Not sure what to do with our kitchen... Help!
Hi Houzzers,
I hope you are all doing well.
I am struggling with our proposed kitchen layout and your advises and suggestions would be greatly appreciated 😊
To give you a bit of background:
Our current kitchen is great, have a good amount of storage and all the appliances we need but has some annoying issues:
- Flow is not great (I have the feeling I go around the table all the time, fridge door just open and block the passage, only spaces for the bins is next to the door - quite far from the prep areas...)
- We have a lovely garden but sitting at the table, the only thing we see is the garage door. In general, it doesn’t feel very connected to the garden.
- Kitchen door is the main access to the garage and the garden for the house – meaning it is in use constantly, and the table tend to collect keys, wallet… and all the shoes underneath.
We were not originally planning to change the kitchen, but as we are doing work in another part of the house that require planning, we thought we may tackle both areas at the same time (escpailly in terms of planning).
We therefore submitted an application to add a bay window with French doors but I am not convinced it is the best solution actually…
I think we are actually losing storage space and prep space; and I can’t see where the fridge will go, nor the double oven (needed as we entertain a large family often).
Also I am not attached to having an island – it was a suggestion from the architect – and I am concerned we will have to ‘walk around it a lot’. I like islands, but I don’t know if it would work for our kitchen.
As we need to resubmit our planning application (due to changes on the other area), I am keen to rethink the kitchen.
Do you have any suggestion on how to improve the design?
This can be any suggestion – keeping current footprint or include a bay windows area or even including a small extension (we cannot extend too much in the garden due to the garage location but we would consider a small extension of a meter or so)…. Really open to new ideas!
I just don't know what to do here… so any suggestions would be gladly appreciated 😊
Many thanks!
Current plan:
I don't have the exact dimension on the kitchen - but on estate agent plan it was written 5.97x3.32 m
Proposed plan:
Photos (sorry for the mess!):
View from table - directly on the garage...
Comments (32)
C D
3 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (2)Hello Jane, Well I would look at it this way. Are you an avid user of the kitchen, do you intend to have a dining area within. Is entertaining a big part of your life. Or does the house suggest an open plan arrangement.. If there is a large living room and all the rooms are sizeable then it would suggest that you use the space accordingly.. However if you have to knock walls through in order to extend the floor area to gain a large kitchen then that's slightly different as you may well be losing in other respects. Perhaps it might be a good idea to look at the square footage of the floor in question and what you need out of it. If the ratio of kitchen vs living room is disproportionate in favour of kitchen then I would personally want a larger living area.. It is entirely possible to have dining in living and separate kitchen.. So work out where you want to do the eating.. If there are not separate rooms for each, as this may help you to decide.. Look at the flow of the house/apartment too.... : ))...See Moreneed help with our extension
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3 years agoAlyson Jones
3 years agoI agree with the idea of an l shaped kitchen to add more storage. Depending on the dimensions I would look at go one step further and swap the island for a peninsula at between the windows and the door. So it would be more of a u. I find that peninsulas are less awkward/pokey when they are smaller than with an island.
I might be a bit biased as I’m in love with our peninsula. Not sure if these are the best photos, but something like this
C D thanked Alyson JonesC D
3 years agoThanks all for all the comments and suggestions - it actually helped me a lot think about this differently!!! It sparks some ideas and creativity :)
A peninsula may actually be a good idea - less "walking around" it and could provide an area for the bins :)The thing that nag is not the table / island in itself - more than the circulation around it is tight and the fridge door open in the way :) (I have stop counting how many time I had to wait for someone to close the fridge to be able to get by)
I had a bit of a play (with Paint - so measurements may be a bit off, even if I tried as much as possible to keep the dimensions from the architect plan)
Option 1 - L shape:
Option 2 - L shape with peninsula:
Option 3 - Extension with island:
And then I went a bit crazy with option 4 and 5 :) - realistically, not very viable options: a lot of structural work (the wall between kitchen and dinning room is load bearing) - and money that we don't have for this project + I am not sure i will suit our family as with family entertainment, having the kitchen separate is better (I don't have to do the washing up as I go...) and I am not keen to "work from the kitchen" during the day; but I thought, why not try those on paper anyway :)
I think at the moment, option 2 with the peninsula is the best/most realistic and practical - but I also like option 4.But keen to get your views and ideas - and if anyone has any other options, please let me know :)
Oh and here the relation of the house with the garage (roughly to scale):
C D
3 years ago
PROOnePlan
3 years ago- PRO
OnePlan
3 years ago 
tezz4
3 years agoC D
3 years agojeltridge
3 years agoHello, you have some really good options now. Personally what struck me was how many doors there are in this area/area's. It seems to inhibit flow. As you said you seems to always be going "around" items. In the new proposed design I was wondering why you need a table next to a bench with there also being a table in the dining room? As someone else mentioned the powder and utility room seem overly large in comparison to the kitchen and what you want to achieve.
Forgive my crude alterations, I had about 5 minutes to spare, here are some other thoughts to the above, but, the best option will really depend on how you want to live in this new area and the functional flow you are after.
You can easily keep the wall between the kitchen and dining in place. Or, you can remove all or part of it. If part is structural and small lintel can easily be added (generally). Opening it up will allow more natural light and help with overall flow, however, retaining some of the wall also maintains a degree of privacy and can allow for hanging of art or positioning of other furniture against the retained wall. You could also add a sliding door between the kitchen and dining if you wished, however, this could be a compromise if you can create a cavity slider. The central island bench has an overhang so can easily accommodate breakfast, family dinners, homework in view (put in lots of USB and power outlets in this island). You could also make the bench a bit wide and drop part of the height to a normal table height, although I believe this would compromise the flow.
Options also exist to remove some of the dining wall to the hall. But, not knowing the house dynamics this could impact on required noise control and heat/cooling requirements. Again sliders to the dining room/hall way can increase the effective space in both areas. They could be hung externally on the hall side.. Slot windows above the main kitchen bench can also bring in light. WM and Dryer can be incorporated in the kitchen cupboards. So many options. Good luck! Julie
An idea of how slot windows can look.
C D thanked jeltridgeC D
3 years agoMany thanks all for all your great comments - a lot of ideas! Huge thanks for taking the time to help on my design dilemma :)
After a bit more play with the design, and discussions with my partner, we decided that we won't change the dining room (as we are like having it separate and it would not work for me when I work from home to have it open). We wont change either the toilet (not indicated on the plan, but there are 2 large cupboards in the toilet that are use for coats/shoes as there are no storage in the hallway) nor the utility room (I need to have all the dirty washing/hanging clothes and the cat paraphernalia hidden - as well as the cat flap on that door that brings a lot of cold in the winter so having a separate utility on a must for us.)
So, we decided that a small extension is probably what we need.attached my current idea - we cannot extend much (here I think it is about 1.5/2m, which would b the maximum due to our garage location) but I will think it would help "square up" the room.
In terms of style, probably a orangery style extension as I think it would suit the age of the house.
What do you think? Am I missing something fundamental? any better suggestions?Many thanks!!
Jonathan
3 years agoC D
3 years agotezz4
3 years agoC D
3 years agoJonathan
3 years ago@ruthfrench If your dining room is through your living room or indeed in your living room as a lot of people have dinner parties can still happen seamlessly.
Consider sitting your guests at the table before bringing out food or find a menu that looks appealing served on one enormous platter.
Laura
3 years ago
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