Open plan kitchen design

8 years ago

We are knocking through an old bungalow to create an open plan kitchen, living, dining room.

We have been to several kitchen suppliers, but haven't chosen a design we are happy with yet.

We would like to have the hob in the island so that when we are cooking we can look out of the windows/bi fold doors to the right and chat to people in the dining/living space.

We like the idea of having minimal wall units, by maximizing the units along the bottom and the units in the island. We do need space for some tall units and the cooker and fridge freezer. We do have a separate utility room for additional storage.

Any ideas on how you would change this design I feel as though it ins't quite balanced due to the tall units being all down one wall!

Any ideas on how we could change it?

Featured Answer

lloyd_nicky
Original Author

8 years ago

This is another design that was suggested to us, but it doesn't leave much space to the side of the hob. You can see the room layout in this picture.

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Comments (21)

A B
8 years ago
To me, I would prefer to rotate the island 90 degrees, and merge the kitchen and dining areas more. However this may not work on a practical level!
Julie Norris
8 years ago
Hi Nicky,

Although somewhat different, what we are just doing is very similar. And ours is a bungalow too (although not when we've finished)

We are also having no wall cabinets, and have a bank of tall cabinets at one end of the kitchen. Are you having a table and chairs as well as the Island?
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Having the island where it is currently shown makes the kitchen the central focus so if this area also has to function as your only living room, it reduces the flexibility of the space. Also, with the sink and hob on different sides of the island you may find you are bumping into the corner going between the two and mainly using the worktop in between them rather than utilising the rest of the worktop space. If the kitchen is located where you currently show the living area, you can have one wall with your tall cupboards, the back wall could have the sink run with the hob opposite on the island (or vice versa), which could then be a more manageable size. The dining table could go in the end of the room with the french doors as this would be close to the kitchen area and a pleasant place to sit and eat, overlooking the garden. You could have a couple of armchairs to each side of the smaller window at the other end of the room, leaving more space for a large sofa facing the wall with the TV/fireplace. Another couple of smaller chairs (tub chairs) would give you additional seating but can be moved aside when space is needed.
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We built an extension a few years ago with a similar kitchen to option one, including a peninsula. The layout works well and I’m really pleased with the functionality of the design. We have a cupboard either end on the lounge side of the island and stools sit in the middle, plus a dining table close by. I agree with all the comments above about stools, they are used regularly. One thing I would change is our light switches are the on the lounge side of the peninsular and that means walking round to put a light on when working in the kitchen. Ideally, it would be best to have the switch on the kitchen side. We have pendant light over the island, which looks good and again are functional. Final, thing to say is it’s worth every penny! Open plan living, extra space, lots of light from roof lantern and bifold doors into garden are all brilliant. 4 years on I still love it and appreciate it every day.
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Julie Norris
8 years ago
we're not having tiles like that on the floor mind you.....
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
Jen P thanks we did look at putting the island the other way but then it would stick out past the units which we weren't as keen on.

Julie, your kitchen design looks great, it looks huge, what are the measurements? We are having a dining table between the living area and island, looking out of the bifold/ sliding doors (another dilemma!) I will upload some drawings.

Our bungalow won't be a bungalow either by the time we are finished, unless we run out of money!!!
Julie Norris
8 years ago
Nicky, We too are having a dining table between the kitchen and the lounge/snug area, in front of the bi folds. I have attached a few plans, before and after. Our kitchen arrived today, its currently sat in a bedroom, we have no ceilings, and there are some floors still up.... and a massive bloody hole for the bi-folds, and no date for them to be fitted as yet!

We may also run out of money.... we replaced the roof, something we hadnt budgeted for, and also we did a lot of work with the landscaping of the front, while we had the keys and before the structural calcs were completed. The steels are now all in place. So we may have to not finish upstairs in order to move in, as we are at present renting whilst this renovation is happening, 'spending thousands like tenners every day'.

My kitchen arrived today, its here in boxes in Bedroom 1 and the hallway (it'll haver to move as the staits are coming next Monday.

Our L shape kitchen, uh, the long walls are 7.6m and 9.5m i think, the Bifolds are 4.2m. That room is about 60 sq metres, I only know that because of ordering the tiles and the underfloor heating!

Exciting, but I'm so poor right now! x
Jonathan
8 years ago
Does the side kitchen window have a view? If not you might prefer to get rid to make it easier to plan the kitchen
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
Wow that is going to look amazing. We are hoping to start at the end of this month, so quite a way behind you. We are completely re-designing the inside and raising ridge height and replacing the roof to put 4 bedrooms in the loft, I will post some before photos. Where did you get your kitchen units from??
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
Jonathan the side kitchen window will look out over fields (once we have trimmed down the very over grown hedges) so we wanted to maximize the views, although it has made it tricky to design.
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
Photos of how the bungalow currently looks.....
Ignore the lines on the first photo, the floor plans are how it is currently and the plans on my original post above is what we have planning to do. The top photo is of the front of the bungalow which is south facing and has the biggest part of the garden so where we have designed the bifolds/sliding doors. We have turned the house around to make the most of the garden.
Julie Norris
8 years ago
Nicky,

Sounds amazing and a lot of work! We had had the keys since 15th Nov... bad time of year to be renovating! Freezing cold, and dark by 4pm.

Kitchen is Homebase, a new range of assembled cabinets. I kind of knew what I wanted and they had the light grey and very dark grey in the same range. Probably not as flash as most, but we’re on a budget.

We didn’t need planning permission as such as we’re not making it any bigger, aside upstairs and we stuck to velux windows. We were granted a certificate of lawfulness for the loft conversion and change of garage to a room. Of course building control are regularly visiting and keeping an eye on the build so they can sign off the work.

Plumbing is half way there, electrician next week, plenty of building left to do, insulate, insulate, insulate I keep being told! Windows are going in in the next 6 weeks... which is a good job consideration get we want to be in at the end of March. Currently there seems like so much to do
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
Julie,

We have had the keys since Aug 16 - yikes!!

Planning took much, much longer than we anticipated, but hopefully it will be worth it. I have not looked at Homebase for kitchens, but will as we are on a budget which we have blown already and not even started!!
Ellie
8 years ago
@lloyd what site did you use for your pics, please?
Julie Norris
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I actually like this layout. I’m not sure of the practicality of having a hob in the island, food splatters etc... I thought about it then decided against it. We’ve paid about £4.5k for the kitchen, that’s excluding most of the appliances, but did include a built in dishwasher and the sink and taps. Also I need to buy the worktops elsewhere as Homebase don’t do 4m runs and I didn’t want joins...

are you living in your place at the mo?
Julie Norris
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I only ask because Homebase were one of the only kitchen suppliers that would refund us some VAT as the house had been empty for over 2 years (you can pay 5% vat on fixed items, not 20% if you are renovating a house that has been empty for over 2 years) and we got the same vat reduction on the windows.
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
Snap! We are also making the most of the fact the house has been empty for 2years. We are not living it. I thought we had to buy everything through the main builder to get the vat reduction?
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
Ellie, we got the designs drawn up through Howdens.
Julie Norris
8 years ago
Well that’s right technically. But Homebase refunded us about £700, and they’ll do it on bathrooms too. So I’m not going to argue :)

Stairs manufacturer weren’t interested mind you.

We are doing much of the work ourselves, well hubby is, and we are project managing it too.
Julie Norris
8 years ago
I bet you can’t wait to get started :) it’s too messy up there for my ocd... I go up, make tea, start to worry about how long it’ll take, and go home to work ha
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
8 years ago
That's really good to know, will definitely be asking the question!
lloyd_nicky
Original Author
7 years ago
Julie, how are you renovations going?? Do you have some finished photos? Our build was massively delayed and is due to start next week!