Yay or No to moving the kitchen to the middle darker through room??

6 months ago

We have playing with our layout since we moved into this GF, terraced flat and have pretty much scrapped the idea of putting a proper extension on the back (in place of the conservatory) for the moment as it's too costly due to rising costs with the other flats we are renovating in the same building. Plus we aren't sure how long we will stay here for so don't want to overspend until we know for sure. I've asked for advice on this before but after 2 months of debate , this is our last options,,,

Current use....

- the lounge is large and quite grand with decorative high 3m ceiling and I love it as a living space. It's North East facing so never too bright but never too dark either due to the high windows. We always head there in the evening but don't use it in the day.

- the bedroom isn't huge but it fits our King in.

- the conservatory at the back is lovely and bright as South West facing, BUT it is very hot in Summer (so nice in the evening to dine in ) We are currently using it as an office /day room as we like a bright room in the daytime and it's the only sunny room really.

- that leaves us with the corridor middle dark room... which is large and has a huge chimney in but is sort of a dining room I guess? It's very dark because the house is terraced and when the kitchen/conserv was added on, it blocked the light from this room.

We had been looking at turning it into a living space and the front room a bedroom once we extend (so we have 2 beds) but I love the front room so not 100% on it. Plus it's a walkthrough room so it feels odd.

So, we have a couple of options with the layout (see current layout as attached) keeping the conserv for now.

1) Keep the chimney and move the kitchen into the darker mid room but have an island or peninsular off the chimney with seating running parallel to the passageway (all the plumbing is down that private alleyway so it's quite easy to move) and then make the current kitchen into a snug/day room with sofa and put patio doors in place of the kitchen window to let more light and heat in from the conservatory. It's not a huge room though ie only 3.9m x 2.7 but ok for a snug?

2) Knock down (and this would be a huge dirty, structural job!! but cheaper than an extension) the chimney that runs the two storeys and take out the wall between the kitchen and dining room and make that one open plan kitchen/diner/snug. Again with the French doors into the conservatory ( or we could even remove the conservatory if we really wanted to and put bi-

folds across the back, but it is a handy room!)

Option 2 would give us more light but is a lot more work and cost. It would create a huge room though .

**So what I really want to know is would option 1 be an appealing layout?? It's the cheapest and you don't really need a super bright daylight kitchen as long as you have good lighting??

Thank you!

Featured Answer

Tani H-S
Original Author

5 months ago

Morning, thanks for your input.

It's a difficult one to be honest as that room is too dark for me to use as an office as I need more natural light to work in. I was in there for a while but found myself gravitating to the light 😂

Plus my office isn't just a desk - I make products but I can't close it off without creating one super long corridor from the hallway, so always walking through isn't ideal.

That's why we thought about the kitchen moving there as we mostly cook in the evening when it's darker out anyway so was thinking of going down the dark and moody kitchen ave with some good lighting, metallics and rich colours to make it a really nice cosy evening room) A case of 'don't fight the dark, join the dark' lol. Plus maybe sensor lighting so when you walk through, it lights up before you go in.

So that side window wouldn't do much more being bigger. I can obviously decorate the outside with plants up the walls and mirrors to bring more light in. Yes it has no views but the we don't have much of a view of the back anyway ie its a town terrace so we just have a little courtyard garden surrounded by buildings. If we put doors in then we lose kitchen spade - but yes, I have thought about it. It's mostly plumbing down that side though ie all the bathrooms and kitchen plumbing go there so would cost so much to move all the pipes 🙈

In the morning we would always go and sit in the sun room for coffee and use the peninsula at night for cooking and drinking and for formal meals, our lounge is huge so was going to add a dining table in there where the fire is.

Even in our last house which was open plan south facing, we sat at the back doors.

This is the issue with the conservatory because yes, ideally we would have extended it and put the kitchen diner there but it's going to cost £30k plus.

We are getting someone in next week to look at the conserve roof and also pricing for having doors put on the back of the current kitchen but as its not a proper extension, we couldn't just make that an open plan kitchen diner permanently as the conservatory won't be up to spec for building regs 😔

So hope that explains the weird decision to move it to a darker room as we like more light day living space than light cooking space.

It really is a difficult one though but my mum seems to like it and she's old school so it can't be that awful 😂🤞🤞

(p.s. Sun tunnel people are coming today to survey so 🤞🤞 if we can get one or two in! .)

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Comments (12)

Tani H-S
Original Author
6 months ago
**realised i had added the after mock up kitchen in the middle pics before posting this question! argh! So the image with the kitchen mock up with the island is actually 'Option 1' - as the kitchen is currently in the room on the right next to it and has no dining space in there (ie it's just a U shaped kitchen with wasted space in the centre!)

It's a one bed flat but actually moving the kitchen and having a snug at the end , it could also be used as a guest bedroom if we get a good sofa bed as it has rear access for fire safety .
Tani H-S
Original Author
6 months ago
just bumping this as having panics about it even though the OH is on board and likes it. I worry where everyone else is moving the kitchen into the brighter rooms, me moving it to a darker one might be a super bad decision . argh.
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CWD
5 months ago
I think it's ok but personally wouldn't want a dark kitchen as I think I'd use it just to function in, but not really enjoy being in there - minimal light and minimal views out. If you opened up the window wall more to let more light in (and make that little bit of courtyard attractive to look out onto) would that significantly improve it? Have you considered improving and insulating the conservatory so that it can be more useful, then open that up to the existing kitchen? The dark middle room is fine as a dining room for me (walk past it most of the time, but used on dark evenings for dinners so doesn't need to be full of light) or you could make the middle room the office - decent light at the window for a desk?
PRO
Canmore Design
5 months ago
Way too many walls in your place. No wonder you have light problems. First thing is to take away the wall between the two back rooms and make it one large kitchen/diner/day room. Ideally increase the size of the door to the conservatory to maximise the light you have coming in. The double wall in the middle. Is that a closet or chimney? If its a chimney put in a double ended wood stove so it becomes a connecting feature between both rooms. By the look of the design the end rooms could be an older extension. Do they have their own roofs or are their floors above them? If they have their own roofs, pop in a few skylights. If you can turn the conservatory into an extension (e.g. re-roof it, insulate that roof and lower walls, and check your windows to make sure they are all double glazed and properly installed) then you wouldn't even need the sliding doors. As for putting the kitchen in the middle. Seriously. Just no. Dark kitchens will just make you feel dismal (especially in the summer) and you'll want to be leaving them as quickly as you can.
Tani H-S
Original Author
5 months ago
@Canmore - that's sort of the point of my post really we can't afford to remove the wall in between the two back rooms as its a conservatory at the end and it's going to cost £25-30k which I've already explained in my post. It's a flat - not a house so we won't ever get our money back for doing that.

The wall in the new kitchen is a huge chimney and takes up most of that wall. We have already discussed removing this and having a double fire between the two rooms but it's not small enough to give an open plan feel by opening it up to both rooms.

And no, there are rooms above hence not being able to have rooflights.

We have looked at all options but if we don't extend /convert the conservatory into a proper room then it's pointless keeping the kitchen where it is.

From our daily lives we spent little time in the kitchen except for cooking. We sit in the back rooms daytime and move to the front lounge at night.

On a day like today (rain and dull) we need the lights on in the kitchen anyway so it's sort of no different to moving it over slightly.

You have to take into consideration all the things we have already thought about with the layout and what we can afford to do.
PRO
Canmore Design
5 months ago
I don't know who quoted you £25-30k to open up a wall. Even if it needs steel reinforcement, it won't need steal all the way around picture frame style (despite what some engineers try to push). Opening a wall, even a structural wall should cost around £5-8k max. Shop around.
Tani H-S
Original Author
5 months ago
Ah no sorry, its not just for the wall. Although we are actually getting prices for that anyway so we have a multi use room.

It was £25-30k to make the conservatory a proper room and knock through so we could use it for part of the kitchen? Ie the current kitchen is too small to fit a peninsular seating area in and if we keep the conservatory and just put bifolds across the back between the rooms, then we would lose half the kitchen units and couldn't put them anywhere else?

Basically the conservatory isn't up to current building regs and it will cost that to knock it down and rebuild it as a proper extension /add onto the current kitchen.

Ultimately, we won't be staying here long term and it will probably get rented out in the future once we can afford to buy a separate place (this is a block of 4 flats we own as one building and are spending a fortune renovating the others as well)
Dingo
5 months ago
Save your money up and make the kitchen, dining room, utility and conservatory space all one room while also changing the conservatory into an extension to create one large socialable space you can use all year round.
Tani H-S
Original Author
5 months ago
Wonderful idea, Dingo. Just need to find £50k plus to do that 😂

On a serious note though, it's not possible. Everyone advises us against the major structural work of taking out the whole chimney stack across two floors at the back and then you are saying about also removing the back wall and the doing the conservatory...

It's just not possible with our budget now and in future.

It's a one bed flat NOT in London so that would be a massive overspend.

Also we would lose an office space and just get one giant room for two of us 🙈
CWD
5 months ago
If you know you're not staying there long term then I'd reconsider moving kitchen into the dark room to give you a light office - most people who work from home just need a desk, which could be anywhere in the flat. I think most people would prefer a light kitchen and it would be easier/cheaper to keep the kitchen utilities where they are. Think ahead to when you're renting it out and don't spend money on something that is too personal a choice. Dining in the darker room with patio doors to the private side courtyard seems like a better choice to me. And gives a long-term option of upgrading the conservatory and opening it up to the kitchen.
Tani H-S
Original Author
5 months ago
When I say we won't be here long term, I mean we will probably only stay here in the next 5 years max. Maybe less.

So the house also has to work for us as well and the middle room is just too large to use as a formal dining room. Ie it would be such a waste of a room.

What we are short of, is a day room.

The current kitchen is the wrong shape and size and we have no utility either.

To be honest, we didn't buy it with it being ideal for us but thought there were plenty of rooms in this large flat that we could jig it all around.. Not so easy when you start looking at costs and structural things 😂

Plus we also never intended on doing a full refurb in the rest of the building so that's taken up alot of our spare cash.

It's one of those where you need to see the space to appreciate the layout and how it works.

Anyway, there is still a possibility we can get sun tunnels in via the room above the proposed kitchen, but it's going to take some planning and working out.

Yay or No to moving the kitchen to the middle darker through room??

Tani H-S
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Yay or No to moving the kitchen to the middle darker through room??

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