Kitchen or dining table advice in extension

[AJacobs81]

Hi
i am totally stuck with what to do with our new extension either put new kitchen there as so we can fit an island and move dining table into existing kitchen with no window and entrance or put large dining table there and keep the kitchen where it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated

I would not want a dark dining area with no windows, but a dark kitchen is not so bad, and an island is not essential.

have you considered moving the door to the kitchen to go directly from the living room? it could be a pocket door (marked P). If you did that, then kitchen would not be a corridor and you could make better use of the space. The worksurface could fill the area marked in blue (as well as the opposite side). Critically, I'd have worksurfaces that are a little deeper than usual. A typical worksurface is 60cm, but if you have one side of the kitchen with 70 or 80cm of worksurface, then you gain a surprising amount of useful space. For example, you can have the kettle & toaster & mixer at the back of the worksurface and still have prep space in front of them. And you can have a draining board behind the sink instead of beside it.

also, consider a door with glass between kitchen & utility (could be frosted glass) so as to get natural light into the kitchen.

@parietal has totally nailed it.
The frosted glazed door is inspired

I agree with pp - put kitchen in the narrow bit but ideally rethink the layout to avoid making it a corridor (I'd perhaps steal a bit of the snug to extend the corridor). I'd also rethink how your utility door opens.

Love parietal's idea.

many Thanks for your ideas ideally we wanted to separate the living room from the kitchen. We could put a window in the side of the the proposed dining area although you would just be looking at a garage.
parietel this is actually virtually how our layout is at the moment it’s making me consider just leaving it at it is.

Do you not think this could work

Personally I'd take out the wall to the snug, assuming you can use a beam to do this or its a stud wall. Then you keep separate living room but have a large kitchen diner. Woukd be amazing.

You must like dinning.

you could have a useful office space, kitchen and dinning room - with a sofa over looking the garden.

Off topic, but what does the word "snug" mean to people? It seems to be used more and more, and to me means a smaller separate sitting room in a house with otherwise open plan living accommodation, or at least a smaller second living room in a property with another, larger/more formal reception room.

In this case though, it's used for the largest reception room, adjoining if not open plan to the kitchen/dining room and with garden access. Doesn't feel quite right to me, but maybe I'm misunderstood the terminology....

I was thinking the same. We're currently in the process of planning an extension and have created a snug - it's a much smaller living area which will operate as a study during the day, and a back-up living room area at weekends/evenings. DS gets a bit overwhelmed with noise so I wanted a second living room area where we could go for some peace and quiet without him having to retreat to his (small) bedroom. Our snug will be 11ft x 9ft (roughly) so with a desk at one end, it should be just about right.

In this version you have a narrow dark dining room which also acts as a corridor to the kitchen. I wouldn't like it.

If the dining wall looks onto the garage, you could put high frosted windows in to get natural light but no view.

Does your current layout work for you? Think carefully about what you like and dislike about the space. How do people move through the space? Are there bits that are cramped and inconvenient or bits that feel under-used?

Yeah good idea if we did put a frosted window like this. Do you think this layout would then work.
we would really like a kitchen dining area, which is separate from the snug and living room. Extension is going on the end of existing kitchen. The existing kitchen is too small and narrow to put an island in which we would ideally use as another seating area. So that why was thinking of moving kitchen into new extension area. I know it’s not ideal as the entrance is going to be a corridor either through kitchen or dining room.

Could you move the utility room so that it goes into that awkward (wasted) corner of the snug? Then you'd get light into the dining room from the front? Snug door may need to be angled from hall.
Or even just have a large separate cupboard here accessed from kitchen side?
It seems a shame to make a long dark room when there's a window.

Sorry, I missed your existing layout. I personally think what you have already works better.

But if you want bigger dining kitchen is there any scope to just flip the living room and kitchen?
That back left space is a better shape for an island and dining table. You could have a sitting room where the kitchen is and a snug in the existing dining room at front. And I'd put the window in side even if frosted.
It leaves utility in a bit of an odd place but I'd combine it with the downstairs loo so access is off hall. Better if you have pets and no dragging dirty washing through kitchen. Also stops that bit being a corridor

So S is snug. The red is kitchen and island. Blue is dining. Green sofa area.

Big lootility and boot room all in one at front

Snug would have door from hall but forgot to mark it!

Could you move the WC and utility into the existing dining room and then make a better kitchen/diner which has windows to the front and back, keeping the back living room separate as it already is?