Victorian terrace side return: one entrance or two? With plans!

[TheStoryofmyLife]

Planning a kitchen side return extension on our fairly narrow Victorian terrace. I consider myself pretty confident with interiors but have a dilemma on whether or not to close off the existing entrance to the room in favour of a new one through to the rear living room.

I have a really good peninsular kitchen layout design that accommodates boring things like the hot water tank/boiler and the soil pipe (which will need to be boxed in inside the new room), and also gives us somewhere to store the hoover/ironing board etc (we will be losing most of our under-stairs cupboard to a new loo). BUT my architect says we will get fed up with going through the living room to get to the kitchen.

My plan would be to widen the entrance to the back living room, close off the one to the front section, and have a utility cupboard where the current hallway door to the kitchen is. I'm not as keen on alternative layouts that keep two entrances for a number of reasons, including loss of storage.

I have friends in (admittedly larger) Victorian terraces who have done similar and it works really well.

Opinions? Have you done the same and if so do you regret losing the original entrance?

I am not looking to remodel the rest of the living area or to open it up completely, but one of our major reasons for doing the extension is to give a direct link between the kitchen and living area, with a pocket door so we can still close it off when required (DC are 9 & 12).

It's not completely clear from the plans but there's a change of level between the front and rear of the house, 2 steps down. New room dimensions will be 4.3 x 5.6m approx.

@NamedyChangedy that's a great layout, can really see the appeal. Our kitchen is 2m shorter than that though (no room to extend into the garden) so we don't have room for any seating in the kitchen aside from at the table.

@minipie I have a couple of variations on that kitchen layout worked out, and quite like them. What I hadn't considered was taking that space out of the middle room but will have a play with that idea, thanks!

I like your proposed design OP. With kids, having some utility space is a massive plus and I much prefer your kitchen dining layout to theirs. Sure it might annoy you to walk through that room, but do they know how annoying not having utility space is?!!?!

Your house your choice!

I have to go through my living room to get to my kitchen. It’s fine and I am totally used to it as this is how the house was when we bought. But it would be nice not to have it as a thorough fair!

Thanks @SauvignonGrower! I still very much like my design. It's helpful to have some outside opinions though.

@FreeButtonBee thank you too, this is exactly the kind of input I was looking for!

Either your architects plan, or block off the kitchen-study door but keep the hallway one. If your kids are young enough to need supervision they’ll be in the kitchen space with you - if not it’ll drive everyone mad if they can’t even grab a snack or drink without having to go past you. Plus, do you really want all your visitors to have to go past your work stuff every time? Surely better to have a study that’s out-of-bounds to non-family.

Good points @Tamingofthehamster - part of the reason I want a closed peninsula layout rather than an island is so that people don't have to go through the kitchen work area as a thoroughfare. The fridge will be next to the living room entrance for that exact reason.

The desk in the middle room would not be the main work area or storage place for papers. More of a home hotdesk!

We are looking at a similar approach. How narrow is the hallway by the stairs? It looks live you couldn't pass so becomes the barrier to flow. I've been looking at widening the hallway and taking space from the middle room, but losing the second entrance.

However that middle room will be dark, I'd be tempted to keep the second door, make it glazed, just to get light into the room. Kids could do laps....

You need to keep the hallway door and through route though.

If you are losing a lot of garden could you go for a 2 storey extension to put the study upstairs? Then a shorter extension using the middle room as part of the kitchen.

Thanks @Rollercoaster1920 it's interesting to have the perspective of someone thinking along similar lines.

Yes our hallway is really narrow - just the width of the front door plus architrave - and passing each other when trying to get out of the house is a nightmare.

Our garden is absolutely tiny but the side return is a neglected waste of space - unlikely to get planning approval for a 2nd floor extension and we have subsidence issues that mean we need to do work on the kitchen anyway, so side return makes best sense. Plus I am desperate for a larger kitchen!

You have all made me think hard about that middle room though. I know what I'm doing over a glass of wine tonight now!

part of the reason I want a closed peninsula layout rather than an island is so that people don't have to go through the kitchen work area as a thoroughfare

In my design the main work area is the island and the run behind it (I would put hob on island and sink behind or you could swap). So is not a thoroughfare. I may be a little over attached to my design

By the way, re getting light into the back reception room, I don’t think you need to keep a door from the kitchen to the back room just for that reason. I think you will get just as much light from an internal window (above kitchen worksurface level) since you have a big level difference between the two rooms. This is the case in my friend’s house who also has a level difference and has a window there.

If you go this route then the best bet is to enlarge the opening upwards towards the ceiling, as far as you possibly can, and have loads of glass in the side return roof where it meets that opening.

Personally I would choose to keep both doors but for flow reasons not light.

Just occurred to me that blocking the door from kitchen to hallway could make hallway very dark?

We had this layout in our last house which I loved- the kitchen was absolutely beautiful and we didn’t mind walking through the lounge. Having said that as my kids got older I was thinking of closing the front room off or changing an upstairs room into a separate lounge/ study for piano lessons, wfh space and sleepover nights. Aesthetically though it was beautiful and we managed without the hallway door no problem.

@minipie you have some good points there, making the hall dark(er) is a consideration, but the front section gets light from the front door more than the kitchen, and if it's just a loo there it won't matter so much if it's dark.

I've also thought about the internal window option, though veering away from it as a) would be harder to close off (was planning a pocket door to the middle room) and b) still want to be able to walk through.

I guess what I really need to decide is whether the cons of losing the entrance to the hallway are worth the pros of the benefit to my kitchen layout and utility space. Argh!

Thanks very much for your input @Heronwatcher, really helpful to hear your experience of a similar layout.

I definitely need to have a good long look at the plans again!

@TheStoryofmyLife did you make a decision? I’m also planning a side return extension and trying to work out which doorways to keep

Not 100% final yet, but have revisited plans with 2 entrances and worked up something I'm mostly happy with. Main reason is that there will be zero natural light around the entrance to the new under stairs loo if we lose the existing entrance, and as there are a couple of steps down to where the loo door will be, that could well be an accident waiting to happen. If we didn't have that change in level I'd be much more inclined to just have the one entrance through the middle room.