Kitchen Design Help Island or No Island and other solutions?

[becsmeister]

Planning app submitted but things like location of sink, electrics etc will need to be finalised soon so trying to get the best layout for the kitchen diner.

I would like an island ideally but I realise my layout lends itself to a U shaped kitchen so whilst that would be functional it would mean the kitchen takes up just 8 square meters in a 32 square meter room. Might just feel like a kitchen added onto a room.

see pics:

Option 1 is to leave it just as a U shape

Option 2 is an Lshape kitchen with small island. Just leaving units off one wall of the U may create enough circulation and also pull the kitchen out into the room a bit more

Option 3 is keep the U shaped kitchen with sink and hob and everyday cooking stuff but have shallow cabinets/units on the opposite wall for things like overflow pantry, wine glasses, serving dishes etc, then have the island in the centre under the skylight with drawers for knives and forks and setting the table stuff, Then have the dining table at the back, would be a bit darker but could be cosy with nice lighting.

Option 4 is the U shaped kitchen but add a peninsula (no image for that)

What do you think and any other ideas welcome.

The room is 6x6 meters with 6 square meters cut out for the utility and WC so 30 square meters.

You also need to decide if you want bar stools. We decided against them cos of our increasing age, didn’t want grandchildren clambering onto them, we don’t socialise in that way and finally the dinning table was so close by.

Have your hob on to peninsula facing out into the garden and the dinning table.

2 stools max really. my wife and I would generally rather sit in a dining chair at a table. My daughter does use the stools we have in current kitchen.

None of the layouts look right at all to me you need to rethink the space you have. You need to enjoy the windows and views.

And no to an island they block the space. A walk in larder is ten times better.

start with just the room and go from there.

also the dining area can be a kitchen area just because there’s a neighbour wall that doesn’t stop that. But will cost more.

I would definitely move the kitchen to the dining area if it were my house @becsmeister. That would work far better and you'd be able to fit a decent sized island.

Personally, I much prefer a kitchen to have an island as I strongly dislike prepping on the perimeter work surfaces (although I think that comes from having been used to an island at our previous few houses!) I'd never have a hob - or worse, a sink - on the island.

Moving the kitchen to the dining space is perfectly possible - we've moved the kitchen to a completely different room in both our last house and current one (without building an extension, although we've done that before too). In both we swapped kitchen with living room in order to get a better positioned, larger kitchen. Our last home was detached, but this cottage is a semi and the kitchen has moved from the non-attached to the attached side (but the sink/dishwasher run is on the garden wall). Yes, it's a bit more complicated/expensive (we DIY where possible to save money), but definitely worth the effort and expense imo.

Thanks @LibertyLily . What I would like to understand is how the plumbing and extraction escapes the house if we moved the kitchen as you suggest.

Extraction: does the extractor pipe go from above the cooker and do a 90 degree in the void above the ceiling all the way out over the utility? Or does it go up and out of the new pitched roof but then it is close to skylight and just under existing bedroom window with cooking smells and particles. How would it work? I attach an image of proposed rear elevation.

Plumbing: Similar question. Does the water and waste pipes from the sink run all the way under the floorboards and connect up to utility plumbing. I wonder how the sink waste pipe would have the fall to drain effectively.

Thanks again,

We're using a recirculating extractor so it doesn't need to vent to outside.

Our sink and dishwasher are on an external wall at the back of the house with a drain directly outside, but I'm sure it's possible to run the pipework to the nearest drain if yours isn't. Alternatively, at a previous house we had a macerator pump for a utility sink and washing machine. The pipework ran under the floor, beneath the kitchen to the drain - but obviously the correct fall was necessary.