How would you redesign this kitchen/dining room?

[Changingplace]

I’m buying this cottage, the kitchen/dining room needs a total overhaul and I’d love ideas about what other people would do?

I’m thinking about adding patio doors across the back wall where the sink currently is (planning permission allowing!) because it’s got a lovely big garden.

That would mean bringing more of the kitchen into the current dining space, but feels possible. I’d like a breakfast bar area still, but the current configuration feels really squashed!

Any ideas?

I wouldn't bother with a breakfast bar if you have a proper table and chairs in the kitchen. If you can put patio doors in can you flip the area so that the eating area is where the kitchen currently is? The doors will make that area really bright (we eat at our dining room table with the doors open so that we feel like we are eating al fresco but without the wildlife 😂) and really pleasant for a leisurely meal. You could put storage (or the fridge/freezer or washing machine) under the stairs so that you have room to move around.

That’s a good idea, I’d not thought of having the table at that end of the room, that could work.

It looks like a sweet little cottage with loads of character and potential @Changingplace!

In theory I like the idea of swapping the dining space into the window end of the room as having a garden view/door(s) opening from where you sit to eat is lovely.

However, speaking from past experience of buying a 400 year old, thick-walled house with the kitchen in a dark, middle room, we decided we couldn't live with lights on in the kitchen the whole time. So, having removed the wall between living and dining rooms, one of the next jobs we tackled was to move the kitchen into the newly created bright space and the dining room (which suits being a darker, more atmospheric space imo) into the former kitchen. This worked really well for us - as we had loads of lamps and an over-the-table candelabra for when we ate - although obviously it might not suit everyone.

Looking at your pics, I don't think your kitchen would be as dark as ours was if you did move it, but it's definitely worth thinking about. I can imagine your kitchen with hand painted cabinets in a pretty colour - you might want to pop over to the 'Can I see your kitchen?' thread (in AIBU) as there's lots of great inspiration there!

Plumbing might make this completely impossible, but I think I'd put the kitchen (plus dining table) at the front, in the current lounge.

Then turn the current kitchen and dining room space into a lounge with the big windows you envisage.

My (personal) issue with moving the kitchen towards the middle of the house would be the stairs coming off the new kitchen.

Funny you should suggest that @Cantseetreesforthewood - I was wondering about that option too, but avoided suggesting it as I'm going to start sounding like a broken record, having done it a few times ourselves and mentioned it frequently 🙄

I know some people don't like kitchens at the front of houses, but prior to 2012 - when we relocated our first one - we'd seen a few cottages where the kitchen was at the front, often with the front door opening directly into the space, which I'm not a fan of with living rooms unless unavoidable. These kitchens were lovely welcoming rooms where you came straight in, able to put your shopping straight down/away without needing to traipse it through the house to the kitchen at the back (frequently these cottages had no hall to speak of).

We're in the process of relocating ours in the Georgian cottage we bought last September and everyone that's seen it so far reckons it's a vast improvement (hopefully they're not lying!).

Ours is a completely different layout to @Changingplace's though as it's a wide, shallow cottage. Whilst our kitchen will be at the front, it's not only dual aspect, but the front door opens into a 'dining hall' (with stairs and convenient table for dumping shopping bags), so the kitchen cabinets aren't the first thing you see. Our living room (old kitchen) is beyond the dining space. This was originally a warren of small rooms added in the 1960s which needed reconfiguring anyway - when we did we realised it made a much nicer living room.

Eventually we'll be reincorporating the inappropriate integral garage (adjacent to the front door) into the cottage too.

So, obviously I'm biased, but relocating the kitchen to the front room (plumbing permitted) is something worth considering. We've not found it too expensive/onerous, although with the caveat we're DIYing most of the work.