What do you think of this kitchen plan? Help please!

[fishseddy]

I have been tinkering with my DIY Kitchens plan for our new house (kitchen needs doing immediately!) and would love to hear any thoughts or feedback / things i haven't thought about.

The house is a victorian terrace with a side return (hence two doorways into kitchen) and has a pitched roof with velux skylights running down the opposite side to the units, which i couldn't seem to add to the plan.

The washing machine and tumbledryer will be stacked in one of the two tall units in between the doorways, and the fridgefreezer will be next to it. DIY have said they can custom-make the surrounds for these so they fit neatly (jutting out by 700mm rather than 600mm).

I'm planning to put a dining table along the back in front of the bifold doors and an armchair in the other corner by the little window. Do you think this will work?!

I would like to keep the walkway from the reception room into the kitchen quite clear (at the moment they have the dining table right there and it is very jarring to walk into the room straight into the dining table), and also to avoid collision between dining chairs and bar stools (i am desperate for an island!)

All thoughts welcome - thank you!

Following with interest as I have similar dimensions on our planned extension.

Which of the doorways is your main access to the room? My worry would be that the area with the bar stools might feel a bit like a corridor. Would you have any furniture or cupboards against the wall in that space?

Yes I slightly worry about that too, I think I would have some kind of freestanding cabinet or something, as well as a couple of long wooden shelves with plants and other decorative things on :-)

I wanted to make he island fairly deep to take up a bit more space without it seeming too enormous...!

First reaction is there's not many cupboards for the size of the room, and I'd swivel the island 90 degrees so the barstools are on the side of the table (and then make the island bigger)

I think you're right about the cupboards...I'm a bit limited about where I can run the cupboards up to on that side though because the bifolds start really close to the wall. Gah!

Maybe I should put something in the other wall?! They would jut out into the walkway though as there's only about 30cm between the doorway and the wall...

We wanted bifolds. Had great advice from salesman who said anything less than 4metres (in his opinion) and the ratio of door frame to glass was too high.
We went with patio doors and don’t regret it. Cheaper too.

I think I'd put some of DIY's shallower tall units on the blank wall. Or you could create a dresser effect with base units a bit deeper than the extra height wall units they do which would go directly on top for extra storage without encroaching too much on the space. You could have open shelves on the top or glazed doors.

If you put the dining table and chairs in front of the bifold doors are you not simply recreating the problem you already have, ie having to navigate your way around furniture to enter/exit a door?
Do you actually need an island with seating when your dining table is going to be right next to it?
What about a pantry/larder type cupboard for storage along the wall as you enter the kitchen from the reception?
www.furniture4yourhome.co.uk/media/catalog/category/Kitchen_larder_tab.jpg
www.architecturedecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/wooden-free-standing-pantry.jpg

I would lose one of the doors and my oven in a tall unit-I would never go back to a low oven now. Otherwise it’s very similar to mine.

I’ve seen a lot of side return extensions and there are two layouts:

1 - island or peninsula facing the garden, units on both sides, dining table and armchair area both near the garden

2 - (more usual) Island or peninsula running parallel to the room (the main kitchen door is usually between main run and island) dining table on opposite wall, armchair area at the end of the dining table by the garden.

You’ve got elements of each - parallel island but you want to put both table and chair near the garden. This leaves a big empty corridor on the right hand side of the room - I don’t think you can afford not to use that space iyswim.

PS They mostly don’t have breakfast bars as not enough space, not if they want to have decent size table and armchair/small sofa too.

@MsMamaNature that is the biggest thing i'm worried about! But i really don't think there is space to put the table along the other wall with adequate space all around the chairs - ugh

@minipie i am desperate for a breakfast bar / decent size island so don't want to compromise on that really... if you look at the view from the garden inwards (last pic), with the overhang on the island i'm not sure that it leaves that much of a huge space, once you add the chairs in?

I do like the idea of having some of the shallower units down there, thanks @wowfudge

This one has almost exactly the same dimensions as mine and is the sort of thing I'd like...although I think the space can take a deeper island

It’s not so much that it’s a huge space left over, it’s more that it’s space you can’t afford to leave empty and still fit everything in, iyswim. With your plan the only place to put the table is right by the doors and then you are blocking garden access. Unless you will only have a small table?

I think to fit everything in you can have 1) small table, small armchair, breakfast bar or 2) decent table (opposite island), armchair/small sofa but no breakfast bar or 3) decent table, breakfast bar but no armchair (so you can access garden).

Also concerned you don’t have enough storage (unless you can keep some stuff in another room).

I think with this plan as a start point I would:

• add shallow cupboards to the blank wall too
• change breakfast bar to the short end of island (to fit 2 people sitting at 90 degrees to each other)
• get rid of last cabinet towards garden so the dining table can go by doors but not so squeezed
• extend bifolds further so the right hand access door is between table and chair

Just saw the pics you posted - that works but there is no armchair? They clearly use right hand bifold as access, if you put an armchair there it doesn’t work.

Also they have extra storage in form of sideboard

There is room for a shallow seat of some kind where they have the keyboard though - would that work for you?

I really like the layout of the kitchen you posted a photo of. I would have French doors instead of bi-folds though as I'm really not keen on them and the space they take up when opened fully and I'd have the small window made into a separate glass door out to the garden. That would give you flexibility.

I was about to say the same as the others - for me not quite enough storage at the moment. My kitchen is slightly smaller but a similar layout, I have cupboards on three sides (u-shape) with an island and table in the same configuration as yours. I still don't find I have enough storage. And I have a separate utility room with appliances, animal stuff, hoovers, cleaning stuff etc.

One thing I've found surprising is that I need a cupboard for dining table stuff when I have the dining table in the kitchen. I guess in previous times folk would have a dining room with a sideboard containing posh cutlery, tablemats, linen, serving dishes, candles, that sort of thing. I now need to find room for all that crap in my kitchen.

Also.could you have an armchair that doubles up as a chair suitable for the table? Google dining armchair for the sort of thing I mean. Just thinking about possible synergies!

Yeah I know what you mean. Do you think this is any better?

I've reduced the size of the tall cupboard to make a bit more space down the end (can't really lose the last cupboard due to symmetry!) and have added shallow units down the other side

So this leaves 211cm between the last base unit and the bifolds, and 286 between the island and the bifolds. I don't think the chairs would interfere too much with the base unit as they'd prob sit a bit further along into the space iyswim?

I'd LOVE to change the position of the bifolds but can't unfortunately as the extension is already done and the cost to change is too high (I did get a quote!)

Thanks so much, I really appreciate the thoughts

Oops here is the pic!

@minipie so the bifolds only go 2/3 (or a bit less) of the way along, I'm thinking to put the armchair (and it would be an armchair rather than a sofa) in the corner by that bit of wall with the window, then the dining table centred to the bifolds

@wowfudge I got a quote for making the window into either a door or a bigger window but we can't quite afford it at the mo with all the other stuff we need to do; great idea though and I totally agree it would be much better like that! One day :-)

Sorry to keep answering piecemeal!

So I could actually live without the armchair (as they do in the pic I added), but the reason I think I need one (or something) in that corner, is that it may look odd/some how imbalanced to have a table going all the way along the back when the bifolds only go part way?

Could you make the corner with the small window the laundry area? I'd be worried about having your washer and dryer (and associated laundry baskets etc) in such a high traffic area personally - you could have them side by side with doors over still but with worktop above for folding washing etc depends on the window height tho