Big family room or small family room + office space?

13 days ago

Hi all, we are in the process of a new construction and we currently have in the plan a small home office that is 14’11” x 10” and directly on the other side is our family room which is 14’11” x 12’ 7”. I don’t know if its better to get rid of the home office and relocate it to the basement (we do work from home sometimes and i originally didn’t want to be in a basement alone for hours) to get a bigger family room which would go from 12’ to 22’ or leave it as is. We would have to tell the contractor ASAP if we want to remove the wall that divides those spaces as they just put up sheetrock. We use the family room for TV, kids playing their games and video games, and for when we have family gatherings. There is a small formal living room also on the other side of the kitchen (it was originally supposed to be a dining room but we don’t think we would use it for that purpose often). Any help would be appreciated.

Featured Answer

auntthelma

13 days ago

I appreciate having a quiet room for reading or working. You could make the office smaller giving the family room more space.

Another thought, can you combine the living room and office to be a library?

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Comments (6)

shirlpp
13 days ago
You're not going to use the dining room for dining - so will you use it as a living room?

I'd put the office in the living room to have more space in the family room.
Nasheela Khan thanked shirlpp
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Nasheela Khan
Original Author
13 days ago
@auntthelma the office is already pretty small. my husband works with computers so he has lots of them so i wouldnt want to put them in the family room for that reason. Plus he works from home sometimes and spends a lot of time on calls so he needs a separate space. but the library was a great suggestion. i would consider that if he didn’t have so much equipment.

@shirlpp my husband had also suggested we use the dining room as the office instead but the only problem is its an open space when you come in the front door and it also opens into the kitchen. we would need a quiet space for the office. I think closing it off might make us lose the open concept feeling of the home. We also are supposed to have a gas fireplace in that room. but i will discuss this with my husband again. thanks!
shirlpp
13 days ago
You're dedicating a lot of space to closets. Do you need 2 closets in the guest bedroom? You pretty much have 2 closets in the foyer area as well.

Maybe rework all of that and create an office. You can insulate the interior walls for noise.
Nasheela Khan thanked shirlpp
Nasheela Khan
Original Author
13 days ago
@shirlpp the guest bedroom and 2 closets are for my parents. they will be living in that mini apartment space - its a living room, bathroom, and bedroom with a separate entrance. There are 7 people in the home so we need the closet space unfortunately
loobab
12 days ago
Where you have written Living Room in blue, that is where I would put your office.

If there is no wall or door between there and the kitchen, erect it.

It is up to you if you want a fireplace in there.

It is very convenient for you to be next to the kitchen in case you have something in the oven you want to check on.

I also like it's location farther away from the family room to cut down on the noise from the children in there.

Depending on what you do in your office and how sensitive to noise you are, you might want to think about doing something to the walls to make it more impervious to the noise from the children in the family room.