Our Kitchen, Nice big space
Toby Balchin
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Last November my girlfriend (now wife) and I moved into a lovely big house with a lot of potential. The kitchen was huge but after a couple of month of living in it i realised it really wasn't working, the space needed to be rethought.
I designed the kitchen using the howdens kitchen units, my neighbour, who luckily is a builder, fitted it for us. Some before, during and afters,
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angelauk
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Can our home fulfil our specialised needs?
Comments (12)I am sensing that as always, what we all want is one thing and paying for it all is another. With that in mind, how about some modest but achievable changes? Alter the existing bathroom by removing the separate WC and Block up that door. Make that space the walk in shower with a glass panel and now you can fit a solid polycarbonate shower floor that fits flush with the tiles/floor covering. With the separating wall removed, reset the WC pan and redecorate the bathroom to be one harmonius but useable room. Next, remove bedroom 3 completely and use that space for a new staircase up to a loft conversion. In the loft, simply board and line out the loft space leaving the roof as it is and fit several Velux roof lights. Make the space to a large bedroom and an open plan ensuite with a bath and source a good long one for you to enjoy. Have a Velux above the bath, another over the stairs and maybe one or two overhead above your bed. Now outside, a new, full size and vaulted roof conservatory full of light and space opening onto a new wide patio. As for the front door...costs mean it staying where it is but a new path and fence would help and carry it around to the patio. It is not the most perfect plan and will still cost a good £40/50,000 but it would make a big difference. Remember door widths in all this for future convenience..my Dad was in a wheelchair and it was a big help. So....I hope this gives a few more ideas without being impossible to implement!...See MoreIs our kitchen island big enough for a hob?
Comments (2)Hi - in UK that's an acceptable size and as a designer I would say that's totally fine - although most islands tend to be 900mm deep. In USA you'd need a bit more depth behind your hob - it's a min of 12inches clear landing space one side and 15inches clear the other side of hob then 9inches behind....See MoreWhat would you do? Making the most of our space.
Comments (34)It really depends on what you want to achieve with your loft conversion. I've shown the stairs where I'm assuming they would work best to give you a masterbedroom suite - so with a walkthrough wardrobe and ensuite, to the back with a dormer extension, and potentially another room to the front with some rooflights. I don't really have enough information to be able to give you any definitive answers on that. This would be based on my assumptions of that kind of house, and the sort of things that most of my clients would ask for. Your house might be different and your needs and desires are unique to you, so are quite likely to vary from my assumptions. I think it's unlikely that you could do that loft conversion and the ground floor and other alterations within your £40k budget though. So that's why I would do it in stages and focus on the ground floor to begin with, because that seems to be the main area that doesn't work. I expect that increasing bedrooms will increase the value of your house a lot in London, so it might well be of interest to you from that perspective, but it might not really have that big of an impact on your life in your home for the short term. It depends on your priorities and what your long term plans are. Personally, if this was my home, then I would spend all of my £40k on the ground floor, use furniture to divide up the front bedroom for the kids, and even install a shower-room to the ground floor where I'm suggesting a loo/utility, and put the washing machine in the kitchen. Then I would get a really good sofa-bed and turn the lounge into a very flexible space that can be quickly and easily turned into a comfortable guest room, then let it on airbnb with guests using the downstairs shower room. That way I would quickly save up the money needed to do the loft conversion so I could have all the works done over a few years. That would be my approach, but airbnb is not for everyone and you may not need to do that to get together the extra money needed to do the loft in a few years time. it depends on your personal financial situation. There is a lot that depends on what you personally need and want, what your priorities are, and what your personal financial situation is. Quite rightly you've not shared all of that on here, and i wouldn't expect you to because a lot of that is private information. I hope this helps within the limitations of what I can suggest based on the information I have!...See MorePlease Help! How to best use extension space to achieve our wish list.
Comments (3)I agree with above - you're going to have a lovely bright utility! The usual way people extend is to put the utility and WC into the darkest bit (turning the utility 90 degrees like suggested above) which then pushes the kitchen/dining/living towards the garden end. But that would have involved more walls coming down - I feel like this is a case of you got what you asked for, but now you're asking for something else. I think the architect has come up with the best layout though for minimal work involved - putting the dining table in the dark space will just make it a corridor and you'll mostly eat at the island in the light room with garden views (other than dark evenings like you say when being in dark dining room will be quite cosy). I know people who have done that and regretted it and wished they'd put the kitchen in the dark bit as you tend to be doing something in there anyway and you'll be looking through the lovely bright space rather than being in it. Getting a decent second living space seems important to you so the current layout achieves that. You could perhaps add some high level transom windows between kitchen and utility to bring more light into kitchen (depending on where tall/wall kitchen cabinets are going to be and how ceiling is). Another option that you haven't mentioned is to put the new lounge into the dark space (then you'd have to call it a snug!). Leaving the new space as kitchen and dining. But perhaps you want the sofas to be looking onto garden, or you don't want it right next to the other sitting room - which is understandable. So it depends on what you'd use that living space for - or would also having a couple of upholstered chairs or a window seat in the extension allow you the flexibility you are looking for? Regarding the loo situation - I don't like having to walk through the utility to get to it (mainly as you're going to have to clean/tidy your utility every time guests come round, no thanks) - alternative is to walk through the WC to get to utility - would result in a bigger WC (you don't want to squeeze between toilet and basin so put them on the same wall) and a more useful utility space - and you'll have one window into WC and one into utility and nobody will be walking through the cat litter tray - could keep the pocket door idea so that it's more like one room normally, but easy to close off the messy utility when guests arrive (if that is ever allowed to happen again!)...See More
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