Sorry, it looked like my floorplan didn't load in my first posting!

Can you tell me why you want a formal living room off the kitchen? With the ability to have 3 living rooms of sorts I would just make one large functioning space i would be using the current dining as office and hang out current family as dining and living as is but based on load bearing walls remove the angle and living walls, add a closet at the end of the entry

Hi! Thanks so much for writing! You bring up a good point. And I don’t have a great answer to your question, because I’m having a very hard time with deciding which room should be used for what... my initial plan was to do what I think you are suggesting, which is to use the original dining room as an office/den, but 1) it seems like it will be very tight, and 2) it will cause the view from the entrance of the house to be facing directly into a wall rather than through the dining room and then out the window.

It also bothers me that if I don’t turn the current living room into a den/office, then we will have a very large formal dining and living rooms as well as a new family room. This seems like a big waste, because I know I’ll use my office/den way more than a large formal dining or formal living room...

See attached for the drawing I did showing the dining room being used as a tiny office/den. I think it leaves me with too small an office/den.

I should also note - I’m sure we will end up with a tv in the new family room, but for whatever reason I personally love having an enclosed space where I can watch tv at odd hours. So this is why I am determined to figure out a way to squeeze a den into our plans!

How long have you lived in this house? What are the dimensions of the current office/den?

Hi! Thanks for asking! We have not lived in the house - we just purchased it and need to renovate it before we move in. We don’t have a current office/den in that house. The only furniture we already own for the room is the desk I described above. Thank you!

Tartanmeup - Hmm, if you were asking about the dimensions of this house, they don’t show in my second floorplan posting but they do show in the first one (original floorplan).

Sorry, I can't correlate your first and second plans so can't figure out the den/office dimensions. I was going to suggest living in the house before renovating but I understand if that's not feasible. I would prefer to see how each room 'feels', in terms of light and space, before determining its function so that was essentially my suggestion.

If you could change the entry to this space, you would have a good nook to put your desk, and more space in the entry...pardon my coffee stains...

OK so your plans have everything you wanted, you have an enclosed room with a couch and a tv to watch at odd hours, how big does that space need to be. Honestly you have 3 rooms with couches and possible tv's, the formal sitting room by the breakfast nook seems a bit odd to me. If you want a place to watch tv by yourself that is the room I would want small and cozy.

Hi RL,

So basically in the revised plan I am happy with everything left of the kitchen (ie the new family room and casual eating area that we will create by combining the former breakfast nook and a small recessed study and its adjoining covered patio). Our main reason for making this change is that the nicest/sunniest/widest part of the backyard spans the left side of the back of the house. We are planning to add a rectangular pool, landscaping and plant landscaping n this part of the yard as well. Creating this new family room/casual eating area will give us a chance to add a big glass door and allow us to take advantage of northern California's indoor/outdoor living style. In contrast, the rest of the backyard is pretty narrow and dark. See below for original floorplan shown in context with existing and proposed patio/pool.

So given this new family room/casual eating area, I am struggling with how to re-assign the three remaining "public" rooms to the right of the kitchen (currently labeled "living room", "dining room" and "family room".) I have these three rooms, and I have three room functions (1) formal living room, 2) formal dining room, and 3) office/den), and need to match the space with the function. I am willing to remove/add/change walls as needed.

Which of those three rooms is best suited to each function?