I guess it's doable but then you would basically have just one ginormous room. I am not a fan of open floor plans though. Think about where you would put furniture and hang artwork, etc. Opening it up you will lose all that wall space.

I agree -- unless a home is designed to be open like that, you'll probably miss the privacy and extra wall space. Interior walls in our home were removed by previous owners. At first we thought "wow how nice and open it is" but it isn't that great for living here IMHO. Furniture arrangement is more challenging (the rooms are still small...just open to each other now). You have to go to the bathroom or bedroom for privacy, and it feels like we're just on top of each other otherwise.

In your plan, I could maybe see opening the living room to the entry (is that on the left side?) but otherwise I wouldn't mess with the layout. It's nice to have tv-watching in it's own area...if you don't watch much maybe it's not an issue. That's kind of how we solved the problem, not much tv is watched.

While I like somewhat open floor plans and in general opening walls to offer a greater sense of light and space, I agree with louislinus that opening up all three rooms will result in one undefined room. Personally I would be inclined to open the top (in the picture) wall of the living room and dining room, but still leaving some structure to give the spaces some definition. I think making large openings would help the rooms flow nicely without losing the sense of space and making cavernous room. But, it suppose it really depends on how you want to use the space. How would you divide up and use a single giant room?

It would help to know how many people live in the house and their ages. Different solutions would work for families with young kids and empty nesters.

From your post, it seems that there are two issues. One, the living room doesn't get used much. Sounds like you would like to use that space more.

Two, the great room only has one window. Are you looking for more light to be able to enter the room, better ventilation, a chance to highlight a view?

One thing that would concern me about removing all the walls is would there be any quiet, private space other than the bedrooms if you do this? There are many reasons why having a quiet room that isn't a bedroom really help make a house work.

For the living room space, think about the activities that you do in your house, and the activities that you would *like* to do, but don't have space for, or storage for.

The living room doesn't have to be a living room. It could become a library, a homework room, a craft room, a gaming room, an exercise room, a guest room.

As for windows in the great room, you could just add more windows.

If you do decide to open the space up, my suggestion would be to move the kitchen to where the great room is now. Close the old kitchen off to make it a quiet, away room for reading, homework, etc., while the great room would be for tv watching, gaming, conversation, etc.

That would give you a more or less rectangular space for your new great room, combining the old great room, living room and dining room.

What about opening between the LR and DR?

What about opening the LR to the Great Room with doors instead of removing the wall?

I have one picture of a view from the kitchen.. I will have to grab more later. I cannot really add another window. The best I could do is get a french door there.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/redphoenix/House/Kitchen/IMG_7756_zps4e7f176c.jpg

You guys are right about it being one giant floor which would look out of place. The other idea I had was to join the dining room and living room to a larger dining room. Then make a half wall of some sort between the larger dining room and the great room. Opinions?

This may still allow for easy furniture placement and still have electrical outlets. I would probably have to do a couple of posts for structural reason and electrical. This would allow a more open concept but divide out the rooms accordingly.

As far as age, 2 adults, both 26 with no kids. We spend a lot of time in the great room for tv, if not we have a separate computer room/office. Other rooms are main and spare. I imagine if a kid comes I would lose my office or it will be double purposed for a spare.

If you were to remove the wall between the LR and DR and make one giant DR the new room would be 24' long which would allow you plenty of space at either end to put buffets, sideboard and still put in a 14' table (If my math is right). Then maybe just move the wall between that room and the great room back to make maybe a 12-14' wide room. You would have to be mindful of proportions. I can't tell from your posted measurements how wide the rooms actually are so I'm guessing and so my suggestions may not work.

The only thing is suggestions for openings into the new room. I would like to see you be able to use that wall in the great room for furniture placement. What about an oversize doorway at the kitchen end of that wall. Or a 7' - 8' high wall between the two rooms which might allow some light from the new DR to flow into the area while still preserving a wall for furniture.

Just throwing out stuff.

If you are planning to have children someday, will you stay here or move?

I can see, with just two adults, why you would use the great room most of the time for your general living space. But with kids, you might want an adult living room and a child-friendly great room/kitchen combination.

But if you are planning to move to a different house when you have kids, it would make sense to remodel this house to better fit your needs.

Here are some questions for thought:

What activities do you do in the great room? TV watching, gaming, reading, surfing the net, board games, entertaining friends, hobbies, crafts, yoga, something else?

Are all the activities that you do easy to do in the great room? All supplies ready to hand, electric outlets where you need them, good lighting, table-top space if you need it, etc.?

And what activities would you like to do in the great room that you can't, due to lack of resources--space, storage, electrical, table-top space, etc.?

If you do have a child while living here, and the child gets your home office, where will all those activities move to? Are they compatible with the activities you currently do in that space?

Then think of which of these activities could be moved to the living room or dining room, if you only had the proper support and set-up there.

Are you not using the living room because of inherent flaws in the room--poor flow with the rest of the house, bad lighting, etc., or are you not using it because you haven't put in the correct furniture to let you use it the way you want?

Clearly, the setup you have now isn't working for you. I think the space can be reconfigured to work better for you, but I'm doubtful that making it one big room is the best way to go. I'd look at plans that still allow you to have one room, however small, in that space where you can close the door and have privacy/quiet.

That room can be your home office/computer room, or a library, or a craft space, or anything else you choose. Consider it a "swing" room that can change identities as your family's needs change.

I think the previous comments have been very wise. I am not sure you would really be happy transforming your living areas into a giant warehouse. That would decrease your flexibility, not enhance it. If you did want to start knocking down walls, in your case an architect might be worth it. You not only have a complex layout, you also have complex ceiling lines. They are already a bit confusing, as you can see from your photo. I would hate to see you end up with a space that was very obviously put together from three different rooms.

It would be nice to increase the size and reframe the openings already in place to double or more in size without actually knocking down the entire wall. This would give you some additional light and openness in the rooms and yet still keep them separate.

I can see with two adults why you would want it open. However if you think you might have children someday you will want some separation. I have a 9 year old and 5 year old twins, when my twins were babies and toddlers I liked having the kitchen open to the family room because I could keep an eye on them and cook and clean. As they got older I HATED having their toys everywhere and also that I was constantly inserting myself into their arguments/play etc. It was embarrassing when friends would stop by unannounced because my living space was always trashed. Now that we have a traditional layout there are spaces that are still trashed but I can close the door. The kids have their own space to do whatever they want. They also are playing with each more and establishing better relationships with each other because I'm not always butting in. Also the traditional layout is much quieter. I can hear myself thing again! And listen to MY music! I feel like I am an equal member of the house and it's not overrun with the kids anymore. It has really changed our family dynamic for the better and we are all happier here. So that's my sales pitch! Lol

What is "FGR"? I see no way into it. :p

I'm looking at your measurements and something seems to be incorrect... you show the outside wall length on the GR/Kitchen as being 40'. The diagram also shows the total wall length for the LR/Dining/FGR as being 44' (4 feet longer), yet in the diagram it appears that the GR/Kitchen wall is shown longer. Can you verify your measurements and update the sketch as required?

This post was edited by party_music50 on Sat, Oct 11, 14 at 9:31

Redphoenix's photo (RP, to do this copy the html code next to the picture)

Currently there is an oversized door opening. It looks like the width of 2 french doors.. 60-70" wide at the kitchen end. That is a plus!

The only thing that we do with the room that could be a childs room is have my larger desk/computer setup. I cannot downsize to a laptop.

We dont use that living room for all the mentioned reasons. Bad flow, improper furniture, bad lighting (no switches to turn on a wall socket or a hanging light).

FGR i believe is finished garage. Those dimensions are off the property appraiser site. I see what you mean about the dimension issues...

I believe at this point I would really love to figure out a way to be able to have a cross breeze during when its cooler. I think that bothers me, despite the rooms being adequate size, I feel closed in due to tons of wall space.

Ill get more pictures this weekend. :)

If possible I would definitely turn the pass-thru in DR into a door for better flow.

One way you could get more light between LR anf GR is by adding transom windows across the top of the wall that separates LR and GR.

Also, as much as I love french doors, I think I would ditch them in the LR--they take up too much space when opened, then I would create pony walls w/colums on either side of that opening to open it up to the entry and make the LR look visually larger.

That may also be a possibility between LR and DR--removing doors, add columns opening it up creating pony walls and maybe removing wall between DR and GR?

You could install a whole house fan for pulling cool air into your home through the windows -- that'll get a cross-breeze going ;-)

I'm not really understanding why you want to take out the walls...like from a functional reason. It sounds like you have plenty of space but it's bugging you to have a room that you're not using so you want to just integrate it into the other rooms?

I have 9 yo and 5 yo boys, and I completely agree with louislinus's comment about messes and open rooms. With the way the previous owner's removed walls in OUR home, the entire public space is in view from the front door as well as every other part of the open rooms. We added back some of the walls so that we'd have a full wall to put a couch against, and also to cut off some of the view into the kitchen from the front door. It has helped, but originally the living room was enclosed (except for a walk-through opening) and I would prefer it be like that again.

But when the kids have been out playing, or ANYTHING is out, the whole house feels trashed. I can't get away from the mess, can't close the kitchen door because we don't have one, can't retreat to the "adult" living room b/c we don't have even separate family/living rooms.

Finally we put the boys into a shared bedroom and turned the middle bedroom into a playroom/study. It's better with the toy problems, but not ideal. I want to move to a home with more walls that provide visual and auditory barriers.

I just can't seem to wrap my mind around why you'd want to open it all up...but that's probably at least in part due to my own personal bias. I don't think our home is bright at all, even with the open walls etc. It's a single-story home, 8' ceilings, and I think they just tend to be dark in general. It sounds like your home already has taller ceilings etc.

Why not consider things like making the windows larger, or adding windows...or adding switches/outlets/whatever your rooms need so they will function in a way that works better for you?

This post was edited by melle_sacto on Sat, Oct 11, 14 at 13:16

"We dont use that living room for all the mentioned reasons. Bad flow, improper furniture, bad lighting (no switches to turn on a wall socket or a hanging light). "

These are all fixable, and probably won't cost more than taking out all three walls.

The flow could be improve as mentioned above, turning the dining room pass through into a door.

The lighting issue can be fixed by an electrician--either install light switches that allow you to control lamps, or put in some ceiling lights.

Then figure out how you would like to use the room--entertaining guests, quiet reading, hobbies--and get the furniture that would support those activities.

You can also look into adding more windows, or enlarging the ones you have.