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.

It could well be just me but there seems to be quite a few doors.

Some of them define (in a negative way) the use and flow of the space.

I think pocket doors could help- especially in the utilities/wc/bathroom/pantry

I want a pocket door at the front where the shower room is. Can you tell me a bit more about positive/negative effect? I'm really appreciative of your thoughts.

All I can say is I have livedd in a variety of apartments on the continent that had them and I LOVE THEM! 😁
I have put them in my house twice.

First was terrible because it was low in height and was hollow.

I replaced it with solid wood and made it more or less double the size of a normal door. It is wonderful - stylish, great space saving, can have open plan until you close it etc.

Fabulous. And what about the doors in the plan? If the top to the shower is pocket door then the rest are ok. As I can see it-
Door into dining area bypasses having to traipse through the kitchen and go around in a loop

Door through to kitchen is obvious, straight down to quooker tap for coffee of a morning.

Door at bottom right to garden.

The two at the front one after the other are original doors and not being replaced.

Current set up...

I would consider a pocket door between the kitchen and futility/pantry too. Otherwise that corner could end up being all doors.

Yep. On the latest iteration I have done away with that. The space will be divided like this: so there is a wall removed and one put up. One space to be accessible via pocket door and the other is simply around the corner from kitchen and will serve as pantry/utility. We used to live with a far smaller kitchen so we aren't used to having masses of units!

Pantry moved to inside kitchen, storage at the vary back of utility room as it's not accessed often, utility possibly leading to garden for hanging out washing ease with or without whatever the orange area is?

Not sure whether the orange area is breakfast bar? If so could be moved and integrated as a side to kitchen leading outdoors.

Yep. Basically what I'm thinking. The unit just as you enter the kitchrn door will be the I'm back and dumping my keys spot.

Blue lines indicate units. Narrow wall ones for storing lesser used crockery and stuff. Pantry and utility with no door as there's no washing machine. Kitchen as u shape with overhang for people.

Op what is the cost of taking out the wall?
That is the biggest factor in where you end up in the big living space.

Your kitchen needs
Counter tops
Sink
Cooktop gas/electric
Oven
Fridge
Food Bin
Start with where you want them
Add circulation space for people doing different things at the same time

If you dont get these right for how you live your kitchen will be a pain to work in
Then add in optional Dishwasher coffeemachine toaster etc
Then how big a fridge, elevate oven to counter hight etc
Then count your existing units
Split ones into 2 units if are over flowing and not working
that is minimim needs
Do the same for laundry
Then look for wall space and compromise to fit.

The traffic lounge/hall to dining room must surely be small?

Kitchen to dining room is the traffic, by

• whoever is cooking
• kids as they fetch/carry to take food/condiments into dining room
• whoever is clearing away

I would block up the hall to dining/dark area so that the door does not need yo define the use of that space.

Similarly, if the dark space is a living area (not dining room), I can see very little reason for traffic lounge/hall to living area. Again our family would likely use that space via kitchen - ie kids had a bowl of cereal, take it to sofa to eat while watching TV.

This makes a lot of sense. Would you not be annoyed at having to leave the dining area and go all the way round and then up to leave via the kitchen entry?

Hiya. I have the kitchen planned out already. At this point in time I'm mulling over traffic and flow in the areas. Pp has suggested blocking the entry to the dining area which is interesting.

Just to add a spanner in the works, if this was my house I'd add a downstairs study where gets thr good light.

I've also said before, I'd move kitchen to dark area. You seem to be making the kitchen smaller than existing? Or certainly not much bigger. With the amount of downstairs space you have, I find the proportion of it as kitchen to be on the low side. That said - we have four children so im biased towards a sizable kitchen.

I would get rid of that wall between the kitchen area and living room. It is probably a supporting wall so would need steels putting in and maybe a supporting column
i would also just have one door to enter the back room and that should be moved to be in line with the lounge wall

I would also move the kitchen so it is along the wall that joins the lounge and have an island so you can be cooking and facing the garden then have a dining room table (if you need one) or could you use the island unit. I have seen where a an extension of the island is a lower section that is part of the island but looks like a table with chairs around

then you have the sofa closer to the back of the house and windows

i think atm there are too many walls and doors and I can see it doesn’t look right.

When everyone leaves our dining room, everyone has to take something with them back to the kitchen - stack of dirty plates, serving bowls, glasses, condiments etc etc. So for me, the natural route out of a dining room will always be via the kitchen first.

We don't need a study downstairs. The kitchen is currently in the entire right hand long section. The new kitchen will have a u shape, plus a pantry area attached to utility as well as wall mounted storage to the side where it's not used too much. As said, we're used to compact kitchens, don't need a massive expansive space. From my eye, half the right hand side space will be pantry/utility and the u shaped section takes up half the front space overlooking garden. There are also units behind. So not struggling for storage. It is only me and two other humans.

Hiya. Too many doors and walls? Not sure I agree as the main space is completely door free except for entry doors? We are having a lot of windows put in so wherever we are in the space we'll see the garden.

I like the idea of blocking up the top dining door. The entire space will only have one door to enter. And then french doors and side door at the bottom of the plan in addition to windows along both sides. I'm really grateful for such thought provoking feedback.

I agree with PP about the wall between the kitchen and the dining area making the space really awkward.

Id put the kitchen on the left hand side and the dining room where your kitchen is planned to be, and the living room at the back.

If you keep your kitchen where you want it, then blocking up the door to the living room would make your kitchen into a corridor which would be annoying. If you had the kitchen on the other side then blocking the door would be less of a problem. Or if you got rid of that awkward wall then, again, because the space is so open having one doorway would be okay. Having one doorway into a U shaped space just doesn’t make sense, to me.

You run the risk of devaluing your house by removing rooms. But if you are going to take the living area / kitchen wall out, I'd move it right vack into thr Hall to maximise space. Otherwise your hallway and all the corner areas are dead-space

Is why I'm thinking of keeping entry to dining as well as kitchen. We are taking out one wall to open up the entire bottom section. We aren't interested in a square shaped open place cave space.

Basically this.

Taking the wall right back means you can then create a barrier by having a nice wide kitchen run, with breakfast bar seats the other side. You could have an island hob or sink on there.