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.

Just checked and our kitchen is a very similar size to yours. We also have a separate dining room and separate utility room.
It’s fine... not great, but fine. Ideally I want to knock through to the dining room and have a large kitchen/diner but no funds at present. We have a large amount of outside space so can always extend backwards too.
We have a table in the kitchen but it’s mainly the kids who eat in there; if we all eat together we eat in the dining room.

My old house had a kitchen 2.15m x 3.15m, so slightly smaller I think. In that space it had two doorways and a fairly substantial amount of window.

I’ve moved to a house with a much bigger kitchen and a separate utility room but actually have much less storage space because it has now been well designed.

So, if you’re planning on doing it up, I think there’s scope!

We will have to cross the kitchen to get outside to the garden as the back door is in the utility room. There is scope to extend the kitchen so that is something at least, although won’t be for a few years if we do decide to go down that route.

I haven’t attached the rest of the floor plan as I stupidly edited the kitchen plan and deleted the rest! I can’t seem to find it now. It’s a lounge through diner and then the kitchen is separate off the diner. I would like to keep the kitchen separate as I think it works better due to the layout of the house as it is now.

The storage room has been used as a pantry by the owners so they have lots of shelving up, which will be useful. Also, I thought about having the cupboards above to the ceiling as it is a low ceiling anyway and this will give us more storage for things if needed.

Nextphone I also prefer not to have any distractions in the kitchen and we’ve never used the kitchen to stand/sit around to chat in. Seems like smaller would work for us!

The more I think of it the more I realise that the only annoying thing would be lack of worktop space, thank you to pp who mentioned that. Floor space could be an issue but I think I could cope with that.

I really appreciate the input given and have had a lot of good advice so thank you. I think taking out the radiator will be way to go as we really do love this house otherwise. We’ve viewed other houses with bigger kitchens but not liked the sizes/layouts of the rest of the house.

The house has quite a large garden so plenty of space to extend backwards but that’s something to consider in the future as I think once we are living there we will get more of an idea of how things are with the kitchen.

Will discuss all this with DH tonight but think we will put in an offer as you have all made me see that we can make this work for us.

You could also consider replacing the window with a door to the garden. Just making sure that there's enough wall in the corner to have kitchen cabinets alongside both sides. Might be nicer than having to through the utility room.

I have a similar sized kitchen, probably a bit smaller and it’s fine. Ours is an open plan kitchen/diner so maybe it seems bigger but from a storage point of view it’s fine.

Do you need a radiator? We didn’t have a radiator in the old house which had a separate kitchen and it seemed ok. Or underfloor heating?

I have my washing machine, tumble dryer and freezer in the utility room. And a coup,e of cupboards for stuff I don’t use much.

Only have 11 cupboards in the kitchen but that’s enough. Just. I don’t have any high up cupboards on the wall that the hob/oven is on. And I could fit more in there but from an aesthetics point of view didn’t want to.

You can get something like a folding trolley to give you sone extra workspace.

Get wide pan drawers instead of cupboards they hold loads!!!!

The bigger your kitchen and more storage you have the more crap you keep... declutter!!

Also use a sideboard in the dining room?

We didn't have a radiator when we refurbed because it's general a space where you don't sit down and the overnight/cooking warms it up.

A tall radiator would be cheaper to install than under floor heating I suspect.

My old kitchen was that size, but no pantry or utility. It worked really well. There was no rafiator but if i was re-doing it, id have put a plinth heater or underfloor heating in. I never felt the kitchen was too small.
I do prefer kitchen diners but as anove, every house is a compromise

SleepyKat we don’t need the radiator so can lose that but will have some sort of heating in there.

RandomMess will definitely look into getting pan drawers but was thinking to have the wall units up to the ceiling for extra space. I’m determined to keep our next kitchen clutter free as everything seems to get stashed somewhere in the kitchen

Grasspigeons did you have cupboards all walls? It’s reassuring that it worked well for you considering you didn’t have a utility room or pantry.

We did have wall cupboards on two walls (door and window on the other 2) we had worktop right down the longest lenghth. We didnt fit in an american fridge freezer though, which is something you wanted.

Yy to having a wooden French drier hanging from the ceiling to have pans on - they are great.

Any chance of putting the fridge freezer in the utility room to get more work surface in the kitchen

Best of luck with the offer.

Thanks grasspigeons I think we will have to forgo the American fridge freezer as it’s not a necessity and we can easily do without it.

Notverygrownup (love your username and sums up just how I feel most days ) if we do put the fridge freezer in the utility room it would be next to the washing machine or dryer and I was under the impression that this is dangerous due to the risk of fires? Thanks and I do hope our offer is accepted as houses round here are snapped up in no time.

Don't see the issue, it's all down to how you use it. we had a Kitchen smaller than that with Dishwasher and Washing Machine and still enough cupboards for the stuff we needed, it's amazing how much crap people keep in their kitchens.

I have that sized kitchen and when we refitted went for the ushape for extra storage. I so regret it and wish we had gone L shape or L with the hob at an angle in the corner. I wish I had gone for floor space not cupboard space as we just hoard shit in the cupboards and can't even walk past each other without breathing in. We had L shape same size in my old house and it worked much better.

We definitely do have crap in most cupboards and we’ve been putting off clearing it out.

Interesting about getting a hob in at an angle in the corner. I wasn’t aware of that as a possibility. Off to have a google to see if I can find any images of how it would look.

I’m so glad I asked on here as I’m now certain that it will be fine. We’ve put in our offer and should hear from the vendor in the morning. Really hoping it’s accepted and if so, I’ll probably be back on here with the kitchen designs

Good luck, hope you had good news from the offer.

I know these are American kitchens and bigger size than what your talking of, but for an idea...

We have a similar size kitchen with a pantry and a separate utility. In the kitchen we have a large range cooker (eight hob rings with griddle on top; grill, two ovens and storage compartment for baking tins underneath), small fridge under counter (second fridge in utility). We have 5 double wall cupboards and one single plus same size and number of base cupboards plus large bin. There is room for sink & drainer and a few frequently used items out on worktops - microwave, halogen oven, scales, small food processor, kettle, chopping boards. Other gadgets go in cupboards. We even have a tiny table and two chairs next to the radiator with a plate rack above. The pantry has lots of shelves for food and cookery books plus hooks for ironing board, small wine rack at back, room for vacuum. In the utility we have sink and drainer, two double cupboards (one floor, one wall), washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, second fridge on one of two worktops, have room for hanging a few items of washing, boiler. We took door between kitchen and dining room off so could fit small table in kitchen. We have a dresser in dining room with best plates and glasses in. I know it's fashionable to have large kitchen/diner but I like them separate - retain more walls to put things against and don't have to look at a messy kitchen whilst eating. I don't like people watching me cook. Our freezer is in the back of the garage which is attached to the house and accessed by door in utility room. We've been here for many years, a family of four. In my experience you never get everything you ideally want in a house but if you plan storage carefully you can make the most of small rooms.

Thank you cakemadeoffruit. Will keep that in mind when we come round to doing the kitchen designs.

autumngold6 it seems your utility room is quite spacious. I also prefer a separate kitchen as I feel it works better for us.

Excited to report that our offer has been accepted! We already have a mortgage in principle as estate agents here do ask for this before they let you view a property. We submitted the full mortgage application today so hopefully that should go through without any issues.

Congratulations!

Just to add that you can get tall skinny radiators now so could hopefully put one in the corner between the two doors, or behind a door or any other space that can’t be used for much else. Underfloor heating is lovely but generally involves raising the floor level which is a pain if everything else is staying put.

If you’d actually prefer a kitchen diner, don’t be put off knocking through by the fact the lounge and diner are currently open plan, it’s very easy to put up a wall to separate the lounge and diner.

Congratulations OP! I was going to suggest a sideboard in the dining room as well. That's what we do for crockery.

Thank you Hopesorfears and Fuma.

minipie We’d like to keep the kitchen separate for now and get a feel of the whole layout. We may extend at some point in the future so don’t want to start knocking through just now in case we’re not happy with that layout either. The floor will need to be replaced and I think we will go for plinth heaters as it is a small space.

Lenders have already booked the valuation for next week!