Utility room or bigger kitchen

Becles

Paul_the_Painter wrote: »

Create door between lounge and dining room.

Get rid of door between kitchen and dining room

I wouldn't do that. We have a similar set up to the OP but with through lounge and dining room. The previous owner blocked up the door between the dining room and the kitchen. Now when meals are ready, they have to be carried out of the kitchen, through the hall, through the living room and into the dining room. Repeat in reverse to clear the table. If I could afford a new kitchen, I'd put the door between the two rooms back in again.

OP it depends on how long you are going to stay in the house. If you intend being there for a long time, I would do it as you want it rather than for prospective buyers at some point in the future. Fashions change so what buyers want now, might not be what they want in the future!

Personally I'd put a door between the utility and kitchen and block the external kitchen door up to make more space for cupboards etc. I'd keep all the rooms seperate as I prefer it that way. I don't like kitchen diners as I don't want to sit and look at dirty pans when I'm eating my evening meal. I like a seperate utility room as it keeps dirty washing away from areas where you prepare food and it's handy for leaving things like mucky shoes so you don't trail dirt through the kitchen and I can leave a clothes horse set up in there to dry clothes.

slummymummyof3

When was the house built? It might be that it was built relatively recently and as such the foundations for your utility room are good for a second storey extension in the future.

pinkteapot

In a family home a utility room is brilliant. We just bought a house with one and I love it! The washing machine and dishwasher are in it and we now have three doors between those and the lounge; we don't hear them! It's also nice having a room you can come into with muddy boots from the garden, a sink for washing hands after gardening etc. It's lovely not to have all that in the kitchen.

I always wanted a kitchen-diner but we ended up with them separate. I would prefer it if we could fit a breakfast table in the kitchen, but I now like the separate dining room. A kitchen-diner is nice for informal evenings, but if you're having people round for a Sunday lunch or something, it's nice that they don't see the bomb-site that cooking it creates in the kitchen.

Agree with becles that I definitely wouldn't lose the door between the kitchen and dining room. I vote for kitchen-diner and separate utility room. It's nice having a door between the lounge and the dining room so that if you have a smelly dinner you can keep some of the smell out of the lounge.

must_try_harder_2

We have just bought a new house and we had to make this choice. We are going for separate utility room as you can close away all the mess effectively and have the kitchen looking nice most of the time.

pinkteapot wrote: »

In a family home a utility room is brilliant. We just bought a house with one and I love it! The washing machine and dishwasher are in it and we now have three doors between those and the lounge; we don't hear them! It's also nice having a room you can come into with muddy boots from the garden, a sink for washing hands after gardening etc. It's lovely not to have all that in the kitchen.

I always wanted a kitchen-diner but we ended up with them separate. I would prefer it if we could fit a breakfast table in the kitchen, but I now like the separate dining room. A kitchen-diner is nice for informal evenings, but if you're having people round for a Sunday lunch or something, it's nice that they don't see the bomb-site that cooking it creates in the kitchen.

Someone with their dishwasher in the utility - thanks! Can I ask do you find this ok or is it a nuisance having to move everything from the kitchen into a separate room to load into the dishwasher? We want (and have been strongly advised by our builder) to have the dishwasher in the utility. But the kitchen planner said that's not a good idea and planned it into the kitchen anyway, and most people we have mentioned this to say it'll be awkward.

hethmar

We have an old house with a utility room (it was a walk in pantry originally). Im not a great housewife and its nice to bung a lot of the toot and tross in there out of the way. I also had the airing cupboard moved to the utility room from upstairs as it made sense to me to have the washing machine, tumble drier and the airing cupboard all together in one place. And it saves trolling up and down with ironed washing.

We have a very big kitchen - 30 feet x 16 feet and everyone loves it when they visit. We have two receptions which arent very big (both 14 x 12)and we had toyed with knocking the wall down between them but everyone has said they would much prefer having separate rooms. So we have stuck with that. I guess with such a big kitchen large reception arent so important.


Re the dishwasher - oh, no, not in the utility, keep it near the sink in the kitchen otherwise you will be walking backwards and forwards all the time and in my case, dropping stuff as you go.

*Chattie*

must_try_harder wrote: »

We have just bought a new house and we had to make this choice. We are going for separate utility room as you can close away all the mess effectively and have the kitchen looking nice most of the time.



Someone with their dishwasher in the utility - thanks! Can I ask do you find this ok or is it a nuisance having to move everything from the kitchen into a separate room to load into the dishwasher? We want (and have been strongly advised by our builder) to have the dishwasher in the utility. But the kitchen planner said that's not a good idea and planned it into the kitchen anyway, and most people we have mentioned this to say it'll be awkward.

dont forget unless you keep all your dishes in the utility room you will also have to take all the clean dishes back to the kitchen. i have my dw under the draining board quick rinse of dishes and into the dw then into the nearly cupboard when finished.

pinkteapot

It does irritate me a bit having to carry all the washing up through to the utility. I have plans; we will completely refit both the kitchen and utility in the spring (working on bathrooms first). We have a reasonably sized kitchen and yet the storage is atrocious. There are only three drawers in the kitchen and utility combined! And a large section of wall space that could have an extra four cupboard or so on it. I will see how I feel about the dishwasher in the utility as time goes on; we may well move it to the kitchen when we re-design. I like having the noise tucked away but obviously it's not as noisy as the washing machine.

must_try_harder_2

*Chattie* wrote: »

dont forget unless you keep all your dishes in the utility room you will also have to take all the clean dishes back to the kitchen. i have my dw under the draining board quick rinse of dishes and into the dw then into the nearly cupboard when finished.

We have plenty of storage in the utility so keeping all the plates and pots and pans in there won't be a problem, but then obviously every time I cook I'll have to fetch everything from another room which is going to be a pain. We also have a much larger sink, draining board and accompanying worksuface space in the utility room than the kitchen so rinsing the stuff in this room would be more practical than in the small sink we can fit in the kitchen.

I know ideally the dishwasher would be in the kitchen but our kitchen is not on an external wall so the plumbing would have to go under the floor for almost 3 metres. Our builder has said that with that much piping there is a good chance of blockage and I don't fancy having to take the utility room flooring up on a regular basis. However it might be worth taking the risk if general consensus is that dishwasher in utility is a silly idea.

hethmar

Our dishwasher makes hardly any noise (AEG) -its built in behind a cupboard door and its very quiet.

pinkteapot

hethmar wrote: »

Our dishwasher makes hardly any noise (AEG) -its built in behind a cupboard door and its very quiet.

Ours is a very yellowed Whirlpool that the previous owners left behind (we didn't have a dishwasher at our previous place so it was appreciated anyway!). I think that come the spring, if a new one would be nice and quiet, it will end up re-designed into the kitchen, giving us more storage space in the utility (which just has a run along one wall of washing machine - cupboard - dishwasher).

Our washing machine (brand new) made a terrible noise the first time we used it. My brother (who is a plumber) and my husband installed it. Failing miserably to read the installation instructions, they had left the huge screws in the back that lock the drum during transit. :eek: