Can anyone help me with reconfiguring my home /kitchen layout please!!
Can anyone help me with reconfiguring my home / kitchen layout please?
This whole project is driving me crackers now and I keep going around and around. Our current home is a chalet bungalow which has been extended (up into the roof and out the back). We have plenty of space (approx. 2,500 sq ft) but the layout isn’t working for us. We are a family of 4 (2 adult, child of 12 and child of 9) who like entertaining and having friends stay over. We love the fact we have a spare room for visitors which doubles up as a chill out / games room for the kids, I love my study and the fact we can either eat in the kitchen or the dining room when we have guests/friends over!
I have attached 2 plans of the house – current layout with measurements and supporting walls and our possible reconfiguration. We’ve consulted an architect who visited the house for approximately 2 hours but felt sadly is was just a waste of 2 hours as he really didn’t have much to say (I’m guessing because our budget is not huge by any imagination). We have also consulted a structural engineer who was very helpful for the structural aspect.
Issues with current layout:
1) Our bedroom is huge and at the back of the house over looking our sunny garden (which is west facing). As it’s a bedroom the room is barely used during the day. We use the patio outside the room a lot during the summer which means everyone can see in and see the mess!
2) As the internal door is often closed it makes that end of the house very dark and very much detached from the rest of the house.
3) There is also a set of stairs there leading to one room in the loft which is used for guests / working from home. We have a 2nd set of stairs near the front door leading to the 2 bedrooms. We have looked into connecting the 3 rooms upstairs but can’t afford this option. Because of these stairs we have a wasted no mans land area outside our room which is dark and annoying!
4) The current lounge/diner at the front of the house is dark and quite small when we have people over.
5) Current kitchen is awful and needs replacing. It’s not wide enough for an island and too wide to be classed as a galley kitchen. It’s a large space but there is nowhere to sit other than at the kitchen table which is currently in front of the patio doors so it doesn’t block the path from the utility to the garden.
Our ideas to improve the issues (without involving massive structural considerations) are to:
1) Switch the lounge/diner and bedroom/ensuite around.
2) Put in large sliding doors in the new lounge and in the kitchen.
3) Open up the entrance to the new lounge by removing a cupboard enabling us to let more light in and remove the no mans land area by using the back of the garage to make a corridor to access the stairs to the single loft room.
4) Remove the utility wall though keep the boiler and white goods in their current location (they would just be behind sliding doors as opposed to being in a separate room. This would mean we could out the table in front of those doors and a sofa where the table currently is. But would mean the actual kitchen furniture area becomes much smaller.
5) Put a door from the kitchen through to the new lounge as a short cut.
The issues are then:
1) The kitchen (actual furniture) area become very small, difficult to fit everything in without it feeling cramped. I worry it is too small for the size of house and may cause us problems when we come to sell as feel it will let the house down and put buyers off.
2) I can’t work out where the furniture will go in the lounge as the only place for the TV would be on the wall where the door is into the kitchen. I feel then that you’d only be able to put a sofa there without making that area of the lounge feel cramped and blocking doorways which defeats the object! My concern is then if I move the sofa back too far you won’t be able to see the TV! My husband says it should go on the far right wall in the lounge but then you’d have your back to the garden (which seems pointless to me) and I don’t then know where our large dining room table would go!
Sorry for the long post but please, please can anyone give me some help / ideas and I don’t know what to do (though moving house and leaving this to someone else to sort out has crossed mind!) MANY MANY thanks in advance - Keryn (I have the photos saved as PDF's which are much clearer but can't seem to add them - sorry)
Comments (13)
humphk
5 years agoJonathan
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help us with our kitchen layout/ reconfiguration, very stuck!
Comments (28)Thanks for your advice both of you. We live in England to answer your question Gabby. Is there a rule in Scotland that the aisles have to be 120cm and if so why ? Jonathan, I was kind of thinking we would want to use the island for eating meals on like we do now with our current kitchen table, but I guess if the DR is open to the kitchen then it wouldn't be a problem to take a few steps more to the dining room table (because we use it so infrequently at the moment I am finding that hard to visualise). I am going to post a better plan of our current kitchen and dining room (with the pantry taken out) and I am also going to post a photo looking out from the window in our dining room. I am wondering if we did turn the DR into our kitchen could we make the window ledge higher and put the units in an L-shape so we could put the sink in the window? (and still have space for an island) I know this goes against some of my earlier points, especially about being worried people would be able to look in at us/and would create a more goldfish bowl feeling but I am just playing around with ideas....See MoreFlat layout reconfiguration help!
Comments (6)i would: move kitchen to reception room, but explore other options in terms of layout of this space and where the kitchen is within it (there is a fireplace indicated on the wall you want to knock down so likely that wall is structural). knock through toilet and bathroom to make one larger space, but as last comment, think about where the door is carefully the storage area within bathroom area - could that be accessed from the hallway? a good place for jackets and shoes (and you will find having a large storage area invaluable for suitcases, sports gear, hoovers etc) convert the existing kitchen into your study - you can always have this as multi- functional by putting a sofa bed in it also so it can be a space for occaisional guests shorten the very long corridor, so that you can join the last bedroom to the reception room and form an L shaped living space. you could keep a screen or have double doors between reception and the ex-bedroom space, so making it more of a snug...and again this could be multi functional if you had a sofa bed in it....close it off from the reception room you can have 2 sets of guests staying without giving up your own room at all. when you are preparing to sell in the future and you still want to sell it as a 3 bed (check with an estate agent first, having 3 beds and a small reception space with a kitchen somewhere in it doesn’t automatically mean more money), all you would need to do is close off this ex-bedroom space from the reception area by reinstalling a stud wall and put a door through at the end of the hall. this wouldn’t be a massive job to do and means you can live in the space the way you want to while you are there...See MoreWondering if anyone can help with Loft/Extension layout please?
Comments (20)I literally just took a screen shot on my iPhone and edited it, whilst having my brunch. Others do great mock-ups but I’m no except just use Houzz as a great source of ideas. If you search “apps” on the discussion search bar you should find some recommendations. We did a loft conversion about 3yrs back in or small cottage so we had to make use of every spare space possible. Good luck with your project. It looks v exciting. Hopefully you will get some great ideas that you can work incorporate in your design....See MoreKitchen layout driving me crazy - please help me, I need ideas!
Comments (17)A much more functional layout can be achieved in the existing room by flipping the existing hob and fridge freezer. It looks like you are currently losing a good 30cm or so of potential counter and cabinetry space next to the doorway, and it would give you a longer counter run between sink and hob. I would also add a long bank of shallow low cabinetry alongside the wall between the 2 doorways, which would give you quite a lot of additional storage space without interfering with the walkway or sight lines. Plus the narrow ledge there could help keep clutter off your work surfaces. In terms of dining space, you could lose your unloved peninsula and then add a small table and chairs. You would have to squeeze in the 60cm oven into the main work area, but 30cm would be gained by the fridge move, and another 20cm could be gained by swapping to a 60cm sink cabinet. (I assume it’s 80cm right now.)....See Morehumphk
5 years ago
J
5 years agoJ
5 years agoJ
5 years agoJ
5 years agohumphk
5 years agohumphk
5 years agoJonathan
5 years agohumphk
5 years ago
Jonathan