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Original poster

Do you ever look at rooms in your home and wonder about who designed them?

43 replies

DuckWillow · 04/08/2019 11:59

My kitchen.....my bloody kitchen.

It’s tiny, it was designed with a larder cupboard and no room for a fridge freezer. It has a few cupboards, a sink and room for a washing machine or a dishwasher but not both,

It’s literally a small square.with cooker at one end and an archway at the other. ....around 8ft by 6-7ft.

I just wonder who thought that size and design was practical.

I’m going for inexperienced youngster who had never run a home in their life . Anyone with experience of family life would not have come up with a silly design.

Even worse is that because it’s a HA property (yes I know I am lucky to have a roof over my head) I can’t make any changes.

What’s even better is that the living/dining room is 19ft in length. ...on what planet was this sensible when they could have taken three feet or more off the living room to make a bigger and more practical kitchen?

Yep definitely designed by a youngster who should have been sent back to the drawing board.

OP posts:

RandomMess · 04/08/2019 12:02

Our previous house kitchen, reasonable size but the only counter area for dishing up what's on the opposite side of the room to the oven and hob the lay out and use of space was utterly appalling - no where for dirty dishes either

soulrunner · 04/08/2019 12:07

My mum's drives me mad as despite being a good size it has NO prep space and she has this (admittedly very nice) tall boy/ dresser right at the other end of the breakfast room that has all the crockery and cutlery in it so you do 20,000 steps just trying to make sandwiches.

FiveLittlePigs · 04/08/2019 12:10

My shower room. The shower door opens the wrong way so the towels are behind the door when you open it.

DustyMaiden · 04/08/2019 12:11

I suspect your house was designed some time ago. Needs have changed.

As476 · 04/08/2019 12:14

My kitchen. It has ONE DOUBLE SOCKET. Every other socket is underneath/behind the units so practically impossible to access. I had to run an extension lead just to use the microwave, meaning I had horrid extension leads trailing around. I’ve since moved the microwave but honestly, it’s the first thing I want to rip out and change.

boringlyboring · 04/08/2019 12:16

I have a big-ish garden, with some trees, lots of plants, lovely to look at. But also, large brick outhouse about half a metre away from the back door. So the view, instead of the greenery, is an old brick wall.

In my bathroom, the shower cubicle has been put in 30cm away from a window, and the basin is infront of that space, so I can’t actually get in to open the window or reach in to clean the tiles etc around it.

lesleyw1953 · 04/08/2019 12:19

Breakfast room ( a thing in Brum). 8ft square. 4 doors leading off (2 on a diagonal across the space. Useless. Eventually we knocked it through into the kitchen ...

RosaWaiting · 04/08/2019 12:23

I don't know about youngster

things that still drive me mad about my parents house - they set up all bedrooms so that you have to sleep under a window. I have to stay with elderly mum quite often and stayed a lot when dad was ill. The sleeping under a window thing really bothers me, especially in winter.

also, this isn't design, but they set up their kitchen so that everything that should be near to each other e.g. coffee, kettle, cups, is far away as possible.

I live in a boiling hot flat, as do many people if they are subject to regs that came in c1998 I think, but I gather at least some of the newer ones have air con. I gather even new build houses have this problem - designers/builders so pressed to save energy they made everywhere hot even in November.

my sister lives in a newer build and they've clearly thought about it more. The washing machine is in the hallway, so the open plan thing means you can watch TV without the noise of your washing machine. The plug points are all higher. And she has air con. It's not a particularly fancy building at all - quite standard for a new build but clearly some companies put more thought into the design. It's also really "cleanly" done so it feels more spacious than it is.

Namechange55 · 04/08/2019 12:23

All the time my front room is 12ft x 9ft at the widest points, someone decided boxing the corner off to make a small hallway was a good idea.

whoami24601 · 04/08/2019 12:29

My kitchen sounds like your kitchen! With the added irritation of a corner cupboard that is just a void and practically inaccessible! That's basically 1/4 of my storage space gone! Plus we only have one drawer. ONE! And it's not even wide enough for a cutlery tray!

FaFoutis · 04/08/2019 12:34

The hallways and landing areas in my house are huge, but the bedrooms are tiny. We have to put wardrobes & bookshelves in hallways and landings.

banivani · 04/08/2019 12:42

All the time. I might revisit this thread with rants but am popping out to buy storage boxes to compensate. 😂

ECMOR · 04/08/2019 12:44

Our kitchen, it doesn't have any drawers - not a single one!

Zaphodsotherhead · 04/08/2019 12:46

My kitchen. It's a good size, but THE DOORS! There are three doors into it, then a built in cupboard against one wall, which is full length. The number of doors means that, despite it being a bloody huge room, there is one usable work surface. That and the cooker point is right next to the sink, which means that water gets into the electrics on a regular basis.

It's rented, so I can't rip it out and start again.

Widowodiw · 04/08/2019 12:51

Not rooms but outside space... no where to store bin at front of house where our kitchen is st the front. Bins round the back where the garages are so can’t just pop to the bin in your dressing gown as you have to walk down the street.

RosaWaiting · 04/08/2019 13:00

also, my flat and all the flats in the block - small one beds - have huge bathrooms. what is that about?!

sashh · 04/08/2019 13:12

My HA Kitchen too.

Actually a lot of the property. When you come in there is a hall, but only a light switch by the door so you cannot put the light on, go to the end of the hall and switch it off.

It's a bungalow but they have put the kitchen off the living room, so instead of a door from the hall you have to go the length of the hall, ino the living room and double back into the kitchen. There Is no door from the kitchen so all rubbish has to go through the living room.

The main bedroom is quite big as is the living room but the small bedroom is not much bigger than a box room. This is OK for me but the properties are supposed to house up to 4 people.If the kitchen was off the hall you could have two big bedrooms and a small living room which might suit some families better.

The kitchen itself has only enough room for a washer or dishwasher - I have a table top dishwasher.

There is a cupboard to the left of the only place you can put a cooker and the door opened over the cooker. I took the door off to make shelves and got a telling off from the HA who so no problem with a flammable door opening over open flames.

It's more or less a square as you go in the sink is opposite the door, the fridge on the left and the cooker on the right. This means there are two lower cupboards that are those awful corner cupboards things get lost in.

The wall cupboards are at the height of the two rows of tiles so there isn't room for a microwave.

The boiler is in he kitchen high up and the rimer controls are just underneath it, I can only just reach the control. At some point I will be a wheel chair user and will not be able to reach the controls.

Oh and this property was designed for someone with 'mobility issues'

JoxerGoesToStuttgart · 04/08/2019 13:20

I’m in lots of different houses for work and I spend much of my time redesigning the layouts of them all in my head.

My own house, small terrace with later added extension. The bathroom is now a long thin windowless room with a small room for hot water tank and washing machine at the back with a window. Why? Why?? Why not have the bathroom at the back with the window and the hot water tank in the small windowless room? So stupid. Also, my bedroom, massive, 1 double socket. I have to have two extension leads trailing around the room.

lalafafa · 04/08/2019 13:32

My grandmother lived in a council house and her kitchen was as you described. It was built in the 40’s when few families had a fridge or any of the appliances you mention. Enough room for a washing tub, u dear the counter, a sink and a stove.

Gregoire · 04/08/2019 13:46

Yes! I have a utility and downstairs loo off to the side of my kitchen. The downstairs loo is palatial. You could play a squash match in there. But the utility is so small you couldn't fit both a washer and dryer side by side in there, and there's only space for one tiny cupboard mounted on the wall. Whyyyyy?!

OMGshefoundmeout · 04/08/2019 14:14

We have a lovely house we bought from new 7 years ago with a beautiful fitted kitchen. The only drawback is that the fridge and freezer are behind the door and the space from door frame to wall is just 60 centimetres so it can only accommodate old fashioned waist height fridge and freezer.I would love a big American style fridge freezer combo but they are 73cm deep so we’d have to move the door which would necessitate knocking through into the garage.

It’s such a shame as the rest of the kitchen is lovely with a massive range cooker and lots of storage.

Ronsters · 04/08/2019 14:38

My kitchen. House was built in the late 70's and there is a real lack of plugs. It has one double socket and that's it.
The previous occupants put in another double socket at the other side of the kitchen, but it's in an odd place, just randomly on a wall so not much use.
The kitchen is also tiny with a massive separate dining room next to it. Maybe for all those fondue parties in the 70s?

The controls/timer for the boiler are in the garage. Garage is built on but there's no internal door. If I want to click the heating on outside the set times, I have to go outside and open the garage, which can be a pain in winter.

AdaColeman · 04/08/2019 14:55

My kitchen is 9ft square, but has four doors, so masses of dead space. I've got around this partly, by taking one door off completely, and squeezed in fridge freezer, dishwasher and washing machine.

My main complaint though, is that the rooms only have one electricity socket each, I'm forever juggling what's on where!

OneRingToRuleThemAll · 04/08/2019 15:38

Can you not re jig the floor plan? My flat had the most frustrating layout with massive rooms vs tiny rooms. I ripped the whole lot out from the inside and re built it.

Grasspigeons · 04/08/2019 15:46

The fairly standard 2 big bedrooms, 1 tiny one puzzles me. Whats wrong with 1 master and 2 evenly sized smaller doubles.
The lack of coat shoe space in so many houses. We live in a drizzly country. We want to come in hang up a coat, take shoes off. So many houses have no hall at all. But this even carries on into some quite big houses.

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