Ideas please - what to do with kitchen space

lisal0u

Hi Maggie,

We have just fitted a new kitchen and had a similar dilema to you! Our kitchen was much smaller though:


I could basically stretch out my arms and touch each wall! We ended up taking out the wall to the right which led into the dining room and the wall straight ahead:



I love the kitchen diner we now have as its much more sociable! I wanted to be able to see and join in with my guests whilst cooking so we opted for an island where the wall was removed:



We went with ikea in the end as it was much cheaper and they offer a 25 year guarentee! The joiner we used said it looked more expensive then it was!

Im all for kitchen/diner or open plan!

Lisa x

maggie111

Mwillets - the more I think about it the more I really like that idea - it would give a nice view out into the garden too.

Lisa, loving the look of your kitchen!! If I had an additional dining room I'd definitely be extending out into that!! Problem at the minute is it's only a 2 bed terrace - so the rooms downstairs only include the lounge and the kitchen... so it would make all the downstairs open plan, and as it's quite small it would really be like a large kitchen with couches almost lol.

goggle

Personally I HATE eating in the living room so having a dining area next to the kitchen is very important, but if you never eat at a dining table (tray in front of tv?) or don't mind carrying your food through the lounge (spag bol spilled on carpet?) by all means put a table in the lounge.
There looks like a lot of cupboard space already, but you could def put wall units where the existing freezer is if you wanted, but unless you turn that space into a proper utility room with washer, dryer etc what will you use it for?
Is your "kitchen crap" worth sacrificing a lovely dining room for?

Personally I'd get rid of most of the "crap" and keep a lovely space to eat in

At the end of the day it's your home & you need to make it work for the way you live ...

rachbc

If there is no seperate dining room to knock through into I'd def make room to eat in the kitchen rather than go totally open plan. That could either be a breakfast bar or small table and chairs - if you have room I'd go for table and chairs as I find breakfast bars a bit like eating in a burger bar and not hugely socialable sitting in a row but thats just me!

Is there room in the carpeted bit for some slim-line units and a table and chairs - Ikea have some full height units that are only 37cm deep so could give you storage without eating into all the potential dining area.

dander

I'm not quite clear if you mean that by knocking the wall down you would end up with your entire downstairs living space as one room? Living/dining/kitchen? If so, I don't think I'd personally want the whole lot knocked together. I think having a seperate kitchen/diner and living room is the nicest, most usable layout. And I'd vote for keeping room for a table rather than a breakfast bar. Breakfast bars shout "small kitchen, no room for a table" to me, which would be a shame I think, when you've actually got room for a comfortable kitchen diner - particularly if you get a neat table where the chairs tuck tightly underneath, so they're not in the way of the doors when people need to pass through, but you can always spread round a bit and use the corridor bit when people want to sit around the table.

My first thought is that the existing wall cupboards are very small. Some shops do cupboards in a choice of heights, I know Magnet do, so you can have wall cupboards going nearly up to the ceiling and giving you much more storage space.

Your idea about putting the oven where the washing machine is, is nice. I can just picture it with the oven and hood central to that little U-shape and making a nice feature. You should be able to tuck the washing machine under the drainer bit of the sink - (I think, I'm not entirely clear how much space you've got where the sink is now.

It's hard to visualise just how much room you have, but could you perhaps fit in a dresser with a dining table at the dining end? Or if your tastes are more modern than a dresser type of style, perhaps you could use some kitchen units to create a sort of dresser effect that matches the rest of the kitchen - maybe use some wall units as the base to keep it close to the wall and put shelves above or something like that?