Knock down wall

[Shellann]

We brought this new build 2 and half years ago. We have a long narrow kitchen and thinking about knocking the wall down into the hallway to make a bigger open space (highlighted in red) this would open onto the stairs but still leave an open porch where the cupboard and toilet is but be open into the further hallwall/stairs into kitchen??? See floor plan

It wouldn't be for me.
Any guests would be entering the house into your kitchen.
Which is different from friends popping round when you are in a community that leaves back doors open - they still have a formal entrance at the front.

I am a big believer in doing what works for you in a house if you are planning to stay there 15 yrs+, but I don't think it would appeal to much of the market if you aren't.

Would that contravene fire regulations? I can't imagine having noise and cooking smells wafting upstairs, it could devalue the value of your property.

You need to turn the lounge and breakfast room into a big kitchen diner. Turn the current dining room into a new lounge, then turn the tiny bit of kitchen left on the front right of the house into a utility room. A lot more work and you'll need to deal with waste water plumbing, but if you site the new back kitchen on the same side as the old front kitchen it shouldn't be too bad. That's the best solution.

If you take the wall down between the living room and kitchen instead then you’ve got loads of room for a dining table and a sofa area. Then the dining room becomes a little family/ TV room. That would make the house more sellable in future than having the kitchen open to the stairs. It would make the best use of all the rooms as well.

Plus if you open up the hallway then your WC opens up straight onto your kitchen which I don’t think is nice (I’m sure it used to be required to have 2 doors between a toilet and a kitchen so you’d need to also factor that in and possibly have a door across the porch, making it very small.

I would remove the living room/breakfast room wall instead if able, will give you a big open living space

It’s a fire risk, being open to the stairs. So no. How about making the lounge/dining room into a big through kitchen instead.

If you have more that 1 floor above then you will need to install a sprinkler system in the stair area to make sure there is a safe escape route in case of a fire. You will also need to get the changes checked by building regulations because they affect a stairwell.

You will also loose heat up the stairs and all the kitchen smells will be drawn up there so you will need a good extractor fan and probably underfloor heating?

Building regs (in Scotland, at least!) don't allow the only emergency route from bedrooms to be via a kitchen - because you're making the stairs part of the kitchen I dont think you'd get regs approval.

Either take the wall put between breakfast area and living room, and use dining room as a snug. Or re-arrange the kitchen layout - have a.pocket door or sliding door into the kitchen? Units down one wall rather than both? Swap kitchen end and breakfast room end over (might make plumbing tricky)?