - that's what we're here for!

Diego Murphy

firlodge wrote: »

Keep throwing your ideas out on Boards - that's what we're here for!

Exactly...and generally quite informative responses