What would you do regarding small kitchen?

[Fanciedachange1]

We recently moved into our dream forever home and things were great. Now however we have realised that the downstairs layout doesn't really work that great for us!

In main the kitchen is the issue. It is small and has very little counter space.

I have always liked open plan but DH doesn't like that idea too much. We were thinking of possibly knocking the wall down between the dining area and kitchen, and putting a new kitchen in with a breakfast bar type thing where tye current wall is. This would give more cupboard space, more counter space and make the kitchen feel less isolated from the living space. Still not sure this would help too much.

The room on the bottom right, we have no use for. At the minute its just a storage room.

I adore the home makeover shows so i imagine all the great things that could be done, but dh isnt keen on too much work so would ideally like as little disruption as possible!

Any ideas as to what you would do?

We have an open kitchen/dining space. I like it, it's better for entertaining and brings a lot of light through the space.

Also handy for watching the kids while cooking etc.

I would ,as you suggested, knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining area but then put a stud wall at a right angle to the removed wall. This would give you a larger kitchen that runs onto the conservatory and a separate living room .

How good is the conservatory? Looking at the plan, I'd take it down and do a full or partial length extension to house a larger kitchen/diner, if it's your forever house it could be worth considering the long term benefits of something more radical.

I’d knock the kitchen/ lounge wall down and make a massive kitchen diner and sitting area and make the study into another lounge.
Or knock the kitchen/diner wall down and halve the size of the lounge and make a bed g kitchen, then knock the study wall down and make the diner/study into a large lounge diner.
If that makes sense.

I'd make the kitchen into a utility with storage and the bottom right into a kitchen.

Or with a big budget, knock the conservatory down and extend backwards making a L shaped kitchen/diner

I'd be inclined to swap the kitchen into the other bedroom/study room.

and make the current kitchen the bedroom/study area.

I say that as we overlooked that opportunity in a previous house and in hindsight would have made the house so much more workable.

The bonus of that is you can put the kitchen in and still use the other one so not causing that side of the upheaval.

I'm assuming that that bedroom is a slightly bigger room for that senario?

A breakfast bar wouldn’t add much space because it looks like you can’t have a huge one.

How big is the garden? Can you extend?

Depends on your budget: I would definitely square off the lounge and incorporate the dining bit with the kitchen; if I could afford it I would add in the an extension incorporating the conservatory and squaring it off with the bit outdoors from the kitchen to make a big kitchen/dining/living space for daytimes.

As you don’t use the study I’d knock that wall down and make it part of the lounge.

I’d then build a stud wall splitting the lounge/ diner. Then knock down the kitchen wall so you have a kitchen/ diner, leading into the conservatory.

Thank you for all your replies!

I have been looking on rightmove at the sold homes sections and it looks like originally downstairs had 4 seperate rooms plus wc. Some of the neighbours have done as our house is, and others have knocked down between the kitchen and dining room to make a large kitchen and used the spare room as a formal dining room.

The spare room is bigger than the kitchen. One of my crazier ideas was to turn the spare room into a kitchen, and then use the existing kitchen as a utility space. I'm really not sure how that would work in regards to water/gas hook up.

Extending out isn't really an option, as we have a garage (not sure why it isnt pictured) which would be in the way.

The conservatory is well built, and one of my other suggestions was to use that as the dining area giving more space to have a larger kitchen.

Thank you for all your input, its lovely to hear other ideas and advice!

Excuse shit drawing 😂

This is what I meant in my ramblings upthread.

Mine's similar to Lizzie's but I'd add a utility

Probably should have put the door from the kitchen to utility rather than from the hall to the utility

I second teas layout, except for getting rid of the study/bedroom, and leave the conservatory be for now, but design the dining space and kitchen so you can develop to that in the future if you choose.

I am biased though, because that is exactly how ours is laid out! Wide kitchen/diner with room for table in diner, but instead dining table in conservatory.

I don't know your kids situation obviously, but I think having a separate study/guest bedroom space is really useful if you can keep it - but it depends what size the lounge would be once chopped up.

This is our downstairs. We are restoring doors between lounge and dining room so we have some quiet space, but otherwise it works well. Washer and dryer are in the garage. The kitchen could do with one or two more cupboards but there are half cupboards down the back of the peninsula. I really like where the hob is.

You could make your front room a bit of a "snug" and open out the rest.

Thanks again guys, i appreciate the input and love the drawings :)

NotMeNoNo i think thats similar to how DH envisions our layout will be, except instead of the hob that will just be extra counter space/cupboard space with room to have seating under the counter overhang.

Would I be totally bonkers to suggest knocking down the wall under the word "hall" and installing a kitchen in there (to include fridge freezer and space for microwave, blender etc) and keep the other bits in the existing kitchen? I'm not sure if it would work but of course the flooring would be the same, as would the wall colour.

That way dh still gets his living/dining room seperate from the kitchen, but we get much needed space! Theoretically walking from the new kitchen to the old kitchen would be no different to walking from one end of a larger kitchen to another.

Or am i just being silly!

No, that’s not crazy it’s a fab idea, it utilises the hall space really well and would also probably be the cheapest option.

I would move the stairs and hall into the study. Then open it up to a kitchen diner at the back. The front bedroom would then move to the back/stairs at the front.

I would square off the living room and extend the kitchen across the back of the conservatory in that space. You could have a solid wall separating living room and kitchen or, instead of a solid wall, you could have doors between the new kitchen and the living room so it can be opened up for entertaining. You don't get as much usable kitchen space if it isn't all wall across there, but it's an option.

The downstairs bedroom/study could be various things - formal dining room, snug, guest bedroom. If you have children then as they grow you may be glad of a separate space.

Over time you could look at extending across the back and making the conservatory a proper extension. I'm saying over time because I've no idea what your budget is for any work.