Clueless with a tiny kitchen - please help!

[shovetheholly]

My kitchen is tiny. I was hoping to do an extension, but it doesn't make any sense in our area, where house prices are flatlining. My house is a very ordinary semi in quite a lower middle class area, and there is a definite ceiling to its value. I am reluctantly forced to admit that to add a single-story extension that didn't add a bedroom would likely be throwing a lot of money down the drain. A double-story extension would not get planning permission.

Moving is not an option right now because despite having quite a lot of savings, we can't find a house that really offers us much more in our price range. Part of the issue is that there is a big gap between different postcodes (due to school catchments?) and not much variety in the housing stock. I look at houses that are £150k more than my current one, and think that they don't really offer much more space, really.

We have therefore decided to make the most of it and stay and save to move in a few years.

The kitchen is very, very small. There is only really space to have full-width cupboards down two sides - otherwise you can't get two people in there. Please give me your tips about how I can maximise storage space without making it look absolutely crammed full of cupboards.

I know someone in SW that has had a single storey extension inc everything up to being plastered ready to paint for aprox 15K, the only thing they did not need to do were foundations and the concrete bit (technical), as they were already down, and they did have fancy velux and lots of triple glazed widows, I think it was about 1.5 metres wide and 5 metres long.
You want to talk about as cheaply as possible, we found out parts of our bathroom had been put together with bluetack .

Might be worth looking at the Barbican - the original architects brought in yacht designers for the kitchens and bathrooms as they wanted to keep them small.

I saw this earlier uk.pinterest.com/pin/19844054585389028/ quite a good idea, but depends if you have any studs in the right place. Some people are really clever how they think up these things, if I was doing them I would not put an obvious door on them like they have though.

I would put a new kitchen in with integrated dishwasher and a single sink with no separate drainer. If you don't wash up you don't need a drainer so much.

I don't think any of the houses on this estate have a kitchen that's just a kitchen. It's all kitchen diners but separate lounge.

Is there a cupboard in another room eating into your kitchen? There seems to be a big corner taken out of it so I would suggest getting rid of that and squaring off your kitchen. If you still have a single cooker, I would get separate undercounter oven and a halogen hob that can double up as a work surface and is just less visually obtrusive. Integrated, undercounter appliances. Could the washing machine move to the bathroom or an airing cupboard upstairs?

I had a very small kitchen until recently - I didn't mind it, it felt very efficient and ergonomic. I'm currently designing a really big one (by London standards) and it feels a bit excessive - there's no way the owners will ever fill all the cupboards.

there's no way the owners will ever fill all the cupboards
I would give it a good go

Can you upload a floor plan of the kitchen and dining room?

We got rid of the back door and just used French doors from the dining area instead.

I've had completely open plan house that we section off with doors to have a separate lounge and it's a much much better lay out.

Wide kitchen drawers give you heaps of storage rather than cupboards. A well designed kitchen will make a difference.

just marking my place for future tips
our kitchen looks smaller than the OPs, and an extension is out of the question
we are deciding whether to knock through to the dining room, or just refurb the tiny galley kitchen as is

it doesn't help that we don't know any builders - no-one I know had a good enough experience to recommend their builder, and I don't want to hire someone without a recommendation after a crappy and costly experience with the world's worst plasterer.

You could always look on rightmove and check sold prices for your street, they often still have the photos and floor plans on so you can see what others have done.

I would say people like kitchen/diners. I hated them until we actually had one.

Still hate conservatories and balconies though.

Sliding/folding doors between lounge and dining room. Open up kitchen into dining. I think it would work.

Is there a door to outside in the kitchen? Would it work as a galley kitchen? Our neighbours have one and its lovely. About the same size as yours.

I'd go for handless units, and clean lines, which will make the kitchen look bigger.

I'm wondering if this kind of thing would work - I'd move the door to the end of the kitchen.

oh, hang on. Missed one!

Have you been to Ikea to look at their teeny tiny room mock ups?

So much great advice here! Thank you all so much for taking the time to give me your thoughts. It is really helping.

Bit of an update: we looked at costings (very briefly and just online) - a knock through plus kitchen would be around £15k we think, and a 3m extension with Ikea kitchen around £30k. The smaller kitchen actually doesn't work out that much cheaper, because we would need to have more bespoke stuff to make use of the space. I thought the extension would be a LOT more, so I feel quite encouraged, and DH is actually making positive noises about it too. Next step is probably to talk to estate agents and to builders to see if the quote is realistic, and to make sure that we wouldn't just be chucking money away completely. There is a definite, definite ceiling for properties in this area, which concerns me a bit - and the city I'm in is very vulnerable in terms of public sector cuts. So I need to be a bit smart about it. It's a bit of a head versus heart thing.

Yatalking - that cupboard is GENIUS! I'm going to see if I can fit one at the top of my stairs. I am a bit at the idea of a bathroom that has been blu-tacked together though!!

bookish - I love the idea of a yacht-like kitchen! Sadly, I fear that such things may also come with yacht-like prices, however!

MmeLindor - thank you! I shall have a look at white kitchens. I do like the very sleek ones.

I agree with ditching the draining board if you have a dishwasher - that's what we've done, just got a small sink.

Congrats on getting this far, shove. I hope the costings work out!

We have a tiny kitchen and have an integrated d/w with drainer grooves cut in the worktop. Lovely smooth finish. We went for matte handless white units at the top and pale grey at the bottom with a marble type worktop. It looks great, really pleased with how spacious it looks. The downside was due to the close corners it had to be bespoke which made it more expensive than anticipated.

fussychica - That sounds drop dead gorgeous! You must be really chuffed.

I am getting some builders out over the next couple of weeks to quote (I'm prepared to wait til next year if we need to in order to book someone whose work we like). I think we are now realising exactly what you say - that we could do more with the existing space, but that it would have to be bespoke. Which would be lovely, but £££. Alternatively, we could extend and do a cheapo Ikea kitchen for a little bit more.

Interesting re. Tarting up an IKEA :

bespokea.london