Should we knock through from dining to kitchen?

6 years ago

last modified: 6 years ago

Just bought an Edwardian detached house. Husband wants to knock through from dining (marked Breakfast room in floor plan), but it's a lovely proportioned room for a dining room and I am more tempted to keep it separate from the kitchen. You have to walk through the dining to get to the kitchen and the kitchen isn't really big enough for a table, so the dining room will be used every day for dining. The existing dining room is going to be our guest bedroom, so ignore that on the floor plan.

We are moving the toilet room out of the kitchen and into the space under the stairs, with access from hallway. That opens up the kitchen to a decent size square space. Ideally I'd have large window at garden end of kitchen and cabinets on left and right walls only - see my drawing. But it's a little too wide to be a galley kitchen, but not wide enough to put an island or table in the middle. Plus there's four windows in the kitchen which are a pain to work around - might have to block two up if we did tall cabinets on the right side.

Ideally we'd just put in an efficient, cheap kitchen and not move any windows or doors as we hope to do a proper extension in a few years - once we've figured out what we need it to do.

So, I drew out my plan which I really quite like, but then I realized I didn't include a washing machine - eek! Trying to avoid a U-shaped kitchen, but it might have to be that. OR we knock through into the dining room and have a long room - but then where do I put the kitchen cabinets and appliances?? Could just put a peninsula where the wall currently is and that would give lower cabinets on kitchen side and counter seating on dining side....or is that a bit boring? Should we be focussing on keeping it all open to see through to the garden? Moving the dining area to the garden end??

Any ideas appreciated. Thank you!

Featured Answer

Jonathan

6 years ago

If it were me I would have the back reception room as a decent dining room, have a great kitchen and put your guest room in the loft which will be a more cost effective extension than building at the back.
I would also consider putting the boiler in the loft and having doors to the garden at the end of the kitchen and the side.

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CWD
Original Author
6 years ago
CWD
Original Author
6 years ago
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Thanks very much
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Like Sonia we too knocked ours through. It was one of the first things we did when we purchased our house 30 years ago and I have never regretted it. It is still defined as the eating area but the openness of the space Is great along with a wall mounted TV. Then when we decided to swap the kitchen round many years later the utility went too so we could have an island in the middle of the kitchen. That was another good idea for our family as it stopped the kids (at that time) dumping school bags in the utility leaving me no worktop space. It then made them put them in their bedrooms 😀
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My sister did the opposite as opening up the stairs can cause issues with downstairs noise waking up children in bed. Her baby was waking up to any noise downstairs so she has a wall put in between the downstairs and the hallway. It doesn’t look like you will gain much space by doing that?
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Its quite a tight budget even without the kitchen. I think you should get a few builders quotes. Check them very carefully and question them on their pc sums. They will allow for all the cheapest grade fittings and you probably wouldn't want that in every instance. We paid £60000 for a simple single story extension 4x4m in 2012 excluding the kitchen. This included a new cloakroom though. Remember to consider a new floor possibly tying both rooms together, which can be very expensive. It depends on whether you are prepared to get your hands dirty and maybe do the painting. Moving appliances is costly as the services need to be moved first. I would first get the quotes and then take it from there.
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A B
6 years ago
If it was my house and I was planning to extend, I wouldn't make any structural changes for at least a year. I'd just live with it and slowly decide what the long term plan was. Then possibly knock down a wall while I was waiting to do the work, but only if it fitted in with the plan.
CWD thanked A B
CWD
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks Jen. That's what we planned to do, but when we got the keys to it we realized that there's more work required than we thought - so we are going to rent a house for a few months to get all the messy work done (re-wire, re-plumb, insulation under floorboards, etc) - and the existing kitchen is not habitable given damp and age/condition of the cabinets - so we are going to rip it out (and move the toilet out of the kitchen). But that's why I am more keen to keep the wall to dining room for now and just live with the current kitchen room, and then figure out the long term plan after we've lived with it. But of course if we could produce a good layout just now then we might not feel the need to extend in the future...?
Jonathan
6 years ago
Like this
CWD thanked Jonathan
CWD
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks Jonathan. That's definitely one of the options for the long term as we are planning on extending into the loft to move guest or master there. We are thinking about extending to the side of the kitchen (to the left) and incorporate the back reception room so that the open plan kitchen/dining/lounge is L-shaped. And then we could have the existing dining/breakfast room as really nice laundry/mudroom/dogroom with the back door into there. Alternatively, keep the back reception as it is (formal dining or separate lounge for growing kids), keep the dining in the breakfast room and extend out to the right to make kitchen a little bit bigger (big enough for island between galley sides), big glass doors to garden, etc - but also add on space to the right to make separate laundry/mudroom/back entrance. Above that we'd put ensuite and walk-in closet onto current master. And this is why I don't know what to do with the current 'temporary' kitchen solution - in all likelihood it will be there fore 3-5 years, so don't want it to be just thrown up without thinking about it, but I also don't want to have to re-do work later, and I especially don't want to take down period features and ruin room proportions for a 'temporary' fix. And of course we need to know what we want to do before we can get the electrician round to re-wire the house, so it's not something I can consider for too much longer...
GardenFairyGodmother GFG
6 years ago
Personally I would just live with what you have and save up for your future renovation. It's best to start from the top down than down to up. Our loft conversion required having all the bedroom ceilings lowered. Our house is a 1920's semi which had poor foundations so these needed to be reinforced before any extension could start. Any supporting walls coming down needs an RSJ inserted. It all adds up in the end. Get your dream kitchen right first time rather than put in a cheap one and make do, till you can work out what you want.
ianthy
6 years ago
I would go for a holistic approach, look at all the changes you wish to make throughout the house and then decide on a schedule. You could carry out works a piece at a time or kid budget permits get all of the main works completed at the same time.

Not sure if you have engaged an architect to at least lead in the design and planning applications.
PRO
User
6 years ago
Slightly less wall moving - more wall putting up??
CWD thanked User
Najeebah
6 years ago
It depends on various circumstances of course, but I say count on the future reno being more like 5-10 years away.
Do do something now, to rectify the issues you mentioned, and have a decent space for the next few years, or, like you say, permanently.
Your proposed layout could work, but leaves little counter and storage space.
I would:
→ Break down only the portion of the wall to the right of the door.
This opens up the space enough to flow and make carrying dishes between easier, but still gives some wall space and separation to the kitchen.
→ Include a fridge, lol. In your proposed layout, opposite the sink and dishwasher would work, but you wouldn't have counter space next to it.
→ Consider a u-shape
when you enter, you can have a bottom cabinet to your left, then the fridge, cabinets around the corner, sink and dishwasher, cabinets around the next corner, and the stove, more cabinets. This would lose the large window, though.
→ Alternatively, the same as above, but have the stove opposite the sink and d/w. This allows a row of low cabinets, and a long window above.
CWD thanked Najeebah
CWD
Original Author
6 years ago
We have decided to knock the wall down between kitchen and dining - but now the dilemma is whether to have the dining area at the garden end, or the kitchen. What does everyone prefer?
PRO
User
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Going back to the original plan posted, is it the wall that goes between kitchen and breakfast room? ( Marked Yellow )

Or the breakfast room -dining / sitting? ( marked red )

Should we knock through from dining to kitchen?

Jonathan

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Should we knock through from dining to kitchen?

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