Open plan kitchen, diner and lounge - what do you think to this layout?

[ChristmasLightLover]

Please can I have your thoughts on this potential plan for our new kitchen - the utility is off to the side and has the washer, dryer, loo, boiler and shower.

People at work are saying islands don't work because everything gets splashed everywhere. What do you think? How do people with islands avoid the splash from cooking??

All thoughts and input appreciated. The dining table will go bottom right of the images - and the lounge to the bottom left.

Thank you in advance. This is a once in a lifetime change for us, so I want to get it right!

Is your hob in the island? Where are you going to pop hot things that come out of the oven?

It looks lovely, if you have no kids to keep out of the way way whilst cooking or animals and never actually cook anything.

For me personally, i dont think your island is big enough for a hob. I dont like hobs in islands (unless its massive and the hob is well away from the seating area) so I'm a bit biased. Other than that i dont like the fridge freezer (if thats what it is) near the door to the utility. It will be in the way.

Lovely otherwise.

Move the job from the island, but otherwise should be good. Is this your only reception room or will you keep a separate lounge?

Also not really sure what’s happening with the standalone tall unit (fridge?). It’s in a strange place and will be odd

I'd move the hob off the island if possible.

The fridge doesn't work there, it's really odd.

I'd get more pan drawers too.

The island would feel in the way for me, blocking the path between the fridge and the sink.

The hob doesnt doesn't have enough work space either side of it.
Extractor fan?

Why dont people like islands?

Fridge isn't in a practical place.

Your worktop space is quite far away from both the hob and the ovens, I think. You could end up carrying boiling hot pots and pans right to the other side of the kitchen. Can the sink be moved further down to get some worktop nearer?

I would advise you think about consulting @OnePlanOnHouzz, a MNer & designer. A kitchen is such a huge investment it is worth getting her advice to plan it for your needs.

When you take hot stuff off the hob or out the oven, you gave to walk all the way over to the sideboard next to the sink to put it down, which isn't very practical imo.

You need somewhere right next to/on top of the oven to put hot trays.

I like islands though.

Mine is a vaguely similar although my utility isn't off the kitchen. Could you put the fridge (or whatever it is) on the long wall and then make the island bigger.

I have my hob on my island and it is only a bit bigger than yours but that extra space is great at the side of the hob.

Plus one to drawers or pullouts instead of cupboards.

What are the dimensions of the room?

Children?

Only one working in it at any one time or do 2 of you often work together.

All these have an impact.

Mine is pretty small 3.7 m by about 3m

Your kitchen designer has not done a good job!
The sink is jammed in a corner and a person using it will be in the way of the ovens - it should be more to the middle of that run.

the hob does't have workspace next to it, I would make the island longer and put the hob to one side, but not dead opposite the sink. Leave yourself a good big bit of worktop.
And incorporate fridge freezer into the run of tall units. Those mid level ovens are very inefficient on space, you could stack two ovens one a bit higher and one a bit lower and still get the functinoality, especially if one was a smaller combi-grill and one was a full oven.

You have to think, if you were going to make a dinner - where would you put your chopping board, then is everything you need to hand . Then can you stack pots, load washer, unload and put away all in one area as well?

I like NotMeNoNo 's idea of putting the hob on the side of the island, thus giving you work surface to put stuff straight from the oven, and can just turn around with boiling pans to strain down the sink.

Plus plenty of surface next to the hob to chop and prep.

High five @FrogFairy . I came on to say exactly the same thing! Worth her weight in gold that woman!

You need a professional designer. You've posted about this before, correct? The first time you had the ovens right up against the wall with the window where the sink is. The location of the fridge is really awkward.

We bought a house with a similar layout (island hob, wall over, utility room to the side). I thought I would hate the island hob and want to move it ASAP but we had more important things to spend money on so we decided to leave it for a year.

Turns out we love it!! Our island is not very big (about one foot between edge of job and seating and one foot of counter space beside hob) but we taught our kids at a very young age that the hob was hot and to be very careful. They sit at the island all the time when we are cooking. They love watching the pancakes flipping and the soups/sauces cooking. I let the three year old add ingredients to pots as we go (carefully and with supervision of course) and he does it really well. It really makes cooking a family activity.----

A few suggestion - move the hob to one side as others have said. This will give you a place for chopping/mixing beside the hob which is necessary if you like to cook. As for where you will put thing when they come out of the oven - from the layout I expect you will also use the space beside the hob to put down hot items as well (we also put ours directly on the hob if it is not in use). As much as you can with the space you have, make the island bigger. Ours is small and we do wish it was bigger (but the whole kitchen is small so not much we can do)

It's worth thinking about other items which might eat up counter space. Will you have a toaster, coffee maker, microwave, kettle, etc? Make sure you recognize these will eat up counter space and have outlets available in the right places.

Finally, we also really love having the laundry machine right off the kitchen. It is so easy to throw in a load while cooking or having around in the evening.

Good luck!

I’ve been going through a very similar design myself recently and a few things I’d say about yours are:

What’s in all the tall units? The one in the corner might be annoying to get into and open shelves for tea/coffee/ recipe books might be more useful? Do you need that many? Could you lose one so you gain some worktop next to the oven to put things on?

Where is your kettle/ toaster going? Any food mixer/ worktop appliances?

Have you thought about joining your island onto the run with the hob to make a U shape? I think that’s what I’m going to go for having thought I wanted an island actually you can have seating a breakfast bar bit still.

Do you have a dining table? Where’s that going? How is the rest of the room?

Is the fridge pushed back through the wall? I thought about that as an option and DP liked that idea but it looked odd and I thought it might make it tricky to change the fridge at a later date.

Have you got an extractor?

Sorry for all the questions! Hope you’re not feeling too overwhelmed!

These are all the things other people quizzed me on!

Have you discovered Houzz? A website with loads of house pictures on, might be worth a look if you haven’t already

I have a hob on the island, and i love it. Can keep an eye on things while cooking, but i dont have seats on my island as it is next to a dining table. I have 50 cm each side which i think is the minimum I could get away with. Looking at your diagram you could have a bigger island if you moved the fridge. I would also consider moving the sink so you have more prep space near the hobs, but that needs to be balanced against distance hobs to sink to drain water.

I do sometimes think a big worktop island would be great for baking.

I have a very similar layout with my hob on the island and the ovens behind. I works really well but my island is much bigger than your planned one ( about 3.5m long) so I have plenty of workspace each side. If you are having a ceramic or induction hob that will give you space for hot pans from the oven but you will need extra prep space either side of your hob. I love having the hob on the island as you can interact with everyone as you cook rather that having your back to them.