Kitchen at front of house?

[furryfriends57]

Hi,
After many years of living in a cold dark house DH and I have finally decided to build a new house. The site is north / south facing with the front of the house facing south. We are drawing up plans at the monent but are struggling to place the kitchen / living / dining / sunroom to make best use of space. Current plan has the kitchen at the back of the house facing north but I'm worried it will be very dark as it won't get sun until late evening. The living room is currently at the front of the house and will be a lovely bright room. I am wondering about moving the kitchen to the front but have yet to see this in any house and as I am a slattern at heart I don't like the idea of the neighbourhood seeing my mess on full display. Just wondering has anyone else struggled with this dilemma or has anyone any words of wisdom.
Thanks a mil, FurryF

Anyone

My kitchen is at the front of the house and I love it - it's bright and gets lots of sunshine, it's far enough back from the road that people can't stare in and I can watch people walking by (and see my cat strolling up the drive of the house opposite!).

Do it. It's only convention that makes us think kitchens need to be at the back. If I am going to have people looking in my house, I'd rather they saw my kitchen anyway, rather than us slobbing about in the sitting-room :)

I know some people don't have a preference but I never have and wouldn't buy a house with a kitchen at the front. When the children were small I could keep an eye on them playing in the garden from the kitchen window and also it's easier if you have dogs as they can be let out straight into the garden from the kitchen (wet muddy dogs also come into kitchen and not lounge in the winter).

Well, I guess you could design the house so you can have a door out of the kitchen into your back garden, like we have, if dogs are a consideration.

It's what you feel you will be happiest living with. I spend so much time in the kitchen, pottering around, that I love the fact it's light and that I can see what's going on in my road - it makes it sociable. But I can see that not everyone wants that.

Hi All,
Thanks so much for all your replies. Yes it seems convention has kitchens at the back which is the darkest part of the house usually and is strange considering that we spend so much time in them. It looks like its the most likely spot for it but Sweetest thing I'd be interested to hear how your rooms are arranged as the other issue with kitchen at the front is accessing the utility room as well as the DC and dog issue. Hmmm its difficult and my architect doesn't seem to have much of an imagination in coming up with a design that uses light best.
Thanks again, FF

Another one with the kitchen at the front. It looks out onto the drive through one set of windows, at our neighbours' fabulous native trees from another, and has others looking into our sheltered, enclosed front garden. We love it, it's all trees and light. The utility room is a long walk down to the back of the house to access the back garden Won't bore you with the details of layout, but it's fine for us.

Dog not too much of an issue as all dirt tracked in here is sand, so sweeps away as soon as it's dry. DD grown up now, but I do think of it must have been when the last owners had children in the cubby-house in the back garden. It's overlooked by what Aussies call the family room, but a mile from the kitchen.

I digress. Kitchen at the front suits us fine.

Our set-up is as follows (bear with me while I try to describe it!):

Once you come through the front door into the hall, the first door on the right is for the donwstairs loo, the second door on the right is for the kitchen. The kitchen runs from the front of the house, behind the loo, to the back (widening after the downstairs loo), with a dividing wall (with door) into the futility room. The door to the drive and back garden is situated on the right of the utility room, just as you enter it from the kitchen.

We have a window at the front of the kitchen, one at the side (overlooking the drive) and the utility room has a small window on the same side as the back door and one overlooking the back garden.

So, through the kitchen, we get to the utility room and door into the drive and back garden. We can also access the back garden through the conservatory at the end of the hall (built behind the futility room).

I don't know if that makes any sense at all!

My kitchen is at the front of the house and faces North West. To be honest it wasn't what I wanted but the rest of the house ticked all the boxes so I took the chance. Been here almost a year now and I'm actually really liking having the living room facing the back garden (SE facing) and not the street outside, this is off-setting my "kitchen at the front" dislike.

Rather like SweetestThing's kitchen, ours has a futility room (made me ) which has access to the garden and garage and kitchen so I don't have to walk laundry through a living space to get it to the washing line. The dog's bed is in the utility room so has direct garden access.

I would say that some form of exit from kitchen/utility to the garden where you don't have to walk around half the house is important, particularly with dogs.

I would prefer the room is spend most time in facing south.