It's a floorplan one! Roll up!

[Freshair1]

We're looking to create a kitchen diner/lounge. The room at the top which is called Lounge will not be touched. It will be our separate chill space. We're ok with the kitchen diner space but the three areas to the right are a massive headache! We're in need of help figuring out best use of space. Thanks.

What makes those areas a headache for you?

So this is the plan for the new, desired lounge/ kitchen/ diner? What's the issue with the rooms on the right?

The loo makes sense where it is.

Is it terraced or do you have side access?

I dont understand - looks as if you already have a kitchen/diner/living space?

All looks great to me... what do you want that you don't have?

I wouldn't have the wall between pantry-utility, I'd have it as all one room.

I don't like that the pantry and back doors overlap. I would brick up this back door - its not needed since the back of your kitchen opens.

FWIW, I think the balance of space is out of kilter between the kitchen and new sitting area. The 1024 gap is actually quite narrow and I think the whole kitchen will feel like a corridor, with dead space where the word 'kitchen' is written.

I'd keep the utility and pantry separate if there's a tumble dryer in there. The heat and dust the tumbler generates isn't a great mix with food storage

Kitchen where the chairs are with a big island or breakfast bar as a divide but knock through for a dining table - more formal seating

Back have a corner sofa - real fire and more of a work space/ cosy type room

Exactly what @MaggieFS said.

I think the reason the other bit doesn't work is because you have a really small kitchen, creating the need for a pantry but then you end up with a long corridor of pointless space and too many doors for a really useful pantry.

Do you definitely need the second door into the family room (where the kitchen is). It makes for a lot of dead space.

I agree about the overlapping doors, but I would keep the backdoor - much better for taking washing out etc. Is lose the door into the pantry, and maybe widen the opening slightly.

There's quite a lot of things I wouldn't be happy with here:

1. The second set of double doors blocks the opening to the wc and the stairs. You would have to close them all the time, but you wouldn't necessarily want that.
2. To get to the dining room you have to walk through either the kitchen or the living room, which means one of those areas will become a corridor.
3. The hob is right next to the column, so you will have a shallower work surface right next to the hob, where you would want to put hot things down. I've had this, it's annoying.
4. The pantry has three doors, it's a lot of wasted storage space and two of the doors overlap

I'd lose the wall between the kitchen and seating area, and brick up the site to the current kitchen. I'd move the kitchen to the back, where the seating area is now, and extending into the 'dead area' that a pp referred to. If leave the dining area where it is and put sofas where you've put the kitchen.

I’d put a T-shaped steel in to open the whole space. I’d have the kitchen where the sofas are (this is going to be the darkest part of the room and the kitchen is quite normal to use electric lighting in even in the day). I’d keep only the door into the current kitchen and have units all along that wall with the lounge (L-shape kitchen plus island). I’d create a cosy/sofa corner where the kitchen currently is. I’d make the utility all one room as you have two many doors there. But I’d make the WC longer and include a downstairs shower. We had one in our old house and I really really miss it when I come in muddy from a run/cycle.

Ultimately you want to avoid having a kitchen that is a thoroughfare because it is a) annoying and b) at times unsafe. So as per the above, you effectively enter the room by walking past the kitchen area.

we lived with a similar layout in an old house and it worked really well.

The doors and windows seem to leave no space for much of a kitchen.

I'd you kee

Should have clarified, this is one of the proposed plans. I'm not happy with the bittiness of the three areas to the right. Feels like lots of small spaces which I don't want. I want spacious! Will have a look through comments. Thanks. X

The living room and lounge are basically for sitting in. They seem to take up the most room. Do you need that size living room? Could you make a small snug and have a larger kitchen?

If you keep a back door it needs to be into a utility as that's where it is most useful.
I'd want to try and reduce the long thin feeling. The space at the front with a window could make a good office (not sure if you need it but generally wanted in family homes).

Could you extend the hallway so that the bit that is essentially corridor anyway becomes just that (yellow). Then have wider utility with loo behind.

Then swap the kitchen and diner so you can put tall units at one side with workspace between and have an island. It would mean either reducing window size or switching it (I'm assuming this is what's being built rather than already exists???)

The loo positioning seems good, it has a window which I view as essential. Agree with other people that the kitchen positioning seems off.

Why the second doors at the front door?
It blocks the bathroom
Is that space ok under landing and stair regs?

Is there a massive window in the utility?

Where is your fridge?

Personal preferance would be to move the table to the middle Sofas towards the doors.

So guest route would be
sofa for a chat as you cook
table to eat
then sofa looking at the garden
The island would be for informal eating

I would look at the stair area which is dead space
Move the entry to line with the wall
Enclose in the stair itself
Remove door and understair wall
Remove the door to the sofa area
Open the wall back as much as possible

The loo and utility seem fine to me and they’re really useful spaces - they can help the rest of your house feel spacious by providing valuable storage, especially the utility.

I’d think about moving the kitchen elsewhere in the room - based on the dimensions you’ve got, probably into the back where the sitting area is on the current plan. This will / may be fiddly with plumbing etc though based on where your current kitchen is. That way you could have a nice L or u shape with a peninsula and bring the kitchen into the room more.

I’d either have the pantry as a boot room or combine it with the utility. Will it just be you using that door or is it likely to be one guests come through? That would affect how I use it too.

I’d also do whatever I could to get rid of more of that wall between the current sitting & kitchen areas. That is really making traffic in the space harder and turning spaces into more of a corridor.

Make the living room a decent sized kitchen and keep the dining room where it is. Make the downstairs loo into a shower room (borrow space from utility), merge the pantry into the utility. Have a wall between what is currently the kitchen and the dining room and put a small office there looking out over the garden. More useful than the current plan, and it'll mean you use your sitting room.

I think the main problem is the wall between the kitchen and seating area and having 2 doors into what is essentially one room - you should lose the door into the seating area and just walk round, it will make a much cosier and more usable space. Or lose the one into the kitchen and it gives you loads more storage. If you need to keep something structurally I would have a pillar at the end and make it part of a kitchen peninsula or island to increase your kitchen storage. I can see why you would think you want a separate 'dirty' door from outside into the utility but we have one and hardly ever use it. Unless you have 16 dogs just walk through your kitchen. Where do you normally come in the house - front or back? This is unlikely to change after the work so if its the front then think of having the utility there. There are way too many doors! And in the size of house I think having a separate pantry room wastes lots of space (more doors! they take up so much room). I would either combine the loo/utility or utility/pantry.

We did exactly this minus the shower in the WC and we love it, works really well.