Help me design a kitchen please I'm just staring at it!

[Minster2012]

Hi! Planning a renovation & planning permission in. As part of it we are opening out a very large area into a kitchen/diner/lounge area as this is where the daytime sun & the best gardens are. We are removing a lobby area which makes the current front door redundant.

Replacing the lobby with windows does mean that we are ending up with very little wall space for wall cupboards or big banks of full height larder cupboards, which is my ideal.

Picture with the bay window at the back is current layout, 2nd picture new layout, 3rd picture of aga we are keeping & I like the open shelf

Ignore the kitchen layout on the plan, ideally we don't want that bank of units coming out into the shaped room (as a split), but we do like the idea of the "window through breakfast bar" area which gives sight into other room (to watch kids if in there)

I'm struggling to come up with a kitchen plan that retains counter space, has enough cupboard space & keeps the appliances we need which are:

• large 4 door aga in the space where hob is noted on the plan, this has to stay there but it will be switched off in summer so we also need
• 4 ring induction hob
• a large single oven
• 60cm fridge we don't need bigger
• double sink or 1.5 sink
• dishwasher
• area for crockery (emma Bridgewater I used to have displayed on a plate rack)
• open shelf over aga as currently but might be able to put spice/oil cupboards down the side if those chimney walls aren't structural

Anyone have any ideas please? I just keep staring at it with total baby brain
Thanks!

Presumably you can put full height either side of the Aga?

Could you keep the door into the dining area but make it a nice French door/crittal style so you have an entrance to the kitchen directly from outside only for shopping?? Then close up the other entrance to the kitchen to have high cupboards either side of the aga or a bank of high cupboards to the right of the aga. Then your usual way into the kitchen dining area would be though the garden room.

Oh and you could have a peninsula where it currently is on the new plan then, just maybe half the length to 'separate' the entrance a bit.

Like this

@CasperGutman yeah definitely lots of Ian drawers I think

@Calmdown14 I'm struggling to imagine that (I'm a visual person) do you mean scrap the breakfast bar & make that a wall? (Which we are reluctant to do) but keen to see what you mean?

@Daisydoesnt that's a possibility I guess thank you

@froomeonthebroom we did think about that yes, and might need to revisit it, it's just that then doesn't work very well with having the extra room at the back (it says snug but it would be playroom) so unsure how to change that, also where to put the door in from the hall? There's only 2 doors into the rooms (one in living bit & one in kitchen) then bi fold doors & a door out to a different room so which door do you think could be gotten rid of?

@minipie I'm not sure we can as there are these big chimney pillars each side (I don't know if they need to be retained) and one side goes directly into a corner (see pic) so couldn't have a full height there

@givememarmite I currently hate having a door from the outside into the lobby as it means we never use the front door which is where there is space for coats /shoes & a "dirty area" so I'm def wanting to get rid of that door 😬the second picture looks ok with the penninsula but that then means an island isn't feasible

Oh gosh yes I see. Hmm in that case there is really no full height at all is there. So where would your fridge go? You definitely don’t want an under counter fridge. And tbh with two older kids you may well want more than a 60cm fridge. You do need some full height if only for a fridge…!

Hmmm I would think seriously about putting the kitchen in the “garden room” area. So swap the proposed sitting and kitchen areas.
Could you swap the Aga and the proposed stove? I know nothing about agas, are they a nightmare to move?

Or keep kitchen where planned, block the doorway to allow some full height to the right of the aga, and accept a longer walk to the kitchen…

@minipie I'm only learning on the Aga too but love it so want to keep it! It's not a nightmare but about £1000 to move & this kind either has be cited in a chimney or on an outside wall (of which only the front wall is) so could only go where it is, under the window at the front or maybe in the stove bit in the garden room?

Like this. So tall units marked in blue and a really large island with seating, dishwasher etc in it.
Even better if you could get the hall cupboard to open into kitchen (although it looks like the structure may be more complicated that it appears)

@minipie I don't even know where the fridge goes that's an issue 😬

@Calmdown14 that's def food for thought, thank you. I'm still cautious of "fully open" (and we can't afford all the steel needed to do that but could retain a pillar) like that and a longer walk into the kitchen but we need to sacrifice something yes 😩

I'd take Calmdown's idea but turn the island the other way, and turn the dining table around.

[quote Daisydoesnt]Another voice saying you need some wall units! One idea that I really liked was on Artichoke's website (a local kitchen co I've been stalking). They've used a glazed cabinet to divide a sitting room from the kitchen, so in effect the rooms are open plan but separated. The glazed unit provides useful storage and structure to the kitchen but the two rooms are still connected (take a look at the photos... it's hard to describe!)

www.artichoke-ltd.com/projects/georgian-family-kitchen/[/quote]
My dream....

I think Calmdown and Pragmatic are on to it.

Keeping in mind that they will not be babies for ever could you (for now) put your dining table in the log burner end of the room and have the sitting area in the garden area? When they are older you will swop around without too much difficulty.

It is surprisingly complicated!

@PragmaticWench so is the door the red bit?

@CanIPleaseHaveOne it is very complicated and my mind is boggling!! I guess we could have the table in the other bit

When I said you have loads of doors I think I was looking at the 2 into the shower room as well as the 3 off the main room. I like the double door suggestions.

I would maybe rethink the boot room, laundry etc layout. Do you really need a snug and downstairs shower?

Sorry, just rereading your op, do you mean the front door is going completely?

@froomeonthebroom no sorry maybe I'm not explaining well. at the minute the front door isn't used because you have to do this awful loop to get to the kitchen (see pic) so that's why the ppl before put a lobby in to get direct access to the kitchen from outside (they obviously realised their mistake). We want to use the front door and porch as it should be so we are taking the weird shaped room/door off the kitchen & replacing with windows.

The snug is only called that by the architect, it would be a kids playroom at the minute. We need a downstairs shower room & next to the snug room as we have a fluffy dog, a stream at the bottom of the garden & a DH who often comes in cold & covered in mud (we had a dog shower built in our last house in the utility room & it was used almost weekly). We also want a shower room downstairs near a room that could become a bedroom if needed in the future if I get ill...I have had malignant melanoma for over 10 years & it got to stage 4 in 2014. I'm very lucky in that I've had radical new immunotherapy for 5 years & it reduced my tumours to now in full remission, but we always said for our ideal long term home we would have the ability to have a bedroom & wetroom downstairs just in case I get ill again. Also useful for parents getting older for staying. So yes and no. It would be a playroom now but that's why we are also trying to make it future proof too

@froomeonthebroom I have thought however today that the door from the snug to the shower room could be done later if needed & so maybe not have that one for now.

I didn't attach the pic 😩this is the loop you currently have to do if using the front door