Is this a fair size for a kitchen?

[Daisybell1]

I'm thinking of moving our kitchen. It's currently 2.5m x 4m. The alternate location is 4m x 4.2m, so not massively bigger but would allow double doors into a family room (of a similar size).

At times I walk into the room and think it's a fair size, at others I think it's tiny (and the designs I've had done feel cramped). It will probably cost £20k for the structural works/dry lining the rooms/log burner in the family room and a budget kitchen.

Would it be 20k well spent?

I think it partly depends how big your house and what the proposed new space is currently used for and what you will do with the old kitchen.your current kitchen is twice the size of mine so would seem big to me but if you have a five bed house I can see it might seem small. I have an overcrowded two bed terrace so our kitchen is an appropriate size for our house.

4mx4m is a bigger than average kitchen (significantly)

square-ish rooms can feel cramped because people have a tendancy to overfill with units

you do not need as much storage as you think you do lol

not that I've ever had anything to do with designing kitchens, obviously not

Thanks Brambly, that's helpful. The room is currently disused - a damp and empty space on the far side of the hall. It's a georgian farmhouse (but a working one rather than a farrow and ball painted one ) and we live in just one side, but desperately need more space.

My fear is that we could spend 10k easily insulating and dry lining the rooms and still never use them - the hall makes an odd psychological barrier. By making it the kitchen we would be 'forced' to use the space.

The current kitchen would become my partner's office and a downstairs loo which we also really need.

So it would be £20k to completely change how we live in this property...

Sausages, also very helpful, thank you! There's a chimney breast to knock out and the alcoves either side have been boxed in so they could be bashed out.

I have a fear of cabinets over work tops and bashing my head. I would love to fill one wall with units and then just have open shelves in the alcoves.

Your house sounds quite large, I think it would be a very good idea to move the kitchen to the bigger room. I know you said it wasn't a F&B style farmhouse but would it be worth keeping the chimney breast and building a range cooker into it? That would save you a few quid and work with what is already the focal point of the room.

Whether it is 20k well spent depends on how much money you have generally and, if you want to be very hard-nosed about it, whether it will add value to the house ultimately. I'm not convinced that keeping part of a house damp, cold and unused is a particularly good use of money .

Yes I'd love to keep the chimney breast and put a cooker in there, or at least the hob. By bashing it out I meant removing the nasty 60s tiled fireplace and making the opening much higher so it's usable space.. Can't have an aga as we can't afford the oil!

I think it would add 20k to the value, although it will never be sold (dd is 4th gen to live here). As currently we live crammed into a tiny room the size of a snug, with the 'large' side of the house being damp with peeling wallpaper, piles of junk and catshit lurking in corners (yes I know, it's hideous and a health hazard hence I don't let dd in there).

So, if this is a go.er then most of the budget will go on making the space habitable. Can anyone recommend a budget but nice traditional style kitchen.

wood or painted?

would you want soft close, storage solutions (magic corners etc), larder units?
worktops -would you be happy with laminate?

a 'budget kitchen' is many different things to different people

oh and you need at least 92cm above your hob before the lintle across the chimney -would you be able to take it up that far?

Painted I think, we currently have oak and it's dark. But if money completely runs out then I'll move the existing units. So light painted I think.

Laminate - yes.

Don't need larder units or fancy storage - am thinking wooden shelves in the alcoves, would love a plate rack and need one of those hanging jenny things.

Would love to get a table in there but don't know if we have the space...

Ceilings are high so it should be possible to get the lintle in...

howdens haworth

homebase windsor stone/ cream

wickes ripley or york

all worth a look

Daisy, what direction will the new kitchen face? I would be wary of a north facing kitchen, but a south one will be lovely.

Also, any idea why it is damp now.. Is it general disuse or something more fundamental? If you have a dampish kitchen, your open biscuits and stuff will become soft very soon and rice, flour etc a bit more prone to getting spoiled.

We live in an old farmhouse and find that the rooms have been well selected for their functions. We had ideas for moving things around and glad we didn't.

It might be irrelevant in your case, but worth spending time in the new kitchen area and getting a feel for the space and whether it has enough light etc.

I live in a very large old farmhouse (NOT F&B painted!) and our kitchen is about that size. It is open to a 3x3 'breakfast room' which makes it feel much more spacious.

It is actually a really good size for a working kitchen. We have a small island unit in the middle, with the appliances around it and a massive (1.8m wide) range gas and wood cooker. Two of us can comfortably cook at the same time with two small children standing on a bench so they can reach the island unit.

Thank you. The room is east facing so it's very sunny in the morning. The family room next to it is west facing so I was hoping that by having glazed doors between the two would mean light coming in at both ends of the day.

I think it's damp through lack of use (40 years or so) plus my oh had a constant battle with his mother over the radiator - he would keep it on low just to take the edge off, she would always turn it off. For the 5yrs or so that he didn't live hear.

But then it may also be condensation - he does his ironing in there with a very steamy iron and the window shut. I'm hoping a few fires in the grate before the works start will help dry things too.

An east-west combo in the two rooms will be lovely! Can imagine going in to make morning coffee with the light streaming in.

Plus it will be even sunnier when we take down the conifer hedge outside the window.

We have a Howden's account so I'll look at that howarth kitchen. Some of their 'wood' worktops look good too

It sounds lovely, well worth the effort if it transforms the way you use the house, and gains you an extra office space & loo too! Don't think so much about the fitting right now, just spend some time dreaming about how you will use the spaces when they are done. This will help you to decide on windows, doors, circulation routes, etc.

Do it!

[enabler]

bashing your head on wall units?

A few things that help:
Have 600mm cupboards each with two 300mm doors (a foot). That means they will not stick out further than the edge of the worktop, even when fully open, so you would have to make quite an effort to bang into them

You might consider a "tall wall" where one side of your kitchen has no worktop, but floor-to-ceiling units including cupboards, fridge freezer, built-in oven and microwave, tall pantry section (possibly a step-in corner unit), tall broom and hoover cupboard, high storage where you put stuff you never ever use. It looks quite neat and is OK if you have sufficient worktop around the hob and sink. Extra worktop space will just get filled with useless junk important things.

Don't forget an extracting cooker hood, and lots of big pan drawers

Piglet John, I would love a tall wall!

I really want this but I can't work out how to smuggle it in without OH noticing!

Are you sure there isn't already one in a barn?

I have just wasted hours on the Ikea kitchen planner :)

unfortunately not, I've checked them all!