Any design tips for a long narrow kitchen and bedroom?

[MollyBdenum]

We will be extending our house this autumn, but were only able to get planning permission for an extension with internal dimensions of 6m x 2.3m. The ground floor bit will be a kitchen, and upstairs will be a bedroom. We'll probably end up sectioning off a bit of the bedroom to add an ensuite bathroom, and I'll be getting a few designs done by kitchen companies to get an idea of what we want, but does anyone have any tips about what will/wont work in a room with roughly the dimensions of a corridor?

I'm feeling quite inspired by the Slim House in London which is also 2.3m wide, so I know it is possible to make the space work well.

You could divide by activities down the room to avoid constant walking and people getting in the way. Which way round depends on doors and connections to the rest of the house.

• Storage zone - fridge, freezer, larders. Imagine unpacking shopping here.
• Worktop for snacks, kettle, toaster, coffee machine, breakfast bar if room. crockery/cutlery storage under/over.

• Sink and dishwasher with bins under sink
• Main cooking area with hob, oven, pans, things like oil/spices/utensils and especially a well lit prep area.

It's a bit of a compromise to have the fridge away from the cooker but most fridge visits are for milk/sandwiches/breakfast and it will be handy for those.

With the bedroom that's quite a reasonable size, again just make sure the layout avoids having to walk round the bed - put it at one end.

Can you not add to the width of the extension by breaking into an existing room to give a less tunnel like feel to the kitchen? Obviously it is possible to plan a kitchen like this, but I do think a bigger space is lighter and a more modern solution giving lots more options.

Knocking through would pretty much double the price add it would mean knocking down a supporting wall and moving the stairs, and our house is a two up, two down, so out would make the whole house into one open plan room and practically double the cost. It won't be a complete corridor as we will be knocking through part of the wall into the current kitchen which will become a dining room. I will post a picture of the plans on my profile once I've fed the children.

I've put up a picture, but I did it on my phone and I think it came out upside down.

Not sure I can see the picture - is your profile set to public?

It is now. I had to get a whole new id after the big Heartbleed fiasco and it seems I'd forgotten to sort out my profile.

Is it door or window at the bottom of the room, and are there any windows on the lefthand side or is that onto your neighbours side?

There is a door (which will have glass panels) and small window at the bottom (North facing) and a window at the other end. The long wall faces the neighbours and has no windows.

Where does the door lead? is it the main back door? I suppose I'm thinking do people have to walk through the length of the room a lot? Such that you would want to keep cooking operations all on one side for instance?

It will be the informal front door. Our existing front door leads directly onto the stairs with no real hallway, so I want to have a small area of kitchen where family will come in and leave coats, shoes and bags, as well as being able to take out rubbish and answer the door without having to wall in a u-shape around the rest of the house.

So realistically, it will be used when going out to work/achool etc, but probably not so much for.nipping out to the shops. DP will come in through the back door in the dining room. The children will probably use that door of they want to play with other children on the street as their shows will be there.

Everyone else will use the proper front door.

So there is a sort of u-shaped flow of traffic through the house, with the front door leading to the stairs which divide the house up, with the shooting room leading to the dining room (which has a back door to the garden) and which leads to the kitchen which will have a second front door.

I was thinking that if I could get away with it, I would like to keep everything to the long outside wall and the wall with the window overlooking the back garden, leaving the other wall free for a long mirror, some art, possibly some wall-mounted wire baskets for storing fruit and veg opposite the fridge and possibly a Julia Child style storage pegboard.

That's exactly what I was about to suggest. Look up ideas for galley kitchens, then you'd have plenty of space for shelving on the opposite wall.

If you want to make the room seem less long and lanky (for want of a better word) you could put a small side room/cupboard in at one end for ugly or noisy stuff like coats, shoes, the washer etc. A futility room, in fact!

Interesting! Would you want a tall oven or fridge cabinet? There's a bit of a lack of corners to put them in.

I'm happy to have an oven under the hob, but have a freestanding fridge/freezer which I'd like to keep on using.

I have a washing machine and tumble dryer which I need to fit in, but the boiler and gas meter are in the current kitchen, and although we were thinking of moving the boiler, I am tempted to leave it where it is and box it in to make a cupboad for storing the ironing board and other talk things there.

It's quite challenging with all those openings - where were you thinking of putting the fridge? I think your designer will have to work quite hard both to fit thing in AND have a kitchen that works not just a row of random cupboards. Also you won't have that many cupboards, so work them very hard with interior fittings to make the most of the space.

My suggestion from having done an extension is: try and get your kitchen sketched out before you finalise builders plans. Slightly tweaking the position of a window or opening so you can fit in a unit can make a huge difference, as can the direction of doors and where /what sort of lighting.

We have a fairly narrow kitchen and the biggest PITA is the dishwasher - when the door is open it blocks the whole room because we didn't notice we'd sited it opposite a sticking-out section of wall. Unloading it is a pain because some stuff goes to one side of it, and some to the other. Worth bearing in mind.