Remodel of kitchen

[Radders23]

Hi all,

Please could you help me decide what to do with my kitchen? I attach a floor plan (first picture). Currently the U shaped portion has wall units on the left wall and the right wall and the fridge, freezer and dishwasher are undercounter which are really awkward. There is also a radiator (in yellow) with a breakfast bar running on top of it so you can sit and face the wall (not shown). The sink is unit 2 next to the dishwasher and the hob is on the right hand wall.

In the second picture I've added some ideas. We would like to add a breakfast bar so you can sit while someone is cooking and add a tall cabinet (labelled 9) next to it. Sink and hob will stay as is and the remainder of the wall unit s will be removed. Unit number 7 on the left will have a freestanding fridge freezer possibly with a top unit?

Please can you let me know your thoughts.

A few initial thoughts. Where are the doors?
What is the section that looks like a bay window?

The person in the wall seat at breakfast bar will have a great view of the side of the tall cupboard which I don’t think is great. It feels in the way of the flow too. Anyone Sitting at the breakfast bar also will see the back of whoever is using the hob which isn’t really convivial. I’m not therefore sure this layout works.

There are 3 doors, one interior left, one interior right and one external bottom. The window is at the top in front of the sink.

Any ideas what other configs we could have? The hob wont move, but as we currently have a breakfast bar facing a wall we still use this to sit down when another person is cooking at the hob

I know this isn’t quite what you are asking, but where do the internal doors go to? I don’t think your kitchen is big enough to have a decent seating area. I wondered if you had thought about knocking through a wall so a seating area is adjacent to the kitchen? Three doors is your enemy here because they take up wall space. If one door goes into a dining room I would consider taking that wall down and move some kitchen storage into the dining area.

I think it’s difficult to do much else with the layout but I would use the wall with the proposed tall cupboard for another tall cupboard to house fridge/freezer, microwave etc where you have the breakfast bar. I do think you won’t be happy walking around the proposed new breakfast bar all the time either, and the chairs will block the back door: it looks awkward. I would never have had a breakfast bar facing the wall by a hob either. Sounds very dangerous. So seating in an area that you open up would be better. Could you extend out the back? Does the back door lead out to the garden? Or do one of the windows look out over the garden? I’m trying to think how you can get more space for not too much extra expense by extending.

The breakfast bar in the position you suggest will be a pain for anyone walking in through the right hand side door to get to the door to outside. The shape and size of the room means it's not big enough for an island or peninsula, but if you were to knock through to another room then the usable space could be much better

Here's a floor plan. I do love our utility room and so wouldn't want to knock through into that and the dining room on the other side is going to be more of a snug area. Mainly we access the back garden from the french doors in the lounge as the exterior door in the kitchen is to the side passage (I don't think we have used this door in the whole year we have lived here).

My concern with putting the fridge and larder unit on the wall opposite the window is this eats into the space in front of the doorway on the right. Fridges are normally 60 deep so I would assume I would get 60 deep larder units which would eat into the space in front of the door a little. Or would 37 deep units be okay with fridge sticking out?

That is a really tricky space. I would either extend into the side recess or knock through into the dining room.

Alternatively could you move the side door into the dining room and replace the space where the door was with a breakfast bar there with window above?

Do you also have an external door in the lobby bit between the utility and w.c?

I think your rear lobby is a waste of space and your utility room should be bigger. It has another external door in it so do you need the one in the kitchen? You don’t use it so I guess the answer is no.

I’m against snugs. Small messy little rooms with people cut off from the rest of the household. I would incorporate it into the kitchen and have it for informal dining but extend storage into it. You would find it a lot more spacious. You would get better storage in the kitchen by blocking off the external door.

The exterior door from lobby and lounge go to back garden whereas the exterior door from the kitchen only goes to the side passage to the front (no access to garden).

When I say snug I mean a room with bookcases and maybe a desk, it can't really be tucked away as its in the centre of the house :/ It was previously used as a dining room but we've moved the table into the lounge now. So just wanted a space for a person to perch in the kitchen but I don't want to spend too much as we dont plan on being here longer than 5 years. From what you say the layout is way off at present :(

I would make the layout sensible for you. Do you need a desk or could you work at a table where the room is part of the kitchen? Don’t forget that larger kitchens with an informal dining area is quite a desirable asset. Door from your kitchen isn’t necessary so I would spend the money blocking it up and opening the kitchen into the dining area. The house just doesn’t look big enough to have an office. Larger lovely kitchens with dining sell houses. I’m not sure a small office / snug will enhance your sale price. But I fully understand this suggestion is more money.