How would you change the layout (with pics)?

[december2020]

First one is from our neighbours - same house, same layout but they've built a conservatory.

Ours has a external wall on the top of the kitchen (badly drawn blue line), no conservatory and goes straight to the garden.

The kitchen hob is on the left and the island is a countertop. It's fully open plan.

The thing I'm trying to fix is that the garage and all parking spots are after the garden (so basically the back door becomes a main entrance). Which means our dining room is now a makeshift cloakroom with shoes and coats piling and also the entrance just sucks in all the dirt and muck from outside as there is no "barrier".

I'm contemplating whether it's worth changing the layout somehow, extending a small bit just for a cloakroom/mud room or extend it all and somehow have still have a cloak room and extra space that doesn't become dead space? Potentially so you could make an indoor/outdoor dining area if you open up some bifolds?

What would you do?

Do you have side access down the right hand side as we look at the pictures?

Apologies! Key detail missed there! We live in a terraced house so only way to extend is to the garden. There is a front door on the opposite 'front end' of the house as well.

Garden isn't huge but some neighbours have built conservatories and still have some garden space left.

And our kitchen wraps around the blue wall (where the sink currently is and dishwasher)- the counter island isn't standing alone, it's connected to the rest of the kitchen.

The window/door positions on the rear wall make it tricky because if would be hard to build any sort of rear porch or hallway without affecting light into the kitchen/diner.

Are they both doors or is the opening in the kitchen a window for you?

Are you up for building a conservatory type extension or worried that would take out too much garden (costs aside!).

A narrower glass roofed porch across the width is an option. Hopefully someone with a better imagination than me will be along soon! Most of the things I can think of would compromise light or access. Best idea would be something in which the door opening lines up with the door opening of your dining room so in good weather you have both open and flow freely out. Shoes etc are stored to the LHS under the kitchen window and coats hung at the far left. Glass wall and roof to reduce light loss.