More useful hallway - any ideas?

[LucyJane]

Hello, I'm new here and am after some ideas for how to solve a couple of niggly issues in some proposed changes to floor plan.

 

After nearly 5 years in our house and not being able to agree on how to get a table into the kitchen (essentially create a kitchen-diner) we have got an architect involved and have his plans. His  brief was (short version):

1. create a kitchen diner

2. make use of the daylight travelling around the house

3. somehow make the entrance bigger/better so that we don't have to shuffle around each other and have somewhere to put shoes and jackets

4. £60k budget

 

Attached is the suggestion. I like the extension/kitchen diner and the use of the daylight (house faces E and is elevated 13 steps up), but we just cannot get our heads around the front of the house and where to put the shoes and jackets without having to cross into the house with muddy shoes. When we are all trying to get out of house at the same time for school such a small cupboard with a door into the hallway just looks to me like we will be bumping into each other. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

NB: every wall in this house is weight bearing!

 

Thank you so much!

6 VENTRY-sk01-E ELE.pdf 6 VENTRY-sk01-GF PLAN-demo.pdf

[ETC]

Can you post the existing plans and I’ll take a look.

[ProDave]

A few random thoughts.

 

Entrance to utility from Kitchen breaks up the run of worktop.  Have a combined utility and downstairs WC accessed from the hall so no door into kitchen.

 

The cupboard from the hall between the study and WC is the obvious coat / shoe space.  Don't have a door, a neatly detailed recess with hanging for coats and a shoe rack at the bottom.

 

you might want to redact your address from the plans........

[ETC]

@LucyJane

[Bozza]

In my opinion ETCs suggestion gives you significantly better useable space/storage.  Especially if kids in house.  Added benefit being if outside you can access the WC without trampling through house.

 

Your kitchen will have more storage & uninterrupted worktop run.  You only really need to access utility room directly if you have limited kitchen storage, which you don’t.

 

the seating bench done with some contemporary joinery will be a really nice lux feature at minimum cost.

 

 

[AliG]

@ETChas doen a great job there.

 

Gap in the midldle of kitchen unites would look stupid. Also if the utility room is for doing laundry, you would have to walk it all through the kitchen, now the door is closer to the stairs.

 

I might mirror the design so the door to the utility is closer to the bottom of the stairs and the coat cupboard is closer to the front door, although plumbing etc might be easier if the WM and TD are on the back of the kitchen wall.

 

I would get a kitchen specialist to look at the kitchen design, I think it could be improved. Why for example is the sink shown as half across the window and the hob off to the side facing the wall. I am a big fan of putting the hob on the island facing the kitchen. A sofa at the back like that is going to feel quite odd facing the table.

 

I think it is not that big a room and you have a lot going on there. I often see designs showing a breakfast bar and a table. They are almost right next to each other, so do you need both? Chairs take up a surprisingly large amount of room once you account for people moving them in and out from the table/bar and not pushing them back neatly. Also the folding doors are very large, it could be useful to make them a little smaller and have more wall space. It is somewhat dependent on what you want to use the room for.

[ETC]

@LucyJane

[LucyJane]

This is brilliant! Thank you so so much for all the suggestions! Having read all your suggestions we completely agree that the access to the utility shouldn't be via the kitchen for all the reasons you listed. 

Thank you for your plans, ETC. They have really made us think about alternatives we'd never considered! I think we would have the door to the toilet straight ahead to avoid guests having to go through the utility area, even if it meant missing some coat hooks. The only thing is that we would have to move another wall (the current toilet wall), which would add to costs, but it looks worth it. Need to sleep on this one! 

 

Concerning the kitchen layout, we agree that it's not ideal. Loosing the utility door is definitely a bonus and I think we might then put storage cupboards up against the west wall and the fridge where the utility door is now. However, that would mean cutting the island! Hmm, not sure.

Thank you, ETC for your suggested layout. We were hoping to put sliding doors into the wall between the kitchen and lounge, so we would loose that wall space, too, but it would allow us to interact more and open the whole garden facing wall up. To save money, we are also thinking of leaving the window openings as they are and adding a window in what will be the new extension in the kitchen.

It all comes down to money! If we had more of it I would extend the back windows and I think I might add the end of the hallway to the kitchen (then move the wall dividing kitchen and lounge to be continuous with the garage wall and only access the lounge via the kitchen), as I think the hallway is a waste of space.

 

Still trying to think about the best layout for kitchen/dining/chilling. I would like and island that you can sit at and that is just prepping space. I agree that sofa is weird, but was looking forward to relaxing in the sunshine at any time of day. Had previously thought about putting a bench in the new extension and then the dining table up against it, but it all looks a bit cramped and I can't make it work. Any suggestions welcome! 

 

After all that I think it's time I slept over all this. Thank you ever so much please let me know if you have any further suggestions!

[ETC]

Let me know you like and don’t like and “must haves” in the layout I’ve shown and I’ll take another look.

[LucyJane]

Thank you so much, @ETC! That is so kind!

 

For the utility room I think the only change would be to have toilet door straight ahead (North wall) and then probably a sliding door into utility room (I'm a fan of sliding doors, they save so much space!).

 

For the kitchen it's more difficult and i can't quite figure it out, so any of your amazing tips would be very much appreciated! We definitely want the east, south and west facing windows (and skylight(s)) in the new extension bit, as this is one of the main reasons for the extension: catching the light at all times of day.

We also definitely want double sliding doors into the lounge and into the garden.

We'd also like an island we can sit at that ideally doesn't have anything on it.

Otherwise it's a matter of fitting in a big dining table, as much kitchen as possible (some floor to ceiling storage would be great!) and some sort of relaxing area (maybe a couple of small armchairs rather than a sofa? But easy either way), whilst not going crazy on "unnecessary" costs like moving more walls and having to put in too many new lintels. 

 

Thank you ever so much!

[ETC]

[LucyJane]

Thank you so so much @ETC! Sorry for not responding earlier, the notifications settings don't seem to work for me.

 

Moving the door makes sense to give more kitchen space and having the sink in front of a window is also logical. We will have a good look at this. Thank you ever so much!