New Kitchen Layout needed as kids grow into adults!

6 years ago

Hi, I've been puzzling over this for some time & would really appreciate some help. The diagram below shows our current kitchen layout. Household was 2 adults and 4 kids, now kids are adult/teens. I'd like to expand the lounge seating area to accommodate 4/5. I'm thinking of reducing size of breakfast bar, but will still need worktop space. Existing workspace at breakfast bar is a little too far from hob and fridge from the cook's perspective so maybe I could reduce it's size and push it back. Table could stay in existing space with lounge in mid-section or vice versa. Or maybe I need to be more creative?? Thank you.

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Comments (3)

Patricia Mulvey
6 years ago
If you remove the island completely, then create a u-shaped kitchen by adding a peninsula from the internal corner, this will move the work surface closer to the hob/sink and there will still be space for seating at the other side of new breakfast bar. Then move dining table more into the kitchen leaving more space for seating in the living area. I think that should work!
emer_m_cahill thanked Patricia Mulvey
Mike Burrows
6 years ago
You have four doors entering into or leaving the room. Can any of these be closed up / blocked off? Without seeing the rest of the house, it's difficult to come up with a design solution, but certainly if a door or two could go, you would have much more freedom to develop a workable layout.
emer_m_cahill thanked Mike Burrows
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I don't see a fridge in the kitchen. I like them in close proximity to the sink. Is that a stove or cooktop under the window? That will make for messy cleaning of the glass. I would turn the island the other direction, make it much longer with a table extension. You could install the cooktop there. Is there need for wheelchair space now, or possibly in the future.
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In the main I agree with Patricia. I would move the dining table to the living area, move the living area to the kids room, move the island a little more to the right so it is just a little more over than the width of the entrance walkway, at the moment it is more to the left and almost interrupts the entry flow enough to keep catching your self on the edge, with the table moved it will allow this, plus there may be enough room for more storage on the right hand wall decorative or practical and naturally shallower than standard depth, consider what it would be used for then you can make an informed decision on depth. The island sink and bin are not far from the tall unit pantry and fridge, so no I don't think they are to far away, whatever you get from these places are to be opened probably by the sink or bin, or opened to eat from the packaging. Also why would you have a log burner and an aga in the same room unless your aga is an electric one? They both give of tremendous heat, an aga is constant and unless you have planned for other oven types it will be year round so summer as well, as Patricia mentioned bare in mind how the sun transits your house, where it's position is when you will be in these areas which I'm guessing will be most of the time. I know plenty of people who gave had " improvements revamps etc" to their kitchen dining living spaces with plenty of regrets, loads of glass to bring the outside in, underfloor heating and an aga, the underfloor heating is switched off you can't zone it to where you want it, and the aga gives of to much heat with the glass combined, all the hard surfaces, no acoustics were considered by the so called "architects" sound is a problem too, something else to consider, someone else had to have some of their new kitchen change to make room for an air conditioning unit because of the heat, this is very expensive to run constantly, summers are almost unbearable, these things also affect materials being used such as leather and wood drying out and cracking/splitting. I hope this has been helpful. Kind regards Barbara
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emer_m_cahill
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you both for taking the time to comment.

Yes it would be better without the doors but unfortunately the doors have to stay. Patricia's U-shaped idea is promising. I could use the outer two thirds of the 'conservatory' area as a 'lounge' space and then place a dining table extending up into the rest of the kitchen area. I'm just unsure as to whether it will work as a unified space.

New Kitchen Layout needed as kids grow into adults!

Comments (3)

Patricia Mulvey

Mike Burrows

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New Kitchen Layout needed as kids grow into adults!

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Patricia Mulvey

Mike Burrows

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