Help figuring out a new kitchen

[squishousdelicious]

We've been in our house for about 9 months now. It's a small project in comparison to other houses, but the kitchen is dire. I don't think it's been touched since originally being fitted when the house was built in the 70s.

I've attached the relevant section of floor plan. At some point, we do plan to extend it, but I cannot live with it as it is until then - there is barely any decent storage or worktop space, and the washing machine is currently forced to be in a corner, which makes using the tray part of it impossible. I am living with an air fryer, microwave and slow cooker and want to have an oven back to help improve the variety of food I can cook!

The sink is accurate there, but there is no oven at all. We also have a large American-style fridge that takes up the bottom left space behind the door and the boiler is in the top left corner.

What would you do to make it workable until we make it slightly bigger? Would it be expensive to relocate the sink/plumbing to next to the window? Any recommendations for companies where we can get new units etc?

I’d try and think about your plans for the future and do work that you’ll keep so moving the sink shouldn’t be too difficult.
Might be a future job but is that the only door to the garden? If not, I’d brick up that door and have more worktop space that way as two doors in that small kitchen takes a lot of space

Good value and quality: https://www.diy-kitchens.com/

It’s a very small kitchen so the options are limited, could the existing window be blocked up and a window put in over the sink? That would give you more wall cupboards. If you want to relocate the sink to under the existing window that would be possible I would imagine. Window over the sink is the preferred option I think, particularly overlooking the garden.

Do you have a photo? Is there any storage behind the door and on the empty wall between the doors?

moving the sink such a small distance shouldn’t be a problem

are There wall cabinets? What appliances do you need in there?

Block the back door, move the washing machine to the cupboard under the stairs or into a shed outside.

Sorry just saw you have the fridge in one of those spaces.

definitely rehome the washing machine

as pp said - do you need the back door?

Can you relocate the back door to where the sink is? If so, block the existing exterior door to create a galley kitchen, Rehang the internal door to open into the adjoining (dining?) room.

If you either got rid of door to the dining room or rehung it or replaced with a pocket door you could have an angled work top running up to that wall.

We have a sideboard in the dining room which holds most of the cutlery, snacks and random kitchen stuff not used often.

We gave very minimal cutlery in the kitchen.

I’ve seen shelves in front of windows to maximise space and a ceiling rack to hang pans from.

I’ve found extra wide kitchen drawers amazing for storage.

It does look like there are patio doors in the dining room which would make getting rid of the back door (or locating fridge freezer in front of it) an easy option.

We have an induction hob which doubles up as extra work top space. We also use a hob top kettle.

Could you put the fridge/freezer in a different room? I have mine in the hall to give more kitchen space. The garage?

Agree with losing the door if there are French doors to the garden in the dining room. We've relocated our current kitchen to make better use of the space and we chose to not have a door from the kitchen to garden as there's French doors close by in the dining room. We've found it's far nicer having a large window overlooking the garden than a second door.

Ditto the fridge freezer. In a previous house we did same as @Tortephant and put ours in the - large - hall where there was a convenient recess directly opposite the kitchen door. This time our French style fridge freezer is sitting in the gap between our kitchen and dining space which are semi open plan, so it can be easily accessed from both rooms.

I feel you with your desire to cook 'normally' again @squishousdelicious - we've been in our house 21 months and we're still cooking with airfryer, microwave and two plug-in induction hobs!

The kitchen we inherited here was fitted in 1965 and had definitely seen better days, although it was well built so we managed to salvage some drawers to use in the new kitchen!

Otherwise our cabinets (including two sets of pan drawers) were found on eBay. They're second hand but good quality painted oak, in-frame style which I repainted and added high quality brass knobs/handles. At our last house we fitted a lovely, reasonably priced Handmade Kitchens of Christchurch kitchen, but are doing this place up on a tiny budget so needed to be more frugal!

I had to figure out a tiny kitchen in my previous house.

Things to consider.

Induction hob is essential - gives additional workspace as flat. Consider a 2 ring induction hob, have a think how often you actually need more than 2 rings.

Slimline dishwasher - may seem a luxury when space is tight, but it acts as a dirty dish cupboard keeping things tidy and if you are ruthless and put everything in it (if it doesn't survive the dishwasher i replace it with an item that will), then you can do away with the drainer and also have a smaller sink, gaining back valuable work space.

Under plinth drawers are great for gaining storage space, as are wall cabinets right up to the ceiling, made to measure cupboards are available cheaply online so max out the space to your exact measurements.

Pictures of it unfinished as i got divorced first.

This is incredibly helpful! I hadn't even thought of getting rid of the back door, but there are patio doors so it is actually a good idea. Only problem is, that is where the cat flap is, and there isn't anywhere else it could go... food for thought!

@Roselilly36 @Jellybean23 Unfortunately, the sink wall is a party wall, so no way to put in a window/door there.

@BeardySchnauzer there's a boiler on the wall between the two doors. Ideally, I'd like to build a cupboard around it to hide it! The other gap is the fridge and it's probably best where it is - it can't go in the garage @Tortephant because there's no direct access from the house, and I have two small children, so putting it in the living room is a very bad idea!!! (Especially now my son has learned where things live 😬) Same reason goes for cutlery and crockery @RandomMess - child locks don't work any more, so it needs to stay in the kitchen at the moment anyway.

Frankly, I don't want much by way of appliances - an oven, hob, microwave, kettle, space for the washing machine. Later on, once extended, there'll be more space for a tumble dryer and a dishwasher if we like, but they aren't a priority for us at the moment.

Induction hob becoming extra workspace is also a genius idea. Also means we don't need gas connections, I suppose? Do they need an extractor fan?

@LibertyLily 21 months?!?! I can't bear to think of it taking that long 😫