Turn beautiful second reception room into mediocre kitchen / diner?

[OrangeCrushes]

We have a great house, but the current kitchen and dining space is really lacking. We are considering converting our beautiful but little-used second reception into a kitchen / diner and making the current kitchen into a kitchen mess overflow/utility (we already have a laundry room).

The issue is that the space is very narrow and we don't want to go through the expense or hassle of an extension or much structural work. The best we could do would probably be a large room with units on two walls and the dining table in the opposite corner.

Really welcome any opinions or advice!!

Diagrams / examples forthcoming!

As far as I can see, a kitchen is not classed as a habitable room as long as it's solely used for cooking.

This one may not be now, but I think originally I was responding to PP when they queried why the house was sold with a windowless kitchen.

This was actually my original plan! A building company provided an estimate of £100k plus VAT for the basic building work only - so no landscaping, kitchen, flooring, decoration, etc included 😬

Irregularities in the building regs is not uncommon. However if only one states a requirement that is upheld over and above

We Cannot site the no requirement as a basis for design.
That’s the way it works
As such Kitchens are habitable rooms

What would this mean? Are my exterior doors (to the conservatory) enough in a conversion of the current second reception sufficient?

You’re moving the kitchen do it will have a window ( and doors ) so all good

I think this may have a typo?

There is no window in the back reception, just the doors to the conservatory

Have you got a few quotes? Might be able to get it lower. I'm doing something at the moment and there was a massive difference in recommended builders quotes.

That would make a lot of sense - but if you make the old kitchen into a new utility with the loo off it (in the current utility) then the current loo could become a pantry off the kitchen which would be very useful.

Tbh, no. I'm very wary of builders who have not been recommended by someone I know personally

I think I would be tempted to save up and do the steel/rebuild the downstairs bathroom into the room rather than spend money on a kitchen you won't be happy with. Have you had any quotes? You may find just doing that isn't too £££

I don't think I can emphasize enough that the current bathroom is not a structure that should or can be integrated into a kitchen. This would be the £100k plus for only a shell option, because we would have to just knock the bathroom down and extend into the side return (as well as back, to have space to dine)

I don’t like the loo door coming straight off the new kitchen. Is this even allowed?

A) you could close the door off and put a new door in to the loo from the utility. I think with what would be a generous new utility you could design it to be clear of clutter so guests walking through would not be subjected to mess. You could have floor to ceiling cupboards where dirty laundry baskets and spare products and loo roll etc are stored

B) why are you concerned about the narrieness of the new kitchen? It’s wider than the existing one. By removing the door to the loo you have freed up the entire wall

The loo is EXTREMELY narrow. If we put a door from the current 'utility' into there, it would open directly onto a toilet that one would have to shimmy past to get to the washing machine and dryer (which have been moved into the loo).

I don't even think you could move the toilet and make this work. The only reason it works now as a loo is because the toilet is the only thing on that side of the door.

@bumbaloo on B, the concern is simply whether an island can be added - and I now am confident it can

But why cant you have a large utility where the kitchen is at the moment with a loo and sink off that (where the current utility is). That should be easy enough to do with the loo next to the door and the sink opposite and leave the pathway to the back door pretty clear. Then the current loo becomes a pantry which is a sensible thing to have opening off a kitchen and offers more storage espeically for bulky stuff you don't want out in the kitchen diner.

@Londonmummy66

Sorry - you wouldn't be incorporating into the kitchen - just using it for a different purpose - ie a walk in cupboard rather than a loo - a bit like these guys did with a boiler cupboard https://www.kezzabeth.co.uk/2018/05/turning-cupboard-into-pantry-diy.html

I’d knock through the original kitchen into the back room, keeping most of the kitchen part in the original kitchen but opening up into the new area so can over flow into that which then becomes a family room/kitchen area

@Londonmummy66 oh yes, I understand the plan for the current loo and agree it would make a great pantry! But then there's nowhere that a downstairs loo could practically be moved to, and I think we need a downstairs loo.

Why can't the downstairs loo be in the current utility and the washing machines etc go in the old kitchen?

Thanks! I have considered this, but due to the layout of the second reception, I think that this would just result in a worse kitchen with less storage, as we would be losing the wall that currently has units on it and the respective doorways in the second reception mean we couldn't add additional units into that room while still retaining space for dining.

The current utility room similarly is a later addition. There is a formerly exterior window that looks directly into this space. There's also nowhere to put a toilet as the exterior door is right in the centre of the tiny room

Here is the former utility room which is connected to the kitchen by a doorway with no door in it.

It's just a passageway to an outside door. To the left is a window into the current dining room. To the right is a tiny space where we put a reduced-depth refrigerator.

Can you move the wall between the 2nd reception and kitchen and the corridor so you can widen the kitchen? Or old kitchen becomes a study.

That’s what I meant. You noted a while ago you liked the idea of moving the kitchen
like the image below and in that location it’s fine