AIBU to add serving hatches between kitchen, utility and dining room?

If the conservatory is narrow (as you method upthread), you could have a seating area along one wall - a bench along the wall and chairs on the other side.

Our extension is also narrower than I'd ideally like, but we still love it and use it all the time. We've got a fairly narrow table and only shallow shelves and radiators on the walls to save space.

Sorry, I've not read the whole thread.

We had a similar layout and I vaguely considered serving hatches. Our kitchen was in the middle, however. How are you thinking the hatches would be used? Would two of you be relaying food through to the dining room from the kitchen via the utility room? Honestly it doesn't sound very useful to me - not worth the loss of wall space that would be involved. Sorry!

In our case we ended up replacing our conservatory with a dining room extension, which has created a fantastic space. Unfortunately it is not the economical option. Cheaper for you though as you wouldn't need to move the kitchen. You could perhaps look into adding a solid but light roof, heating and insulation to the conservatory to make it a liveable space for dining?

Another thing I would consider is to extend the kitchen into the proposed new utility space (unless I'm misunderstanding your diagrams), thereby buying yourself more seating space in the kitchen. Your proposed utility plan seems quite large considering the size of your house.

@5foot5 we also had someone to design our kitchen when we changed things around. I told him what I wanted (as much worktop as possible, ceiling height cupboards, floor to ceiling cupboards). We were also having a small extension containing a utility/shower room put in and he designed that too.

He came up with a couple of ridiculous ideas (cupboard width loo directly off the kitchen and next to the back door anyone?) but also some really good ones which we took on board and would not have thought of on our own. It was an independent kitchen and bathroom company, so they arranged the planning, the trades, the project schedule, the building supplies and equipment. I did choose and buy some of the equipment myself because I didn't like what I could choose from - but that was OK. It was well worth it, for us, to have everything planned and done at the same time rather than in dribs and drabs, even if it meant we had to have all the money available at the time rather than being able to save up for it as we went.

This, judging from the plans it's about 9 feet to the dining room from the kitchen. Surely half a dozen steps are quicker than faffing with two hatches. It's a far cry from needing a dumb waiter.

Would it be possible to just get a professional in to work through the best design for you? Obviously that is an extra cost but if it stops you making expensive and disastrous mistakes it might be worth it.

We had our kitchen remodelled a few years ago. We didn't try to draw up any plans ourselves, we just put together a spec - must haves, nice to haves, restrictions, likes and dislikes etc. We have a separate utility and made it clear we would be open to knocking through to include it if that worked better.

Went to two kitchen design places for suggestions and quotes and they did a better job than we could have. Obviously went with our favourite (which incidentally wasn't the cheapest but was the design we liked best.)

That's a good idea but no lifting trolleys from cupboards and pushing whole dinner party fare down corridors,

That would be too much hard work for OP.

I just saw this video on Instagram and thought of you! There's a trolley built into the cabinets that you can pull out to serve dinner!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXLOl2mjS9b/?igsh=bjN2bWdiZHhoODE4

I’d make the kitchen a kitchen, or knock through the utility room if you need a bigger kitchen.

Sorry but I’m another thinking the best use of the space is to incorporate the current kitchen into the back room you plan to make your kitchen, this would give you space to put a table in there, then keep the current door to the dining room in place. (As well as the current kitchen floor space, you’d get the bit of corridor currently leading to the kitchen and back room, put a door where the corridor currently starts at the corner of the kitchen)

as you’ve put washer and dryer in your downstairs bathroom, the current utility could just be a storage space. Could you have the loo door come off the utility room, and seal up the one into the back room/new kitchen space? Would give you two doors between loo and kitchen)

That's right.

tries again

'arch' with image this time

aargh!

'arch' (image to follow)

This looks like an interesting idea - for the door - maybe use double doors or bifold or a pocket door for space saving?

Do you actually need a shower downstairs?

I don't understand what you're trying to achieve with the hatches as it sounds more of a nuisance passing something through a hatch, going around into the next room to get it and pass through the next hatch.

I'd probably leave the layout sort of as is now but open up the current kitchen, hallway and reception room, adding a wall and door behind the stairs as the hallway there is dead space.

If you leave the dining room with a door in from the hallway as is you'd have the option of a standalone room or a through room from the kitchen.

With the toilet and utility, I'd leave them where they are but flip the space so you've got a bigger utility and smaller toilet. I'd close the current opening from the dining room to utility, and have a door from the new kitchen space into it. I'd then make the only entrance for the toilet via the utility. That way you wouldn't have your toilet directly off your kitchen or dining area.
In the future if you replace your conservatory with an extension you've got everything already logically pinned to the kitchen and you could then have your dining room in the extension and use the current dining room as a snug.

Yes or from the Utility room. The 'arch' is a supporting steel lintel to support the load bearing wall.

No idea if you could get a door into the utility room but you could move the toilet slightly.

Your kitchen would be a kitchen diner. If you only need the table every couple of months, you could have an extending one or even one that folds away.

You really need an architect and a sensible budget.