What do you think of this kitchen layout?

[Kitchen12345]

Hi Everyone,

This is our first time doing a kitchen so slightly overwhelmed with the choices.

Available space is tricky odd shape. Slightly too big for no island, slightly too small for island. So we went with long dining table.

DP is panicking not enough storage. Wants above counter cupboards but it’s quite a tricky interface as we have stuff going on (see pictures for roof/ wall interface and beam and why whilst it’s lovely it’s also a nightmare up there).

I do think we have space to also have a dresser round the corner for guest crockery and bar things. So kitchen will only be absolute essential items.

What do we think?
Anything to improve it?
Anything that’s awful?
Anything that needs to be included etc.

Thank you 🥰

God how much will it be putting in new wall and windows 🤦‍♀️

We already have to change the whole floor here and hadn’t budgeted for this extra.

Is there any chance you could forego the library and knock through to what was the old kitchen? Too much? 😅

I'd move the table to the Day Living area and put an island where the table is currently marked.

I’d put the kitchen either side of the middle but where you’ve got the table and put the table at the front in front of the garage doors/new windows. That way you get two living areas adults can sit on over coffee, or you can leave the table and go and sit the other side, or one set of children can be pottering while the other does homework.

I think you are doing the house a disservice by keeping garage doors on the kitchen wall. It would be cold and look really awful from the inside!

Obviously these aren’t my doors but they are kind of like this… but original and painted in a fun colour. It think it’s fits with the shaker style and a bit quirky. It’s not cold. This room is overly hot due to the glazed roof if anything.

I don’t know it’s an odd one with this house. It was probate and the person who last had it was the third generation to live there. His grandparents designed and built this house and he then built the garage extension but kept the original doors to reuse. Everything in the house is really well done and it’s quite an eclectic mix of styles/ eras. We are really conscious it’s their house and lots of people in the area knew this family and house. To be ripping it apart is quite sacrilege and I am not sure what we could replace it with that wouldn’t look weird but I will chat to DP about it.

I’d put living one end (back), dining table at the front in front of the doors and then either have 2 banks of units or units and an island in the middle of the space.

Couldn’t use put a wall and windows in the style of that door? Clad it and paint it same as now if it’s a special colour?
it seems a waste to not give yourself a properly functional kitchen. It’s your house now and has to work for you really

ok, new picture.

T = big table in front of the doors which I would make into a window but I guess you could still leave them as doors here.

I = island with a big chunk of worksurface and a couple of bar stools. possibly induction hob in the island

O = ovens in tall unit

S = sink (or it could be in the island)
F = fridge freezer

add extra storage on the wall between the table & the old kitchen if you need it, or the wall the other side of the table. Slim cupboards (30cm deep) over a whole wall can give a lot of storage for plates / pantry things and still be easy to access.

Also, have an induction hob + ovens in tall units to get more worksurface. an induction is much easier to use than a range and the surface can be used for extra prep space when you aren't cooking.

You think it is hot now, but it won’t be when it is minus three in January. Those doors don’t even fit flush to the ground, if the wind is in that direction during heavy rain, you will have a flood.

please have a proper wall,,or at least some domestic doors which have a seal.

There's really not enough counter space unless you have an Island. We've got just about that if you took away our Island and it would drive us made to have only that. And our hob is on the Island.

All you need is few dirty dishes and there's nowhere for anything....

With the garage doors, I'd put glazing in behind them so you can open them up but still have the effect of the doors -in effect they become shutters. ....

You can also maximise what workspace you have by not cluttering it, eg: hot water tap instead of a kettle, integrated microwave as well as oven (or no microwave! I’ve managed years without), knives on a wall magnet not in a block, etc. In my perfect kitchen there’s nothing on the counters at all!

I like the plan from @parietal - that is what I was suggesting as well. Only thing is that you might want to consider not having seating on the island, or having it on the shorter ends, as if people were sitting along the left hand side it might be difficult to walk through. Or if you have the funds you could push the wall to the shower room a few feet to the left so that there’s no dog leg and a bit more space. If it’s a supporting wall I wouldn’t bother though.

Agree with @Heronwatcher, there's no need for seating at the island when you have a table beside it.

As others have said those garage doors will be make your kitchen cold, wet and draughty in the winter. They need a proper threshold fitted to keep the water, leaves, dirt etc from seeping into your kitchen.

However you may need planning permission to remove them as they face the front of the house.

I agree with separating out the tall units. We’ve got fridge-freezer, double oven and full height larder cupboard on a short wall between doors then an L shaped sweep of units including induction hob which can be used as extra work surface on the other side. Gives us oodles of uninterrupted work surface and after 5 years with a similar arrangement to your proposal that has proved invaluable. Our table then sits at one end under a window.

I like this suggestion and speaking as someone who used to own a house with similar historic associations to the family who built it in the 1850s, I'd be reluctant to lose the doors completely.

Imho an island is definitely required to give you sufficient prep space and whilst I'm not keen on islands with hobs - or sinks - I'd take an induction hob in this instance.

In the kitchen of our current (1600s) house we have a single main wall of base (drawer) cabinets that includes a range cooker and double sink. Our room didn't lend itself to cabinets on opposite walls as the space left in between wouldn't work with an island or standard width table, yet would look empty without. The whole run is 6.7m long, but only about 4.7m (in total) is usable prep space. If we didn't have our 2.45m x 1.1m island we'd struggle I think...although that's partly because we have lots of stuff on the work surfaces!

Our room widens at one end where we have a sofa and wood burner as well as a large ( 2.3m x 1.6m) freestanding vintage larder, without which we'd have nowhere for dry/tinned
food storage (plus our microwave is in there), so something similar - or perhaps @parietal's idea of shallow 30cm deep cupboards - should be a consideration. The island contains all our crockery and we have hanging storage for pans above.

one more thought - your new WC is very big with 2 doors. if you cut a bit one the end near the garden and had a small door to the kitchen, you could make a decent size pantry in there.

What is plan for the old kitchen space?

Thanks all,

This has been so helpful you have no idea. I spoke with DP and he agrees that something like @mosiacmaker plan is probably what we need to. But we haven’t budgeted for that and we need to think through how to do that properly so we either keep the doors and do something this side, or create a proper wall and use the doors to clad it somehow to reuse them. That’s going to require planning and I don’t know how we will do any of that but it needs to be right.

You will not believe it but I actually lived in this garage for a year whilst pregnant and then for 6 months with my new born whilst we renovated the main house. It’s a garage conversion but it’s not really a garage. It’s fully insulated, doors are perfect fit, raised from outside, it has underfloor heating, proper windows and doors etc. It’s really well done. I have been in there in -15 last winter and it wasn’t cold at all.

We haven’t currently had a kitchen for nearly 2 years! 🤣 So we need this done fast. I have suggested to DP we get the units we have a manufacture slot for and try to get flexible pieces. They are freestanding so we can then get a cheap worktop. Try it out. Get a temporary freestanding island piece if we need to.

Meanwhile thinking of going out to other kitchen companies for design and thinking about how we sort these doors. Then we can reuse these freestanding units and incorporate them into the final layout and then get a proper worktop.

Do you think if we go to others we should be honest about where we are and getting these cabinets from another company or no. I don’t want to do myself out of a free design but then also I hate being dishonest!