Ideas for remodelling a tiny kitchen-diner without extending?

[HoldsNoCurrency]

We have a tiny, very dated kitchen and adjoining dining room which desperately need remodelling. There’s currently a fridge freezer in the corner of my dining room which doesn’t fit in the kitchen.
We applied for planning permission to extend years ago, but our garden is very small, with a protected tree adjacent. Planning was soooo slow and expensive that we gave up, thinking they were unlikely to grant it anyway so we should stop bleeding cash and enjoy what limited garden we have.

We would like to take out the dividing wall, but the entire space is only 18’x11’.
Does anyone have advice on remodelling a small space? It still needs to function as both kitchen and dining room, and be flexible enough to accommodate 10 diners at Christmas.
I’ve thought about moving our washing machine out to the garage to free up some space (tumble drier is already out there). Has anyone got this set up in their garage and does it work for you?

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Bump

Could you add a floor plan?

@PinkCamelias sorry this is the best I can do🤦‍♀️

I'm not great on this stuff but we remodelled a similar layout. What worked for us was keeping units at waist height to maximise light and sense of space. We put a big US style fridge freezer and a tiled top open unit which is pan storage the other side of the wall, so there is a sense of connection.

Where does the back door lead to?

Have a look at life at bluebell on Instagram, she's just renovated her lovely kitchen. Small kitchen tips, no/limited wall cupboards, banquette seating.

If you take the wall out you will lose wall space to put things on. I would move as much as possible into the dining room, so get a nice sideboard or dresser and put all the crockery and cutlery in there and then get a really good independent kitchen designer to maximize the storage in the kitchen ans make a really brilliant design. You could even put a serving hatch in?

Alternatively if you do knock down the wall you could have an island on wheels which you could move when needed to put a big table out for Christmas?

Could you lose or move the back door to free up wall space?

18 foot by 11 foot is a good size space especially with the wall out. You can do plenty with it.
Do you need patio doors and side door ? I'd block up the side door then you can have a U shape kitchen on that side. Get tall wall units up to the ceiling to maximise storage.
Dining table in dining area but get one that can be extended for when you have more people round. Then turn it so its long ways across room left/right.

Hi, OP -

If you have drawn correctly, and I don’t doubt you, the kitchen window and dining room doors are already not centred. You needn’t worry about maintaining symmetry, because there isn’t any.

I would consider using the back wall of the kitchen for full height storage: fridge/freezer and tall storage units of your choice. I would put a range cooker on the wall with the kitchen door, or just a cooktop, with ovens either stacked to the side or part of the back wall.

The main thing is that I would have just a peninsula or an island (but I think a peninsula works better) between the kitchen and the dining room, and I would pull it in towards the kitchen as far as possible. How far that us depends partly on where you want the sink and dishwasher, on the window wall or within the peninsula/island.

This will give you a bigger DR and, if you like, seating at the peninsula or island. Mainly I just don’t like a lot of empty space in the middle of a kitchen, but this also gives lower storage. I also line PP’s idea of storing crockery in the DR.

This is just one idea, of course. You can download free or inexpensive kitchen planning software to experiment with. Have fun!

Thank you, the open unit sound like a great idea!

Drive

Will do! Thank you so much!

I love these ideas @Geneticsbunny thank you! I will definitely look into independent kitchen designers.
We have talked about blocking in the back door but it is really used a lot to get to our bins and it would be quite annoying not having this access anymore.

@8misskitty8 thank you great idea, we are pretty attached to our back door but maybe things need to change!

@poetryandwine many thanks for the great advice!

If it’s any help, most new builds we have been looking at have a kitchen/diner measuring 18ft by 10ft. They aren’t huge but are cleverly designed and look nice.

Have a look on zoopla and right move for sale schedules for recently sold houses in your street and area the same style as yours. You can get ideas of what to do with your kitchen space from them.

If you move the back door over a bit you could have space for a wall of units across that back wall. You could have an integrated fridge freezer, a high level oven, integrated microwave etc and maybe even a large pantry cupboard. You might not even need above counter units in the rest of the space.

I wanted to suggest exactly the same as @8misskitty8regarding the kitchen, and the dining table. The tall units against the back wall (the one facing the kitchen window). I would remove the back door to have space for a U shaped kitchen. I’m sure you’ll quickly get used to using the patio doors instead.

Thank you, I will definitely suggest this to the other half. We can move our bins to the other side of the house rather than the driveway. It’s just a slighly longer walk each time but really as you say, once we get used to it it is unlikely to be an issue. I think it will be so worth it for the extra cupboard space.

An open-plan layout with full-height storage and an extendable dining table could work really well. Moving the washing machine to the garage would also free up valuable space. I’d recommend choosing a bright worktop too. We had a similarly small kitchen and used a pure white worktop, which made it feel much brighter and more open. Monolux helped us, and we were really happy with the result.

I agree. Keep the wall and use for clever dresser-type storage oin the dining area . Make space for a fridge freezer in kitchen and put washing machine in garage.

I’d block up the side door and have a U-shaped kitchen.

I've just done this! I kept some of the wall between because of concerns about it being weight bearing.

My kitchen is probably smaller than yours and I've got a few ceiling high cupboards and a reasonably big fridge freezer in it as well as a cupboard bin.

I've got a large table in the dining room that could seat 6.

My washer and dryer are in the garage (which is attached to the house so the water was easy to hook up).

I'm a minimalist and I don't like cooking so the lack of counter space doesn't bother me. I've kept everything really plain and airy with french doors and a big window in the kitchen.