Eat-in kitchen - 3 options

9 years ago

To achieve an eat-in kitchen we have 3 options.
1) Knock through into our formal dining room. Less favoured as the dining room is still used as such; it would be offset; I'd lose valuable worktop space in the kitchen; it wouldn't get me anymore working are in the kitchen; is technically more problematic.
2) knock through into the study. Pros, would be an easy building job; would be a lovely light room. Cons, downstairs loo is in the way and we would lose the study which is a no-no.
3) add single-storey extension onto the side of the house BUT there isn't much space. We could resite the study and loo in there but the flow isn't good.

If we go down the small extension route we could address another issue with the house which is that we nearly always enter the house via a side-door into the utility room, which is between the kitchen and a rear sitting room. You then go through into the kitchen (which then becomes a dumping area). The square kitchen has 2 doors, diagonally opposite one another and a square central island. It is a real bottleneck and drives me mad when people get in my way.

I'm not sure where to start. Any advice welcome. Thank you.

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PRO

OnePlan

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

Ok - so how many people do you want to feed in the kitchen ? Do you have any house plans you could post , like rightmove ones from when you purchased the house ?! Or a neighbours with same layout, so we can see if anything else springs to mind... This seems like a good time to take stock and see how you want your home to work betterfor you ! So, for example maybe making additional dumping ground area within the utility walk through to keep the clutter out of the main kitchen / working area etc ! Otherwise you are just spending a lot of money to get additional eating area but not addressing the other issues !

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Comments (13)

winterfloods
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks OnePlan. It's a one-off house but we have the original plans (with a couple of changes) and I'm trying to scan them at the moment.

You're right about the costs; at the root of our ideas is that, having lived here for 15 years, it's probably cheaper to finally get it right instead of moving. Kitchen could do with an update too; appliances now starting to breakdown. Now retired, we "live" in the rear sitting room and the kitchen, not really using the dining room and main lounge unless friends and family are around. We will move to somewhere smaller in 5-10 years time (house & garden will be too large for a 60+ and 70+!) but would like to enjoy our home even more than we do already. It's in a good location and community.

Back later with plans.
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TV is not staying there - corner by table, up high on the wall I think. I don't want to look at it when cooking!! I'm thinking of putting a larder style cupboard over there for food processor, blender, toaster etc. to be permanently plugged in ready for use. I'm fed up of having no space on the work surfaces. Really like the mix of wood and painted surfaces. We'll be moving an oak table & dining chairs in from another room. Nice idea about a full length window but loses way too much cabinetry (incl sink & d/w looking out over the garden) and impractical with people & muddy dogs coming in that way - there's a utility room for that. The doorway nearest the kitchen sink leads into the utility. The doorway by the existing oven is being bricked up as part of the plan and the new one will be closer to the breakfast end. I'm not sure what is meant by spinning the island around? The width of the room wouldn't allow anything deeper. Unless you mean a peninsula unit. Had been thinking about putting hob on the island along with a small food prep sink - love that in the current kitchen. Speaking to other designers is on the cards anyway as no rush to do kitchen until other building work are done first. But I admit to being a bit disappointed in this first impression considering what we'd seen in their workshop. Thank you everyone for your input. I daresay I'll be back for more advice on lighting/flooring/walls etc as the months roll on.
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Option 3 is the best one. If you have the tall cupboards at the back of the room it won‘t affect the amount of light into the room. The peninsula works better as it keeps the kitchen space together (i.e work triangle). When you enter the room you won’t need to go through the kitchen to get to the dining/living area. just because you have enough room for an island doesn’t mean it’s the best option!! You could have a ceiling mounted extractor fan like the ones from Luxair so it doesn’t block your sight lines into the dining room/garden/living area. I would definitely keep the stools as they are always used. The ideas for the pillar are brilliant for extra storage. I would only have base units as adding wall mounted units will make the area appear smaller. Perhaps you could put a larder cupboard in the utility room for extra food storage. Definitely have as much lighting as possible. You could have the lighting set out into zones (i.e kitchen/dining/living) so that you don’t have to have the kitchen lights on when you are all in the living area etc.
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For me, the question would boil down to how much is it a pantry vs how much is it a utility? If it’s a room that will actively be used while cooking, then the cook will appreciate having it kept tucked in their working zone corner. But if it’s the type of room used by the whole household for not only laundry but also hang up their coats, store the dog lead, keep the kids art supplies, etc the cook will prefer the entrance is on the other side of the island.
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I’m glad you like it. It’s always trial and error when buying something new and cooking in a different way. I have just purchased an air fryer but it’s not a Ninja so doesn’t have as many features. Was reluctant to spend £££s if I didn’t like it. Have become a member of several FB sites that offer information and recipes. Tonight I will be trying it out for the first time in the hope of eating less fat especially as I’m now 4 weeks post op for having my gall bladder out which apparantly was full of stones and caused me horrendous pain and hospital admission. I have bought some bread pans so am also going to have a go at breadmaking.
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PRO
OnePlan
9 years ago
great ! I will try and pop back on later too ! out to lunch with friends on the beach soon ! ( sand sandwiches !!)
PRO
Dytecture
9 years ago
Start with showing a floor plan for each options.
Sarah McColm
9 years ago
I'm looking forward to seeing the plans! Reading your posts, I'm wondering if you should consider altering this house to be a forever home. If you're surrounded by a community you love,it would seem a shame to move away for downsizing. Could you make this place work for you so that you can stay indefinitely?
winterfloods
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks all. Well, we're some months further on and have concluded that the extension is the only practical way forward.

http://plans.sensopia.com/54de54f4679a3

Or

http://plans.sensopia.com/54cd0bc38dd47

He dislikes the loo access from his study. I dislike the bulk of the loo taking away valuable kitchen space.

Any observations welcome!
winterfloods
Original Author
9 years ago
Well, that didn't work, will try again tomorrow. How can I delete my previous post?
winterfloods
Original Author
9 years ago
http://plans.sensopia.com/54de54f4679a3

Or

http://plans.sensopia.com/54cd0bc38dd47
PRO
OnePlan
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
It did work ! I can see the links to the drawings !!
I think access to dining room from kitchen is a bit of an epic on both !! If this is because you hardly ever use the dining room .... why not have a fabulous dining table with everything a family would need for an office built into to storage within the dining room - so 80% of the time it's used as an opulent study - and the other 20% of the time it's used as a dining room
That would free up space in the 'working' end of the house for a more fluid laundry/mud room casual entrance to the house and larger family kitchen / eating and
Chilling area ...
winterfloods
Original Author
9 years ago
Hi OnePlan, you're right, it is further away from the formal dining room but that gets used so infrequently I wasn't too concerned. There's only the two of us living here.

My partner absolutely refuses to consider amalgamating his study within the dining room; I have looked on here for ideas that might change his mind but with no luck as we have a large formal dining table & 8 chairs which can only really go one way. Which is a shame as I thought he would have loved putting his desk by the window overlooking the back garden.

We've got the garden room and conservatory for relaxing evenings so the extra room in the little extension is earmarked for relocated study and larger utility. The larger utility is good also as it is the most used entrance to the house. If the study was put into the dining room, the extension could be just loo and big utility/entrance but I'm back to trying to persuade OH to even think about that. I just seem to be going around in circles.

Thanks for the ideas though. I'll keep playing with them.
PRO
OnePlan
9 years ago
All the while it's just you two discussing it, there's a strong possibility you will end up going round and round.
Add in a pro - either onsite - or like I work - producing drawings via email, and suddenly you'd be amazed how many decisions suddenly get made !!
If you want to move forward - I would strongly advise calling in help !!!
;-)
Lady Tottington's Poodle
9 years ago
Well I know who I'd choose. Well done on your award OnePlan, saw it posted on another thread x
Sarah McColm
9 years ago
Winterfloods - would you mind posting a picture of the current layout. Why does the toilet have to be situated in either your domain or his? Is there no neutral ground you could impinge on ;)

Eat-in kitchen - 3 options

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