Utility room...where should it be?

[Willowwood45]

Where is the best place for a utility room? We are buying a house that has one but we think we want to knock it out to make a more rectangular kitchen. Its all stud walls so we don't think it would be too bad knocking it out and realising that space to make a kitchen diner. So we have two options...

1. Should it be off the kitchen? We have the option of adding a small extension to the side of the house. So there would be a door off the kitchen to the utility area and there would be direct access to the garden from there.

1. We could have one added by converting part of our double garage which is attached to the house. You enter the garage via a door which is next to the front door. So the entrance to the utility room would be off the hallway. This option would be cheaper as we would just need to convert about 1/3 of the garage. This option would also give direct access to the garden.

But is a utility room not off the kitchen weird?

@RockingMyFiftiesNot

I'd love a utility room. If I had one, I think I would want it off the kitchen so I could use it as overflow for storage and extra space for food storage space when entertaining/Christmas etc and for storing kitchen gadgets I don't use often.

@groutingqueen This ^

Utility off the kitchen because it's like an overflow space for the kitchen. I put the microwave (it's not used enough to be in kitchen but we need it sometimes enough for it to be of easy access) and also extra under counter freezer in the utility room. Very useful off the kitchen imo.

@Lifeandjoy

That makes sense. But I'd call that a Laundry room, rather than a utility room tbh. There is a difference.

www.luxdeco.com/blogs/styleguide/utility-room-vs-laundry-room-whats-the-difference

"Like the utility, laundry rooms do as they say on the tin. But unlike utility rooms who can turn their hand to multiple tasks, the laundry room is focused on its single function."

Posted too early. That's the quote from the link.

I read the article and it seems it’s essentially the same thing but different terminology. Most British households use the utility room for laundry and not cloakroom and the other things the article mentioned as the different functions. I may be wrong but isn’t most utility rooms in the UK laundry rooms? Same thing different name?

www.luxdeco.com/blogs/styleguide/utility-room-vs-laundry-room-whats-the-difference

I have no idea why I reposted the link . I was reading the entire blog and enjoying the cupboard spaces

An upstairs utility room actually names so much sense! Not an option in this house but why on earth wouldn't you do the laundry next to the bedrooms?! Genius!

Before we moved our laundry machines down to the cellar they were in the bathroom (upstairs) which seemed to make much more sense than having them in the kitchen. There's no connection at all between food preparation and laundry, the space in the kitchen can be much better used, there's plumbing easily available in the bathroom and you're much more likely to be getting your kit off there than in the kitchen!

@Willowwood45

This is fascinating! So many options. An upstairs utility room actually names so much sense! Not an option in this house but why on earth wouldn't you do the laundry next to the bedrooms?! Genius!

But an upstairs utility room.means you've got to take all.the wet washing downstairs to line dry.

Our utility is off the hallway but it's also where we keep coats and shoes. The cats are fed there and it's also where we keep all the cleaning products and where we wash up stuff that can't go in the dishwasher.

In an ideal world I'd have a laundry room.and a separate boot room but we havent got the space so this works for us.