Thoughts on this potential kitchen layout please?

[LivingInABuildingSite]

We are mid build on a rear and side extension.

I’ve done the usual and been to a few kitchen places for ideas.
I’ve decided I’m getting my kitchen from Howdens as the builders use them.

But I find the B&Q system easier to tweak while sat at home.

So I have some screenshots of the potential layout and would appreciate any constructive ideas about the plan.

Things to note:

I want custom build open shelving on the left hand side as you go into the kitchen, I’ve put glass fronted units there for now to get an idea of shelves.

It may be unclear but I’m carving out a corner for a pantry, behind the custom shelving.

I’m hoping to fit a tambour (sliding upwards door) in front of the pillar near the door to the utility and put the toaster and coffee machine in there. That’s dependent on where exactly the utility door goes though. If I can’t fit it there I have a homeless toaster and coffee machine!

Any thoughts and ideas?

Bumping for Sunday afternoon crowd

Do you have a 2D plan? It’s really hard to follow from those 3D simulations.

The pantry set up looks pretty odd to me, and potentially a big waste of space (can’t tell sizes). And the main bank of units, behind the island, is very chaotic. It would look much better to limit the number of different heights and depths involved - e.g match the cupboard to the left of the ovens to be full depth and height.

I don’t get it. It looks quite higgledy piggledy.

Where are the doors & windows?

Apologies, lots of errors because I’m fiddling with the b&q website which doesn’t allow me to do everything I want.

Of course everything will be levelled off, ideally cupboards to the ceiling to get rid of the dust collecting above like I have now.

Re the pantry; I actually have (will have) a lot of space. The old kitchen will become mostly a walk through area. I’ve always wanted a pantry/larder. So trying to use the space as much as Poss.

Will try and post a 2D too.

The bifold doors are across the back - near the fridge, on the left hand as you look at the fridge.

2D hopefully

Bifolds are on your RIGHT hand as you look at the fridge I meant!

Where’s the sink OP? Can see you have the hob on the island, what else are you proposing to go in the island?
To be honest I’m struggling a little to understand the plans but agree with Pp it doesn’t look quite right.
Get your builder to book you an appointment at howden’s and you can do all this on their interactive screen, it’s ace! They’ll go through it all with you and print off the final design. We did this last year and seeing it on the screen in howdens was the first time I could properly visualise how our new kitchen would look

What’s the gap between island and wall units? Looks extremely tight.

I'm not quite sure it works tbh. It feels quite bitty and disjointed, you seem to have two separate areas looking at the plans (on the 2d, one at the bottom, and one with the island on the left) but they don't seem to obviously work together to me.

Your main kitchen area (by the island) actually looks lacking in worktop to me. I have a peninsula which is a similar size to the island and I find that the worktop on the far side of it doesn't really work as a cooking surface. So you only really have the bits to the side of the top, and the small area against the left hand wall which I think has your sink on it?

Is the main entrance to the room (from the rest of the house) the door which is on the bottom (on the 2d plan?)

Gap between island and wall units - I forget exactly but it’s big, this is a big extension, the size doesn’t really show.

I have been to howdens twice, and yes their animations are much better but they just send me photos of it and I can’t tweak it as I think of things. So I email them and they change it and send a new photo. Which is all fine and I’m happy with using them, I just like to move stuff around and can only do that with the b&q option.

Can share the howdens photos too. It’s just ive changed stuff since the last email.

Yes, entrance from rest of house is at the bottom on the 2D plan.

The island is large so there is a big space on either side of the hob but take your point about the other side not being usable counter space as such.

Yes, sink is on the left near the fridge.

The disjointed thing is what I’m trying to work around.

I started off with keeping the new kitchen in the old kitchen space and realised I had zero plans for the whole extension (8m wide x 4.5m deep) other than chucking our old table and chairs in there.

Then decided to utilise the new space for the kitchen run on the left hand wall (4.5m long plus a little bit more as you come back into the original house around the pillar). The island is either 900/1000mm our from the run of units, can’t remember. 900 being the advised minimum.

(Utility is all on the other side of the wall - accessed through a side door).

Testing howdens photos

I'm never really sure about hob in the isalnd - if your frying bacon/stir fry etc is stuff going to go go all over the counter and wouldnt want DC sitting that close either....do you need that overhang/chairs if you have the table as well... what will they be used for ...?
I would also not go for a hob top that has the main ring in the middle - because if you are using it the handle of the wok/pan will mean you cant use the rings on either side..
the space between the island and table and the bifolds seems a bit of a waste to me but that maybe cos I'm not good at working out dimensions - could you rotate the table and move closer to the bi-folds so less close to the sofa? possibly bigger table without teh stools/chairs..
I would suggest stools rather than chairs but you've got a table n chairs next too so would probably ditch and go for more storage instead or chalkbord or something I think... we did wall units back to back with base units and its reall handy having some stuff stored table side .....
wheres the heating? and also bins ? and dishwasher make sure you have plenty room to open the door flat and walk round if you can when emptying....

really think about how you plan to use the space - walk through what you actually do of a day to day not how you think you will be in the future!
when you bring the shopping in where will stuff go and is it going to be a faff to unpack ( I love pantries but my friends is at the opposite end of the room and not near the worktop and fridge so you cant just grab stuff you need when cooking!) Kitchens need to be practical first of all ...

Have you considered doing the whole thing the other way round? Again, based on 2d plan for directions...

-sitting area with sofa/chair at the bottom where you enter the room
-door to utility room further up than it is currently
-dining table lengthways on the left hand side of the main rectangle
-kitchen L shaped with a corner pantry unit where the sofa is currently shown, still with an island too (possibly slightly shorter to allow for having units below it rather than just behind. You could have all of your tall units (oven, fridge freezer, full height storage cupboards) along the bottom of the L which would mean that the right hand wall could be base units only, or base units with open shelving

So many questions I thought easier to c&p

I'm never really sure about hob in the isalnd - if your frying bacon/stir fry etc is stuff going to go go all over the counter and wouldnt want DC sitting that close either....

• want hob facing out so when Dh is cooking (he’s the chef here) he doesn’t have his back to us all. Island is 600 x 2 plus 300 overhang, so 1500 wide so quite far from the hob when sitting at the island.

do you need that overhang/chairs if you have the table as well... what will they be used for ...?

People sitting and chatting while someone cooks/ breakfast/chilling out, every kitchen I go to (pre covid) people end up perching at the island.

I would also not go for a hob top that has the main ring in the middle - because if you are using it the handle of the wok/pan will mean you cant use the rings on either side..

Just an example hob, dh actually wants a professional one that has the big one to the side.

the space between the island and table and the bifolds seems a bit of a waste to me but that maybe cos I'm not good at working out dimensions - could you rotate the table and move closer to the bi-folds so less close to the sofa? possibly bigger table without teh stools/chairs..

All just examples really, not sure what table we may end up getting, so sticking with old tatty one for now. Sofa may not end up there, just an idea.

I would suggest stools rather than chairs but you've got a table n chairs next too so would probably ditch and go for more storage instead or chalkbord or something I think... we did wall units back to back with base units and its reall handy having some stuff stored table side ...

Want stools with a back for comfort for people with bad backs. Storage in front of your knees but for stuff you don’t need much like Christmas crap etc.
Chalkboard in front of knees?

wheres the heating?

Under floor plus a vertical radiator on the end wall pier between the old kitchen and tv room.
and also bins ?
In a cupboard next to the sink but also in the utility as have diff types of recycling
and dishwasher - next to sink
make sure you have plenty room to open the door flat and walk round if you can when emptying.... yep good point have measured current set up and it works

really think about how you plan to use the space - walk through what you actually do of a day to day not how you think you will be in the future!
Have done but hard to do in reality as space not built yet

when you bring the shopping in where will stuff go and is it going to be a faff to unpack ( I love pantries but my friends is at the opposite end of the room and not near the worktop and fridge so you cant just grab stuff you need when cooking!) Kitchens need to be practical first of all ...

Agree, shopping either to pantry or utility for freezer, or to island for kids to help put in fridge

Ham the 2D doesn’t show that the bottom right is a tv room that opens into the extension - as not a kitchen element it’s not accounted for in b&q drawings .

So can’t put an L there or I make the tv room part a cave (which it is currently as back boarded up)

Don’t know where random Ham came from!

statisticallychallenged, that’s a good thought though about switching stuff around the way you’ve described. Apart from blocking off the tv room. Will consider it.

My thinking has been that when you walk in the door from the bottom you have pathways you’ll want to walk along.

To the utility/downstairs loo (Poss quickly!)
To the back door/garden
To the kitchen area for cuppa etc

Ah that's a shame - at the moment the flow very much feels like "we have built a big extension and been left with our old kitchen as a corridor". I have a friend with this exact issue, actually a very similar layout.

Exactly that! And have they found a solution?

I mean Wren were great in some ways getting me to think differently and moving the kitchen out into the extension but effectively left the old kitchen (which is fine size btw) completely empty.

Her suggestion was to put a rug and a pot plant in there.
Feels such a waste of a space.

But equally I accept the walkways through the space so sofas etc prob wouldn’t work either. Plus no real need as we have the sofas option in the tv room, plus a front room (aka my space) with sofas - currently housing a fridge, chest freezer, table & chairs and assorted other crap.

They haven't - they basically have two sections of kitchen, which would personally drive me fucking bonkers

How do you want/need to use the space? Do you want to sit in it on a sofa overlooking the garden? Or do you really just want a big kitchen diner and the sofa is just ?

Do you have a study/wfh space?

a rug and a pot plant...what a waste.

We have a separate study for DH to wfh.
I’ll have the front room for my space for whatever.

I’m bringing up the patio to match the floor level of the kitchen (as it’s a sloping site) so I want it to be a space where it flows in and out.
Looking for matching inside/outside tiles so it all really joins together.

Want a space where people sit and chat to the chef/DH. That makes family life work better - although tbh anything will work better than now! But I’m trying not to just accept anything that’s better than the current chaos whilst also not being thoughtful about the future. If that makes sense.

Ignore the sofa in the 2D drawing.

Doesn’t have to have any soft seating there. Really want a long table with loads of chairs as often (pre covid) we have large family gatherings and end up sticking folding chairs around random tables of diff heights etc.

I do have another possible thought (not run this by builders yet)

Of opening up the old fireplace in the tv room to a double sided fireplace which would be seen from the kitchen side. But it’s mostly a walk past area so not sure it’s worth it.

What about making the island a bit different and bigger - an L shaped island could work and would hugely increase your workspace? This is very rough, and I've left the bottom area blank just now but I think I'd probably pop some sort of soft seating there, maybe a small occasional sofa/chaise/couple of chairs.

There's a few L shaped islands on this link - www.impressiveinteriordesign.com/l-shaped-kitchen-island-ideas/