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?

Oh I hadn’t looked at the floor plan properly and thought it was accessible from the hall currently.

I would go with your plan and make the hall into more of a loaby.

Looks like it would make sense to me. It seems like the only reason the layout is as it currently stands is to have a door from the hall into the dining room? My house had a similar layout to your proposed one, so the dining room was only accessible from the kitchen or the lounge - it was never a problem. As you are making it into a kitchen diner it seems silly to have dead space in the hall when it will be better used in the new room.

What do you use the garage for? If it is just for storage I would try to find more practical uses for it too certainly some storage, but could you work out some access from the house to use part of it for eg a utility room, larder, downstairs loo/shower or boot room, none of which need windows, just good ventilation. Organise the storage better, bike racks, better shelving, de cluttering and you would still have plenty of room. Don’t get so hung up on the big kitchen diner that you ignore another space and don’t use it.

Yes, I think that makes sense. Just check building regs.

Your house looks like the exact same layout as ours. We currently have the wall between the kitchen and dining room (although kitchen was extended to back of garage some years ago) but if we were to get rid of it I would definitely take the section of hallway too, as you say it’s just dead space

Your version but what does the rest of the garage become? Why aren't you using more of it for kitchen space and converting the remainder to utility and downstairs lavatory?

Ooo very very similar to the build we have just started this week!! I would go with your plan and get rid of the fucking storm porch, and add an external porch, but I have an axe to grind with tiny little porches, bane of my life and makes me livid 😅 but I digress, sorry. Exciting, looks great! I might even take the hall-kitchen door off (as long as you’ve got a living room door) as it’s annoying having doors everywhere.

This is what we’re doing. Does mean we have much less storage space (garage super handy obviously!) and COST I would imagine - prices are insane at the moment.

I would get rid of the internal porch and have an external one - this will really open up the hallway space.

I like the new design, but agree with others abou the garage. You're going to end up with a small garage, which could be better used as part of the house. Could you convert the whole space?
Also if you ever move people viewing the house might be put off by the weird tiny garage that can't fit a car (despite the fact hardly anyone uses theirs for that reason!)

I can’t work out what’s to happen properly from your diagram, sorry !

what I would say though is if it’s a house which would be bought by a family likely in o have babies or small children then a decent sized hallway is very very useful.

you need small for shoes, coats, prams etc. we made our front room smaller to make the hall wider

we also removed our internal front door because the previous owners had put a porch on, so to get small
children through 2 crappy narrow doors and a dog was very annoying. We removed the porch and made the front wider, the only front door to the house is now what used to be the old porch front door (so again it has made the hallway bigger and we choose a wide front door)

I’d absolutely do it. We used to live in a Victorian terrace and the kitchen was so tiny you could stick both arms out and touch the opposite walls at the same time. We had a dog-leg hall and knocked through from the kitchen into the bottom of the hall which made a huge difference. We did need an RSJ as it was a supporting wall.

It does make sense. A much better shaped room.

Normally I'd say make the kitchen more spacious. But it's going to be really huge once you've done that extension. If you keep the hall so it still has that little alcove on the right hand side (in the diagram of the existing layout), but lose that doorway into the dining room, then you'll gain great storage space for coats, bags, shoes etc but out of sight of the front door, so first impact when you enter is tidy and spacious. I think the biggest failing in any house, especially any hallway, is poor storage. If you can hide away shoes, boots, coats, school bags, gym kit etc, it's so much calmer to look at.

It looks like a great idea.
Invest in an engineer and or an architect to make the most from your small space and capitalise on light, swing doors the right way or sliding etc so that every inch is considered.

Your floor plan is almost the same as my house. The extra metre from the hall has been incorporated into my kitchen diner, hallway doesn’t seem cramped or small. NDN the extra metre was left as hall space and made the extended room have a dark corner look to it.
You’ll have a really large kitchen diner so could have a full height cupboard for extra coats, boots etc. in there.

Not crazy at all. That part of the hall is just for the two doors, so of course it makes sense to give that space to the kitchen which needs it. Much more time is spent in the kitchen anyway unless your dh practices his golf swing and watches tv in the hall.

I had a house very similar to this and we used more of the garage to make a larger kitchen. We then made a utility in the front part of garage (kept garage door) as we didn't need the garage and had a large shed in garden.

Yes the hall is dead space but it will feel very small if you take some of it for the kitchen. I struggled as it was when having visitors all trying to take off coats etc in the narrow space.

What do you use the hall for at the moment?

If it's totally unused space, then I can't see the issue. It would be small, but that might not matter. But if you have a lots of shoes/coats that are kept there it may be more troubling. Ours is very small but it is totally empty aside from some hooks for guest costs - we always come and go through the back and we have shoe racks and all our coats there.

As with all building work, you'll both be living with it so you really have to agree. Try to find out exactly what his objection is. It might be solvable, it might not.

Christ sake woman, pay an architect.

Agree with PP - make the porch door your main entrance and remove the front door to make the hall larger.

I agree with your idea of incorporating that small area into the kitchen. What I would also do if possible is provide an interior door from the hall just before the stairs to access the garage. That way, anyone with a pram has somewhere to park it, you don't have to go outside to get tools or paint or whatever else you are storing in there.

Depending on funds I would consider actually keeping the very front of the garage for storage and converting that middle section into another room for the house. A second space as a playroom/study/snug would be beneficial. A lot of people on my estate keep the garage as far back as the up and over door clears, then put a wall in and a room behind. Just worth thinking about when you have builders in.

The plan on the left is the plan with the hallway space used?
The plan on the right is the current plan?
What does the plan look like without using the hallway space? I'm finding it difficult to visualize the other option.
I don't understand the use of the garage space on the new plan either. What is the long corridor type bit on the left going to be used for?
I think you need to think about what is left of the garage a bit more.
I don't see a problem with a small hall but you need to be sure you have enough storage space

I think it depends how you use your hall. Do you hang coats there? Do you have children - how many of you are in the house (or will be eventually)? If you end up having to have coats in the kitchen they will smell of cooking.

Yes absolutely, your suggested floor plan is spot on. Your hallway won't be too small, send him round to my house to see our TINY hallway and that'll shut him up complaining.