Kitchen layout

[TiddleTaddleTat]

Please can someone help me improve our kitchen layout!

We've recently bought the house and are renovating it (mostly ourselves) on a v. tight budget. We had to get it rewired and new boiler and due to needing to move in soon afterwards we made some hasty decisions in order to have the kitchen functional for us to move in.

At the moment most of the walls are half plastered/old tiles. There's a hole in the wall where the old extractor used to be (need to install new one before it gets cold!)

I've ordered the paint to get the bare plaster walls done (have already done a mist coat) then we'll tile ourselves. But if there's any way the layout can be improved, we need to know before we start decorating!

Ps/ we have considered knocking down the wall into the diner but because the living room and dining room are already open plan we decided to just remove the door between kitchen and diner and keep the (partiallly supporting) wall as it provides privacy and storage. The kitchen is tiny.

Carcasses are sound, but old B&Q with vinyl wrapped doors and crappy laminate surface. Left hand side cupboard run has two base cupboards and four wall cupboards.

Pic attached .

Edited pic attached to show location of fridge !

I would restore the wall between the living and dining rooms and open up the kitchen to make a kitchen diner. Needn't be hugely expensive and you can do things in stages as you have the funds.

I lived with a tiny kitchen for six years - we chose not to knock through as we decided the best way to get a bigger kitchen was to extend, but in the end we moved somewhere bigger instead.

Hmm... we quite like the through lounge actually, as we can see right to the end of the garden when looking at the sofa.

Sitting on the sofa , I mean!

You could have glazed doors between the living room and kitchen diner to still have that but not be completely open plan.

We really do have a very tight budget and won't be able to raise more than £2k for at least a year so are not intending to do any structural work.

Size is not as much as an issue as the layout here.

Any ideas on how things can be reconfigured on a DIY basis?

Anyone else have any ideas?

Could you post your drawing with the measurements please?

I wonder if you could move your cooker to the other side, then fit a bank of shallow units (wall unit depth) right along your current cooker wall. They could be floor to ceiling or base and wall units with shallow worktops. This would give you a decent amount of storage.

Hope this helps

Would have to move the gas supply over to the other side and relocate washer dryer and dishwasher if cooker moved ... possible but space would be tight

FWIW I've had a rummage on IKEA (online) this weekend and plan to put a moveable wooden trolley between the oven and sink, and ordered a rectangular recycling bin to go on the other side of the cooker.
Am going to do minimal to the cabinets for now until we know for sure if we'll knock through - or even better, extend out the back

For me I would move the oven and put thin tall units up. Bit if moving gas is too much how about moving the sink to the washer dryer location. Dishwasher under draining board. Plumbing is practically already there. That means you could create some clever storage in the corner and loose that little narrow walkway. It's quite tough as a small budget is restricting. Perhaps just updating what you have is best as for me that kitchen is tiny and I would want to extend.

Is it a freestanding cooker.? If you made that space beside it a unit with worktop and bins under, you would gain a bit of work surface. Also if you struggle with storage you can retrofit pull out drawers or wire baskets into the base units which will make them more accessible.

Is this just a fairly standard 3 bed semi or something different?

Assuming it is, in the long term I would do a wraparound rear and side extension to create a bigger kitchen and a utility/downstairs wc (my preferred layout for those type of houses)

For now, I'd put up with it and concentrate on saving

Omg don't do that with your sink! You're talking of having your buttocks against the side of the cooker in order to wash up. Don't do it! Move the cooker to much closer to the door, so that there is at least a metre between the sink and the side of the cooker (ideally 1.2m but that may not be possible). To the left of the cooker along the wall, have shallow shelves for jars and tins, coming out no further than the amount that wall is already recessed.

Thanks for these ideas.
I think we will stick with fitting in bits of storage where possible and saving up for an extension in future. I can live with it once the bare plaster and hole in the wall is sorted !

Would have to be a rear extension as side is a drive shared with neighbours.
At the moment there's a double glazed conservatory off the dining room with a dreadful old polycarbonate roof. If we replace that roof (it's getting urgent) we'll be throwing good money after bad if we later extend. Bit of a catch 22 but we won't have much additional borrowing capacity for 2-3 years !

Typical 3 bed semi.

In honesty I'm not that fussed about having an open plan kitchen/diner but everyone else seems to love them. Personally I like a bit of privacy when I'm cooking ! On the other hand I don't want to put potential future buyers off.
We are planning to stay here long term though.

Oh and my other plan is to buy a beautiful old large wooden dresser for the dining room to keep additional tins etc (base cupboards) and plates glasses etc. I think this is how these types of houses were traditionally planned as all had tiny kitchens .

I assume the outside door isn't your front door. A cost effective way to create more space might be to rehang it to open outwards, rather than into the kitchen. It would make it less awkward to have storage to the right of the cooker. Or (even better) to enable you to move the cooker all the way over to meet the frame of outside door and have slim floor to ceiling storage between cooker and sink. Something like the attached picture, though I wouldn't bother with doors. Can you get a pull out bin for under the sink?

And yes to the dresser. I used to live in a place like yours and that's the set up we had. Most tableware, cutlery, napkins, serving dishes and some bulkier items were kept in dresser. It's very convenient.

That is a great idea, forkfun. I will see if I can find someone to look into rehanging the door - builder? Always find it's quite pricey to get people in for these odd jobs.

Under sink bin is an idea , but would have to relocate all the cleaning stuff that's currently there... I have ordered a small internal cupboard bin to hang on that door , and a bigger main recycling bin for the side of the cooker. It's annoying if I'm standing in the kitchen cooking and people are trying to get past to the bin though.

Oh and re that slim cupboard - do you think we could hang something that heavy on plasterboard? I'm a bit wary of putting too much weight on that wall - it used to have the boiler but we resited it upstairs. Now that's a plasterboard bit - annoyingly it wastes some space because there are pipes that we'd need to dig up the bathroom to move...

Yy to the dresser in the dining room.

Sorry if this is obvious, but have you put in shelves everywhere you can (in any "nooks" plus narrow ones above the work surface maybe) - wooden ones could look really nice for keeping storage jars of dry food. Also hooks for mugs, saucepans etc. And a magnetic bar for knives.

I have just ordered a bunch of shelves and rails from Ikea for that very purpose!
Need to paint the walls first though

How about something like this? No need to hang it from the wall. You could paint it. www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/laiva-bookcase-birch-effect-60128208/

I also like the Elvari system at IKEA , which is very customisable. However, the shallowest shelves are 35cm - so not sure that's too deep for your space.

Regarding rehanging the door - if you can find a handyman who has a day rate, see if you can group a couple of jobs together (rehang door, move cooker, assemble shelf, maybe even do some of the painting). I live in an area where labour is expensive, and here a general handyman charges around GBP 200 per day. However, someone like that would be able to get a few odd jobs done in a day. Not sure what your overall budget for this mini-revamp is, but it may be worth the investment.

I've found good people on Gumtree before.