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Renovating Design Dilemma Kitchens

L shaped - kitchen diner living room

3 years ago

So we are thinking of knocking three rooms together to form an open plan kitchen, diner, living room. The idea is to create a socialable space and whilst this wouldn't be our main lounge i'm keen to create the perfect space for entertaining!

We would be knocking through the dining kitchen, sitting room and dining room. We would be bricking up the space between the dining room and the room to the right of this which is a large separate lounge.

The yellow represents the external wall of the existing house everything else is an extension (the back is single story, the side is double story).

My issue is the L shape is almost the wrong way in the sense of where do you put each of the three sections as one would essentially become a walkway?

If this was your house what would you do?

I think the most logical thing from a flow perspective would be to make this square converting the garage but think taking a corner of the existing house out will prove very costly.

Featured Answer

rinked

3 years ago

It isn't an easy layout. Diningroom in your floorplan is basically an extension of the hallway.

So I did some fooling around :) Hope there's some inspiration for you in it.

Comments (6)

rinked
3 years ago
Please post the full floorplan.
Do-er- Upper
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago

Hi @rinked see below: :) thank you
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Hi minnie101, Thanks so much for your detailed reply. Great to know what colour that grey is. It may be a little dark with our floor. We will definitely update the handles - I hate the current ones. We'll probably go with wood to keep within budget. Your non-tiles pic is lovely. We'll probably keep some tiles and try to keep the kitchen a little more modern than country kitchen, which might be a challenge with wood. The room faces south. I like your idea of dividing it with paint. We probably will go with white in the kitchen and then 1/2 slightly darker tones in the tv-couch area. The 'other' entrance into the dining area is narrowed by a non-structural wall, so we should remove this to open it properly or like you say, close it off. Maybe not close it off entirely as we'd lose a lot of light, but maybe put in a counter or breakfast bar if space allowed. I love your pendant light suggestions over the dining table. Details like this and a rug in the couch area will really help divide the room as at the moment it is one big cavernous space. I really can't decide yet what way the couches should face - into a tv in the corner, or out into the room like you suggest. We'll have to draw out some chalk outlines on the floor and see how much space there actually is. Colour-wise we like the idea of keeping walls and cabinets quite stark, the wood counter will add a bit of warmth, and then adding colour with couches, rugs and possibly dining chairs. I've attached a couple of pieces of furniture I like. Some may not work, but we'll figure it out.
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Do-er- Upper
Original Author
3 years ago
bump*
Do-er- Upper
Original Author
3 years ago
@rinked I'm so sorry I didn't get a notification to say you commented so have only just seen your response. I think you are exactly right about the extension of the corridor and that's what is really concerning me. I'm wondering if the space would be better utilised like in your option 3 but having one large kitchen/diner and i'm asking too much of the space for it to be a living room too. We are likely to convert the garage to be a play room so it does give us an extra room there too. I think the space would be a lot better if we knocked the garage, utility, dining kitchen and dining room into one for it to be large square space as a kitchen/diner/living room do you? Though my concern here is costs of this and RSJ's/steel needed.
christineacy
3 years ago
Hello, Do-er upper.

Mmm I was a bit confused just as I think you need to pinpoint your needs a bit more to find out what is the best layout. @rinked I agree, an interesting layout.

How old are your children? You say to create a social space and a play area too. Depending on how old the kids are you will probably need to future proof too. All these changes depend on weight bearing walls as you say.

Sounds like you want some flexibility... so maybe consider disappearing walls ?

But some questions

1. Do you want a social space to be when you are the kitchen ?

2. Do you want the social space when you have family and guests over ? (We all long for that day:) )

3. Do you want to see the kids playing when you are in the kitchen ?

If 1 or 3. Then you want the kids area to be near the kitchen sight-lines. So the play area does not have to be overly big and can be the dayroom general do every thing room.

If 2. Then your sight-lines change and area changes as you will want a bigger area so that you are not cut off. Then the dayroom area could be (when socialising) the drinks and chat room before you go to the dinning room...? ( Sounds very formal ) So your dinning room does not necessarily have to be open plan.

Then your Kitchen is the centre and everything is around it....? Which is rinked 3rd plan with the garage wall partially down.

More questions.. Does anyone in the family work from home ?

Oh and the garage is there a room above it ?

If you are willing to spend the amount of money on steels and including the garage area etc you may as well look at the whole of the ground floor as a whole. Which means you get exactly what you want and may not be as costly mmmm... ??? because you will future proof and depending on the age of the house and what materials it is constructed in... There are so many different construction materials these days. Your garage could be made of just glass or wood or even plywood. And even if knock through it may not be completely as you may need some wall space for storage. (Also remember there is no point knocking through a wall to only then put up a full height cupboard).

I hope this helps to pinpont your needs a bit more. :)

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