skip to main content

Kitchens Design Dilemma

What shall we do with our long galley kitchen / diner???

2 months ago

Hello everyone! My partner and I have recently moved house and improving the kitchen is top of our list. It’s a long space with kitchen at the far end and dining space / washing machine at the other. The cupboards are pretty tired and not our style so we wanted to rip out the existing kitchen (including quartz worktop) to put in something new. As part of this we toyed with swapping the space, with the kitchen area to sit in the current dining space and vice versa. However this is proving to be a very expensive idea and we’re getting cold feet! Our new thought is to keep the kitchen where it is and keep existing quartz worktop too (even if we don’t love it) and simply replace the cupboard doors. We are thinking gun metal coloured cupboards with pink tiles in place of the white ones. But if we do this, how can we improve the rest of the space? We def want to redo the floor! Any other ideas would be so so welcome! Thanks in advance, Sophie x

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (6)

Isla Cherry
2 months ago
last modified: 2 months ago
I think the floor and the units clash and make it darker. A lighter floor would help the light. You said you would like to replace the floor. I would try that first. The bin needs concealing as its quite prominent. I have never seen a join in quartz quite like that strip above your bin. Are you sure it is quartz? I'm afraid a lighter worksurface would work wonders. I think painting those units is going to be a massive exercise for very little gain. You could chose a grey white beachy floor, change the worksurfaces to white quartz or white with a marble vein and it would lift the whole kitchen. The splashback is also a large dark dominant expanse. Look at changing that for something lighter.
siobhanmcgee90
2 months ago
I would live with it until you can afford to do it properly. Move the table and put your recycle bins on the opposite side but camouflage. Paint the brick wall. Power wash the outside area a buy some nice planters with greenery and colour. If you cannot bear to live with it to save up, Isla’s suggestion are good, but remember anything you spend will be throwaway as you will eventually want to revamp completely. When you do have the budget, I would look at stepping your garden more so there is a patio right outside the doors. The way it is currently you are in a dark spot.
Related Discussions
Help with layout of long narrow kitchen / diner
Q
Comments (10)
Hello Karen, The pic is a bit too small and doesn't really enlarge to see what's happening here.. It's not always the case that offering another bedroom would be the right way to go in order to make more money as I'm assuming this is the reasoning... If the space is obviously kitchen and dining it's really difficult too with the spatial configurations to offer this as living room as well. I think a straight galley would be good here and what I would design, but with windows possibly not this run on window side but on the opposite side with the configuration I'm going to suggest... Start with a full height fridge freezer in the corner Then have a run of two cabinets and then free standing range at 60 wide and then two further low cabinets and then sink with slimline dishwasher for example.. So roughly going to about 460 or so. . Maybe you could incorporate a free standing dresser for crockery/glassware opposite and then the 4 cupboards would be pots and pans etc... keeping the galley minimal means the space opens as much as possible... . How you deal with the colours etc will of course have further impact.. If you had this on the wall side you could then have some overhead cabinets if you wanted to... Many interesting ways of doing this that is not just uniform and boring.. I'd keep the front room as a living room and rear as bedroom, there may be a way to re plan the bathroom to make it smaller whilst retaining what is essential... for a bath consider a soaking tub which is a meter wide or a tiny bath with shower fitting overhead.. : ))
...See More
Please help us choose a floor for our kitchen/diner.
Q
Comments (2)
Hi there! It's always a little tricky to visualise without an image but if we break it down the colours you have to work with are: dark floorboards, grey patio slabs, dark brown and mid oak furniture, and a vanilla kitchen. There's quite a mix there and based on the furniture and dark oak floorboards, it seems like the space might have quite a traditional feel? With this in mind, I'd suggest a herringbone floor in your kitchen. A natural oak would work well with the vanilla kitchen units and furniture. Yet, a darker oak could blend nicely with your hallway boards. Or, there's the option of an ashen colour that would lend itself to your grey tiles outside. Take a look at the ideas below - what do you think? Goodrich Natural Oak Goodrich Espresso Oak Goodrich Feather Oak Best wishes, Hannah | Woodpecker Flooring
...See More
Help with designing kitchen diner please
Q
Comments (23)
Sorry I had trouble with the app, had to delete and re-install! I am really grateful for your suggestions and a lot to think about. The box st the top right hand corner of the last picture is the garage, and that’s what we are joining to the house. We can’t extend longer or wider, as it has been extended before, and the house is only about 7m wide if that. The hallway would probably about 1.5 to 2m wide if that. We have a footpath about 1m to the south facing aspect, from where the left hand side of the house is hence why we would rather not do much to that side, due to space, as you would be stepping directly onto the footpath bar a thin hedge, more’s the pity. And we are slap bang in the middle of fields with hedges surrounding us so makes planning a little difficult. Does that make sense at all? Really appreciate all your input!
...See More
What should we do with our kitchen diner family space?
Q
Comments (18)
I guess this will come down to how much you want to spend, if you are prepared to do an extension out the back then assume you are comfortable with some structural work. Also if you are happy to lose the garage or some of it you actually have a much larger space to work with. If it were my house and I had the budget to do a complete ‘rejig’, i would do the following: 1. Push the bathroom, utility area and storage areas into the garage but still leaving a garage door with a much smaller ‘garage’ space for stuff we just dump in the garage. Add a door if possible to the garage much closer to the front door to access the storage area. Access the bathoorm and utility via the currently under stairs door. 2. Now move the kitchen to the right into the space currently occupied by the bathroom and study, creating space for a nice size island, room fo an American fridge freezer and tall cupboards etc. 3. Move the study to the left hand side, which would run from the garden wall where the first bifolds end down to the existing vertical beam column, effecitvely making use of this as part of that study and therefore it isnt just a column in the middle of the room. 4. You will be left with a large L shaped kitchen lounge diner, where you can either choose to have a play area in front of the kitchen or tv snug and dining area to the left of it or vice versa. Whatever suits! Obviously this is without seeing the actual spaces and room dimensions to see how much open space you would get but looks like could work from your floor plan. Maybe too much work though :)
...See More
siobhanmcgee90
2 months ago
Post a floor plan. It looks like you have a side passage, in time you could perhaps look to either extend out or use that to bring light into the kitchen.
Sonia
2 months ago
It’s always nice to have a dining table near a window. It seems storage in your kitchen gets more light than the dining table does! I have a galley kitchen too and it was a bit of a squeeze for the dining table so I moved it to the living room by the bay window where there is more space. Do you have space elsewhere for the table? I’ve placed an armchair and sideboard there instead. Lovely place to sit. If it was mine I would swop the kitchen down to the other end. Of course this will create plumbing issues, but doable. I would also go lighter with the units and the worktop which I think is either Granite or laminate, hard to tell. Pink tiles sounds lovely. My kitchen is now 14 years old. Here’s a pic of the kitchen end and the relaxing end. It could do with an upgrade but I can’t face the upheaval!
rinked
2 months ago
Save up some more and move that kitchen inward if you want to have it gun metal colour.

What are the measurements of the room?
PRO
Wallsauce
2 months ago
Hi Sophie! We agree with some of the suggestions of saving up to do the kitchen remodel in a way you guys are pleased with. However, if you want to refresh the kitchen on a little bit of a budget you could even opt for painting the cabinets a darker colour to match the flooring (I know you mentioned you wanted to change the flooring) but for the time being maybe sprucing up the cabinets might work in your favor with the flooring. I hope this helps, Sarah! 😊

Sponsored

More Discussions

Room Layout - Help please!

5

Window and door colour/style help please

8

Paint, wallpaper feature or painting?

11

should I paint the tiles white?

14

Help reconfiguring the downstairs of my house

8

United Kingdom

Tailor my experience with cookies

Houzz uses cookies and similar technologies to personalise my experience, serve me relevant content, and improve Houzz products and services. By clicking ‘Accept’ I agree to this, as further described in the Houzz Cookie Policy. I can reject non-essential cookies by clicking ‘Manage Preferences’.