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Dining Rooms Kitchens Renovating

Kitchen Diner Living Space

last year

Would love some advice please. I'm looking to open up the downstairs of my house further than it is by removing the walls between kitchen & breakfast room, kitchen & study, and study & dining room (so basically all walls to make it one big open space!) I will be adding a wall back in between lounge and dining though, to make the lounge a separate cosy snug. A few questions :
1) the current extension at the back was built as a flat roof (pic 2) - could this be retrospectively made into a pitched roof with windows in the roof to bring in lots more light and make it feel more open? (Pic 3 for example)
2) once all knocked together the measurements will be roughly 6.70m length x 4.70m width (though obviously slightly shorter down the right hand side as the hallway runs into the study) - do you think this is enough space for a kitchen with small island or peninsula, a dining table, and a corner sofa area with tele on the wall? And if so what layout would you use? Kitchen where it currently is, with dining table alongside it? And then maybe living area in the bottom corner where the new wall to the lounge will be? Tele on the wall?
3) Would love to get bi-folds along the back wall but heard mixed things about them. Anyone recommend them or gone for a different option?
Thanks and sorry for the long essay!!

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Comments (5)

PRO
The Living House
last year
last modified: last year
Hi Jo Flo, we are an online interior design company. We have a blog on our website that you may find helpful for your renovation. It is all about mistakes to avoid with your open plan space. Here is the link if you would like to take a read - https://www.thelivinghouse.co.uk/blog-interior-design-tips/10-design-mistakes-to-avoid-with-an-open-plan-room

We would love to support you to achieve an open plan space you will love! It would be great to have a chat with you to discuss how we can help you and learn more about your project, feel free to drop us a message or an email to hello@thelivinghouse.co.uk
Anna Massey
last year
We have a quite similar layout to you, those ours is a little wider. We turned the study into a utility and shower room with access off the dining room. Left the dining room as is and then divided the kitchen / breakfast room with a peninsula. Our extension has been built with a pitched roof and a false ceiling. We removed the false ceiling and added veluxes.
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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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to add, this was original layout. I was worried kitchen would not get much light in mornings. the house is actually Northeast facing. what you prefer it any other options.
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User
last year
last modified: last year
I would consider something like this (or with a U-shaped kitchen like Anna Massey's):

You don't gain much from combining the dining room and study. I'd convert the leftmost half of the study into an extension of the corridor to improve circulation (it gets the circulation path out of the dining room, so the latter effectively gains space), and the rightmost half into some combination of laundry room/bathroom/WC/storage/office nook, depending on your needs and budget.

If putting in a bathroom/WC, I'd make sure to put the door to it facing the wall currently dividing the dining and the study, for privacy.
User
last year
Are you open to moving the kitchen?
PRO
i-architect
last year
Hi Jo!

A few quick answers for you...

1. You can put rooflights into a flat roof, so you don't have to replace it with a pitched roof to add those and get the daylight. Unless you want to add the extra height.

2. Yes you could potentially create a kitchen with island or peninsula in that size of space. Possibly with corner sofa and dining table - though it depends how big you want these to be!

3. Bifolds do have pros and cons. It really depends what you're trying to achieve with them that will determine if they are right for you or not. I often suggest using a large picture window and an oversized door, or sliding doors. These can give you the results you want - easy access to the garden, good views of the garden, good energy efficiency / heat retention, ease of opening the opening bit, and several other benefits... bifolds main benefit is that you can open up a large wall area. But you get more frames blocking your view, they can be heavy to move, they need to stack up to one side which needs to be accounted for in the design, they are not as effective at sealing against weather and heat loss...So it just depends what you want.

Best wishes with your home redesign!

Jane

award winning chartered architect

eco-home and conservation area specialist

www.i-architect.co.uk

For helpful videos watch my YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@iarchitect

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