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Kitchens Design Dilemma

kitchen diner layout advice

10 months ago

Hello - we are looking to put in a new kitchen and wondering how best to lay it out. We want to knock through an archway between the kitchen and dining room to open it up.

One designer has suggested having the kitchen in the current dining room, blocking up the wall between the dining and living room, creating wide patio/ sliding doors where the current kitchen window is and making the current kitchen the dining/ family area. Has anyone relocated a kitchen? Any thoughts on suggested layouts please? Attached is one design we’ve had through

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Comments (12)

Jonathan
10 months ago
The suggestion to move the kitchen is a good one because you would gain a long sight line from the front door to the garden and you would take the kitchen out of a high traffic area with lots of doors.

I’m not keen on the plan in the current space- it looks like the actual space to work is tight.

There is a cost implication of moving the kitchen but since you would have no doubt had some electrics costs and since your soil pipe is nearby the cost won’t be bad.

Lastly try to plan some connection with the side garden from this principal room in your house.
Ange H
Original Author
10 months ago
Amazing thank you. These were our thoughts exactly - line of sight from the hallway through to the garden and also not walking straight into the middle of the kitchen from the hallway. Downside is the utility room wouldn’t be beside the kitchen. Yes we aren’t “wowed” by the above design. We don’t think it makes best use of the space. Do you know if the floor needs to come up for moving any pipes? We have underfloor heating so wondering how much hassle this is.
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Good afternoon All, Thanks to your advice and with the added benefit of an in-store kitchen design appointment (to test the original plan), we have had a rethink on our previous configuration. The attached sketch shows our latest thinking. This removes the proposed Utility to the side and a section of the existing external wall, with the side door relocated further down the wall, opening up the space. We can then get a longer run of kitchen and wall units in, as well as an island, and full-width bifolds or sliders across the back. Rather than pursuing the Study/ Lobby 'middle room' idea, a separate Utility Area is created in part of this area, with a much smaller extended hallway/ lobby. And the 'zoned' Snug/ Play Area is preserved to reflect our preference to not go fully open plan. Feels like an improvement to us! What do the rest of you think? All comments welcomed please.
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Jonathan
10 months ago
If it’s electric underfloor heating it will likely get replaced at the same time as putting down a new floor. Therefore there is no problem with having floors up for electrics.

If you have a wet underfloor system it’s more complex but you would have had these issues if you had left the kitchen in its original location. It’s not impossible as water and electric don’t have to go under the floor they can come from the bathroom above or through the walls and ceiling.
Lauren S
10 months ago
Have you considered moving the kitchen back into the utility room? So it would cover the existing utility room and maybe half the existing kitchen. This would leave a big space for dining and possibly a chair or sofa looking onto the garden. I agree with Jonathan about trying to create a sightline through from the front door to garden.

The utility functions could then move back into a portion of the garage, if you'd be willing to give a bit of this up? You may not need the second downstairs toilet so part of this area could be for utility.
Ange H
Original Author
10 months ago
Unfortunately my husband won’t part with his garage 😂 We thought about moving the wall between the utility and kitchen to make the kitchen a little bigger but I actually love having the big utility room so we’re not too bothered. The second loo will become a boot room. We might extend out the back at some point so want to keep this in mind too with the design to keep our options open for the future.
Ange H
Original Author
10 months ago
We’ve had this design through now…thoughts please!
Jonathan
10 months ago
It’s not enough kitchen for the size of house
Jonathan
10 months ago
This takes the same kitchen with island idea but by putting it on a longer wall you gain about 30% more kitchen. I also think the study could be underused and better as a laundry and because you are a family perhaps turning the over sized utility into a family space could give you more useable space without extending
Ange H
Original Author
10 months ago
Oh that looks great thank you! We need to keep the study though as we both work from home. At the moment we’re thinking we won’t get the big kitchen/ dining/ family room that we want in the existing space so are thinking of extending by a few metres at the back. If we did this would you still advise relocating the kitchen?
Jonathan
10 months ago
The answer to your question depends on your budget. If you are looking at building a £100k extension now then that is sizeable and you might put the kitchen in the extension. Given everything else you want to do to the house consider if you might be thinking of something more modest in which case I would look at the space behind the garage. This could be a new utility but given you both work from home it sounds like you need a bigger study.
Ange H
Original Author
9 months ago
Any thoughts on this design please? We’re trying to incorporate a second study into this too - maybe where the current dining room is. Is a 8m x 8m kitchen area big enough to be a kitchen/ diner/ family space on its own do you think?
Jonathan
9 months ago
If you have a spare £150k this extension looks great.

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