kitchen diner layout help

[tentative3]

Existing kitchen is 4.88 x 2.68m. We are looking at doing a 4m extension to give us 4.88 x 6.68. Within that space we'd like to get a utility, pantry/larder, kitchen, dining table and possibly a sofa. Are we crazy? You can just make out a fireplace in the bottom right corner of the kitchen (mirrored in the lounge). That's where the boiler currently is and we're wondering about working with that and having the utility essentially taking up that side of the existing room.

The extension will be full width so we could just stick the utility in the space created behind the lounge but given that overlooks the back garden it kind of seems a waste. Also considered having one big room all across the back with the dining table behind the lounge, which would allow us to keep the existing doors in the lounge. We're not particularly bothered about keeping them except we are slightly worried about light if we brick up the double doors and window - that wall is north facing but the south facing double doors and window have a porch overhanging them which cannot be removed.

Sorry for the lengthy post!

The extension would be across the back, replacing the store and pantry and extending across the back of the lounge; is that right?

I'd put the utility in the corner backing onto the hall (plumbing already in that area for downstairs loo) and fit a pantry unit inthrnew kitchen. Lose the lounge windows/doors removing the back wall of that room and extend the room back, opening up an archway or doors through from the kitchen. Use the current dining room as a separate lounge.

Yes that's right, the existing store and pantry will go. That is one option we discussed with the utility, agree that the plumbing makes it an easy option. It leaves us with the fireplace but we could perhaps just plasterboard over it and ignore it!

The lounge is just under 5m long as it is, I think we would need to keep double doors to any room at the back or it would end up being too big to use, almost. Or maybe I'm being too cautious, do you think a big room could work?

A big room will be better than retaining the original external wall and enclosing it with an extension because that will affect the light amongst other things. Have you decided what you would do with that section otherwise? I think it will be a bit of a non space otherwise. You can always just extend the kitchen side.

A large room can be zoned with furniture to create different areas. Or you could divide the existing lounge along the line of the wall between the hall and kitchen and create a playroom, study or snug.

It would be a workshop for me - craft rather than machinery. The alternative is to put that into a garden office type thing. When it comes to sell on we were thinking we could market it as either a playroom or dining room if we keep the double doors but for it to be a plausible dining room it would need access from the kitchen as well. We're not flipping the house but equally it's unlikely to be our forever home so we have to strike a balance in making it work for us and for future owners.

We have looked at dividing up the lounge as you said but the fireplace makes that a big(ger job) plus we would just be shifting the potential light issues to the back room. Do you think the existing south facing double doors and window would be insufficient if we did block up the back wall? I appreciate no one else can tell us and we'll have a look when we're next at the house (currently buying it), just trying to settle on layout asap!

And yes, just the kitchen extension is definitely an option. On the one hand it does seem silly to extend all across for the sake of it, when we can put my workshop elsewhere, but equally it seems silly to pay to have a garden room installed elsewhere when there's space and builders on site. But if the room won't work, it's a waste of money anyway... just going round and round in circles!

I think I would just extend the back to include the pantry/store and knock that through into a bigger kitchen. Keep the existing lounge/diner space but swap them and put an opening from kitchen into diner so you have a nice double aspect dining room.
It depends what your outside space is like too.

Also if you did that you wouldn't need the door from the hall to current lounge so you may be able to do something with the hall to make a utility room space - maybe by making a new ensuite

Sadly you can't get an opening from kitchen into lounge without extending the lounge - the floorplan is pretty poor so you can't tell but the only space next to the fireplace in the kitchen where you could do it currently has a small window into the lounge - possibly a serving hatch originally - but not wide enough to put a doorway in. It would help if the floorplan was more accurate on sizing and spacing!

Don't enclose the rear of the existing lounge then put a workshop at the back - honestly enclosed rooms are always dingy and it always looks as though the extension hasn't been thought through properly or has been done on the cheap, plus you have to go through another room to get to it. If you extend all across the back of the house then remove the existing rear wall of the lounge and put a steel in to open it up. Extend the dividing wall between the kitchen and lounge to the back wall of the extension and open the lounge up to the kitchen with an archway or a doorway and use it as a dining room.

I'm not sure what you mean about blocking up the back wall - If it is knocked through to the extension then put windows and doors in the new back wall of the room. You could even re-use the existing ones. The current lounge has windows front and rear and the new one would have too, so it shouldn't have much of an impact to divide the room. You could even create a small vestibule from the hall to give separate access to the new dining room without having to go through the kitchen. Just make sure the stud wall is forward of the fireplace - the front section could then be your workshop.

I've been on a night shift and only had 3 hours sleep so excuse the dimness but I thought one suggestion was dividing the existing lounge at the front but extending it at the back. What I'm trying to get at is surely that is the same effect as putting a room on the back of the existing lounge? Either way you no longer have doors/windows at both ends of the room if you go with that option.

Sorry, I think I genuinely am getting confused and will probably be cringing at myself later.

I've clarified that you would put windows/doors on the back of the existing lounge once it was opened up to the extension across the rear. There would be little benefit in opening it up if there was a blank wall, especially if it overlooks the garden - that would just be daft and a wasted opportunity to have a fantastic aspect to the garden.

Nothing worse than lack of sleep OP. This is what I mean. Red lines are new walls and the blue shapes are windows/doors/openings. The dashed line would create a vestibule to the new dining room.

Right I'm with you. Thanks, I was worried I was going to end up sounding passive aggressive or something, but lack of sleep really does fog the mind! I never realised how much until I started this job a few years back but bloody hell, it ruins me!

We have ear marked the weekend to draw on multiple copies of the floorplan and try and come up with at least a short list of possibilities to check out when we go back next week. The fire place is a pain, especially given that it's in both lounge and kitchen. Without it things would be much easier but we're fairly sure that removing it would be above what we want to do. It's bloody big as well.

I have scribbled your idea on one of the floorplan copies to think about further, we hadn't considered making a second hall/creating that vestibule bit.

I also realise that I haven't been especially clear on explaining my ideas - if we put a room behind the lounge we would keep the existing double doors and also probably have double doors out into the garden, so hopefully mitigating the loss of light a bit. However, without a door to the kitchen that does make the room fairly useless, and with a door to the kitchen you have only one wall that is free of doors/windows. So there is certainly an option to just do the kitchen extension.

It's really useful to have people giving ideas and pointing out downfalls with ours, thank you. Sometimes you get so fixated on one idea that you can't see any other options.