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Building a Home

One big room or two small?

11 years ago

Hi,

I'm new here and I'm not sure if this forum is the right one to ask my question.

Here is the question:

On our main floor we have two relatively big rooms - one is a family room and one is a combined living / dining. Currently we use living / dining as a media room. We have a TV on the wall with the hall. It also was supposed to be a playroom, but now kids play everywhere :)

My dilemma is - should we keep this one big room or should we make changes and end up with two smaller rooms? We can have TV over the fireplace then and use two rooms one as a study and another one as a dining.

I'm not sure what we want :) If we had bigger house I would love to have everything - study, formal dining, playroom. But in reality we have to decide.

So my main question is - if YOU would select a plan - which one would YOU prefer? And why?

Thank you very much for you answers!

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Comments (3)

palimpsest
11 years ago
Which one are you thinking of dividing?

I would consider dividing the front room, but only as flex space. I would make an additional door opening into the front half right inside the foyer and then have an large opening with pocket or French doors in between so that it could function as two separate, or one combined space. The problem with dividing the back room, as I see it is that the room created adjacent to the fireplace could only be entered through the area adjacent to the kitchen.

I would plan with furniture layouts and figure out exactly how you would use these essentially square 11x11 rooms before I made any kind of decision.
lavender_lass
11 years ago
Do you want to see/hear the TV, while you're working in the kitchen? That answer would probably help me make a decision.

As for dining/study, you could combine those functions without closing off the larger living/dining room, if you do decide to move the TV. If you leave it open, you can expand your dining table for family/holiday dinners and still have room for the study.

In fact, if you choose a durable dining table (dress it up with a table cloth) it could also be a craft area for the kids. Some cozy upholstered chairs at one end could be a reading area and homework could also be at the table.

If you decide to keep the TV in the 'media room' you could still combine the dining/study area in the current family room. You have two nice spaces, so IMHO you have a lot of options! Hope that helps :)
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virgilcarter
11 years ago
The proportions of both rooms are bowling alley-like. Are you sure this is the way you want your rooms to appear?

If for no other reason than some variety and relief, I'd change the proportions of one of the two rooms.

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