Can you help me organise this space?

[GinGeum]

We have a weird set up in our kitchen area - the kitchen is split in two, and the bathroom goes off the back of it. The bathroom is going upstairs, so I want to try and work out a better way to use all the space.

The diagram shows things that are in place currently, and will be staying put. There are bits missing that I want to move from their current location, but not sure how.

The things missing from the diagram are washing machine, fridge freezer, bathroom sink. We are going to get a separate fridge and freezer, and the freezer can go in the shed if we can’t find a space inside for it. We want to put a big sink in the now-bathroom, that I can use for soaking farm clothing before washing.

We also have two dogs who currently sleep in the kitchen, but I’d like them to either sleep in the middle alley bit, or the now-bathroom.

I want to turn the under-stairs area into a larder, but other than that, I can’t work out how to do it.

I can’t decide whether to put washing machine and freezer in the now-bathroom and have that as a utility room, and then have the middle alley bit as a sort of mud room for dogs/muddy boots etc, or whether to turn the bathroom into a place we can dump all that stuff, and close the door on it. A toilet will stay in there either way, for farmers to use and me when I’m muddy from garden or dog walking.

Any ideas?!

I'd change the window to a door in the bathroom and make that a utility room with direct access outside.

What about opening up the kitchen space more to give you more flexibility? For example by taking out the wall at right angles to the fireplace. Is it a fireplace in the corner?

if you have farm things & muddy dogs, then a utility room in the current bathroom is a very good idea.

are you also putting in a new kitchen? If you can remove / turn around the fireplace, then you could have a straight run of units all along the left hand wall which would give you all the cooking space you need. From the bottom left, I'd do Fridge - sink - worktop - hob & oven - fireplace

then you can remove all the units next to the stairs to have more space for the table & get access so your under-stairs cupboard.

I was going to say add a door to the lootility! No point getting the hall farmer muddy if you can avoid it. Could also be a dog haven in there.

No ideas other than that!

I love the idea of changing the window to a door, but I don’t think we can afford any big structural changes unfortunately, so walls/windows/doors will have to stay as they are. The whole thing is such an unusual layout, I currently have to walk to a different room almost to drain pasta into the sink!

Also the bathroom is just a wood add-on to the house so is freezing in there most of the time. Not a pleasant room to be in at all!

We aren’t planning to replace the kitchen, but I did want to somehow have a fridge in there so I can put things straight onto a kitchen surface without having to balance it in my arms from under the stairs to the kitchen, or having to do multiple trips.

I think we will mainly aim to do the plumbing stuff while the bathroom is being done, and then maybe slowly change the rest of it when we can afford to.

So should I just put a big sink next to the loo and then a washing machine in the top right corner, and use the rest of the floor space for dog beds?

I have also missed a wall on the diagram! There is a wall coming into the middle alley bit from the left hand side of the bathroom door, and then an archway to access the sink area. At the moment, there is kitchen cupboards in an L shape there, and that’s where the washing machine is

There we go, I’ve drawn it in.

Next door have a mirror image of our house, and they use the middle alley bit as their entire kitchen! And use the big part as a dining room with a dresser in for crockery etc. I would like our kitchen area to house all kitchen things, but it gets so expensive when you start factoring in removing the fireplace/getting a sink plumbed in etc and then buying a whole kitchen carcass. I don’t necessary feel like we need more storage space, it’s more the fridge to hob to sink journey that is a pain.

Here, sorry. I don’t know how I can be expected to organise a house when I can’t organise a mumsnet thread correctly

That's a maze-like arrangement of rooms and walls!

I'd want to move the oven, wall cabinets and sink, over to the left wall (under and around the window) and put the table over by the side-return doorway (top right of your diagram).

I'd make the central spaces more open. Yes to washing machine in the futility room, and a big fridge somewhere handy.

It’s definitely very higgledy piggledy! The only problem with having cupboard under the windows in the kitchen is the windowsills are really low, so it would be too low for workable worktop space, and also would end up needing to be custom made (£!) there’s a radiator under the window as well. And not being able to move the sink into the kitchen would make it an even further journey with hot pans! I do wonder about putting the oven into the middle bit with the sink and fridge, and then having the bigger kitchen area as worktop/eating space, but then we would effectively be making a much smaller kitchen than we have now.

I think what we’d love to do is remove the fireplace and put an oven in the chimney instead, but we can’t afford to do it at the moment. And we use the fire every day from autumn to spring so it would be missed, unless we replaced with an aga that we definitely can’t afford

I think there’s nothing wrong with a small kitchen - we had one in an old flat that was a pleasure to cook in as everything was right to hand! In your shoes, I would probably move the oven into the alley kitchen (and a bit of work top if possible), then make the other room a dining room with crockery storage and maybe cereal/toast prep for mornings.

Then save like mad for a bigger renovation down the line!

Other option is to ask the plumber to put a small prep sink somewhere in the larger kitchen, so at least you can drain pasta and stuff, but still dishwasher in the alley.