Please help! Dithering on a house due to kitchen size

[MoonShadow11]

We have been house searching for over a year now. Finally found one which ticks most of our boxes. It is a really lovely house. However, the only negative is the size of the kitchen and the layout.

Kitchen is 10ft by 9ft. I have attached the floor plan for the kitchen. There is a separate utility room, which is off the kitchen. Therefore, no issue with washing machine/dryer space. There is also a storage room in the kitchen which can be used as a pantry.

The thing that is niggling is how we could make the best use out of the kitchen. The layout doesn’t seem too great as there is also a radiator to the wall on the right? We will need a dishwasher and I was hoping for an integrated bin and eye level oven and microwave but this doesn’t seem possible? An American fridge doesn’t seem at all possible either, which in the grand scheme of things is no big deal really. Would you be able to cope with this kitchen size? How would you go about having the layout to make the most of the kitchen? As apart from this it is a beautiful house and we are hoping it will be our forever house but maybe with an extension at some point in the future.

Any help and input will be greatly appreciated.

Do you have to eat in the kitchen?

I don't think I would manage well with a kitchen that size. I assume the 10x9 means wall to wall, so when you take into account the depth of the cabinets, the floor space is much smaller. For me, my kitchen is the epicenter of my home, and a small one would be very difficult.

A lot of time is spent in the kitchen so it needs to be big enough for your needs. Is there enough wall space for everything you want? If not I would be inclined not to proceed.

I have managed with a kitchen half that size and no utility. Every house has a compromise, it this the least annoying compromise in your budget?

We've just bought a house that originally had a separate utility room, but the previous owners took down the stud wall and made a bigger kitchen. Could that be a possibility?

It's bigger than my kitchen! Could you just take the radiator out, we don't have one and we took out the radiator in our previous flat as well.
With the heat generated by cooking, the fridge etc, it still ends up being one of the warmest rooms.

Mines 17ft by 9.1ft and it's a lovely size, got full sized dining tables dishwasher and one of the cupboards has in built recycling bins... Plenty of floor space so we can have the clothes horse up. I wouldn't want it any smaller though.

Get a sheet of squared paper (scale of 1:20 should do) and mark up your kitchen. Standard worktops are 60cm deep - personally find this a bit tight for fitting appliances like dishwashers in.

Quick rules of thumb - plan round the work triangle if sink - cooker - fridge aiming for about 1.5m walking distance across the kitchen floor between them. Do not put th fridge hard up against the cooker - it will not work efficiently. Have a thought to fire safety - you shouldn't have the hob beneath a window. It is helpful to have your hob against an external wall so it can vent to the outside. Is your boiler in the kitchen or can it be put in the utility room. (Again, quite tight building regs re where the boiler can be sited - its exhaust can't be too close to your or the neighbours' windows).

Don't worry about the radiator - it's easy to resite these. Big plus point is both doors are in one corner so they shouldn't limit you too much.

I've spent the last decade in a house with a hideous galley kitchen that's narrow even by the standards of hideous galley kitchens. I hate it. Having been through 10 years with it, if I were in your position and my gut instinct was screaming "this is too small" I'd walk away from the house. But only you are in a position to decide.

I think that's a lot of kitchen. Are you going to refurbish it? You could install underfloor heating and lose the radiator to gain wall space. Or have a very tall radiator that is narrow. It looks like plenty of space to fit everything in.

I'd also recommend looking at non-American fridge freezers. I've got one that's just 70cm wide but it's 2m tall an extra deep so it has the same capacity as a smaller American one without taking up the space.

Can the American Fridge Freezer go in the utility. That would give room for everything else. My kitchen is not much bigger (12' x 8') and is plenty big enough. You could put a breakfast bar over the radiator, or install electric UFH under tiles and get rid of the radiator.

How many of you are there? We used to have a kitchen much the same size as this and the problem was if more than one person was in there you were constantly asking them to move so you could get to the cupboards/cooker etc. We had an under counter fridge and a dishwasher. All the other white goods were in the garage. It was especially frustrating when entertaining as there was no room for people to stand and chat while you were cooking. However, we lived with it for 15 years. The upside was that it didn't take long to clean!
We did have room to extend though, which is what we did 4 years ago. What was the kitchen is now a study Would that be an option down the line if you like the house otherwise?

Lots of replies and lots of things to think about, thank you all this is really helpful.

hopesorfears there is a separate dining room so no need to eat in the kitchen. It is a lounge through diner layout with a separate kitchen.

Aquamarine1029 yes, wall to wall. It did look big enough when we went to view but probably because the owners have an L shaped kitchen design.

Perunatop I have checked and double checked our existing kitchen and if I’m honest, half the cupboards are taken over with clutter and barely used. With the storage panty layout the owners have it seems it could work.

Disfordarkchocolate yes I it is the least annoying compromise, as otherwise it is the perfect house for us. I just don’t want to spend loads on the house and then regret it.

DaphneduM I really don’t want to lose the utility room as I would prefer to keep the washing machine and dryer separate and also to house cleaning products/hoover etc.

theITgirl I didn’t even think to remove the radiator! That could work and we could have extra units in. It will make the floor space smaller but I think I could cope with that.

DownstairsMixUp that sounds massive and very nice! We’ve never used the dining table in our current kitchen as we have a separate room which we prefer to eat in so maybe going small isn’t too bad for us.

BarbaraStrozzi the hob currently is on an internal wall but it can be put on an external wall not directly under the window. The boiler is not in the kitchen. It is upstairs next to the bathroom. The door to the utility room is next to the radiator off the kitchen.

I’m thinking that it could work out nicely and we will be ripping the kitchen out to install a new one but then I stop and question it all again. Arghhh!!! This is so hard. We’ve been looking for so long and we really do need to move but obviously need to put my sensible
head on!

I moved into a new house with a similar size kitchen. Every other box was ticked so we decided to go for it. However, we have plenty of room to extend and as this is a long term move we figured I could live with it for a bit . I'll admit that the kitchen does become annoying. I don't have a dishwasher, I have limited work surface and I hate other people being in there when I'm cooking as they keep getting in the way. If you can't extend then I'd say perhaps keep looking.

It sounds fine to me - mine is much smaller.

Keep lots of stuff in the pantry (including things like pans you don’t use often).

Look into storage tricks for small kitchens - loads of ideas out there - we have magnetic strips inside cupboard doors to hold spice tins, hooks underneath cupboards to hold mugs, magazine racks stuck to the side of the fridge to hold foil, baking paper etc.

Try not to keep anything out on work surfaces, they need to be as clear as possible.

Ooh more replies, thank you

JojoSM2 yes we will be refurbishing it. I think getting rid of the radiator and having underfloor heating is a great idea. Can you tell me which fridge you have as it sounds ideal?

Hecateh it would mean putting it next to the dryer if it went in the utility room as I’m told that a fridge shouldn’t sit next to any other appliance? Or have I got that wrong?

longearedbat we are a family of four. Although we’re rarely in the kitchen at the same time. DH works long hours and DC2 is a baby. DD who is 6 does like to come into the kitchen for a chat sometimes and can get under my feet but then she does that no matter how big the place!

You could put a tall radiator between the door to the outside and the corner which is not a particularly usable space anyway. The good thing about that layout is that the two doors are close to each other, so people don't have to cross the whole kitchen to go outside which is a personal peeve of mine.

I like to have a table in my kitchen, but if you don't want that then the layout can be a lot more flexible.

I have used wall cupboards as base units in the porch/utility room, as it is not wide enough for proper floor units.

Also I have 6x 600mm wall cupboards stacked floor to ceiling in a very shallow recess, (three high, two wide) I keep the crockery, serving dishes, cups, mugs, glasses, mixing bowls in those, and it works really well as there is no raking at the back for anything as it's all right there! Lots of extra shelves in there too so there's almost no stacking which means it's very easy to just get out what you want without having to lift out piles of things to get to the plates (or whatever) at the bottom of the pile.

I dream of a small kitchen! As it is we have a large kitchen which means everyone gathers for a chat while I'm cooking or cleaning up - and I HATE that. Leave me the fuck alone to get on with it! I think we've all swallowed too much Location, Location, Location "the kitchen should be the hub of the home" idyllic happy families nonsense.

Our fridge is from Bosch but a few years old now. Online shops like AO (Appliances Online) let you search by dimensions so you can filter out the bigger ones (and the fridge and freezer capacities are given so you can compare to American ones).

I'd say it's also handy to have a bit of worktop next to the fridge followed by the sink. That makes prep very easy.

For some inspo, you could look on Houzz (millions of photos).

If it's more convenient for you, and you're doing building work, you could also open up the kitchen to the dining room and make the living room separate.

What’s the rest of the floor plan like ? Is it next to the lounge dining room and if so could you knock the kitchen into dining room and then have separate living room ?

As PP, what is rest of floor plan? Are you able to make open plan kitchen/ dining even living room, or change rooms around? These cost $$$ but if it's dream house , may be worth while.

You could also consider a hydronic plinth heater instead of a radiator.

I think kitchen-through-dining room works better than lounge-through-dining room.

Can you go as far as redividing your front room and knocking through to the kitchen? If layout allows?

Ours is the same size and has the added inconvenience of a door to the downstairs bathroom! I’ve got pans hanging from a Victorian drying rack which makes a huge difference, though we do have to store non-perishables in a cupboard in the dining room.

We also have no radiator and it’s never cold in there. Plus there is literally nowhere we could hang one.

we have recently bought a house with a small kitchen in a terrible position in the house. but we are going to be relocating this entirely next year and it's going to be splendid. but i can confirm the kitchen is IMPORTANT, i'm hating the current situ, and if i did not know it was only temporary i would be mighty fed up with this arrangement. so if you aren't able to make significant changes i would pass on the house altogether.