Kitchen layout

[Hopeful]

Hi there, could anyone help with layout of the kitchen living area and the lounge please! We like the idea of two separate rooms, then done away with the double doors between the two. Now that we are getting kitchen plans done we are finding the kitchen space on the tight side for a sofa and that too, so has anyone any ideas on the arrangement the kitchen should be to suit, and if we should move the opening to the lounge or just totally open up that wall? 

[Ferdinand]

Plan looks good.

 

Perhaps the obvious and least disturbing thing is to replace the bottom door with a pocket door slider.

 

That will give you an extra 600mm to 1m without having to play games with other features.

Edited June 30, 2020 by Ferdinand

[ProDave]

I am not sure what is going on in the "dining" bit?

 

Is that an L shaped island with breakfast bar seating, plus a small dining table next to it?  Too much in one space?

 

Agreed change that door to the vestibule to a slider.  Personally I would change the door to the downstairs bathroom to opening inwards (after sign off of course)

 

Then rather than face to face sofas that make no sense,  a dining table in one bottom corner and a sofa in the other bottom corner, and a more conventional rectangular island with the seating along the bottom edge in the plan facing the kitchen window.

 

P.S I know that is only an architects plan, but you can't have a dishwasher under the sink bowl.

 

 

[Hopeful]

1 hour ago, Ferdinand said:

Plan looks good.

 

Perhaps the obvious and least disturbing thing is to replace the bottom door with a pocket door slider.

 

That will give you an extra 600mm to 1m without having to play games with other features.

Thanks. The architect actually had pocket doors in there and a few other bits, we removed them as we weren't keen on them...mistake maybe?!

[Hopeful]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

I am not sure what is going on in the "dining" bit?

 

Is that an L shaped island with breakfast bar seating, plus a small dining table next to it?  Too much in one space?

 

Agreed change that door to the vestibule to a slider.  Personally I would change the door to the downstairs bathroom to opening inwards (after sign off of course)

 

Then rather than face to face sofas that make no sense,  a dining table in one bottom corner and a sofa in the other bottom corner, and a more conventional rectangular island with the seating along the bottom edge in the plan facing the kitchen window.

 

P.S I know that is only an architects plan, but you can't have a dishwasher under the sink bowl.

 

 

That is what is going on. We have since thought on just a long straight island....an over hang for stools at the right hand end if need be, but do we really need any breakfast bar area? 

The sofas would be both facing one of the corners or wherever the tv will be. 

We were thinking on a bench along the back of the island so the table could sit against the island and save space, that's where that idea came from. 

[Declan52]

So move the door so when you come in so you turn left take off your shoes and then the door is straight in front of you.

A simple rectangle Island with hob on it if you want or just keep it free of anything. If it's 900 mm wide you can get 2 stools at the end. 1200 will get you 3.

You can then have your table top made from the same surface as the worktop if the budget allows. Can do this with corian but obviously not cheap. Or can get an oak top for a contrast between the worktop and table top. Endless possibilities.

A single couch and a 65" 4k TV in the corner would be more than adequate with lounge next door if you need more space for people.

[AliG]

It sounds like the architect designed this. They are not good at kitchen designs in my experience. We took our plans to the kitchen designer before we signed off on them so that we still had time to alter the layout.

 

A longer rectangular island 3mx1.2m with chairs along one side would work better. At the moment you have a large dead space to the right of the island, the island is also 1.8m wide so ends up in front of the kitchen door. That also seems an odd place for chairs, assuming that is what the two semi circles on the left are.

 

If you do this you will be able to walk past the island/chairs to the lounge, you might want to move the kitchen door down slightly to make it as straight a shot as possible across to the lounge.

 

Do you actually want seats at the island and a table? There is room, but it makes quite a big difference to the layout. For example if you would rather have a table you might make the island smaller and have a table at the right hand side.

 

That door to the rear vestibule is in a very awkward place, even if it was a slider it would be right in the middle of the seating area, something I would want to avoid. If you made the boot room smaller and the vestibule larger then moved the door from the kitchen to the vestibule to the left then that would give you a much better seating area in the kitchen, or could that door just go into the boot room? I can see why you would want it to the vestibule to access the shower oom.

 

If you make the lounge door smaller and opposite the kitchen door you could create a 3x3m area in the corner for two sofas and a TV. You could fit a table then at the other side of the door, but again the position of the door is taking a large room and splitting it into two small areas.

 

Can we see the whole ground floorplan please. It looks like you have a utility, boot room and shower room there. How much room do you have to manoeuvre? For example if you could move all these rooms to the left hand side the kitchen could have windows at both sides which would probably make a much nicer room. At the moment I suspect it would be very dark where the sofas are as it is a long way from a window.

 

 

 

 

[Ferdinand]

12 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

So move the door so when you come in so you turn left take off your shoes and then the door is straight in front of you.

A simple rectangle Island with hob on it if you want or just keep it free of anything. If it's 900 mm wide you can get 2 stools at the end. 1200 will get you 3.

You can then have your table top made from the same surface as the worktop if the budget allows. Can do this with corian but obviously not cheap. Or can get an oak top for a contrast between the worktop and table top. Endless possibilities.

A single couch and a 65" 4k TV in the corner would be more than adequate with lounge next door if you need more space for people.

 

I would caution against a zig-zag in a tight space like that for 2 reasons

 

1 - It will be a reet sod to carry stuff through especially decent sized anything. eg a box of wine or a 600 unit  or a big toolbox or a set of steps.

2 - You lose a lot  of wall storage. Add  up both  options and see. 

 

I have a layout like that in my utility.  It is a sod.

 

F

Edited June 30, 2020 by Ferdinand

[Declan52]

5 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

 

I would caution against a zig-zag in a tight space like that for 2 reasons

 

1 - It will be a reet sod to carry stuff through especially decent sized anything. eg a box of wine or a 600 unit  or a big toolbox or a set of steps.

2 - You lose a lot  of wall storage. Add  up both  options and see. 

 

I have a layout like that in my utility.  It is a sod.

 

F

There's a set of double doors in the next room to carry anything through.

What would you want on the wall down there?? Room above the boot bench for a coat hanger.

Really need to see what's to the left on the plan to see if there are any other options.

[Ferdinand]

49 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

There's a set of double doors in the next room to carry anything through.

What would you want on the wall down there?? Room above the boot bench for a coat hanger.

Really need to see what's to the left on the plan to see if there are any other options.

Good point.

[Hopeful]

1 hour ago, AliG said:

It sounds like the architect designed this. They are not good at kitchen designs in my experience. We took our plans to the kitchen designer before we signed off on them so that we still had time to alter the layout.

 

A longer rectangular island 3mx1.2m with chairs along one side would work better. At the moment you have a large dead space to the right of the island, the island is also 1.8m wide so ends up in front of the kitchen door. That also seems an odd place for chairs, assuming that is what the two semi circles on the left are.

 

If you do this you will be able to walk past the island/chairs to the lounge, you might want to move the kitchen door down slightly to make it as straight a shot as possible across to the lounge.

 

Do you actually want seats at the island and a table? There is room, but it makes quite a big difference to the layout. For example if you would rather have a table you might make the island smaller and have a table at the right hand side.

 

That door to the rear vestibule is in a very awkward place, even if it was a slider it would be right in the middle of the seating area, something I would want to avoid. If you made the boot room smaller and the vestibule larger then moved the door from the kitchen to the vestibule to the left then that would give you a much better seating area in the kitchen, or could that door just go into the boot room? I can see why you would want it to the vestibule to access the shower oom.

 

If you make the lounge door smaller and opposite the kitchen door you could create a 3x3m area in the corner for two sofas and a TV. You could fit a table then at the other side of the door, but again the position of the door is taking a large room and splitting it into two small areas.

 

Can we see the whole ground floorplan please. It looks like you have a utility, boot room and shower room there. How much room do you have to manoeuvre? For example if you could move all these rooms to the left hand side the kitchen could have windows at both sides which would probably make a much nicer room. At the moment I suspect it would be very dark where the sofas are as it is a long way from a window.

 

 

 

 

 

[Declan52]

Think you need to reconfigure the utility room. At present to do your washing your going to have to carry the wash basket down the stairs then go into the kitchen then into the vestibule then the boot room to finally get to the washing machine. If you move the units to the opposite wall you can get a door to open out into the main hall. Just have the boot room bench on the outside wall so it's just a straight run.

[AliG]

Did this last night then the site went down.

 

There are definitely other variations of the utility room and the shower room, but I think the longer room makes more room for seating and a dual aspect would lead to a much nicer room.

Edited July 1, 2020 by AliG

[Hopeful]

21 hours ago, Declan52 said:

Think you need to reconfigure the utility room. At present to do your washing your going to have to carry the wash basket down the stairs then go into the kitchen then into the vestibule then the boot room to finally get to the washing machine. If you move the units to the opposite wall you can get a door to open out into the main hall. Just have the boot room bench on the outside wall so it's just a straight run.

Thanks that's a good idea too! 

[Hopeful]

46 minutes ago, AliG said:

Did this last night then the site went down.

 

There are definitely other variations of the utility room and the shower room, but I think the longer room makes more room for seating and a dual aspect would lead to a much nicer room.

That fairly makes the room a decent size! We had that to begin with, but we didn't like the idea of walking through the utility, and being a farmhouse we wanted a toilet and decent boot room area when you come in the door. Thanks for the good idea though,If funds allowed we should have built bigger just!

[AliG]

Ah of course the farmhouse thing explains it. I was trying to figure out why so much room was being given over to the boot room and rear vestibule. It is 9 square metres which is almost the size of a whole other room. If you really think you will use that space then that is fine. A lot depends on how you use the space in your house. It sounds like that will be your main entrance.

 

Try this, I think you need to combine the table with the island to have a seating area. TBH I would still prefer the dual aspect room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 1, 2020 by AliG

[Hopeful]

29 minutes ago, AliG said:

Ah of course the farmhouse thing explains it. I was trying to figure out why so much room was being given over to the boot room and rear vestibule. It is 9 square metres which is almost the size of a whole other room. If you really think you will use that space then that is fine. A lot depends on how you use the space in your house. It sounds like that will be your main entrance.

 

Try this, I think you need to combine the table with the island to have a seating area.

 

 

 

 

 

When you see that, its the door in the middle of the bottom wall is our biggest hindrance! That would work well i'm sure. The table being against the island probably is as good as we can do though, but is the island and kitchen laid out to the best potential? We cant decide on it at all, would the island be best coming off the left wall or even the right wall and the table the opposite way round on the end of it? 

With the 3 kids i think the boot room area will be busy...jackets and dirty footwear galore i'd imagine. 

[AliG]

You don't want to have to walk far from the door to get into the kitchen area so the island should not go to the left side.

 

You could put it to the right side, but you wouldn't really gain any useful space and it becomes a long way to the lounge. The space at the right end of the island would be more useful. Chairs should be at that side not in front of the kitchen door as in the original design.

 

The issue that you are having really is that you have a room with three entrances/exits. Ideally you want a clear run to these, hence I have tried to make it a clear shot to the lounge. The problem is making a clear shot to the rear vestibule means that you have around 4sq metres of kitchen that you cannot use. This is almost 10% of the room. Ideally areas like that should be in natural spaces so they aren't taking away from the room. For example if a table was where the sofas are, the chairs would back up into that space so maybe half that space wold be there even without a door there and it wouldn't be so wasted. The area between the kitchen door and the lounge is this type of space, necessary for people to get into the chairs at the island, so it isn't wasted space.

[Hopeful]

Thanks for everyones comments on changes we could make, made us think a lot and we gave decided to link the house to the garage. We know it will add a bit of cost but hopefully it will be our forever home! 

[ProDave]

^^ I like that much better, everything just flows so much better. Plus it is nice to have the route to the garage covered.

[Hopeful]

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

^^ I like that much better, everything just flows so much better. Plus it is nice to have the route to the garage covered.

Thanks. Aye, means we will be a bit stretched possibly, but it really does cover everything we want now. Means the HWT and any other plant can go in the garage, the UFH manifold will go in the utility, the mains board was ment to be in below the stairs, would it be best in the garage now?

We might need a water pump to get a decent pressure, the water was originally going to come in the wall at the utility, but would it make sense to have a tank sunk in the ground behind the garage and have the pump in there and feed coming from the garage as well? 

[AliG]

Much better. I am a massive fan of the garage being connected to the house.

 

I would probably try and squeeze a window in at the other side of the kitchen next to the back door.

 

Any reason for the small garage door. It would be very difficult to get two cars through there.

 

Unless you plan to use the back of the garage as a workshop I would do away with the door and window and save yourself a couple of grand. Depends on your site layout but why not just go through the front door.

 

The electrician will know where is best to put the board to route cables. If the back of the garage works then access should be a lot easier.

 

If you need a water tank you would probably have space at the back of the garage which would be easier and cheaper than a hole. Again much easier access if anything needs fixed. 
 

As the garage is 8m long you could create a plant room in the back corner where the door is for this stuff. It does take up a lot of space.