Is this a crazy idea ? (Pics attached) Husband disagrees.

[Yepyupyip]

We are renovating our house and will convert the back of the garage into the kitchen as it is tiny atm. We will also know the wall between dining room and kitchen.

my question do we move the current kitchen space about 1m into the hallway or not? It is current dead space in the hallway.

I think this will make the kitchen/dining room seem more spacious. As the final dimensions of just the kitchen part will only be 2.6x4m. I think the extra bit of space as you walk in will make a difference .the halll way would still be 3m long and fit our shoe rack etc as we won’t touch the bit near the front door.

Husband thinks the hall way will be too small of we do this.

AIBU?

Seems like a good idea to me as long as the walls aren't load bearing.

Ki think it will feel really cramped to have such a small entry.

I’m not that good at figuring it out from a diagram. It looks like a good idea, the question is whether it will make it awkward to get around where all the doors converge. Our house has a bad design where if you meet someone coming the other way at a certain point, you have to take turns opening and closing doors. You’d want to avoid that.

What does it matter if the hallway is a bit cramped? It's not like anyone spends any meaningful amount of time there

I think you have the right idea. We have a tiny kitchen and it's a real PITA. I'd definitely extend it if we could.

Keep entrance light and bright , mirror. You only walk threw it ! Unless DH is concerned that you will be judged by the postman 🤣I think much better use of space .

Where do you put bags, coats, children’s activity kit? We are lucky enough to have a boot room. A hall can be very useful storage space.

Yes that first plan looks better, otherwise you end up with another m or so of corridor for no reason at all. what could you even do with it? If he is concerned it will look claustrophobic then suggest having that kitchen/diner door glazed to let light in.

I think it would be daft not to do that, it makes the room much easier without a lump of hallway and doors intruding into it.

Your porch looks to have the external wall as the load-bearing wall; if do, could you remove the inner wall and door and replace the outer door as the main front door? That would make the hallway larger and you'd remove the faff of two front doors.

I would use the dead space as storage and pantry. There is never enough storage

For me it slightly depends on whether the underside of your stairs impacts on your kitchen/diner space, because if it does, you might not really feel the benefit of the space gained from the hall, but might feel the loss of it. Creating that one big room looks great, but if it's interrupted by the stairs, then it might not be worth reducing the hall.

With it being under the stairs, what's the celing height in that space? Our under stairs are gets low quite quickly, we considered opening it into the kitchen but it wouldn't have been possible to put up wall units in that bit.

We've kept it as storage, its handy having a cupboard tall enough for the ironing board, vacuum cleaner etc.

Your idea looks great. The people who bought my parents' house (same layout) did almost exactly what you've suggested. There was an awkward little return into the dining room door like yours, which became part of the room, they knocked through into the kitchen, and the undersrairs space (a pantry) became a door to the garage.

Absolutely fine but if the wall is in that location, does it work with your stair landing and the stair? And do you have hallway storage for coats and shoes or do you need that under stairs storage for that?

Is the blue door where you want the door?Or where your husband wants it?

Do it.

We have a coatstand just inside the kitchen entry and it works fine.

This, this, this. You need storage

Do it, and make the door to the kitchen glazed to let the light through. Your hallway won't feel dark then.

No. But I know I am in a minority here, I like it when houses have their original proportions and it was a struggle to find somewhere that still had a separate kitchen and living room.

It looks like the space under the stairs can still be used as storage and accessed from the kitchen, it's just the kitchen door op is thinking of moving down towards the front door.

Yes I’d do that, the extra hallway space wouldn’t be used for anything in the hallway. I would recommend getting your under stairs space revamped as storage if not like that already. I had a company install drawers. It’s the best thing ever.

Where would you keep the door if you knocked through and didn't extend into the hall? The kitchen or dining room one? Either way it it's pointless, the only reason the hall is that length is to fit both doors and give access to the understairs cupboard i think?

Will it meet legislation?

Is the storage under your stairs big enough for a downstairs toilets/small hand basin? If so I would do that.

If not, I would go with your plan

We did something similar with dead space in the hallway and it just looks as if it was always like that and makes the room a better shape.

I’d remove the inner porch doors so the entrance area is larger. I’d also make a doorway from the hall into the garage (at the bottom of the stairs) so you can put your washing machine and freezer in there, so freeing up more storage in the kitchen.