How big is your kitchen

[kavalkada]

Posting here for traffic.

So, my friend came the other day first time since we moved to this flat. For context, she lives in a big lovely house, I live in a 82 sq metres flat (882 sq feet). I would like to have a nice house with two more bedrooms and nice little garden but I know it's not gonna happen (at least for now), so I don't spend my time crying over that.

So, the two of us are sitting in my dining room that looks on my small galley kitchen and during our two hour conversation she must have mentioned five times how she could never cook a meal in my kitchen because it is just too small. In her defense she has really huge kitchen and I can imagine from her point of view my kitchen looks like it was kids playing kitchen.

But is it really that small like she thinks? It has 6 sq metres (64 sq feet) and next to it is 0.9 sq meters pantry where I keep all my appliances and 90 post of my food.It is 200 cm (6.56 feet) long on one side and 240 cm (7.87 feet) long on other side. I have a dishwasher, a big sink, a 60 cm wide fridge, enough storage for pots and pans (although I have to be careful with buying new things because there is not enough space to buy what I want).

So how small is too small?

My kitchen used to be tiny and badly planned. It had pretty much no useable work surface but five doors leading off it! Used to hate it. But it wasn’t the size so much as the poor layout. The council knocked it through into the dining room - initially I hated the idea of losing the separate room but the kitchen they created from doing so is amazing and I enjoy cooking it in so much more. It has space for a dining table too.

I don’t think size so much as layout is the important feature.

My place is also 82 sq m (2 bedrooms). My kitchen is 3m x 3m and I have a 3m x 3m dining area next to it. It fits a beautiful (just because I got it this year and the novelty hasn't worn off ) 520L french door fridge. Got the french door fridge as I really want to redo the kitchen and the smaller door opening space will be great for the new fridge position.

Layout wise it could have been done better. It's a u shape kitchen with fridge, pantry and stove along one wall, sink on the other, then a long bench. Corner cupboards are a waste of space and impossible to get in to and there are two of them. When I redo it I'll put in a corner pantry, cut the bench so it becomes an island, move the fridge over next to the sink and then have a bench top next to the stove, where the fridge and current pantry are. That will actually double my usable bench space. I'll add high cupboards on the wall which will finally give me space for cups. If I do everything as drawers I also gain cupboard space.

For the time being, it's structurally sound, so I repainted it to update it a bit.

I grew up in a house with a tiny galley kitchen and hated it. We now have a much larger kitchen and I like it much better.

We put in a new kitchen a couple of years ago and we have a massive island, loads of storage and cupboard space, and my pride and joy is a table we had made by a local joiner and which is just really a solid slice of wood with legs on. Love it.

We have a small house and my friend has made comments in the past on its size as she has always lived in bigger places.
We had some walls knocked around last year and it's made the old kitchen into a kitchen diner so it is a bit bigger now. I've had people say ' I would miss my dining room ' ' your surrounded by your cooking things '
Whatever you have or do someone will make a comment about it : you could live in a stately home and people would pick holes I'm sure!
Nod and smile. I'd never remark on anyone's home ; you go to visit them not the house and yes my slightly bigger kitchen diner still has its drawbacks to a separate area , but we like it ( I liked the old kitchen as well though )

Mine is very small, and we don’t have a dining room. But I've managed to cook Christmas dinner in there without any trouble, so it doesn't bother me much.

Ah but your home is so easy to keep clean and tidy. Bet she spends days cleaning hers. Forget it. If she's a good friend she's just speaking openly without realising it's a bit rude perhaps? Next time you visit her, for a laugh, keep saying her kitchen is too big!

If it makes you feel better, OP, I had a "friend" as a teenager who was incredible spoiled and used to grandeur who came to my little house and said it made her feel claustrophobic

I don't think she was rude, just a little bit thoughtless. It was funny when she mentioned it for the fifth time. But when she left I started thinking: maybe it is too small.

I have to remember that comparison is the thief of joy and remember that I actually like my kitchen - although wood worktops take a lot of work to stay nice.

3 bed semi here, long kitchen that is wide enough for units on both sides but certainly not big enough for an island or table. We do have a bar we can sit at though. Works fine for us. Your friend was being rude.

We live in a big house with a little galley kitchen

Separate utility room and the kitchen has an old fashioned open hatch into the dining room. I love it, it’s great for hosting because you can cook and still be part of the conversation or keep an eye on the children.

@kavalkada I’ve cooked in a kitchen for 20 years that is so narrow, 2 people can’t pass and if you reach out your arms you touch both walls. Small kitchens can be a pain in the arse, but your friend is rude to keep harping in about yours.

Your kitchen sounds big to me! I'd bloody love space for a dishwasher and a big sink! We've got a tiny undercounter fridge and have to keep the freezer in the garage.
We only have half depth cupboards and barely any worktop space, I can literally touch both walls at once if I put my arms out.

@Lollypop4

Ive had a kitchen that only fits 1 person in, as a family of 6, it was too small to cook in but, made do until we moved. my kitchen now is quite small but Id say average for a 3 bed terrace. One day, Id love a big house and big kitchen, I cant see it happening though

Lollypop, we can always dream about it. When kids are asleep, I like to take a notebook and plan my dream house. It's pretty amazing in my head.

I have a biggish kitchen after years of small ones but as others have said it is not laid out the way I would like it. I have always quite preferred a small kitchen with lots of counter space. A lot of big kitchens these days have quite a compact kitchen prep space and then a big space for dining. Also, your friend sounds really thoughtless.

Ships cooks and submariners feed several hundred/thousand people from tiny, very well-organised facilities.

I have a long kitchen (6m x 2.4m) that is appallingly designed with no good way of reorganising it without extensive building works and very tricky planning permission. Every single thing is in a bad place. Stupid amounts of windows.

It's a freezer in the Winter (the air temperature is regularly

By far the best solution I found for our wooden worktops was varnish. I used this stuff and it's indestructible, I can soak it, put hot pans on it, bleach it, spill anything on it it's never stained.

www.sadolin.co.uk/products/sadolin-pv67-heavy-duty-varnish/

My PIL live in a detached, new build 3 bed house and their kitchen is 3.14x1.92. There are units on 3 walls and the door on the 4th. You struggle to fit 2 people in there. Your's sounds perfectly fine

Galley kitchens always get rated as the best design to work in. We've just extended and kept the kitchen as a simple galley style and it's absolutely fantastic to work in.

Small can be beautiful

Mine is 20x10ft. It’s two halves, one being the kitchen, the other being a home cinema space. There’s also a 15 x 10ft utility room with the washing machine, dryer, big fridge freezer, sink, cupboards for storage. It used to be the coal shed, we’re very lucky to have the extra space.

My kitchen now is a big kitchen diner type one but I’ve lived 3 places where the kitchen is small and only fits one person. I have found no difference in trying to cook in the bigger one compared to the smaller one apart from I probably make more mess as in the smaller ones I had to clear up as I went along. Also in my bigger kitchen in theory other people can help, clear up, make drinks but actually they just get in the way so it was easier in a smaller kitchen to keep them out.

I own a two bed terrace and the kitchen is TEENY TINY. It just is what it is, you can't magic either money or space so 🤷

Your friend should keep such thoughts to herself! It’s not polite or friendly to voice them.

Our kitchen is an OK-ish sort of size on paper, but because of 3 doors off it (back door, hall and dining room) we’ve never been able to fit in even a small table, and more than one other person in there while I’m trying to cook is too many.
Can’t extend, garden is too small to lose any of it.

However I’ve often easily managed to cook a full Christmas dinner for 12 in it, so it’s fine.

Mine is approx 3m x 2.4m and it's fine

I'd be tempted to respond with
'Wow - you must be such a messy cook'
or
'I wouldn't want to be bothered with all the extra cleaning that would mean.'
or
'Wow, that's weird, how much room does it take to cook a meal?'
or
even just, 'I love it, it really suits me'
or something on those lines.

Or. after the 5th time, 'Do you realise you have mentioned it 5 times now?'

That’s not a very nice thing for a friend to say, repeatedly. Up til a couple of months ago I lived in a flat whose kitchen livingroom and dining room were all in one room, about 4.5m by 3m. The kitchen was in a little alcove about 2.12m in the corner of the room. There was enough space for an under counter fridge, a sink in the corner so you had to stack the dirty dishes on the tiny bit of worktop space the other side and a hob. I had to get myself a little freezer and put it next to the settee. I still managed to cook in that kitchen though. It was hard and there was no room for anything but I managed. None of my friends made me feel small about it. I hated that flat, it was 34m2 for two of us, and it cost me £900 a month in rent.

Now I’ve moved back to the midlands and I have a kitchen that I consider massive, to me anyway. It’s 2.49m by 4.23m. I have my little fold up dining table in there with one of the leaves up and I’ve got a dishwasher, I feel proper posh. There’s also three extra cupboards above the table which are useful but I have a habit of bashing my head on them.

My kitchen is cavernous bigger than any I’ve ever seen !! Can I cook ??? Nope not that well lol she is being a twat ignore her . Also she is being so rude and obviously never heard the old adage size isn’t everything enjoy your kitchen and enjoy cooking in it