Kitchen advice- where to put the fridge

[Opalfleur2025]

This flat is quite affordable and ticks all the boxes except that the kitchen is small and i have a full sized fridge i want to bring over.

Is there any solution other than taking down the kitchen wall and demolishing the pantry (cupboard in corner of living space) and putting the fridge in its space.

If i remove the kitchen door could i put a full size fridge in its place or would it block the entrance too much (my current kitchen is separate and has no door either so that is fine by me.

what is the most cost effective solution?

better floorplan

You could take the fitted kitchen out (or simply remove part of the counter and a wall cabinet) and redesign it so that it will fit a full-size fridge in.

If adapting the current kitchen - either where the draining board is now - swap that for a sink with no draining board, consider installing a draining cupboard above the sink if you don't have a dishwasher, or just get a draining rack with drip tray which you'll have to put away when not in use. Or to the left of the cooker.

You might be able to take the wall out leading to that little cupboard, or take the entire cupboard and kitchen wall out, making it all open-plan, but you'll have to check it's not a supporting wall. Probably just a stud wall with how close it is to the flat boundary wall but just in case.

The first floor plan seems to define an invisible boundary between living room and dining area. Is it possible to place a new stud wall here, perhaps with archway rather than door, and remove kitchen wall entirely, making a larger kitchen-diner?

Is that a serving hatch between the kitchen and cupboard? Perhaps you could just take the cupboard out and have the fridge in the dining area and post things through the hatch!

Also worth considering where the plug sockets are. I wouldn't want to have a fridge plugged into an extension lead, or sharing a socket with anything else. That is generally a bad idea for anything which involves temperature control.

Will it be your flat or will you be renting? Assuming yours, as you're talking about removing walls!

Sorry not where draining board is - I mean in the corner, to the right hand side of the sink is the first possible location for the fridge. You will need to see where the plumbing for the sink is as you might need to move the sink over.

my flat.

In my current flat i have a dishwasher, washer dryer and a full sized fridge (only 2 bedrooms). I would like a third bedroom but don't want to significantly increase my mortgage. we dont have kids yet (infertility and unsure about ivf) but a small 3 bed flat (that isn't a huge jump up) would still work well for us without kids (without reminding us constantly of rooms that need to be filled).

So am trying to see what I can do with the space. there is space for washing machine and dishwasher under the kitchen counter in the current setup. just no fridge.

I don't think you can have the fridge on the opposite wall to the counters. Your entire kitchen width on that short wall is only 1,87m, and you need ideally 1.2m to walk about but a minimum of 90cm. You won't have that as a counter is about 60-65cm deep. You wouldn't be able to open the oven door and it seems foolish to block the exit of the kitchen, in case of fire.

no serving hatch.

what is currently the set up in this flat (tenanted) is that the tenants have a freezer in the dining area and a fridge under kitchen countertop (want to swap the fridge for dishwasher). they have a washing machine.

I'm sure the flat is great but I just wanted to say that I lived in a flat with that exact layout of kitchen when it was just me and my partner. It was ridiculously small. Pans had to go on a stacking unit at the side as cupboard space so limited. 2 tiny drawers. This flat seems disproportionate - 3 large bedrooms?! If you're living with others do consider storage space and how much food you will actually need because the lack of counter and cupboard space drove me bonkers.

Having said that - I removed a pantry type cupboard during my kitchen renovation to.make space for my dream fridge freezer and it was great. I think opening it to a kitchen-diner and maybe a stud wall for the living area would be a better idea as PP suggested.

yes perhaps then not the right flat for me.

I am the opposite now- i have a large bedroom and a single bedroom but a good sized kitchen!

You could build a big pantry type cuboard in the living room by the kitchen - and use that for all your storage and then have room for fridge etc in kitchen.

OK so you could adapt the current fitted kitchen, or rip it out and put a new one in.

In that floor plan there is enough space for 3 under-counter appliances meaning you could take (a bit more than) 60cm of worktop off one of the ends and stick the fridge there. You will sacrifice ALL under-counter storage space, which means no drawers, and only have limited upper cabinet space, due to needing space for the fridge, clearance above the cooker, and the window. You'll have to come up with a way to store cutlery, perhaps in a basket on the counter, like they have in restaurants. Or put some storage for cutlery and crockery into the dining area, that could work and free up space in the kitchen.

If you have a dishwasher and put almost everything in it, you can get away with a tiny sink with no draining board, because you can hand wash items singly and dry them up immediately. This is not too bad for 2 people, might get more chaotic with a family. You will have to be very disciplined about keeping on top of the washing up, and the only space for a kitchen bin will be under the sink, so you'll have to empty it constantly, which might be annoying in a flat.

dh's mum lives in a 3 bed terraced house (also london) with a tiny kitchen (smaller than mine). This was her forever home where she raised her 4 kids. She has a freezer in the dining room, and her pantry is in her daughter's room.

I am almost 100% that when she lived in her 1 bed flat she had more kitchen space as it was open plan and the bedroom was on the second floor so the first floor was just reception/kitchen. But she had to compromise on kitchen for more living space.

If you're going from a bigger kitchen to a smaller one then do consider what it would realistically be like to cut your counter space by so much. Do you have appliances out on the counter, like kettle, toaster, microwave, air fryer, slow cooker? You would need to be able to put things like that away (probably in the dining area or pantry) or mount them higher on the walls (e.g. Microwave) which would again eat into your possible cupboard space. Kettle might be OK to keep out. Again consider whether this would be prohibitively annoying or you might end up realistically not doing it which will make the kitchen very cluttered and even more difficult to use.

Do you have an Ikea or a hardware type store where they have mock rooms set up? Go to one of those, (Ikea perfect for this as they always have some tiny rooms) take a tape measure, find something where the space between a wall or tall appliance/cupboard and cooker is only about 60cm, and/or the space on the other side of the cooker is 60cm into the corner, and stand there and feel what the space is like. It's not much room to get prep done. If you're quite an efficient, tidy cook then it can work, but it might feel extremely cramped if you're used to more space.

I think you could get a nice-looking storage option like a dresser or even a freestanding kitchen type unit to go into the dining area, which would look nicer than a freezer, IMO. Open plan would be much better as you could completely re-do the kitchen and extend it into what is currently the dining area, but much more work/cost. It could be that you live with the tiny kitchen for now and then consider going open plan, or extending the kitchen into the dining area if you do end up having children in the future. Though in that case - bear in mind open plan kitchens are a nightmare from a safety perspective with older babies/toddlers in the stage where they are mobile but don't understand danger yet. It's much easier if you can just put a stairgate on the kitchen door.

I think a PP has a good point in considering whether you really truly need the space in the full-sized fridge or whether an under-counter one will suffice.

Thanks all, perhaps this just isn't a suitable flat for me given the considerations.