Kitchen layout and furniture advice. Diagram attached!

[Jaffajiffy]

My two kids are getting to the age, where they don’t need to dominate the kitchen with toys and plastic, so I would love to upgrade our kitchen to something a bit more adult-friendly. You can see that we’ve opted for a centre island and the table is centred to that. I wondered about moving the table to one side, but one side has a traffic door in the bifold, and the other would seem to be extremely tricky with the roof lights above, and I’m not sure how the lighting would work, even if I did want to spend the money on moving the lighting . We use the sofa a lot, and it would be nice to have a omething that would work as a pre-dinner area to sit and chat. When guests come round right now, we tend to put them on the sofa and sitting ourselves on dining room chairs, which is a bit awkward. So I’d love to know what your advice would be either to adjust the layout or to advise what furniture to put on each side. Thank you so much in advance for your wise advice and great ideas!

So forgive the terrible scribbles and maybe dimension wise this wouldn't make sense..

For me the kitchen bit actually feels a bit too spread out with lots of pacing from one side to another so what I would do is halve the size of that and have base units in the middle with bench seating on the other side and the dining table next to that. Then where you currently have the dining table I would have a sofa, with a coffee table and a couple of armchairs.

I agree with thehonscupboard, I'd cut the walking by placing the objects in a more convenient way. There is a 3d kitchen planner that can help you with planning all the units and their placing, and you'll have an idea of how it's going to look like!

thank you, both. The kitchen is actually 8y into its current layout so it’s only the photographed areas that are up for grabs. 😜

Hi @Jaffajiffy

just wondering if you managed to figure anything out with your dining area? We are in a very similar situation - just in the process of rehoming all the plastic toys so now left with a kitchen diner we would like to to update. Our kitchen also won’t be moving…

Hello @Autumnpumpkinspice101. Not yet. We pushed the table over to the right and loved the space, but it blocks the traffic door. I think our options are

1. get a narrow table
2. stick with the fatter table in the middle and find some nice furniture for the right hand side.

What’s your layout?

Badly drawn layouts

Would suggest large modular L shaped modular sofa on the left or right of the room, according to your preference. The shape means you can fit more people on it… and it will be nice and cosy for two or more people to put their feet up when it’s just the family.
With a rug and coffee table. Will partition the room nicely and leave a nice airy space and walkway and view of garden in the middle.
A modular sofa will also mean you can rearrange later when you want to switch things around. I would get rid of the shelving and re home bar into your lovely big kitchen or get a nice wheeled drinks trolly that can fit into corners.

The dining table, I would change the chairs to matching wood benches, they can fit more people and have the added bones of slotting neatly under the table when not in use, saving the room from being too cluttered and busy, and making it appear a more adult rather than family home.

I’ve tried to draw the layout of my room but I’ve realised it’s not my strong point and it actually looks nothing like what I’ve drawn. We have a chimney breast which as lovely as it is makes it harder to fit things around but I think we may have sorted it now.
I will make another attempt at drawing…