Kitchen/diner knock through. How many doors?

[Hazelsdaughter]

We have a 1930s semi and will knock through from the kitchen to the dining room and extend at the rear. I'm torn between closing up one of the doors from the hall way and keeping both. Keeping both would mean we'd have a door into the kitchen area and a separate door into the dining area. Closing up the original kitchen door as on the plan, will give more cupboard space but will involve walking through the dining area with shopping or to get through to the new utility at the back with washing. Closing up the dining room door will mean guests walk into the kitchen area (seeing a sink full of pots!) to the go to the dining area Has anyone had experience or regrets after doing the same? The little red area on the plan marks the current kitchen door.

I don't think a second door at right angles to the diningroom door will add anything, or really reduce the distance you need walk.

What do all the external doors lead to? I'm wondering if there is sonething that can be done with the external door near the loo that seems to lead nowhere to give access to the kitchen /utility from the side.

I was going to say keep 2 doors... until I actually looked at your plan. Those 2 doors are literally right next to each other! It would be nuts to keep both.

It depends how many cupboards you need. I'd be tempted to keep the currently blocked up door. There's quite a lot of shimmying/cornering needed to get from the front door into the kitchen (your drawing looks like the area at the bottom of the stairs is a very tight turn - is that cupboard in the hallway there now? If not, I'd have concerns about that space being quite annoying/challenging to use if there are more than 2 of you coming and going.

You also have 4 doors from the downstairs to the outside which seems excessive, and not best use of the space. What's the odd square space to the left of the downstairs loo? It seems to have a door to the outside, but no means of access into the house. Can't you make that some kind of pantry/storage area (easily freeing up the space you'd lose from the cupboards where the red mark is).

Do you need the 2 external doors opposite each other in what I assume is the extension? The layout around there seems very clumsy.

I know these points aren't about where the put the door, but it's all related - how the space is used, and the general flow will heavily influence things like door placement.

Whats the bit to the left of your red star?

I'd only have 1 door in your case. What's the space to the left of the toilet? If it's spare I'd put a utility there and have access via the toilet / move the toilet to the empty space and have the utility room first, off the hallway

I should have marked the plan better. The external door next to the loo is outdoor storage. We don't have space for a garage so it's for car washing, tools etc. The rear extension has a narrow path for bins lawnmower between us and our neighbours garage so we've asked for a walk through hall, it's
the space immediately behind the kitchen with 2 exterior doors. We don't want to walk out of a side door down the side of the extension to access the garden.

That space behind the downstairs loo is an outdoor store. We will lose our garage by building the extension. The stairs don't fill that space, the plan shows the stairs as the go up. I've put a line on this plan showing the space they take up on the ground floor.
Because the extension will be close to the neighbours garage we've opted for a walk through porch behind the kitchen to avoid having to go out the side of the house and walk around the extension to access the garden. I should have marked the plan clearly.. I've added to it, if you can read the labels!

Thanks. That is an external store space, car washing, tools tec as we will lose our old asbestos garage.

Keep the existing door, lose the one by the dining table.

We are considering an extension and try to think how we would use the space/access rooms/get outside each time. Sometimes I've had to sketch it out and walk my fingers along the floor plan pretending I'm coming in with the shopping or taking the washing out etc.

Doing that with your floor plan means I'd have to shimmy past the dining table in order to take my (too many) shopping bags to the fridge.

Not having the door in the dining area means a bit more space around that end of the table for circulation (party games? Pouring glasses of wine?).

That makes a bit more sense (re the bit to the left of the loo). I'd still question the need for 2 lots of doors onto the patio though (the french door and the one in the corridor), but I guess you can't do much else with the corridor space.

To your original question though - still just 1 door into the kitchen/diner. And I'd put it where the red mark was on your first plan, to cut out the number of corners you have to go around.
I'd stack the WM and TD in the utility and put an extra full-height cupboard in there to make extra storage. Maybe put a pocket sliding door on the utility - as it is at the moment you'll need to go ahead/shut the door to use the washing machine, and that will be a PITA. In fact I'd rejig the utility to have the WM and TD on the external wall (which would be better for drainage as they can go straight outside), still stacked, and a door into the utility from the corridor (at 90 degrees to where it is now), and I'd still have a sliding door - they're such space savers on small rooms, and you've already got another door between the utility and the kitchen, so noise isn't an issue.

Thanks for that, I do think walking into the dining area for everything will not flow well. On the rare occasion we have people round for dinner I am concerned about the entry being directly into the kitchen, Hence wondering about keeping 2 doors.

As soon as they're in the room they'll see whatever there is to see anyway, so it makes no difference whether they come in the door on your plan or the currently blocked up door!

Just give them more pre dinner wine!

But I agree with the flow being better if door not by dining table. Exciting times!

Also (I feel very overinvested in your plan now!), I'd think carefully about whether anyone is actually going to sit in what I assume is a window seat behind the island. It's essentially a thoroughfare, and not a particularly nice place to sit (it looks very narrow on the plan and not actually big enough to properly sit on, and you wouldn't sit there for long anyway as it has a wall for a back)
I would either...
Put some kind of nice dresser/unit there (extra storage if you lose a cupboard for the door). OR
Put bifolds (oh so hated on MN, but many people who have them absolutely love them) across the back there and have a nice armchair in the corner in front of where the french doors currently are. A much nicer place to sit, and makes better use of the dead space.

Thanks for that. Good points that make a lot of sense . I''m trying to imagine daily life. Keeping 2 doors sounds odd I know but would be easier to use. I dont think it would feel odd inside the room as one would be 'around the corner'.
If we went with just one the kitchen existing kitchen door would flow better.

I would probably keep the kitchen door and get rid of the dining room door. To get to the dining room you just turn immediately right so you hardly enter the kitchen. If the doors were further apart I would probably keep them both. The dining room door is a bit awkward to me and the dining area would be cosier without it.

I think you're right re the window seat. I think cupboards will be better in that space.
We want to keep the windows/french doors looking like the originals (that back wall is an extension to the current space) and we have a couple of battered old leather club chairs to go in front of that window. Trying to create a cosy vintage feel rather than large modern open plan space.

Imagine daily life, and design around that. Then think about where the light is at different times of the day.

Personally I would rejig where the loo is so you can go straight through from the front door to the kitchen and get rid of the side door closest to the front door.
Theres also a lot of space lost to the corridor to the study and no view out over your garden from any of the rooms.

I’m extremely spatially challenged so this may not make any sense whatsoever! Can you make 1 door directly into the kitchen, and install an arch/bifold doors or similar from the lounge into the dining area? So if you have guests they can be shown into lounge and then go straight through to the dining area without trooping past the sink.

Do you need 2 downstairs loos? You could lose the one in the hall and move the wall back to be level with the living room wall. That would give you loads more useful space in the kitchen. Unless the plan is for that room at the back to be an en-suite bedroom (are you maybe future proofing for parents to be living there?) and you'd rather keep it completely separate.

That would significantly limit the useful space in the living room though - you wouldn't be able to put any furniture on that wall.

Sorry, my plan isn't well labelled.
The kitchen dining room and rear extension all look out over the garden,
The side door is actually access to a store area for tools and garden bits an pieces.
We have 2 dogs and need some where for them when they are wet or just need to be out of the way so that back hall will be useful for them plus coats, boots etc. We have very much organised the house to suit our personal circumstances. Its the first time we've done that, always thinking about ease of resale in the past. I can see it may not be suit everyone though. Thanks for your reply.

Yes, we plan to use that as our main bedroom with the ensuite. We have 2 early twenties kids still at home and no sign of them moving either!
The 3rd bedroom is very small so that will be an office for DH with possibly a nook bed or sofa bed for occasional guests.

We have considered that and I quite like the idea but DH is against and it would limit wall space in what is a relatively small sitting room. Thanks for the input though.

Down stairs lavatory then an outside store with external access.