As I mentioned on Tuesday in my post about our new living room ideas we decided to make some changes to our homes layout. In case your a new reader to Chic Little House, we lost over 97% of our belongings and house due to a fire in July 2012 you can read more about the fire here. We like the original layout of our small home, but wanted the living room/ dining / kitchen areas to feel more open to each other. But we still wanted to keep the integrity of 1950's rancher and not make any major changes that our existing layout feel off. Some of the changes we decided on our minor tweaks that still leave us giddy, those minor tweaks are simple to make in our home since its been completely gutted down to the studs. Now the big changes make me wanna do cartwheels with the anticipation of what's to come! I still plan on doing a floor plan before and after, but still need more time playing around with a layout designer. First up the minor changes we are making to our houses layout
Minor Changes
Minor Changes
- Enlarge doorway between Living / Dining & Kitchen
- Rearrange Linen closet layout
- Remove Master Bedroom Closet - creating a nook area
- Replace sliding glass doors in Nursery with a pair of windows
- Enlarge Main bathroom window
Our Thought Process
I've wanted to enlarge the doorway between the living room and dining room forever, so when our house was down to the studs, we decided it now or never. We went back and forth between making it really open between both areas, but in the end decided we like the idea of our front door open to a small wall way instead of nothing. Our new opening is still much wider than the old one and will still allow our house to feel open. The photo below illustrates, how our rooms will still feel open in relation to each other.
(via Pinterest)
Here's how the opening currently looks, before it was a very small opening. Now its super open, too much for our tastes. But all that will change soon.
The plan is for the back of the door to 'hit' the wall, still giving us a nice big opening to see into the dining room and kitchen. I like that I'll still have a little wall real estate behind the door, not enough for the picture ledges we once had there. But I have other plans now, so its OK.
I'm also excited about the change in Avery's nursery, I loved all the natural light his sliding glass doors provided but never like the idea of them being in his room. A pair of twin windows, like in the picture below has me excited try some and sew some DIY Roman shades in a fun print! You can read more about my ideas for his big boy room here.
(via Pinterest)
Big Changes
- Update Kitchen layout from 'L Shape' to 'U Shape' kitchen
- Remove hallway closet (makes the kitchen & main bathroom larger)
- Flip Plumbing in Hallway bathroom (swap toilet and vanity layout)
- Laundry / Mudroom Addition
- Create access to backyard from inside house (with out using a bedroom access)
- Push Garage forward 5ft for laundry room addition (more details soon)
- Master Bathroom / Walk-in Closet Addition
- Add French Doors in Master bedroom that lead to backyard
- Widen Garage door from 8ft to 10ft
Our Thought Process
As progress on our house continues I'll have more in-depth posts about the changes we are making, for now this is a glimpse of our plans. Again, I have to stop my self form doing a cartwheel whenever I think about the big changes! First up improving our kitchen's layout from a dysfunctional L Shape into a Functional U Shape. The new layout will allow our kitchen to work for us and give it better flow. The new layout will also provide us with more counter space, more storage which will help my stay organized. To create our kitchen U Shape, we got rid of an awkward bump out that took precious space away from our kitchen and bathroom. The bump out was actually a hallway coat closet, we decided to remove. With a small home like ours every inch is vital and we'd rather have a roomier kitchen and bathroom then a storage closet we rarely used. I've been pining kitchen images like crazy and will share more of my ideas for our new kitchen in upcoming posts. For now here's a U Shape kitchen I adore.
Remember the picture from our house progress last Friday? The frame out is for our bedroom addition!! So excited to see progress happening at our house. Click here to see more of the progress so for on our home. Our plan is to transform our basic 1956 rancher bedroom into a master suite, complete with a walk in closet, french doors to our backyard and a bathroom. Another bathroom in our house is a must, since were a family of four. I'm also thankful to have my own bathroom (OK, I'm sharing with my hubby, but still :) I've been gathering inspiration ideas and can't wait to share more about our plans. I've always wanted french doors in my bedroom and so happy it's becoming a reality. This picture makes my heart skip a beat, our setup will look different but you get the idea.
Just a reminder every Friday I will be sharing weekly updates of our house being rebuilding progress. While all the new things we are doing to our house is exciting, I'm more excited about filling our home with love and laughter when we move back in. Keeps things in prospective, a home you love is more mean-fulling sharing it with those you love.
Please let me know if you have any questions about our floor plan changes, I'd be happy to answer them.
As progress on our house continues I'll have more in-depth posts about the changes we are making, for now this is a glimpse of our plans. Again, I have to stop my self form doing a cartwheel whenever I think about the big changes! First up improving our kitchen's layout from a dysfunctional L Shape into a Functional U Shape. The new layout will allow our kitchen to work for us and give it better flow. The new layout will also provide us with more counter space, more storage which will help my stay organized. To create our kitchen U Shape, we got rid of an awkward bump out that took precious space away from our kitchen and bathroom. The bump out was actually a hallway coat closet, we decided to remove. With a small home like ours every inch is vital and we'd rather have a roomier kitchen and bathroom then a storage closet we rarely used. I've been pining kitchen images like crazy and will share more of my ideas for our new kitchen in upcoming posts. For now here's a U Shape kitchen I adore.
(via Pinterest)
Just a reminder every Friday I will be sharing weekly updates of our house being rebuilding progress. While all the new things we are doing to our house is exciting, I'm more excited about filling our home with love and laughter when we move back in. Keeps things in prospective, a home you love is more mean-fulling sharing it with those you love.
Please let me know if you have any questions about our floor plan changes, I'd be happy to answer them.
