Kitchen Doorway to Hall, compromise or not.

[Sonny13]

Hi,

I’m looking to get sone extra thoughts on what you think is the best idea to do with our kitchen doorway.

We are looking at a new Kitchen, however currently our kitchen is limited in size due to having 2 doors (front hall and backdoor), 1 opening to dining room and also a half staircase landing (celling casing) in a main corner. Therefore, useable space right now is only 3 meters long and 2 meters wide.

I have posted an image below with the original floor plan, the current floor plan and alternative ideas.

-- Original floor plan had 3 doors in the hallway. One into living room, One into dining room and One into Kitchen. The living area and dining area were open plan.

-- Current floor plan is modifications made by the last previous owner. Where they blocked off the doorway access between the hall and dining room and made a large 2x2m opening into the kitchen wall which is supported. Plus created glass double doors between the living room and dining room instead of an opening.

So for us, the initial idea was to block off the doorway access to the hall which would allow more full wall space for the things we want such as a tall larder integrated fridge, pull out and oven \ micro full height. Although on the flip side this also means having no direct access to the hall and having to go via other rooms (and to note still not enough space for a breakfast bar).

After consideration, I really don't like the idea of having to go through the living area and dining room to get to the Kitchen and using it as a corridor. So we are now trying to think of alternative solutions that potentially could work, and I guess have narrowed the decision to.

-- 1) Block off the kitchen doorway to hall access, then re-open the hall access into the dining room and reduce the Kitchen / Dining opening to standard door size. However, this would mean having 4 doors in the dining area, which maybe is overkill. (Double doors, Patio Doors, Hall Door and Kitchen Door) To overcome this, another suggestion was to block off the double doors between the living and dining area, but I'm not particularly sold on this idea because both rooms have the same hardwood flooring + decor and the doors allow a lot of light and air-flow when required. The dining room is west facing, which is sunset side and thus generally dark. The living area is East facing, and thus the sun shines early through both the room and the hall. See Image Alt 1

-- 2) Don't block kitchen doorway access to hall and just forget the headache of trying to make the kitchen bigger. Pretty much go back to the original floor plan, by blocking up the large opening between kitchen and dining room and re-opening hall to dining room door (which is false). This provides room more seclusion, and still allows space for integrated fridge and breakfast bar, unfortunately just not full height oven as desired.

do you need the door from kitchen to garden? if you could block that one off, you'd get a good run of worktop with windows etc. And you can still use the double doors from the dining room to access the garden.

I would reinstate the door to the dining room and close up the doors between dining and living unless it's very dark?

It would give you a separate living room and then a kitchen/diner.

I'd close off the door from hall to kitchen and use that space for all the tall units and appliances so you then have a decent l shape for the rest.
And consider whether you need two doors to the back or if you treated it more as one space and designed a kitchen around that with some sort of peninsula.

Well at least it’s not, as I read it, a kitchen doorway to hell

My kitchen was just like this. I knocked through to the diner (and extended but that might not be relevant for you) to give me an L shaped kitchen by blocking the kitchen door. We moved the sink to another location & because it was a single room extending the pipework wasn’t too much of a problem either.

@parietal

do you need the door from kitchen to garden? if you could block that one off, you'd get a good run of worktop with windows etc. And you can still use the double doors from the dining room to access the garden.

Great point and observation. Something I forgot to mention in my original post was that the back door leads to a outbuilding. Currently this wall also contains a window and sink.

@Calmdown14

I would reinstate the door to the dining room and close up the doors between dining and living unless it's very dark?

It would give you a separate living room and then a kitchen/diner.

I'd close off the door from hall to kitchen and use that space for all the tall units and appliances so you then have a decent l shape for the rest.
And consider whether you need two doors to the back or if you treated it more as one space and designed a kitchen around that with some sort of peninsula.

The dining room doesn’t having very much natural light at all. It is pretty dark especially in the winters months (Scotland) and in the mornings / early afternoon until the sun comes round about 3pm onwards in brighter days.

The back door leads to an outbuilding that sits to the left of the patio doors and unfortunately also hinders light.

Although the level of brightness isn’t a deal breaker. The opening to the dining room is roughly 2x2metres and I’ve considered opening the wall right up but due to the financial cost and being a main supported brick wall that’s off the table.

If I did block off the kitchen doorway to account for tall larder units then 600mm depth and clearance for fridge doors etc would reduce the opening to doorway size which is fine. Then reopening hallway access. I’m just not sure how I feel about having 4 doors in the dining room. It could work though. And I guess blocking up the double doors to living room doesn’t need to be down straight away.

Considering we have put down 18mm hardwood flooring all the way through the hall, living room and dining room - it almost always feels like a separation to the kitchen anyway.

Given it is winter (and a rubbish day in my part of Scotland) I would cover the glass in the doors and see how dark it makes the rooms. If they have to stay then you can consider other options.
It just feels everything is a bit corridor like just now and furniture placement must be awkward as well as the kitchen.

Personally I wouldn't like to walk through so many doors so if it has to be a through option I'd probably remove the doors between living and dining and just have the opening and narrow the opening to the kitchen so it can have a door. Maybe pocket door given you are closing a gap?

How big is your dining room? I have a small kitchen diner and then a back sitting area joined by a large opening. I had 60cm in there behind the back door. I went for under counter everything to maximize worktop in kitchen then put the freezer, washing machine and extra fridge in a long run (all integrated) with wooden worktop so it looks like a big sideboard. My plumbing was already there so probably not washer in your case but could you think about some units or a big dresser in dining room to hold baking stuff, lesser used plates and glasses etc so that you have plenty of storage overall?

@Calmdown14 - Yeah it is definitely corridor like. It’s almost like an infinity circle where you can go round and round.

The dining room is roughly 4.5m long x 3.3m wide. It currently holds a large 6 seat table and 2 dressers at the patio side.

The closed up hall door corner went from books to a corner desk due to current climates of having to work from home when necessary. Which is very difficult with a large opening to the kitchens when it’s occupied.

Another thing is our boy is only 2, and has grown to love running back and forth between the three rooms due to its open plan nature. When cooking sure it’s grate to keep connected to others downstairs but also annoying.

Almost compromise everywhere as our current breakfast bar is very heavily used so it’s also a weigh up between what’s practical. More wall space with a breakfast bar or a tall integrated oven with no breakfast bar.

In terms of storage / units. The outbuilding room has some units and worktop for extra storage and the dining room has those dressers for extra plates / glasses / things that aren’t used often etc.

If you have a little one to keep out the kitchen a stable door is nice - but pocket door is such a space saver

If you're planning a new kitchen anyway, what about switching the 2 rooms over, so your kitchen would be where your dining room is now, and the dining part would be where your kitchen is - you'd be able to have cabinets all down the left hand side of the current dining room, plus looks like space for an island / breakfast bar and a dining table in your current kitchen.

If that was do-able budget wide, I'd block off the kitchen door into the hall and re-instate the door into the dining room (which would be the new kitchen).