Am I the only one…

[mosiacmaker]

…Tired of kitchens taking up all the best space in extensions to gardens in terraced properties?

As someone looking to move from an apartment to a house I am so excited for a garden and don’t understand why more properties don’t have the lounge by the doors to garden and the kitchen in the middle?

I would much rather sit on couch with a wine in evening sun/coffee in morning sun/hang with guests in the summer in the lounge by the garden than have everyone perched around the kitchen?

Surely right by the garden doors is the best spot in the house and should be reserved for a living room? While we are only in the kitchen when cooking and not particularly enjoying the view.

Am I missing something? It seems to be very hard to find an extended home that hasn’t put kitchen in pride of place! But with the price of work right now I really don’t want to buy something that needs an extension.

I don’t mean to rile up anyone who has done this to their property, there are lots of beautiful examples of this and it’s clearly very popular.

I’m not British so maybe it’s a British thing to not want to lounge about near the garden?

[Smidge001]

I'm with you OP. My parents have their kitchen at the front of the house, and their lounge at the back with patio doors. But I agree, most terraces are the other way around. I think back in the old days the 'front room' was kept jist for posh visitors and people would use the back door and live in the kitchen/back room. And people doing extensions don't want the extra cost of moving the plumbing.

[CupEmpty]

I look for access to the garden from the kitchen, it’s one of the most important things in my search criteria. Just makes sense to me, and needed for outdoor entertaining. When you have bbqs etc I don’t want to trek food through the living room.

[junebirthdaygirl]

A lot of kitchen extensions have a seating area with a couch , some chairs etc so perfect for sitting by the open doors or popping in and out to the kitchen for food to serve outside. We have this and our lounge is more of a winter room for cosying up in.
Think it suits kids too as they can run in and out to the garden while dinner is being cooked. But everyone has different habits so pick what suits you.

[KievLoverTwo]

I say this to my OH all the time. I just want some bloody privacy in my lounge and a view of the garden.

But, as someone said, lounges were for receiving visitors, and someone else said you want your kitchen near your BBQ. In other practical terms, you really want a secure back door off your kitchen to keep the heat down in the three days of summer we have per year. It's also pretty practical for kids and animals running in and out with easily washable flooring.

My idea setup would have kitchen and lounge backing onto a garden with a dining room at the front.

[Sunandstars123]

That's exactly my thoughts. We ha lounge in the extension with small dining table.

[DucksNewburyport]

Do you have kids OP? I think of it as a child friendly setup - so you can be getting on with the cooking or washing up while keeping an eye on the kids playing in the garden.

[Peacepudding]

It's far more practical to have the back door off the kitchen than it is a living room. You can open the door when cooking and it's easier for putting the rubbish out/hanging out washing

[FourFoxSake]

I once lived in house with a huge, triple aspect lounge with double doors leading onto the south facing garden.

Sitting there, in the evening, with the doors wide open and the garden singing to me was sheer bliss. Like being on holiday all summer long.

And in the winter, just seeing all the snow through the doors made Christmas feel very snug and cosy.

I miss that more than anything and my current house (double doors from the kitchen diner) doesn't compare.

[Goodoccasionallypoor]

I agree, but we recently had an architect round who was adamant that people want their kitchens in the best spot in the house,

[MrsCarson]

I am British and it makes no sense to me either. After many year abroad it makes sense to have the living room on the back with doors out.
I have noticed a lot of newer homes do have this set up, with a kitchen diner on the front.

[hopefulsquirrel]

We’re buying a house with the living room at the back and it’s a compromise for us. I don’t like people coming straight in from the garden to the living room and it means we’ll probably change the carpet to something better for a high traffic area.

I ideally wanted a south or west facing garden and the living room at the front so we can watch TV in the evening without glare from the sun making it hard to see the screen or bleaching my furniture!

However you’ve made me feel better about the layout in the house we are buying

[mosiacmaker]

@FourFoxSake

I once lived in house with a huge, triple aspect lounge with double doors leading onto the south facing garden.

Sitting there, in the evening, with the doors wide open and the garden singing to me was sheer bliss. Like being on holiday all summer long.

And in the winter, just seeing all the snow through the doors made Christmas feel very snug and cosy.

I miss that more than anything and my current house (double doors from the kitchen diner) doesn't compare.

That’s my dream! I guess my fear from living in a very open plan apartment is that if we move to terrace with kitchen in extension and lounge out the back, the lounge would feel very “dead” with the heart of the home being garden and kitchen. I hear what PP’s are saying about keeping an eye on kids though. My ideal would be open plan kitchen lounge with kitchen island that faces out to garden - but a living space taking up prime space beside doors to garden. Then maybe a tv room lounge out the back by the windows to street.

[mosiacmaker]

@hopefulsquirrel

We’re buying a house with the living room at the back and it’s a compromise for us. I don’t like people coming straight in from the garden to the living room and it means we’ll probably change the carpet to something better for a high traffic area.

I ideally wanted a south or west facing garden and the living room at the front so we can watch TV in the evening without glare from the sun making it hard to see the screen or bleaching my furniture!

However you’ve made me feel better about the layout in the house we are buying

Yes with a cleanable floor that sounds perfect. I feel like it might get trendy soon as well.

[LucyG198022]

I’m with you OP. Our lounge leads to our garden. It was the other way round when we moved in with the dining room leading to the garden but we switched it around.

[BungalowBuyer]

The property we're buying has a kitchen door into the garden and patio doors from the lounge/diner into the garden. I can't see us using the patio door a great deal, mostly because I don't want humans and animals trudging dirt from the garden into the lounge carpet.

[LibertyLily]

We've owned some very quirky houses and haven't lived in a typical terraced house (which had three reception rooms with living room at front and kitchen at the back) for a long time, but I'm with you @mosiacmaker.

For example, our current (fairly small detached cottage) property has an odd footprint whereby none of the main downstairs rooms open onto the gardens which surround it.

So, it's kind of L-shaped with an extension (built by previous owners) forming the 'foot' of the L. This faces onto the front garden, but being rural it's very private. When we bought the house this room was used as a bar(!!) and it was accessed via the kitchen (the back room).

The front door opened into a small lobby with the stairs and door to the front reception room, behind which was a very narrow dining room.

Because there's no hallway to speak of, you couldn't bypass the living room and dining room to get to the kitchen. So if you came in loaded with shopping, you had to traipse through the lobby, then the two reception rooms before ending up at the kitchen. Very inconvenient imho.

The front reception room didn't have a nice garden view...considering the property has a 0.5 acre garden and it was important for us - having moved from a nicer house with garden views from every room - to achieve this.

So, for us it was a no-brainer to move the kitchen to the front (having first removed the walls between living and dining rooms) and put the living room in the old kitchen which we opened up into the 'bar' room, enlarging the windows so we have a great garden view. However, because it faces the front, we decided not to put French doors/bifolds in.

Between kitchen and living room there's an inner hall (with downstairs toilet off it) that has a door to the 'back' garden and an enclosed patio area.

Also, as the garden wraps around the house we have our BBQ and outdoor dining furniture fairly close to the front entrance (and therefore the kitchen) which means that we don't have to take food far when cooking/eating outside.

It works well for us, but as I said it's a fairly quirky set up and I don't imagine a family with young DC would ever buy it!

[Heronwatcher]

Thing is, a well designed kitchen extension usually has a seating area next to that part of the room anyway, so to me you get the best of both worlds. I used to have a terrace with a formal sitting room at the front which was lovely and cosy, great for movie nights and piano playing. Then we had a side return kitchen extension with the units at the house end, table in the middle, sofa and coffee table looking into the garden. It was really lovely!

[Calmdown14]

Yes! I moved into a terrace with a fantastic garden you could only see by standing on your tip topes at the kitchen sink (it also had an awful utility corridor blocking off the back door).

I put the kitchen back in the middle and lowered the window. I have a chaise corner sofa under it and live sitting there in the evening sunshine. Put in a big skylight too. Best thing we did

[Starseeking]

You're not the only one OP.

I'm about to do an extension. I will retain my a separate front living room, and planning to convert my current dining room into the kitchen and extend backwards into the garden with a cosy seating area. Kitchen will have cooker on a right angle wall and island with sink facing out towards the cosy lounge, so there's still connection with people in both areas. I have enough space that my utility and shower room will be on the opposite wall side of the cosy lounge, as well as a dining table, with part of the shower room housed under the stairs.

I really don't want my kitchen leading into the garden, not sure why so many people do!

[redpickle]

I like the idea of living room onto garden but a friend of mine has this and often complains about the grass and mess that gets traipsed through floors and pollen/fluffy seed thingys end up all over her sofas. Not so bad in a kitchen as on soft furnishings as it's easier to clean.