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Design Dilemma Furniture Home Decorating

Removing wall between Dining room and Living room

3 years ago

I would like to remove the wall between our living room
and dining room. Ceiling is arched with no upstairs and our contractor told us it is not weight bearing wall. This will allow open dining room to be open and bring in light from larger arched window. Once done I do not know how to place living room furniture since there will only be half wall. Any ideas?

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Comments (6)

rmsaustin
3 years ago
What happens to the baseboard heating vent when you remove the wall?
Eva Phillips
Original Author
3 years ago
Good question. The contractor said it could be moved or removed. I am also worried about how the floor will be matched between the rooms
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My personal unexperienced opinion is when it comes to one's own money and how they are deciding to spend it, i.e. to hire someone for work on your home, over analyzing should not be word in our vocabulary. We had a general contractor do that on a quote for the master bathroom we're working on and it was a hugh turn off. We finally decided to be our own GC and hire out for each job that we don't want to do ourselves. Now when we schedule for bids we will tell everyone we're going to meet with up front, we want the bid broken down so we can see the costs and how they come to their numbers. If someone doesn't want to accomodate us with that, that's ok, no time is wasted on either part.
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Normally that transition gets removed and then a new floor is installed. If you *need a transition between the two floors or not will depend on the subfloor under the carpet and whether or not you can purchase the same hardwood as what is currently in the living room. Can you post photos? It is hard to say whether or not you will be able to continue a hardwood into another space just by some words on a page. Photos say it best.
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With 5000 sf you can certainly build a home with the open feel you want with no living or dining rooms, and at the same time have other rooms for your needs that can work in different ways to give you privacy down the road or be switched up for a dining room or living room for resale. We built our new home with no dining or living room. We found them completely unnecessary for the way we lived. I much prefer my kitchen, family room and breakfast room to be of a good size without having to chop it all up in order to squeeze in a dining and living room that I’ll rarely use. Omitting those rooms can double the size of your eating area or great room. If you put an office or study on your main floor, and it’s situated in the right spot, it can be turned into a dining room for resale. You can also fit in a playroom on the main floor that can change to a hangout space for friends as the kids get older. If you like large open rooms, and never use a living or dining room, don’t simply toss out that idea because someone else doesn’t care for it. With 5000 sf there is still plenty of sf for a playroom, office, large bedrooms, and media room that would offer you the privacy you might want now and in the future. It’s not that difficult to design a house that will fit your needs. I have not seen any online plans that i would want to use because even though many have omitted the living and dining rooms, they were pretty deficient on other areas. Your lot size is pretty small for that size house. I would definitely hire an architect that could design a house that not only fits your lot but also fits your needs for today and in the future. I think you can have your cake and eat it too (live the way you want today, easily adjust rooms in the future, and have a house that works well for resale should you move). If you are smart in your design, this can work.
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Comments (2)
We definitely need some more information. Photos and measurements. You should also get some quotes. Cased opening will be cheaper than fully open. But will still cost a chunk of the budget to move electrical Whether you choose to go fully open or cased opening I would do it to the entire wall.
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rmsaustin
3 years ago
Not understanding the "half wall" comment -- hard to give advice without knowing what the rest of the layout looks like. Right now the wall and doorways control the flow of traffic in a certain way. If/when you remove the wall, what will traffic patterns be like? Let's assume you can successfully relocate the heating and solve the flooring issue...appears that you have pretty large rooms, and will have the opportunity to arrange and rearrange until you find a furniture layout that works for the space. You might consider finding an on-line app or use a furniture store's app that allows you to put in a room's dimension and then put in furniture and move it around -- it's kind of fun.
Eva Phillips
Original Author
3 years ago
Sorry, when I mentioned half wall, I was actually referring to the vertical wall that would remain in the living room to the right of the beam. The flow of the room would be hallway to living room and into dining room and the leading to kitchen. The contractor mentioned about removing the wall between living room and dining room by cutting it rectangularly across, not all the way to ceiling. This would leave a left angled triangle on the ceiling. Does that seem like a good idea?
disfromage
3 years ago
Before you do anything please get another opinion about that wall you want to remove being load-bearing. It looks to me like it could easily be supporting the beam that runs through the living and dining rooms. The best way to deal with the flooring is to weave in new wood and then refinish the floor in both spaces.
Eva Phillips
Original Author
3 years ago
Clarification on opening. The wall would be cut straight at the horizontal line to the left of living room painting and to about the edge of the painting. Meaning, the right side of the wall past the painting would still remain.

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