Kitchen layout ideas - anyone fancy a REAL challenge?

[crazyhouserevamp]

Do we need an architect/a kitchen designer/a good builder or a psychiatrist? I have no idea what to say to kitchen designers. I am not sure they will believe me how bonkers the room is.

We're not in a massive rush. Lived with it for 17 years already but it is really starting to grate on me know and not looking forward to another cold winter in there

No idea why we bought it but here we are 17 years later with good schools and transport links and all the amenities we could ask for but a truly nightmare kitchen. Moving isn't a realistic option. Over the 17 years we have sorted the rest of the house but the idea of doing the kitchen and getting it wrong and wasting loads of money terrrifies me. As well as all the disruption.

This will read like an exam for design students. But I promise it is real. Our house is an old end terrace (no foundations as such) with a 100% north facing kitchen.

We've done a few things.
At some stage (before us) the owners put on a small extension across the back of the house. They knocked out the back wall. Leaving a very dark original sitting room more or less enclosed. The extension can't be any larger due to a mains drain running across the back of the house. The kitchen is now about 40metres square but as with old houses nothing is square. The picture attached shows that the room tapers towards the back of the house.

We have since knocked the original wall between the original kitchen and sitting room to open all 3 sections up properly. As a result we lost most of our heat sources. So we put in a log burner in the chimney breast (probably a mistake). In winter the kitchen is freezing unless it is lit. We levelled up the floors and put down cheap vinyl as a temporary measure.

We've booked a few kitchen design appointments for the next few weeks. I'm hoping they will suggest things but I think they will want me to have some ideas.

The little utility room needs to stay but I want to get the washing machine/tumble dryer and boiler out of there to put in a shower. There is no room upstairs for one. I don't mind them being noisy in the kitchen

We need heat - I am willing to take out the log burner. But I don't really fancy a range cooker in that space and I have a feeling that will be suggested.

We don't want to lose any light. We would like to put Veluxes in the extension (single storey) but there is a beam across the back which will steal some of the light we gain from them.

I think we need to keep the 2 doors into the space or else the hall will look weird.

We realise we need some building work done before we get the kitchen installed but I need to know where the kitchen will be going so that I can book a builder.

When I met the kitchen designer, I knew exactly what I wanted. She was like "most people never know what they want and I have to start from scratch, that's why we have 2 hour appts."

If I say please tell me what to do? Will they just go with it and suggest. We're willing to spend quite a lot but it needs building work too.

The doors are an easy problem to solve. Pick one and nail up the other so that it looks like a door from the hall but a wall from the room. Then at least you've got one less problem. Would vertical radiators solve some of your heating issues? Then you only need a small bit of wall (like the back of a fake door)

Would underfloor heating, and properly insulating the extension, help with the temperature?

I'd take your list of wants and issues from your first post, and give them to the kitchen designer. See what comes back.

Please do check about the extension and water, it is possible to move things! It would be a shame to compromise an extension, it may mean digging up some extra garden to move the drain but it might be worth it

We did think maybe but the lack of foundations is a it of a worry, I guy came out years ago to look at it and said he would have to dig down quite a bit to fit it. So we have sort of given up on that idea

I don't understand why you need either door from the hall? Surely you can just remove them and put a door in here (in red)?

We have the extension. It can't be made any bigger but yes I think we would be moving water and sink etc. In my head I can only see that the kitchen needs to move into the original sitting room - near the fireplace so water would need to move

I would like to do that but

everyone else is saying it would ruin the look of the hallyway - traditional parquet etc.
It would be a big structural job - need to put in a beam etc. We have had it priced up but everyone I speak to says don't do it.

The doors from the hall are bonkers. I would shorten the hall so that you have a single door into the space in line with the back wall of front living room. Move door to that room direct from the hall. Do you really have to open 2 doors to get into that front room from the hall?

Modern narrow vertical radiators can throw out a lot of heat

it is always closed now in any case so that might work - hadn't though it. we'd have to keep the kitchen one I think as it throws light down the hall from south facing front of house.

I agree they are bonkers but I keep being told it doesn't make sense to do the structural work involved in closing one up and also that it will ruin the look of the hall.

Instead of thinking "how can I change this?" try thinking "how should have this space been designed from scratch for 21st century living?"

I'd love to but don't know how. I lack the vision I am paralysed by it to be honest. for 21st century it should have foundations for a start

We have the same problem and are going to use a kitchen designer.

We are actually both designers (landscape) and have worked in architecture practices, and dabbled in quite a bit of layout and interiors. But my god kitchens! I think kitchens are the hardest design job of all. It’s really an art.

I think we will use Devol to design.

"Do you really have to open 2 doors to get into that front room from the hall?"

No there are just two entry points - you can come in via the original sitting room or the original kitchen doors. Tbf we keep the sitting room one closed all the time

Sounds like there are all sorts of ideas and issues. You might be better off getting an architect in, they’ll know about doors, beams, heating and general house flow, and of course building regs. (You can’t just take doors out due to loading and fire regulations)
But before that, look at magazines and Pinterest etc… work out what you’d ideally like. Present that and then work out where you might need to compromise. Just taking/ blocking doors off is bitty and likely to end up with more problems.
with regards to choosing/ deciding on stuff, the best bit of advice I was ever given from an architect was“ if you’re not willing to part with money for it, don’t cut it out and show it to me!”

Ask yourself what the light bright extension to be used for - the working kitchen, or sitting/dining table.

Is the original plumbing in situ from the old kitchen, to move the sink back to that wall, if you want the kitchen in the dark area?

Consider using one of the doors to access a utility cupboard (stack washer and dryer) from the hall.

Looking again, how about moving the loo and utility to the 'original' kitchen space, maybe incorporate a pantry so less kitchen cabinets are needed.

That will open up the extension in line with the outside wall.

A layout idea. Not sure if it would work with water etc and not sure of dimensions/proportions but it's an idea of how to divide the spaces.

Red is a run of kitchen units with hob and oven integrated somewhere.

Blue is a breakfast bar with the sink integrated.

Yellow is a dining area.

Green is a sitting area by the fireplace/woodburner.

this is exactly without the blue breakfast bar. Wat we have already but its freezing and cupboard are falling apart. The reason I've not considered the blue bar is that it would run across the patio doors

We have a window on that side (original kitchen) and moving the toilet there would mean putting up a wall and losing that light

We've considered building wall along the from fireplace to original sitting room door to create a long narrow room with a toilet and utility in there somehow but ventiialtion would be impossible wouldn't it? If that is possible then we'd take the utility out of the extension.

i am really grateful to everyone for ideas. We've spent 17 years pondering this and we are stuck - lots of ideas were dismissed as impossible or insanely expensive for what we would gain by relatives/builders so we are totally lost

You need professional help