Rate my floorplan

[Freshair1]

Mulling over plans. Hoping to get the downstairs sorted at some point. Attached is plan. The hob is in a stupid place, I know. But I'm not sure on kitchen configuration.

from my inherited lovely looking kitchen that’s not all that practical - make sure you’ve got lots of surface space by your hob for prepped food and dishing out things. Assuming you are adding a dishwasher, you don’t need to hold on to the old idea that a sink must be located beneath a window (based round the idea the lady of the house would spend lots of time washing up and this way could have a nice view), I’d put sink and hob either side of the U kitchen.

ideally I’d have a row of cupboards, but it looks like you are adding bi fold doors to the corners, so the U shape kitchen with the table next to the U with the top bit being a sitting area would work. Where you have the hob now, add a toaster, coffee machine, kettle station. Avoid them being out on display and viewable from the dining table /sitting area.

for the side of the U away from a wall, there’s a temptation to put a long breakfast bar, but I’d take the leg space for double width cupboards and just have a single (or double if you have the space) bar stool at the end - as the table is right there, you won’t all use the breakfast bar to eat and they just take away cupboard space.

add more plug sockets than you think you will need.

This is what I'd do.

I like this one. But change the pantry internal door to a pocket door.

Have the lounge at the front.
Move kitchen to where you've got the sofas in the large room at the back and have dining area at the back of the house facing the garden

If it was me this is what I'd do....

I think that bit in the middle is always going to be a bit of a corridor so you could add some coat/storage cupboards to maximise the use of the space like a mini boot room but I couldn't write that on easily!

How is your plumbing?

I wouldn't put utility at the front

I would put a study area at the front then shower room & toilet in the middle then utility room to have a back door to the garden

I would make your front room bigger with opening doors or solid wall to the other room depending on the light and sound

Which way does the house face?

Hopefully EAST & WEST if north and south then really think about the amount of light in north facing rooms

I also don't like the idea of a sitting room with kitchen in

Ok put a settee in the kitchen but not the largest sitting room

How will you stop it being like a church hall so how will the sound be softened not echoed

Where that hob is could be dangerous- people coming in and out of the door potentially not seeing/ bumping into each other/ against the hob, and if you get an overspill etc nowhere to quickly put a hot pot or pan.

Whatever you do, don't put that hob there. It will absolutely wreck your head every single day.

Absolutely agree. The surveyor/drawings guy was doing a mock up. He wasn't actively focusing on kitchen. More or less overall ground floor space.
Light falls to the front of the house as the day passes.
We want a downstairs shower room as we are a 4 bed detached so we have one bathroom upstairs and want a second downstairs.

We want the erroneously named dining room to be a separate snug.

The whole pantry/utility has been helpful in getting feedback for.

Think having a kitchen in the middle of the plan would be too dark but it's an interesting though.

Could the current pantry become and outside loo and have access elsewhere?

Then have a long straight run of workspace past the then the closed off door? We have a shallow cupboard where the wall support is and it works fine.

Then other side of the room of where the dining table will be have some more base units to use as a sideboard and store the weird shit.

Kitchen in the middle section for sure. Makes it the heart of the home. Current pantry should be a boot room.

The middle of the floorplan where sofas are pictured gets little proper light. Hence not sure re kitchen in that location.

You'll have the brightest lights in the kitchen anyway so won't necessarily matter- spotlights/island lighting and extractor lighting

We have a U shaped kitchen with the table in the other side and have units back to back one side is wall unit depth so you get a deeper counter and storage in the dining side. If you keep it single depth you could have the corner cupboard opening into the dining room side and put on fake door handles so it looks nice.

Things like moving the plumbing and knocking down extra walls all costs more money. Are you on a tight budget?

The utility at the front of the house - I think that would be better as coat and shoe storage?

The lack of light is why you should have the kitchen on the back wall as you can have under cupboard lights then natural light in the living space.

The hob should definitely be in a location where you've ample set-down space either side.

Also, speaking from experience the utility needs to be as close to the kitchen as possible. In a previous house we had a loo-tility situated along a corridor from the kitchen and it was totally impractical on a daily basis.

I'm not a fan of kitchens in darker, middle rooms/spaces so I wouldn't want the cabinets in the middle bit if I was you. I get that you'll have lots of bright light in there anyway, but I prefer a bit of daylight/sunshine in my kitchen.

We moved the kitchen in our current house from a dark, middle room as I absolutely hated it. We swapped it so that the kitchen is in a space with three windows (it's a 400 year old house so never going to be the brightest!) and initially we turned the old kitchen into a snug with TV etc. In the kitchen we originally put our dining table at the opposite end to the island which is by the largest window.

After a couple of years - and despite DH's protestations that the TV needed to be in a dark room to avoid glare - we made further changes and now the dark space is where we have our dining table. The reasoning behind this is that we mostly eat evening meals in there so would have lights on anyway plus it's quite atmospheric. The space is now part of the living room so our sofas are at the bright end with huge windows. DH wanted to put the table there but I considered it a waste - I'd rather sit on a sofa looking at a view than be eating my dinner there. For daytime meals we use the kitchen island.

I too would hate my kitchen in an area with no natural light or window tbh.

Don't forget you kitchen extractor cannot be more than 3m (I think) for the external wall, so be aware of that when positioning your kitchen/hob.

Why not get an architect or interior designer? Are they too expansive in the UK?

Agree with others about moving the shower room/loo to the front of the house and putting the utility behind it with access from the kitchen or under stairs. I personally like having the utility near the back door for access to hang out washing, for little gardening/DIY tasks etc. It also means that you can come in dirty from (or through) the garden after working or sports and wash hands or shower etc.

What's going on with the apparent clash between the inner double front doors and the utility or loo door? Will that be an issue in practice, or will you just leave that one of the pair of doors closed most of the time?

Where you storing coats and shoes etc? Also two sets of double doors at the entrance seems awkward especially with study/laundry and no space in vestibule area