Redesigning a kitchen-diner, would you rather have more work surface space or a more spacious dining area?

[hattyyellow]

Any help/thoughts/experiences welcomed!

We are trying to redesign our kitchen with a fairly tight budget. At the moment, we have a lot of worksurface going around in a horseshoe shape (odd shaped room!).

We have a small dining area at the end of the kitchen and along one side runs the worktop.

I don't particulary like the worktop, it's a very dingy drab colour but we can't afford to replace it. Our dining area is also very cramped, to seat six (and we are a family of five) everyone has to get up and down to let the others in. So every morning at breakfast we are like jack in the boxes, which is a pain when I am trying to feed the baby and our bigger DC are trying to get things and I am jumping up to get milk etc.

I'd really like to chop back half the worktop, still leaving a reasonable amount.

My questions are - would you rather, like my DH, keep all the worktop for useful preparation space? Or have a more spacious dining area, where you can get in and out more easily?

And if we did chop back the worktop, is there an easy way of prettifying the chopped off end? It is made out of granite so obviously a raw edge would look a bit odd.

Would welcome any thoughts!

We've had a similar dilemma with planning a new kitchen/dining area recently. We opted to sacrifice a bit of work top for a more separate dining area - my rationale being that I can use the dining table to prepare food on, as well as the worktop, but not vice versa

Can't help with prettying up ends of granite, though, no experience of that!

Ahhh! I like your thinking re preparing food on dining table..

My argument to Dh is that after a meal most people prefer to sit back and relax and have space to move their chair back. He's not hugely convinced by this - but I bet if you polled 100 people more people would prefer to push their chair back after eating than not..

If you have a kitchen table which is also suitable for preparing vegtables and the like - then get ride of the worktop. Most owrktops are full of crap anyway!

then you can sit and prepare dinner rather than stand.

i have a tiny kitchen, but planned it so at least I could put 5 plates down to dish up and a bit of space each side of the cooker.

Presumably granite gets cut and prettified every time it's fitted. How about getting a few quotes from a granite supplier/fitter for cutting and polishing.

Ahh, good idea Toots. Will get a quote.

Ivykaty - I think that's what is at the heart of it, DH is a clutter hoarderer and I am a get rid of everything as soon as possible.

So to him lots of worktop to put random bits of screws/paperwork on = bliss and to me lots of worktop covered with random bits of screws/paperwork = big mess that gets in my way when I am trying to feed kids!

I'd also rather mimimise the drab effect the worktop has in the kitchen - cutting it back would make the room more light perhaps, it's a very drab colour that seems to absorb the lights rather than reflecting it..

Hatty could you make a 'end stop' for the counter where it is chopped off with something appropriate - so that there is a raised end to the counter (which would stop things falling off) which looks as though it was designed to be there - eg made of the same material as the cupboards below/ piece of wood that stands up with a shaped top like a skirting board.... ????

We had a bigger dining area initially in our kitchen. We then put a new kitchen in and made it smaller. Now I wish I had left it the same size. I guess it depends on how much space you already have. We have a small table 3ft x 3ft and fit 4 chairs round with not alot of space. We could extend the table out (to fit 6)but it would be a squeeze.

Get rid of some worktop definitely, as you point out it just attracts clutter. I have found a smaller one encourages you to tidy up as you go along more. Re prettifying the edge, I used to have a granite worktop that sat in a wooden frame, basically like a picture frame, you could try something like that.

If you went for Mistlethrush's idea, you could think about painting it with blackboard paint and use as notice board?

Ends of counters can also be v useful for putting cloth-hanging pegs on. According to my brother, at least (not tried it myself)

Defo get rid of some of the worktop. A feeling of space is just as important as actual cluttery space.

Thanks all, these are some really good ideas - particulary for dealing with end of counter problem. Just need to convince DH but I certainly have a more detailed argument than just wanting to get rid of his clutter!

Does anyone know a cheap way of replacing worktops? I just despise ours - I know I should like it because we inherited this expensive granite but it's the most depressing sludgy greeny/brown and impossible to clean! Can you put a new work surface over the top? Or is there a cheap way of buying a surface just like you can buy new cupboard fronts?