Kitchen layout input - what shall I do with this f***ing kitchen!

[StatisticallyChallenged]

A couple of years ago, we bough a new house (newbuild) which had already been finished so kitchen was already in. Very much "the sales team chose it" - white gloss, mushroom-y greige worktops, greige floor. Not my style really, but workable. I've done everything I can to try and improve it aesthetically (new floor, changed handles, decorated) but I fundamentally just don't like the layout.

It looks good on the face of it and people come in and say "Oh it's so open", but the reality is it doesn't work for me at all. I've included our ground floor plan and a picture of a kitchen from the same house style (there's an integrated fridge freezer missing from the picture, to the right of the oven). Our house is actually a mirror image of both the floorplan and the picture

Reasons it's doing my head in:

• the fridge freezer is far too bloody small (we've got a garage drinks fridge freezer too, but I can't even get a basic week's shopping for a family in the kitchen one and I don't want to have to keep basics in the garage)
• There's not enough worktop. It looks good in pictures, but most of the workspace is on the far side of the breakfast bar or in the two corners. By the time you have the basic kettle, toaster, couple of dishes drying beside the sink there's nowhere to actually prep food, and I'm a keen baker!
• The sink is also bloody tiny - not big enough to lie an oven tray in.
• I can't actually reach one of the two wall units because it's over the corner. Didn't bother me in an old house when I had lots but when there's only 2 not being able to reach one is kind of annoying.
• There's not very much storage. We've improved it by putting pull out drawers in the tall cupboard but it's still far from great. There's basically a 60cm tall unit, 2x 60cm walls, a 40cm base, 2 spinny corner base units, a 90cm drawer unit (a godsend, holds all the pans and plates) and a 40cm drawer unit. It's not a lot for a decent sized house.
• We don't use the breakfast bar to sit at. Ever. The table is 2ft away and comfier
• Consequently the breakfast bar is my DH's dumping ground. Endless piles of stuff

So, i'm trying to work out how to improve it but the space is actually a bit awkward and has limited scope for redesigning it without structural changes. I think everything I come up with involves a bit of reconfiguration but this is a touchy subject as my DH already thinks I'm cuckoo for wanting to change a new kitchen.

Ideas I've come up with to try and help include:
A) moving the utility room door round the corner (this is definitely DH's preferred option)
B) Getting rid of the utility altogether, and just having the utilities in the garage on the other side of the wall from where they are now.
C) Removing the existing utility and creating a new one on the other side which takes a bit of space from the kitchen and a bit from the garage
D) Switching the table (currently in front of the bifolds) in to the kitchen space and putting the kitchen in the bigger end, which would let me have a run of units along the wall and a big island. Whole family hates this, they all like the table in front of the window.
E) divorcing my husband for insisting we have to maintain a double garage when we've never once put either car in it!

I've added a couple of design ideas I've drawn up which would work with option A - the first one has limited tall units and more worktop, the second has more tall units and a corner larder. I'll add 3d images in another post along with the utility room moving option (option C).

I'd appreciate any ideas anyone has; I've designed our previous kitchens (which were smaller) no problem but the space just seems really awkward. Our last kitchen was a good bit smaller but it felt so much more user friendly and I'm actually missing it.

Just looking at the plan the only way to get some useable space would be replace the patio doors with windows and worktop all along the new wall.

It's a funny layout altogether as you say plenty of space but maybe not laid out right.

More images

1. More worktops (only tall units are a tall fridge, tall freezer and the oven unit)
2. More tall storage (this version has an american fridge but could do separates) including a lovely walk in larder, but less worktop. The wall units either side of the window would actually be open shelving rather than actual units, it was just to show a rough idea.
3. Utility room relocation floor plan
4. Kitchen 3d for 3

I did also draw up a version of 1/2 which has a small peninsula but I'm not so keen on it I don't think, even though it's probably more fashionable.

I would go with option B - take out the utility altogether so you can square off that room, and put into the garage

I'd had that thought, but they're big bifolds (over 3m) so replacing them would be a very big expense. My husband is already having kittens at the thought of moving internal walls, if I start on the outside ones he might keel over 😂

They're also really nice in the summer, kids and dog outside in the garden and me inside with full visibility so I'd like to keep them if possible.

If we were building it from scratch I'd definitley have made them smaller though!

What about having units along the long wall on the left and either a big table or an island with stools in the middle, then put the family/snug area where the kitchen currently is?

Some open shelving would be so nice instead of wall units along that wall.

You could put fridge and pantry storage in the little corner by the utility. Although might look a bit cramped in real life.

I feel like this would be the easiest and probably the cheapest option. The extra width would let us have an island and really open it up.

Concerned about devaluing by removing the utility, although we have no intention of moving and I guess we could add one back in like the relocated version if we ever decided to sell

I think most developers have never actually cooked in a kitchen before when I see shit like this.

I would square off and have an island.

I would relocate the utility room to the garage you’ve got 3 doors in the utility room I can’t imagine it’s much of a practical space. Brick up the door in the utility area that goes to outdoors so you have an unbroken run on units/worktops

I see the dilemma. I don’t think moving the utility into the garage will improve things enough to warrant the cost and hassle: you will still need a door from the garage, and have the side door, you’d be gaining very little useable space.

Honestly, without moving gas and plumbing and the whole kitchen over to the eating area, I don’t know what you could do. It’s just very poorly designed. The bifolds are expensive and I’m entirely the wrong place. The room isn’t long enough for them. Where your kitchen is, is where your dining space should be, table/chairs under the kitchen sink window. Where your diner is, is where you should have your kitchen, maybe with a peninsula parallel to the bifolds to increase worktop space. But then you won’t have enough space between bifold and peninsula to put anything meaningful.

I’ve seen one- and two-bed flats with kitchens that size. Seriously poor planning. I hope you don’t have more than 3 beds. How is that kitchen at that price point supposed to feed more than 4 people, 3 times per day??

I think your only solution is to move 😂 Sorry, not very helpful!

A cheaper solution could be moving the utility room door to the other side so you could have a run of cabinets along that wall where you walk in from the kitchen currently.

It depends how big a project you want.

Looking at the floor plan again could you move the washer and dryer to the Cloakroom? That looks quite large on the floor plan and then get rid of the utility altogether.

I drew something very like that out actually as I'd seen a few nice inspiration pics with that sort of layout. I ran in to a few issues:

• the corner isn't quite big enough to work (although I might try it again on just one side of it)
• my whole family seems to hate sitting on stools, and my MIL couldn't get on one now - we host Xmas in this room as we use the separate dining room as a playroom.
• If I wanted to add enough extra space it would need to be a big functioning island with the hob or sink in it I think, so we'd still want a separate table.

It's on my options list though as some of the neighbours have big islands in front of their bifolds (different house styles, but we've all got the giant doors!) and they look nice

No, it's bloody shite actually. The option I came up with for moving it is about 1/3 smaller in sqft terms but much more usable. 3 doors in 5sqm is stupid isn't it!

Possibly - hadn't thought of that and I should have because I put in a lootility in our old house!

It does host the cat litter at the moment, but it could work. Thanks

It's a 5 bed, 220 sqm house...

Yup, I know. It's a big room, but the kitchen part is mince. It looks fine when it's empty as you see the big expanse of worktop at the breakfast bar, but once it's in use it's not adequate.

Moving the utility in to the garage actually make a big difference when I've planned it out. You can put tall units where the utility units are currently (which would take oven, tall fridge, tall freezer or similar), leave the back door where it is. But that extra width means you can add an island (the space in front of the utility units becomes the space you need for moving around the island.) I'm going to do a better plan of it...

Here is a quick version with utility moved. You get a big peninsula and I moved the utility door too.

S - sink
H - hob
F - fridge & freezer

I think you need to loose the utility room either to the garage or perhaps consider a utility cupboard. We struggled to reconfigure our kitchen this time last year and every which way, the utility room robbed so much usable space from where we'd spend 99% of the time. In the end we opted for a utility cupboard and it's worked really well for us, both as a space saving way to hide the utilities bit also as a sort of pantry and spot for coffee machine, toaster etc.

Sorry, I'm not much help with the layout but a simple solution to the fridge/freezer issue would be to replace the existing fridge/freezer with a full height larder fridge and put a separate freezer in the garage.

If you were to lose the chairs at the breakfast bar could matching cupboards be fitted to the other side of the units to give you some additional storage for things you don't use as often?

Could you steal part of the garage, so it's a one and a half- enough space to fit one car plus storage but not a full double garage - might just about keep DH happy? Move the utility to that space and move the external door, then incorporate the utility to the kitchen giving you the big kitchen with island you need.

Horrible drawing but hopefully shows the idea

OK, here's a very rough adios utility version - wherever it ends up going! This is far from exact, just a shape really. But it really opens up the kitchen

Why isn't your si k under the window properly. Your kinda stuck ina corner when washing up which isn't great really

This is what I've been suggesting. He's really reluctant to lose it being a double garage - ironic, as it the moment it house a home gym on one side and piles of crap on the other. Number of times car tyres have entered = zero

It's why I came up with the idea on my second post of the half and half where the new smaller utility comes from both kitchen and garage. That option left the short side of the garage just big enough to still fit our second car (it's a mini!)

He's really worried that losing either the double garage or the utility will hurt the house value. I think the undersized kitchen is worse than either of those options.

Well how long are you planning to stay, if its a very long time then make the house ehow u need to live. Most new owners come in and rip everything out and make it their way anway

It's under the window in reality at the moment although not centred - the current layout on that side as a 90cm l shaped corned, 60cm sink unit, 60cm dishwasher, 90cm l shaped corner. There's about 90cm between the corner and the edge of the window, so the edge of the sink unit lines up with left hand side of the window. I think they couldn't really centre it with the room layout they went for - should maybe have made them think...

That corner ends up being full of dishes waiting to be washed. It's very annoying.

I will centre it when I plan it out properly - these plans are super rough just to get a feel for what layout and general room shape might work.