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

[OrangeCrushes]

It's a floorplan question!

I want to turn my current kitchen into a utility room and the current second reception into a kitchen. The problem is the dining room would be far from the kitchen and we will often need to take things from the new utility to go into the kitchen.

AIBU to add one or more serving hatches to the floorplan - between kitchen and utility and utility and dining room, respectively?

Marked up floorplan attached as well as a serving hatch idea

We had an architect come and she came up with a very creative plan that would cost more than just ripping down the conservatory and building an extension 😐

I do think we could try again, but this experience put me off a bit.

Take up mindfulness.

I would take the wall out between the kitchen and utility room and make it one room

Ok. I see that you are just here to criticise and add negativity to the conversation.

Yes and that works

You’re the one who says you’ve obsessed over this for a year

There is currently a door directly between the kitchen and dining room! We would be adding a walk down a narrow hall. But I am starting to think that this is doable 👍

I wouldn't bother with the hatches. Just use a trolley and walk through the doors!

You could try again and go in with a clear budget.

I just wouldn't do the hatches, it would look odd.

An interim plan? So likely a complete waste of money....

I highly value storage. Your plan has no space for storage. I'm not trying to be smart but if you've taken over a year ro come up with this I'd spend my money more on a good architect than wasting money on plans you'll only rip out soon again anyway.

What do you mean there is no space for storage? I have just described practically floor to ceiling storage on both walls of the utility.

And we wouldn't rip out work already done. We would add a dining room where the conservatory is, removing the need to carry food so far.

Looking at your plan I would consider taking out the wall between the new kitchen and the new utility (making a bigger kitchen and leaving your washing machine in the existing utility). That way you can still walk from the kitchen to the dining room. Your alternative (if you want to maximise cupboard space in the new utility room by blocking up a door) is to walk the few paces down the hall from the kitchen to the dining room. It can't be that much more effort, especially when you only use the dining room to entertain a few times a year. Lots of people have dining rooms and kitchens that don't connect. We did at our old house. We had the front room as the dining room and back room as the lounge while the kitchen was in a rear extension (pre-war semi). We didn't find it a problem. I wouldn't go with hatches to be honest. They will still reduce the amount of usable space in your utility/kitchen. It may be ok if you had a kitchen and dining room next to each other but with the utility in the middle, it makes much less sense.

OP, have you considered turning the front reception room into the kitchen instead? You would need to move services but you’d have to do that in any case with your current plan. But this way the dining room just stays where it is while ending up right next to the kitchen, and you don’t need to faff around with hatches. And you don’t have the issue of a cloakroom off the kitchen either.

And the entire flow would still be wrong. Your kitchen wouldn't be right and you'd still have a toilet coming off the kitchen and a random dining room added on not flowing with the kitchen.

Again I'm not not trying to argue. I just think your money is better used getting the right plan and costings. I'd rather wait another year or two and get it right than do something incomplete now.

This is a good idea and I have considered it. The main issues are that it would be a bit jarring to enter basically RIGHT into the kitchen, and we would have to re-renovate if we ever had the funds for a dining room extension

I was actually trying to redesign it for you.

You can't have a loo/shower room off the kitchen.

You could have a loo off your utility room.

You could have a galley kitchen with no island. You could incorporate the current kitchen into the new one.

I’d probably just walk round, given that you’re only talking about a few times a year, but would you not get enough storage by turning existing utility into a walk-in larder and line other wall with tall units/worktop with appliances under, leaving a walkway through. I guess it depends how much of your kitchen design depends on that internal wall between utility and kitchen, but it also makes your utility much more practical for storing kitchen stuff… Doors is the other issue, but you could probably use pocket doors. Depending on how important the side door is, either of these two options (uploading pictures).

If it were me i wouldn’t have a utility with that layout, instead I would stack the laundry equipment in the kitchen and include a tall cupboard to store ironing board, mop, bucket etc. I do this at my current house

My parents had one and it was my ambition at one point as a kid to climb through, being the first person ever to directly enter the kitchen from the living room.

Never got round to it.

Like the current loo, the current utility is a separate low-quality extension separated from the rest of the space by the original outside walls of the house. This particular room also has weird pipes and a drainage gully in it. It can't really be used for anything. This also means it can't be a WC. (Please trust me on this).

I think that I very strongly want to be able to sit in the kitchen, so unfortunately a galley kitchen isn't desirable. I also don't really care about the loo being off the kitchen tbh. Finally, there is currently a clear line of sight from the front door through to the garden and I am worried that if we blocked the current hallway, the house would lose a feeling of light and space.

Do you have / might you have young children?
Having a line of site from the kitchen to the living room where they play is so good. Our serving hatch serves this purpose with grandchildren.

In your case, I would combine the utility and kitchen into one room, and possibly the dining room as well: make the whole ground floor open-plan apart from the front sitting room and the small utility and WC off to the side.
Then consider a hatch or internal window into the sitting room to watch the children.

That side door seems to define a lot.

Could you loose it?

Maybe open a side door in the conservatory instead?

Also agree - you will really regret have the toilet off the kitchen.

Oh I see. From the plan I thought that the entrance is to the side of the front reception rather than inside it, so you could basically keep the same wall layout (which is also cheaper). Is the current dining room not enough space for a big table? If it is and you later get funds for an extension, you could have a lovely big reception room instead. 🙂

That’s a shame about the current utility. What will you do with it in your current plan? Does it have washer/dryer, etc. or is it literally useless? It’s difficult when you have awkward layouts and nothing quite seems to work. I definitely understand the need to have lots of units and storage - I hope you get a solution you’re happy with!