Please critique my kitchen design

[abbaroony]

We are about to start the build on an extension which will give us a long rectangular kitchen, but I’m struggling to come up with a kitchen design that ticks all the boxes.

This is what I have come up with so far on DIY kitchens. One of my problems with it is that I feel that the island is very long compared to its width.

I would really like to be able to have an island, but now I’m wondering if this is really possible. I think that having the two doors into the kitchen (left is from the dining room and right is from the hallway) is really limiting my options.

I’d really like to avoid wall cupboards. The tall cupboard on the left houses the boiler, and the one on the right is a pantry style unit where we will put some dry food and also the microwave, toaster and glassware. The washer and dryer are next to this. I was trying to avoid having to constantly walk around the island whilst cooking, so I’m imagining staying between the island / cooker / sink when cooking and having the other side as more of a laundry ‘zone’.

I don’t feel at all confident that what I’ve come up with is ‘right’ so any advice or help is really appreciated!

I still think the first design is the best of the 3 you’ve given.

The island could be a bit thinner if you only have units at the front (no stools) and then the back end of the island where the stools are, have no units. (ie no overhang needed because the whole worktop is just a tall table where the stools are).

I would make the island shorter than it is in your diagram too for balance. And I like the rounded island idea.

It looks like the dining room doesn’t have any windows, so could this perhaps be the utility/toilet ? You could then have a spectacular eat-in kitchen.

I still think top cupboards would look better and be more practical, making everything closer to access, and it’s nice not having to stoop down to get a mug. It would also allow the kitchen floor units to be cut, so more space beyond for the living /dining areas.

I don't see the point of an archway from the kitchen to the dining room when there's already a door off the hall. I'd go kitchen diner with the table where you have a sofa and armchair in your extension and use the current dining room for something else.

Where are your coats, shoes, bags kept at the moment? I think I would split the dining room horizontally, with the front third being a cloakroom/boot room area with bench, hooks, storage etc. This cloakroom would open into a utility which would also have a separate small loo. There would be no access from this old dining room to the kitchen.

My kitchen is about that width and I think an island would feel really cramped.

I also think it might be a good idea to move the loo under the stairs, mostly because I don't like the idea of a toilet opening straight into a kitchen. It used to be building regs to have two doors between a toilet and a kitchen and I wish they'd kept that!

A couple of ideas-

-have tall wall units one side (with f/f within that), then just base units on the other going round into a peninsular. You keep the open feeling of no wall cupboards one side but get tons of storage.

-if you are really determined to have an island, you could put the seating on the end rather than along, then maybe keep the fridge in the same location as your plans and have 300mm deep tall cabinets along the wall. So you still get storage and the look of cabinets, but get more space around the island. If you have that little bit of work surface next to the tall cupboards like your first plan it will just become a dumping ground!

Also, as @Chewbecca said, would it be worth putting the dining table in the nice sunny end of the kitchen and having cosy 'snug' seating in the dining room space? Depends on how you want to use the rooms though really.

I'd slice your existing dining room in two and add an extra door for hall so that it is half utility/pantry and half downstairs loo. Neither of these rooms require light. That would mean you have more room at that end of kitchen to make a shorter u shape with an extra deep peninsula that doubles as a table. On the other side I'd have a corner sofa. Much more useable for family

If you can forgo the dining room I would be tempted to use that space for a utility and wc. You can the get rid of the arch way and get more usable space in the kitchen.

If you are set on an island I would just have the single unit run but with an L shape. You can either out the hob in the island or on the wall run. If you put it in the island the benefit is that the wall run can be floor to ceiling giving far more usable space. A hob with an integrated extractor would work well here. I would fit in a larder where you have your wc.

The disadvantage is of course eating in the kitchen but I would think this is preferable to a dining room with no windows. To make best use of space I would attach a lower level dining table to the end of the island.

Why on earth would you want the loo where you've put it in your kitchen? That's really weird and even if you don't feel uncomfortable going to the loo in there your guests will.

I would use a bit of your dining room to create a loo, utility and coat storage as others have said.

Walking around would drive me insane. But if it will be solely for laundry then I can kind of understand it. It just feels like 2 galley kitchens to me.

So in our house we have a kitchen diner, and no formal dining room (we have rooms we could use but don’t have the need for that formal setup only to use it a couple of times a year).

I think I would look at the suggestions that include using the dining room space for utility and downstairs loo. You also need to think about ventilation through a fan because both those rooms will need it. I have a utility with very limited natural light and it’s totally fine. It’s a functional space not a living space.

I would also try to put a pantry cupboard/area into there, leading off the kitchen. That could house FF also if space but doesn’t need to. We have a pantry and it’s a game changer in terms of being able to have the look of the kitchen that you want, in terms of no upper units etc.

This should give you space to bring the kitchen area down in size, basically governed by having enough worktop space, and you should be able to fit a dining table and somewhere to sit comfortably in there.

In this arrangement you probably don’t want the sitting space at the island. We have it in this house but didn’t in our old house. It definitely fits into the ‘nice to have’ category rather than the ‘must have’ - especially if the dining table is already in there.

You’re having a fairly classic problem in that most kitchen layouts are a compromise. Few people can manage to get absolutely everything into their space. Our latest kitchen has too many doors and windows to make it a perfect layout. My old kitchen was much better for cooking in that regard, but was essentially built into your dining room space (i.e. the area with no natural light).

Honestly just go to a Magnet showroom and get them to plan it. It's their job!!

I don't know how many you have in your family but I would ditch the sofa and replace with a dining table. It is so much easier to have everyone eat at one end of a kitchen diner than in a separate room. Then I would use the dining room you mention for this sofa and have an extra living space.

Oh I've just done that thing where it looked like only a few posts and turns out to have two extra pages

Islands are meant to look onto something.
When placed in the middle they become a roundabout.
The second drawing with a peninsula is much better. It makes the room look wider and that it has a purpose.

@Weepingwillow22

If you can forgo the dining room I would be tempted to use that space for a utility and wc. You can the get rid of the arch way and get more usable space in the kitchen.

If you are set on an island I would just have the single unit run but with an L shape. You can either out the hob in the island or on the wall run. If you put it in the island the benefit is that the wall run can be floor to ceiling giving far more usable space. A hob with an integrated extractor would work well here. I would fit in a larder where you have your wc.

The disadvantage is of course eating in the kitchen but I would think this is preferable to a dining room with no windows. To make best use of space I would attach a lower level dining table to the end of the island.

This is exactly what I’d do. A dining room with no light sounds horrible, as does a toilet effectively in the kitchen. Closing up that door gives you so much more usable space in the kitchen, and adding a table in there will mean as your kids get older they can do homework while you’re getting tea on etc etc. It might feel like you’re losing a room, but you’d be using the space so much more effectively.

I also would stick to your guns about having no wall units, I think they can look quite fussy and I do like open shelving. I’d recommend having the hob in the island if you want to have open shelving as otherwise the stuff on your shelves will get really greasy. Putting the tall units where the toilet was originally is a great idea too.

Looking at your ground floor floorplan again, why not just not have an archway to the dining room and put a wall across where the back wall to the downstairs loo is and use the other side as the utility room with a door opposite the loo? There would be a short corridor to the kitchen, but that's all. You wouldn't then be opening the door to the loo in the kitchen as there'd be some separation. You could have a door or leave the end of the short corridor open at the kitchen end. You could even put a pocket door in that slides behind the downstairs loo, so no open door encroaching on the space. This then gives you additional wall space at the house end of your kitchen for units and you can put a u shaped kitchen in the space.

Or, you could have a utility and pantry on the other side from the loo, in which case a door into the utility from the kitchen not the corridor would be most useful.

I think you can fit in an island. see (awful) sketch.
A 900 wide island works fine.

But I hate loos opening onto kitchens and I think a laundry/utility is essential. The door to the dining room is not required.

I’d partition off a utility at the dark end, which will have the effect of shortening the space, improving the proportions by making it seem less corridor like. It separates the loo too, and you get a linger run of wall and a perfect L shape run with the tall tower units at the end, like fridge & oven/larder.

A shorter island say 2m x 900mm also fits better with the proportions of the space.

Apart from the island, that's exactly what I suggested.

I would make a utility somewhere in that middle bit, I’ve seen a couple of houses where it works.

MissHoolie- thank you, my floor is Ted Todd, the name is either Moroccan or Sandbank

I love the stenches @Weepingwillow22 and @whatisthislifesofullofcare have done.

I would also take the opportunity to have a lovely cloakroom area in the middle bit, alongside utility and WC, as we have a narrow hallway like yours and it’s always cluttered with coats, shoes, bags!

*sketches not stenches

Just here to say I don't understand the "islands have had their day" comments, they can be hugely useful spaces, I don't have one but would love one to utilise the space and to not have to cook facing a wall. I think trends date when they are style over substance, islands to me seem very useful so can't at all understand comments that they will date.