House Extension Advice

theLuggage

We are extending across the back of our house from the kitchen and dining room, knocking the internal wall between those rooms so it will be a large open plan space at the back of the house.

Looking for advice on the sitting room at the front. We are debating whether to keep the doors from sitting room into the new open space (would get sliding doors so they don't open in or out) so we have the option of keeping the spaces separate or open. The other option is to block it up and create a separate sitting room.

Just wondering what other people have done and what your advice would be? It can be hard to think of all the implications of either option!

BryanF

Ask your self will it just become a corridor with a new door and how
Will the furniture/space function

theLuggage

Oh yeah we are looking at space and furniture - just interested in other opinions and I suppose people's experiences with what they have done (or would do! )

BryanF

Why not put up a plan (leave out designers details)

Calahonda52

The other option is to remove these doors as well and open it all up and let light on from front and back.
Even with velux roof lights in extension you need all the natural light you can get.
Blocking it up will make the kitchen side of the wall dark.
leaving doors in it is neither fish nor flesh and runs the corridor risk mentioned already.

mordeith

Well blocking the room entirely will obviously lessen the light in either the sitting room or the new kitchen area, depending on the orientation of your house. We had a kind of similar issue a while back. Our sitting room has double doors leading to the kitchen/dining area. When we bought the house these doors were solid pine. We debated removing the doors as well as the partition wall. In the end though we wanted to retain a semblance of cosiness in the sitting room for the winter time, when they stove would be on. So we just replaced the doors with ones with large, clear glass panes. We were able to get custom artwork on the edge of the glass. So even with the doors closed there is still the sense of an expanded space while retaining the seperation.

theLuggage

BryanF wrote: »

Why not put up a plan (leave out designers details)

No plans, we weren't going to get an architect in for this job.

theLuggage

We have a south facing garden so light in the back, the open area shouldn't be a problem. I realise it will be darker up towards the sitting room alright. It's something to think about.

I get what you mean about internal glass doors. I suppose the idea of blocking it up means we could potentially set the t.v. on the wall (on either side or both or whatever). That would rule out doors then altogether. If we were to keep them I would agree that some kind of glass in them would be ideal. Think I'd be more of a fan of frosted glass though.

Yes the other half is against the corridor space. I'm not entirely convinced on that point yet

Gumbo

theLuggage wrote: »

No plans, we weren't going to get an architect in for this job.

How will you compare quotes?
How will the builder know what size structural elements to put in?
How will you know what the extension will look like with regards to sizing, space etc?

gofasterdad

being able to create a large open space is very handy if you ever have large gatherings / family meals etc in your house so it is good to keep that option available. Using a sliding door means you are less restricted in terms of where you put your furniture as you don't have to leave room for the doors to swing open.

It is also handy to be able to close off the room occasionally, say to enjoy a cosy fire in the winter time, or if someone wanted to watch tv in the sitting room without disturbing / being disturbed by everyone else in the kitchen.

my advise is go for the sliding doors. I did a similar job recently and installed a large (1.8m) sliding panel between the sitting room and dining room, it is fully open 90% of the time, but occasionally we do close it off.

I rented a house previously, where the sitting room to dining room doorway was closed up and you had to go out into the hall to access the sitting room. The result was that the sitting room was never really used, people didn't really like going in there as they felt cut-off from the rest of the house.

theLuggage

gofasterdad wrote: »

being able to create a large open space is very handy if you ever have large gatherings / family meals etc in your house so it is good to keep that option available. Using a sliding door means you are less restricted in terms of where you put your furniture as you don't have to leave room for the doors to swing open.

It is also handy to be able to close off the room occasionally, say to enjoy a cosy fire in the winter time, or if someone wanted to watch tv in the sitting room without disturbing / being disturbed by everyone else in the kitchen.

my advise is go for the sliding doors. I did a similar job recently and installed a large (1.8m) sliding panel between the sitting room and dining room, it is fully open 90% of the time, but occasionally we do close it off.

I rented a house previously, where the sitting room to dining room doorway was closed up and you had to go out into the hall to access the sitting room. The result was that the sitting room was never really used, people didn't really like going in there as they felt cut-off from the rest of the house.

This was exactly my thought. Would hate to lose a room because it became cut off.

rightofwayed

We built pretty much the identical thing to the back of our house 3 years ago. We put in double glass doors with opaque glass with a green tinge to it between the sitting room and the area where we extended. The doors can be closed to split the sitting room from the kitchen and extension area while still allowing plenty of light through the glass but with the privacy the glass gives you. Once open the whole space flows through and it means if the kids are in the sitting room we can leave the doors open and keep an eye on them!