Check list for kitchen planning may help. Planning a Fitted Kitchens Step 1: Getting Started Designing the most important room in your home requires careful planning. So, before you do anything else there are some key questions to ask yourself. As you do so keep a record of your ideas so you can refer back to them as your project progresses. Step 2: How and when you want to use the space What do you and don’t like about your existing kitchen. What really works for you in the current kitchen layout and what frustrates you? The negatives are just as important as the positives as they can help you form a clear idea of what you do or don’t need in your new fitted kitchen. Step 3: Key areas of the kitchen There are four vital zones that will create a natural and efficient flow to your kitchen design; cooking, food preparation, sink and storage. However, increasingly kitchens are used for all types of activity. Do you need a room that can cope with the rigours of a busy family? Are you going to dine in your kitchen? If so, plan enough room for a dining table, breakfast bar or island is a great place to congregate. You may be a keen cook and if your cooking for a large family a range cooker may figure in your plans along with plenty of worktop space. You may want turn your kitchen into a open-plan design in which case a area to relax, and room for a sofa and TV may be important. Ultimately, it’s your kitchen, and the most important thing is how you and your family are going to use the space. Design the space and features (must have items) around the activities that will take place in your kitchen, and most of all ensure you match your kitchen to your lifestyle. Step 4: Finer details As you become clear on the demands you will be placing on your new kitchen make a wish-list of your preferred products and materials. From a practical perspective consider what you will require from you appliances, worktops, storage solutions and sink and tap. You may already have a look in mind of the kitchen in terms of colour, style and finish, but it’s a great idea to gather ideas from magazines or websites. Enjoy creating a scrap-book with cuttings of furniture, flooring, taps, even paint finishes, crockery or vases- anything that inspires you. Even just images with right ‘feel’. Step 5: Budget With a kitchen the cost of key elements such as appliances, units and worktops can vary dramatically. For instance, appliances may account for a considerable percentage of the total cost of the kitchen, however if branded top-end ovens, hobs and extractors are specified this percentage can escalate dramatically to become the most expensive element of the project. Similarly the choice of worktops materials and door material may increase the budget substantially. There may be areas of the project where you may have to be prepared to consider a compromise to stay within your budget. Step 6: Layout As a rule of thumb this will be dictated by the existing dimensions of you room, or you may be lucky enough to be planning to extend. If you are extending you amy wish to consider an open-plan kitchen to seamlessly link through to the living area. Whatever the shape there are clever design options that will ensure you can make the most of the space available to you. Even in a tight space a clever designer can still work miracles.

As far as I am aware, the restrictions are all regards the dimensions of your extension and come under Householder plans. It is the insurance that differs as you are operating a business from home, same as poll tax ( that differs too ). The building however is a private household and therefore comes under residential. Try the Governments planning portal for assistance, or building control at the local council.

Hi Rinq, thank you so much for taking the time to draw up some possible floor plans for us - this has been incrediby helpful. I love your proposed layout for the kitchen. My only concern with your design is that the wall with the kitchen- diner entrance is load bearing and would therefore require structural work to move. Presumably this would not be an issue, just something I will need to discuss with a builder for an estimated cost. Do you think there would be enough room in the kitchen to add a pennisula on the external wall of your design, turning your design into a G shape kitchen? This is something we are considering but it is hard to tell whether the area would feel cramped. I have attached a screenshot of another kitchen design that my partner likes which utilises an island although I do not think our kitchen diner has enough space for this. Again, thank you for considering and proposing a floor plan for the 1st floor. Your approach to moving the master suite to the left of the property makes complete sense and appears a better utilisation of space, although walking this through in the house we have realised the views are much better on the right hand side of the property from the existing master bedroom and feel it would be best to keep this as the master. Do you have any recommendations on how best to use the extension for an en-suite & walk in wardrobe i.e. layout of bathroom items, which way round to have the two rooms, and also considering the window positioning & soil pipe that will need to be inserted to remove waste at the front of the property. Appreciate this is a lot of considerations I am seeking help for so any feedback / comments would be great. Thank you in advance.

Hi Ellie. It's a good point. I assumed these detailed points have already been discussed between the architect and the client. If Chris wants to have the fireplace for the lounge/lliving space then the room with a dining table to the front and the kitchen + island counter to the rear will be split. My understanding was that the room at the rear extension is the main dining space and the room to the front was going to be used for occasional formal dining. It all depends on how the space is going to be used. It looks like it's possible to have a smaller dining table in the rear extension if the island is reorganised or removed. There are severalf physical and planning constraints so Chris needs to define his priority.