Side Return Ideas

[SideReturn23]

Hi all,

How is everyone? Hope you're all enjoying the sun. I was wondering whether anyone might have any ideas about a possible side return extension or any other options we might have for increasing the space in our tiny kitchen.

I've attached a very rough drawing (p**s poor I know) but I'm clearly not an architect. We would love to somehow increase our living space. At the moment the dining room is an almost completely unused empty space save for a beautiful feature fireplace and a stove. It has one small window and it's just so dark and unwelcoming.

We've been looking at options for a side return but sense that an architect might tell us to knock down the existing shower room so as to install large bifold or sliding doors across the entire space.

Another friend suggested getting a side return and relocating the bathroom to a part of the dining area as we don't use it currently.

Has anyone been through something similar and got any good ideas? All help appreciated.

Kind regards :)

O.P. here I should add that the kitchen ceiling is much lower than the ceilings in the other downstairs room and I'm thinking this might affect us on what we can do.

I used home tales who were great and they gave me lots of design advice (before I instructed them). They were super helpful
www.hometales.co.uk

Thanks for the advice.

the person above recommending hometales looks like spam to me - be cautious.

if you can afford it, knocking stuff down and doing a full width rebuild with bifold doors etc would get you the biggest best space. but that is expensive, especially if you have limited side access.

another option might be to build out a new dining room extension (filling the side return) but keep the existing kitchen / shower room as a utility / pantry / shower room. that way, you don't need to change any ceiling heights. but the new dining room + side return space could be a big light kitchen-diner.