Help! Utility area or dining area next to kitchen???

[loopennyloo]

We are planning an extension which will involve adding an area of about 6m x 3m on to the back of our Victorian end of terrace. Currently there is the former downstairs bathroom out the back of the house which we use as a makeshift utility area at the moment, but this would've knocked down. The new extension needs to accommodate a dining area and utility area and loo and will be accessed by walking through the current kitchen. We need to keep costs as low as possible so want to avoid too much swapping around to keep things simple (eg, we want to keep the kitchen where it currently is to avoid lots of water/drainage/gas re-routing.)

So, when you walk through the kitchen would it be better to have the dining table immediately there or would it be better to create a kind of wall-through utility off the kitchen which then leads to the dining area?

I am going round in circles trying to decide! It's more complicated because although in theory it would be nice to have the dining area at the back, overlooking the garden, we have a shared access path that our neighbours use for rear access to their property and they use it about once a week. They are perfectly nice, but I want to keep a bit of privacy so the utility are at the back would allow for this and I would out a roof light in to make the dining area lighter and feel more airy. plus the washing machine would then be right next to back door to go out with washing etc.

We have some friends who are architects and they thought this was a dreadful idea, and said it would be infinitely better to create a nice dining space that overlooked the garden, despite the shared access issue. So now I am confused!

Any thoughts gratefully received!

I'm with the architects. If you already have a utility room behind your current kitchen, it wouldn't cost very much to move the utility area to where the kitchen is and move the kitchen further towards the garden. If you don't want your neighbours looking in, buy blinds but don't block the view (and make access to the garden more complicated and less attractive) by putting a utility room at the end of the extension.

Hmm...thanks for the response. the area we use now as a utility room will be knocked down so we will be starting again in that sense. Yes, we could turn current kitchen into utility/cloakroom and storage area and make the new extension the kitchen diner. I am a bit pathetic about change so maybe I'm just wimping out by keeping things similar to how they currently are!

The thing is if we moved the kitchen and dining area to the back and had the utility in the middle it would divide up the house in a different way. So when you were in the kitchen you would need to walk through the utility area to talk to someone in the living room. The issue is we don't have a hallway so all the rooms flow into each other and we can't to much about that. We could turn the current kitchen into a central lobby area and combine it with utility, but it would divide up the house..though that may not be a bad thing with 3 ds who are rapidly growing!!!

I absolutely agree with your friends - I would have the whole of the back (6m?) as open glass across the back. I would put the utility where the kitchen currently is as this will be the darkest space once you have your extension done - and the utilities that you need for it would be in place already. I would then fit a new kitchen off this in the new extension - cost of extending the existing services a foot or two will be minimal. Or you could cut your existing kitchen in half if you did not need a large utility - although I think that the bigger the better....

Can you access the new extension through any other part of your house (ie lounge/diner)

I would go for the dining area near the garden and make sure there is a french window/door there.

Can you post a floorplan? In my mind's eye, the current kitchen would become a hallway with a utility and a loo off it. If the rest of the house is open plan, I think creating separate living areas would be wise. Can your friends help you with the design at all at mates'rates?

The utility 'room' does not have to be a room as such - you can still keep your walk way to fab new kitchen diner - you can have a bank of floor to ceiling doors (possibly sliding) which have your washer, dryer, laundry bin etc behind.

I have 4 kids - my utility room is the most important space in my home - critical to keep my house organised - works as a laundry, cloakroom, store room etc.

Is the house "typical" Victorian layout with a side return running down the length of the kitchen and extension? How about building the utility into the side return area and having the original kitchen and extension as one big room? Unlike doing a side return extension, you wouldn't be removing a supporting wall, just creating a doorway into a lean-to style building (possibly by using an existing doorway or window).

Yes, traditional Victorian layout, I'll try and post a photo. But no hallway to kitchen, you have to go through the current dining room

So it's like this pic, but we have folding doors between dining and living room and the bit off the kitchen is bigger, we currently have a washing machine, freezer etc out there (though this has to beds oilseed for extension) and I really want to keep a utility and downstairs loo as part of new plan. We have thought about the side return but we have a gas meter and manhole cover which need moving (we are currently investigating if we can build over the manhole, may be complicated) and I think this could end up getting expensive.

It seems overall everyone agrees with our friends! Yes, we will probably get them to do drawings and help with planning etc. and their idea is exactly what you have all said, make the current kitchen into a kind of hallway with WC, storage and washing machine which will lead to the new extension with kitchen and dining area. The benefit of this is that the current hallway by the front door is minute, we use the cupboard under the stairs for coat and shoe storage, but that's in the dining room so mornings are a nightmare with everyone having breakfast at the table, putting shoes on, packing bags etc. if we convert the current kitchen into a kind of hallway area it would help with this. As we are end of terrace, day to day we can use the back door as our main door where the new hallway/utility would be.

I just keep thinking it will be weird if we have people over in the evening as currently everyone can mill around the living room and dining room, pop in to the kitchen for a chat etc and it all flows, but with the new plan I feel like we will need to decide which bit of the house to go in.

Although, clearly we all have legs and could just move. I'm probably overthinking it. The new bit will feel quite seperate to the old bit though. But then we are planning to use the current dining room as a study area (desk, shelves in alcoves either side of chimney breast) for us and for kids to do homework so maybe best if this doesn't have door straight into kitchen.....

'Be demolished' not 'beds oilseed'!!!

What will your old dining room be? Could you not have one big flow through existing dining either back into lounge or back out into new extension? and keep existing kitchen as one big laundry/cloak/store/loo - which can be accessed from existing door in old dining room - or via new kitchen - or both.

Yes, the rooms will all flow into each other no matter what, but the utility area will divide the spaces. At the moment because the utility room is at the back of the house icanjust chuck all the laundry, PE bags, cat food, wellies etc etc in there and no one sees it as there's never a reason to walk through it. We access the garden off the kitchen. With the new plan the utility will be a major walk through so it will need to be more organised. Am currently busy with graph paper and Pinterest trying to make it all work in my head!

I think I could hide a lot of stuff with doors like these which would make it look more hallway-ish rather than pigsty dumping ground utility room-ish

Why would you need to walk thru the utility if it was in the old kitchen space? Could you not just access your new extension thru existing dining room ? are you opening this up to new extension?

They look great - trick is having all the correct pegs, shelves, shoe storage at the right heights behind I have the kids pegs low and adults above as we only wear jackets - shoes in vertical column shelf - again kids low - our high there is so much stuff -- cycle helmets, 8 varieties of sports shoes for each child...etc

what will your current dining room be?

Can you have a walk past from current dining room to new kitchen with the utility behind doors?

Yes, that's what I'm thinking, I'll have a wall of doors on one side with freezer, tumble drier, storage behind them, then a partition wall on the other side with loo and washing machine (so all plumbing on outside wall) and it will be a walk through as steppe mum says. Hopefully if I have it well organised and hide the mess in lever wats it will work ok!

You have to walk through mulrana as there won't be another way of getting to the new bit. If you look on the floorplan above you can see the issue. We are building on the back where there is currently a WC and store on the plan.

I would have a small utility in your current dining room with a study corner in the resulting alcove and use the other side as a "corridor". I would then keep kitchen where it currently is and have the dining area in new extension next to garden. We have done this and are so happy. Can try and post our floor plans if you would like (Victorian semi).

Ooh, I would love the floor plans please! I hadn't thought about that as an option...the dining rooms not that big so I'm not sure..interesting idea though