Help with layout / design ideas please!

[mandy214]

If this was the downstairs layout of your house, how would you re-jig the back of the house if you were going to extend across the back by just over 3m (which will involve the knocking down of the current kitchen extension which is part kitchen / part utility room). We have already knocked the wall down between the kitchen and the dining room so it is already one space at the back.

Aim is to get more living space, but I would need a utility room. Not bothered about it being particularly big, just want somewhere I can store laundry / shut the door on it.

Initial thoughts are to shift the door into the kitchen from the hall slightly to the left and have a small, thin utility room on the right hand wall of the house (so immediately behind the downstairs loo) but conscious that is where the sink is now and therefore if we shift the sink somewhere else, what do we do about drains? This is also the wall where we have 2 large windows (although we will have large doors on the back wall - but conscious about losing light.

Anyone willing to suggest some ideas?

To me it would make more sense (if plumbing allows) to put the utility room across the back of the dining room (the wall that currently backs onto the living room). I would use the current dining room door as a cupboard and have a pocket door to access the utility room from inside the new kitchen diner. I would have a long run of units down the right side of the kitchen and possibly an island.

Alternatively, I would still put the utility room where I initially suggested and build an L of units in front of it. Putting the utility down one side of your house would end up with (imo) quite a long thin room and you don't really need windows in a utility room, better to use natural light on a space you live in.

This is why I love MN, would never have occurred to me to put utility there! I will investigate though. Thank you. The worry I'd have is that we are a semi detached property - we are adjoined on the left of the drawing so if the utility would be right in the middle of the house with no outside walls?

It depends what you want to put in there. I'm guessing washing machine (so you'd have to check whether plumbing allows this) and extra freezer plus some storage for ironing board, cleaning products etc. You're lucky because there is no chimney breast in that room impeding the space so the only potential problem is the pipework but I've had pipes run further than that without a problem if there is a decent void under the floors.

If you were also hoping to stick the boiler in the utility, I'd either put it in the loo if there is room or, and this would square off the room better, create a little airing cupboard behind the loo and then move the current doorway into the kitchen back to the other side of the boiler cupboard. That would mean that it is probably about level with the wall created by the front of the new utility and so you have a nice square/rectangular room with no bits jutting out.

Sorry, should have made it clear that the boiler would go into this new airing cupboard the side wall of which would be pretty much flush with the front of the new utility.

BTW, how do you get into your current utility, there doesn't seem to be a door in your kitchen so do you have to go out the front door and down the side of your house to get there?

Thank you! Yes, we go out of the kitchen door (back door), along the side of the house and into the utility. It was a pain to begin with, but I actually prefer it now - means the windows are open 24/7 (no security issues because you can't get into the house) and I dry all my washing on a molly maid / hanging rail. I have a tumble dryer but very rarely use it.