Redesigning a Dorma Bungalow: Making a Home Work Bette

Sometimes a house doesn’t need more space — it simply needs the space it already has to work harder.

That was exactly the challenge with this dorma bungalow. On paper, it had everything you would expect: a generous living room, kitchen, downstairs bedroom and bathroom, plus two further bedrooms upstairs. But when you looked at the layout as a whole, the flow simply wasn’t working.

And that is often the biggest mistake people make when redesigning a home. They concentrate on individual rooms rather than thinking about how you actually move through the house.

The downstairs problem

The existing downstairs arrangement had the kitchen towards the front of the property, with the living room occupying the larger room to the side. Bedroom 1 and the bathroom were positioned together at the back of the house.

One thing that was particularly important was keeping a Bedroom downstairs. This wasn’t something the client wanted to lose as it adds value. We simply needed to create a more conventional layout. A downstairs bedroom can be incredibly useful — whether for guests, family, accessibility or simply future-proofing the house.

There was also another practical consideration: the existing downstairs wet room is already plumbed in to the rear where we want the kitchen to go which cuts down the cost of getting the plumbing to that area of the house.

So rather than moving everything around and creating unnecessary expense, the redesign needs to work with the existing services wherever possible.

Moving the kitchen to the back

The biggest change is relocating the kitchen to the rear of the property.

The wall between the existing wet room and bedroom area creates an opportunity to rethink the space and create a much more generous kitchen/dining area (as we will be loosing the dining room as the new Bedroom3), while retaining the downstairs bedroom and bathroom arrangement.

And there is a very good reason for putting the kitchen at the back.

The rear windows appear to be French doors/windows, creating the perfect opportunity to connect the kitchen and dining space directly with the garden.

Instead of walking into a small kitchen tucked away at the front of the house, you arrive at a light, sociable space that becomes the heart of the home.

I would use the French doors as a major design feature rather than filling that wall with cabinetry.

The staircase was the key

The staircase was probably the biggest challenge.

In the original arrangement, the position of the stairs interferes with the natural circulation between the kitchen, living room and the other rooms.

You don’t want to walk into your new kitchen only to find that the staircase effectively creates a barrier between it and the rest of the house.

So the staircase needs to move.

The intention is to position it more intelligently against the wall, creating a proper hallway and a much clearer route through the ground floor.

The aim is simple:

Entrance → hallway → living room → kitchen/dining → garden.

No awkward detours. No staircase blocking the route. Just a natural progression through the house.

Rethinking upstairs

The existing first floor has another problem: the bedrooms aren’t particularly well balanced.

One is long and relatively narrow, while the other is much larger. Rather than simply accepting those proportions, moving the staircase gives us the opportunity to redesign the landing and rethink the upstairs arrangement.

The proposed layout creates a much more central landing, with two better-proportioned bedrooms and a properly positioned family bathroom.

The result should feel much more intentional rather than like a collection of rooms that have simply evolved around the existing staircase.

Designing the new kitchen

For the kitchen itself, I am keeping the design timeless rather than overly contemporary.

Option one, we add French windows opposite the island.

Option two, we leave the French windows to the right and place the dining table infant of them.

I’m imagining a classic Shaker-style kitchen in a soft neutral tone, natural worktops, aged or antique brass hardware and plenty of practical storage.

A generous island becomes the centre of the room, providing preparation space, storage and seating plus you would not expect an island in a Dorma Bungalow.

The important thing is that the island faces towards the garden.

That changes the experience completely. Whoever is cooking isn’t facing a wall — they’re looking towards the garden, while family and guests can sit at the island and remain part of the conversation.

The dining area can sit closer to the French doors, creating a natural connection between the kitchen and outside space.

Good design isn’t just about making things beautiful

This is the part of renovation that I find most interesting.

A successful redesign isn’t necessarily about knocking down every wall or creating the biggest possible rooms.

It’s about asking:

How do you actually live here?

Where do you enter? Where do you naturally walk? Where do you want to sit? Where does the light come from? Which rooms need to be close together? Which existing services can be retained? And which changes will genuinely make the house feel better?

In this dorma bungalow, the answer isn’t simply to make the kitchen bigger.

It’s to completely rethink the relationship between the rooms.

By moving the kitchen, relocating the staircase, retaining the downstairs bedroom and working intelligently with the existing bathroom plumbing, the house can become far more practical without necessarily becoming physically larger.

And that’s the beauty of good design.

Sometimes the answer isn’t adding more.

It’s making better use of what you’ve already got.