Kitchen/Diner extension

[MrPickles123]

Hi all,

I've been a long time lurker on this site We are planning a kitchen diner extension. We currently have a separate, tiny kitchen and dining room. We are extending across the back by 2m. This will give us a room that is 5.2m, 17' wide and 5.5m, 18' long. The kitchen will be along the side wall of the house as that is where the water/gas currently is. We'd love a peninsular or island, but cannot visualise if we have enough space? Any thoughts on whether our width will allow ample space for a island and long rectangular dining table? The picture shows the ideal sort of layout.

Thanks

We are having something similar done now, but I can't visualise your space. Please could you post a plan? Thanks.

Ill scan in the plan at work tomorrow and post it. Thanks!

Have you tried the ikea kitchen design app?

Not suggesting tou use ikea but you can create a simple 3D model of your room with units in it and get a good feel for the layout.

I would say that yes it should be possible, although if not done carefully it could easily end up making a good size area seem cramped.

If you take your plans to a half decent kitchen outlet then they should be able to draw you up some initial ideas at this stage

The low tech solution is to plot it out on graph paper.

Rough guess....
Allow 60cm for your units
Plus absolute min 1m to your island
Plus 90cm for your island if there's an overhang for stools
Plus 1m clearance behind the stools
Plus 90cm wide kitchen table
Plus whatever clearance you need for chairs either side of the table, probably around 2m

That adds up to 6.4m

You can knock that back if you reduce the depth of the island and don't have stools at it or need less clearance around the table.

I think burnished is double counting the clearances. You need a meter around both sides of the table and a meter behind the stools but you don't need two meters between the stool and table edge. So

60cm for units
1 meter gap
90cm for Island and stool
1 meter between Island and end of table
90cm for dining table
1 meter clearance for other side of the table.

It total 5.4m should work as a minimum.

can I just add this - if the gap between chair back and barstool forms the main route to the French doors then you need sufficient walk way gap when people are seated to still get past, or it will just jam up the space ! min gap would be about 760mm between seated bar back and seated chair back not just when chairs and bar still are pushed in and tidy !

if it's not the main way through then you won't need so much gap !

If you don't allow clearance for both tbe stools and tbe chairs then you cant you can't use both at the same time. You could possibly knock it back from 2m to 1.5m.

Your plan is doable but its tight. A decent kitchen company will make it fit.

The kitchen in the picture has less than 5m in the main run of units so its smaller than yours that direction but it looks like there's well over 1m between the units and the peninsula so I'd say its a bit bigger that direction. Did right move give the dimensions?

Don't know why 'you cant' came out twice. Wasn't done for emphasis lol.

No, unfortunately no dimensions on that one! I have seen a few others which are a similar size, but finding it difficult to visualise I guess. I think we would go with an island loosing over a peninsular as the kitchen is quite long in terms of work top space. This would allow access straight from sink to back food for example, rather than walking round. On my phone at present, but will upload a pic to explain shortly.

Also, I'm not convinced we need stools for the island. It's a kitchen/diner, with no separate dining room, therefore, with the tighter width, I think we would be happy with just the dining rm table and chairs. The length would allow a small sofa instead of stools I think?

Without the stools it should fit nicely.

I've attached a picture of the plans. These were the original, so the plan only shows going out the back by 1.5m, now we are going out by 2m.

You can see the rough layout the kitchen people we went to suggested. We'd love the hob on the island/peninsular but it really depends on space. I think with an island it would make it seem less cramped.

The picture I've found from Right Move is 50cm shorter is width, but the length is almost 1m more, and I think it looks fine space wise.

Another one that is the same length, but 50cm wider than ours would be. Maybe the shorter peninsula would work better to keep it more open.

Glossy newish kitchen with hideous plastic bin on display! What were they thinking?

I'd put the hob against the wall so the work surface between the kitchen and dining room is more useable and cooker hood is vented directly through the wall. Put a gap in the peninsula in the middle perhaps instead. That way you don't need to walk all the way round to get into the kitchen.

My kitchen people told me that my island isn't deep enough for a hob. Apparently, for safety reasons, an island or peninsula needs to be deeper than normal if there's a hob on it, to ensure that someone standing or passing the other side doesn't burn themselves or get splashed.

You have plenty of wall space. It's easier and simpler for extraction to have the hob against the wall.

In the drawing it looks like you've allowed 60cm for the peninsula. Personally I think that too narrow for such a long peninsula. I high it might look odd. I think that the shorter one would be better.

I know, I don't know why they didn't move the bin!

I think the island on the first picture looks awkward really. It looks a bit thin and we don't have the width to make it larger. I actually really like the layout of the black and red one, it's essentially out space, but the other way around.

Thank you all for your input :)

Well the plans were submitted to the council for permitted development as full planning permission not needed. They called today and are doing a site visit on Thursday next week. Said he was coming round to take photos of the back- is this normal? Never done this extension business before!