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Renovating Design Dilemma Kitchens

Very narrow kitchen - would you move it?

Jack and Em Reno

last year

last modified: last year

Hi Houzzers,

First time buyers, after almost 2 years of trying to find somewhere we are about to exchange on a 3 bed semi (woohoo!), which requires extensive renovation. We have been going round in circles for weeks trying to decide how to make the best of the ground floor space. The kitchen is currently in a very narrow but long back room- 1.91m x 5.89m. Floors are concrete throughout. All windows (other than in current kitchen) too low to fit units under - planning to replace so could possibly make slightly shorter to allow units to fit.

Can’t decide if we should move the kitchen to another room, leave it where it is currently or go open plan?

Hoping someone out there with more renovations experience or with some bright ideas might be able to help out.

Thanks you! 🙂

Current layout and drainage.

Featured Answer

Jonathan

last year

There is no point in moving the kitchen to another room because you will then be left with a room that is too narrow to be a dining or living space. So you should be either planning to extend or to make this narrow space as good as it can be.

An image search of narrow kitchens pulls up lots of beautiful images, because you have a long room there is plenty of wall space to fit everything along one long run….. moving the sink isn’t impossible even though the floors are concrete and personally I would move everything to the left hand wall and unify the glazing so the kitchen windows match the main house or they look very modern….. French doors or bifolds/patio doors to the side will increase the feeling of space in a single run kitchen. There are also tricks to making the space feel bigger such as wide format or diagonal tiles, paint the end wall dark, add skylights and mirror the splashback

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Comments (7)

Linda Lencovic
last year
I think I would look into doing a side return extension. Is that an option?
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That's great if you can be flexible with the windows. I personally prefer option 2 but would swap the island and the dining area. A bigger utility would always be my choice. If possible, going for an integrated fridge/freezer would give you more space. I've 'guestimated' where the pillar is... could be in the totally wrong place! I am thinking tall units with double oven/fridge/freeze (built-in) on the entry wall with the pocket door. Or go for combined fridge/freezer and use one tall unit as a mini pantry cupboard which could hide away microwave & kettle. (Light Blue) Sink under the first window (can make it smaller) and then hob could also back wall if you don't want it on the island. Block up the second window potentially. Then can have more tall units by the dining table or low level with open shelves for the dining area. (Dark Purple). If you have tall units there, you can add a cupboard and have kettle etc underneath where the window used to be. Funnily enough, this is what we've planned for our kitchen. Another option, (although I know not everyone likes this style, is run the table off the island). I personally really like this design.
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Jack and Em Reno
Original Author
last year
Thank you very much for the ideas, it has certainly given us some food for thought. Being able to have some sort of seating area would definitely make the kitchen more social and worth leaving in that area and could free up the funds for better finishes.

I should have said in my original post - if we were to move the kitchen, we were thinking of putting a utilty room leading to an office, although maybe that would be strange? The benefit being a seperate utility space and an area for my partner who works from home full time (rather than losing a bedroom upstairs).

Ive attached a few floorplans that show various ideas. In the end it may be down to cost but I’d be interested to hear if there’s any favourites or other sugestions.
Helga Irvine
last year
Having experience of home working, I think a seperate office room is a practical idea, as is a utility area.

Therefore, though I agree the architects idea will probably look best from visual point of view, Personally I like your idea of accessing off ice thru utility area.

Architects are very good and making pleasant spaces for humans, but only guess at what you intend to do with those spaces.
Helga Irvine
last year
Therefore, my vote goes to the 1st plan you drew.
User
last year
last modified: last year
This looks like a cute house!

Do you have plans of the rest of the house? Seeing the entire house would help scale the different rooms.

How big of a disadvantage is it to use a bedroom as an office? Can the office be semi-open?

The window by the front door, how high is the bottom in relation to the floor?

How keen are you to have a dining table instead of just island/peninsula seating?

(For the most part, your dining table setups are too tight.)

The tiny room behind the stairs - is that a closet? Entry to basement stairs?

Any load-bearing walls?

Are you removing the fireplaces?

The main issue with your first and fourth plans is that you have three rooms sharing one circulation point. Imagine three people, one cooking, one doing laundry, and one coming and going from the office. That's a lot of traffic in that small path.

I like the kitchen at the front of the house. This gives the best circulation. If you could have a kitchen counter against the wall with the front-facing window, even better. I would align the office door with the laundry door, and dedicate that whole wall to the left to washer/dryer/storage.

Otherwise, I would keep the kitchen where it is, but move it to the other wall and add bifold/French doors like Jonathan suggested. From the bottom up: washer, dryer, (or stacked washer dryer), fridge, dishwasher, sink, and range. The front room could become the office.
User
last year
last modified: last year

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