Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

Serving hatches

18 replies

Poppysocks111 · 21/03/2025 16:49

Who’s got one? And what do you think?

we have a small one and tempted to knock it out bigger and add a bifold door.

OP posts:
Geneticsbunny · 21/03/2025 16:49

I think they are due for a come back. Look up broken plan living.

TimeForATerf · 22/03/2025 06:41

Mum still has one in her 1930s semi, they mainly use it for conversing through the wall rather than passing plates through.

CactusForever · 22/03/2025 08:29

Personally, I love putting the stuff on the hatch and yelling for my kids (like a wannabe Marcus Wareing or something 😂😂). One of the few pleasures of our fusty rental.

TeaRoseTallulah · 22/03/2025 08:37

I like them but would have one bigger than the original ones.

HurdyGurdy19 · 22/03/2025 08:42

Cute story.

Our house had a serving hatch from the kitchen to the dining area.

The house was empty when we viewed.

I was standing in the kitchen, and my daughter was in the dining area.

She looked through the hatch and with a big grin said "I can see mummy in the cupboard".

Our serving hatch is no more. When we did the kitchen last year, we changed it into a door. Don't miss it one bit 😉 😀

HelpMeGetThrough · 22/03/2025 09:18

CactusForever · 22/03/2025 08:29

Personally, I love putting the stuff on the hatch and yelling for my kids (like a wannabe Marcus Wareing or something 😂😂). One of the few pleasures of our fusty rental.

Need a little bell next to the hatch. Ring the bell and shout SERVICE!!!

FatherFrosty · 22/03/2025 09:20

I had one in my old house. It was fantastic, loved it. Would definitely recommend one.

HelpMeGetThrough · 22/03/2025 09:20

My first childhood house had one. I used to climb through it to get in the kitchen.

Well why wouldn’t I? Of course it was easier than just walking in there. 🤷‍♀️

Advocodo · 22/03/2025 09:52

Very reluctantly and sadly when we put in our new kitchen last summer we blocked up our serving hatch. I tried everything in the design to keep the hatch but couldn’t. The adult kids were dismayed ‘mum you can’t do that’, the grandkids loved looking through it. Think they thought it was magic. There is a happy ending though we are temporarily moving into a rental that has an even bigger hatch so I am delighted Had a severe water leak that means new kitchen needs to be ripped out and replaced! I wonder if I should revisit the plan and see if I can re-instate the hatch!!!

Original poster
Poppysocks111 · 22/03/2025 10:06

Ooooo these are much more positive than i expected. The one we have is tiny (35x35cm I think) and tucked away in the corner. The dining area is north facing and the kitchen has a west facing window and sometimes you get really nice light through it. Also when I’m working in the dining room I can talk to DP when he’s making tea. So I’m thinking of making it bigger and adding doors.

Struggling to find good pictures. All the pictures online seem to be either nearly all the wall had been knocked out or a tiny one similar to what we have now.

we still need to put cabinets on the kitchen side for storage, but have quite high ceilings so could use normal height ones higher up

OP posts:
Printedword · 22/03/2025 10:20

Bro and SIL kept theirs even though it must have been a later addition to their Victorian house. It kinda looks like it was always there so might have been a door partially blocked up. It's useful.

SIL and BIL had one in a previous house. A 1950s or 60s house. They have Burmese cats. They had a cats cradle of elastic holding the doors of the hatch closed to keep the cat from climbing through into the kitchen. They couldn't stop him trying though it was hilarious trying to cook with a yowling cat butting the elastic. He didn't give up

abracadabra1980 · 22/03/2025 21:15

We need photos! I forgot I had one in my first home-the thread has brought back some forgotten memories OP!

Whitelight25 · 22/03/2025 22:04

Used to have one, and loved it. So convenient for serving and clearing away, the kitchen mess was hidden from the dining room and more wall space was available than you'd get by knocking down part or all of the wall.

senua · 22/03/2025 22:07

There was a Kirstie & Phil programme (can't remember if it was LLL or LIOLI) recently where there was an existing hatch. There was talk of knocking through but they didn't in the end. They made the hatch larger so you got the benefit of light and interconnectedness but retained the lower part of the wall. This meant that they could have base units (more storage) on the kitchen side of the wall. I think they may have had a radiator on the living room side.
It worked really well.

FNDandme · 22/03/2025 22:16

When we finally get the kitchen done we are blocking out a door and putting a hatch in to pass things through to the dining room. Get more cabinet space and a better flow in the kitchen footprint

boulevardofbrokendreamss · 22/03/2025 23:06

Bloody brilliant. Don’t know why they went out of fashion. Ours is more like a window with no glass and we use it more for talking to whoever is in the kitchen.

had a small one growing up with sliding doors on it, wouldn’t be so keen.

SophiaSW1 · 22/03/2025 23:24

I absolutely love them!. Perfect for passing my coffee through to the lounge

SophiaSW1 · 22/03/2025 23:24

And kids love them

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread