Does a kitchen need an external door?

[AMalTiempoBuenaCara]

I know technically it doesn't, but would it put you off a house if you were looking to buy?

I have a house with a kitchen at the front and living areas at the back. The rooms are all linked (you can walk around in a big circle) and the living/diner has patio doors opening onto the garden in the bit closest to the kitchen.

My kitchen is quite long and thin and needs a refurb. There is an additional back door off the kitchen, but in order to create enough space for a decent table in the kitchen, it has been suggested I block off the kitchen back door and replace with a window. For further context there isn't really room for a dining table in the living/dining area.

What do people think? We use the kitchen door quite a bit to access the garden, but could just as easily use the patio doors I think...

Can you draw a plan?
Where is your actual front door in relation to the back door if the kitchen is at the front?
I think, for a table, it would be worth losing the door if you have the patio door and a front door to use.

if you have a patio door, then that will become the back door. My in laws lived in a very old house where the kitchen was on the ground floor but would have traditionally been in the basement. it had no door to the outside - it was a right pain and I thought it wasn't particularly safe.

We’re going to need a plan.

Do you have a door where coming in with muddy boots etc wouldn't be a problem? The primary reason I want my back door is trekking out to the bike/with wellies to deal with the garden or whatever. I wouldn't want to be trekking that lot into the sitting room.

Id do that.

The only issue could be getting alarm buttons on the front and patio doors so I could come and go through either.

Quick floor plan

@Gladioli23 all floors are cleanable downstairs. I would have to accept a certain amount of mess coming in, but they do that anyway, so a decent sized washable floor mat would be needed.

given that floor plan, I think you can definitely block off the kitchen side door & use the patio doors instead.

We don't need to take bikes through and the patio doors are at the end where the sofas aren't so it would probably feel better than the kids walking straight into the sitting room

Just pretend you've already put a window in where the kitchen door is, and use the patio doors to access the garden. You'll know very soon whether it's workable or not!

After the plan, yes.

We have a front, back & patio door. We only open the back door to put the recycling out as the containers are stored there. Wouldn’t miss not having it at all.

@Knittedfairies good idea, will trial that for the rest of the summer.

@Wimowehwimowehwimowehwimoweh recycling and bins are accessed through the front door to the other side of the house. The kitchen door provides a marginally quicker route to the garage, however that is only for the tumble drier and a tonne of junk so I guess I can get used to that.

Can you put doors between the living room and dining room and then open up kitchen and dining room? Would have a big L shaped kitchen diner then and still keep side door

@Mrsladybirdface I have wondered about that and it would be nice in some ways. However...
Partitioning the living room would possibly make that area very dark.
Also I have a piano in the dining area which means there is not really room for a table. Given the sizes of the rooms the kitchen table will be better placed tucked into a corner with the option to bring it into the room if more people are over.
And finally mainly because there is nowhere else for the piano I would lose 2 radiators taking that wall down and not sure I could handle that!

I will however have another look at my plans and see if there is a way around it!

Thanks for your input!

Reason for having a door out of the kitchen is to escape if there is a fire

• do you cook much/is a pan fire likely at your house (I've had a few over the years)
• if you chose to go ahead, I would get a fire blanket for next to the cooker, & a heat alarm as well as smoke alarms

Obviously no house has it all and you may decide to block off the kitchen door, in which case keep a clear route to patio & front doors

Not all house fires are kitchen fires, but still worth thinking about