Open plan layout

[jinglymum]

Hi

We're just about to knock through from dining room to kitchen and extend out. My head is spinning from thinking about layout.

If you have an open plan kitchen, dining, family room what's your layout?

Room is approx 7m across by 5.5m outwards.

Thanks

Our kitchen is about 7m x 6m so very similar size.

We have an island and then dining table. We also have a a small sofa and various other bits of furniture.

This kitchen diner is then open plan onto another room which is about 6m x 4m which is the family room with toys, big sofa and TV.

It's sort of a big L shape.

It works really well for us.

I think I'm yet to see a well laid out big square/rectangle that covers those 3 functions (kitchen, dining and living).

If you want it all to be in proportion (ie full size table and a sitting area with a couple of sofas) I'd probably dedicate half the space to a kitchen diner (so 3.5m by 5m) and the other half to to sitting area (should be big enough of a couple of normal sofas). I'd probably aim for the sort of layout like the picture although you'd have the garden on the longer wall.

There is very little space between the island and the dining chairs in that picture. My kitchen alone is 7 x 5 m and we have a dining table set into the island at one end. No settee. There’s no room. I think this would feel a bit squashed. You might squeeze in a couple of chairs and a coffee table.

Yes, the table is massively squashed in the picture. I was just trying to roughly illustrate the idea.

I reckon in the kitchen diner bit, you could have 60cm units, 90cm gap to the island, then a 90cm island and you're left with 260cm of width for the dining bit on the other side. I reckon with a banquette and not too wide a table it's just about workable. A couple of pics to illustrate the point.

Otherwise, to have a bigger kitchen and a large dining table with chairs, I wouldn't crowd the room with a sitting area. You might be able to have a sofa but it'll be more of a sofa plonked in a kitchen-diner rather than an actual sitting area.

Oh sorry, the room is 5.5m wide so you'd have 3.1m left for the dining area - pretty comfy for a banquette/bench on one side but still a bit squeezed for free standing chairs on all sides.

I've drawn up a very rough plan and clearly isn't to scale.

My worry is we have wasted space to the right of the room.

We also have a separate living room but I imagine we will spend most of the time in this room.

Is 90cm good enough gap between units and island? Currently i have galley kitchen with 120cm between two runs of units which feels quite generous gap and i am wondering how much between island and units will be goid enough in my new kitchen?

How about a small office area built onto the outside wall of the Utility. Shelves above, desk, perhaps a colourful filing cabinet and a desk above. Could also use wall cabinets from your kitchen range as base cabinets in that area.

This is ours, not a very good photo - its about 7m x 7m with a 2m x 1m corner taken off the bottom right corner (the utility room). So, we have a bank of units downs one wall, with the island in front of it, and the dining table the other side of the island. Both at the garden end of the extension. We then have a large corner sofa - you can see the end of it, with rug / armchair / footstool and TV on the wall, little side table & lamp (i.e. the opposite wall to the kitchen but further along towards the middle of the house). We also have a separate lounge.

OP, I think it's worth drawing it to scale. E.g. where you have a picture of the corner unit and it says 3m, even the smallest corner units are over 2m wide so you might struggle to walk around even if one side is pushed against the wall. Things like dining table and chairs need tons of space to be able to pull chairs back and get into the seat.

Mum2015, there's 90cm between my island and units and it's comfortable. I do have drawers everywhere, though so don't need to stand that far back to take things out.

As JoJo says, you need to draw to scale. That corner sofa wouldn’t fit where you’ve put it.

I actually just had an idea - you could change the shape of the utility room so that it comes much closer to the door but doesn't go as far towards the window. That should create enough space for that seating area. But yes, ideally draw to scale as the kitchen seems a bit tight for space (itd be worth considering how many cabinets and what appliances you can get in at this stage).

Thank you Jojosm2. With 90cm, i would be able to get slifhtly bigfer island

OP, draw the plan on ikea kitchen planner. It also has things like sofa and dining table etc to get idea of the sizes and a 3d view. That is what i used for planning layout for my house. Houseplanhelper is a good website to give idea about how much space to leave around table chair etc.

We've got 110cm between our island and our wall of cupboarda and I would say any less and it may feel cramped.

We can open cupboard doors at the same time aS having the dishwasher open without any issues.
I think it would be annoying if cupboards were knocking into each other.

Our island is 90cm deep so we saved a bit of space there.

Just looked at you plan.

I think it works but for the sofa. Can you live without the woodburner then the sofa could fit in the corner and that would make the room seem much more spacious.

Hi

Thanks for suggestions will try ikea planner to draw it to scale.

Can't really change the utility room as it's only very small as the toilet is at the bottom so there isn't much scope to make it any smaller.

Wood burner isn't essential really so turning the sofa around would be a good idea.

The kitchen is currently next to the utility and we are moving it across for more wall space.

Another option is to not have that corner and extend utility longer.

Table we have planned is bench style one side and chairs the other side.

Love your kitchen picture. We would like a similar style to that.

Hi could have the utility running the other way (on the wall where you have shelves). You would get a much squarer space where the sofa is, so possible room for the sofa and the wood burner. You could also look at pocket doors for entrance to the utility as it saves on needing space to swing the doors open.

Hi, I know this is a old thread but we are planning an extension of a similar size, and love your kitchen! Could I ask where you purchased from please?