Would a small kitchen put you off

GoldenShadow

The fact you've got a quote to knock the dividing wall would potentially allow me to be less bothered. I love kitchen diners and the only real kitchen I would loathe having is a galley kitchen (also loathe a lounge diner, nooooooooooo!).

I quite like conservatories as dining rooms, when scanning right move if a kitchen is small I look at how easy a conservatory could be stuck on the back of it. Dining room could become study or snug, or still knock wall down and have the bigger kitchen with all appliances and space for dog beds etc

Personally I couldn't live with a small kitchen though. If I was looking at a house like yours I would factor what I'd feel the *need* to do into an offer. I spend an awful lot of my time in the kitchen, not really sure why but its hands down my favourite room in a house Plus having two retriever sized dogs a small kitchen is a bit of a disaster zone whilst cooking..!

ETA: I see a lot of lounge diners and kitchens which are small, maybe I am less bothered because I fully expect to have to knock walls down/build something else to get the kitchen diner I want, one day?!

rosyw

Personally I couldn't cope with a small kitchen and the lack of a proper oven would be the final nail in the coffin, but I actually COOK! :rotfl: and even though I live alone yours would be way too small for me, & the storage space would never be enough.
It IS horses for courses though, some folks would have no problem at all, and some would want to knock that wall down and completely redesign the whole space.
At the very least I'd put in an oven, the lack of one, or at least space for one, I think would be off putting to a lot of families.

phoebe1989seb

Yep, IMHO the lack of oven would be an instant turn-off for any families looking to buy, but surely the space where the stools are could be utilised for this?

Having the fridge/freezer in the adjoining beakfast room wasn't an issue for us the three years we were in our last house and tbh, as we had the previous owners' Rayburn, we could have foregone the range cooker and put in side-by-side fridge and freezer in that space, but instead chose to redesign the layout the way we did when we put in the new kitchen as we found it more aesthetically pleasing.

The family we sold to weren't intending to do this either, so guess they were happy to continue with the layout as it was There was a separate dining room too for formal dining (as we prefer to eat Christmas dinner etc away from the mess of the kitchen) so the breakfast room becoming an extension of the kitchen wasn't really an issue.

In our current kitchen we're fortunate enough to have the opposite problem - too much space, lol - having built a kitchen extension to create a large eat-in space we've ended up with five times the space we had in the last house and had to buy additional stuff to fill it, but as we like the *unfitted* look, it's been fun finding vintage pieces to suit our style!

cattie

A small kitchen doesn't put me off now I live alone. In fact nearly a year ago bought a place with quite a small kitchen after years of living in properties with quite large or generous open plan kitchen/dining rooms. Even though I no longer enjoy cooking, I wouldn't like to be without a full size oven & hob though. I don't have a dishwasher as even when I had one I never used it. In my house I am the dishwasher!

I've not long had the kitchen here refitted & this has enabled me to ensure I have all the cupboard space I really need & an integrated washing machine. I have a decent sized dining room, so do have somewhere to sit for meals or entertaining.

Slinky

Westie22 wrote: »

We'd have been better to have had one of those small bowl shaped sinks, instead of the standard one with a draining area, that would have made more worktop space.

No! Don't go there. We had one of those in the flat my husband used to live in during the week for his work. Complete pain to do the washing up as you can't put anything down to drain whilst washing other stuff without the worktop getting sopping wet. Only works if there are two of you, one washing, the other drying, so hopeless if you are there alone. We ended up buying a plastic dish rack and a large tray to stand it on to get round the problem.

Callie22

I currently rent a house with a very tiny galley kitchen (about 6' long by 4' wide) and I absolutely hate it, so a small kitchen would definitely put me off if I was looking to buy somewhere. The main issues for me are that the kitchen is so small there is no room for a fridge - ours currently lives in the living room. It's too small for two people to cook in and if you have the washing machine on, the noise makes conversation impossible. To give you an idea of how tiny my kitchen is, if I bend down to check something in the oven, I generally switch the washing machine on with my backside

I love to cook so I find the lack of storage and preparation space so frustrating - I have two small wall-mounted cupboards that I use for food, two drawers and two and half storage cupboards, and there just isn't the room to store everything adequately. It doesn't help that the kitchen is very badly designed but you can't really do much about the fundamental lack of space. For example, if I put two plates out on the worktop whilst I'm using the hob, that's all of my preparation space gone. It's also annoying that just one thing out of place makes the room look like a tip.

The one blessing to this is that we rent so it's thankfully not my kitchen, but it has definitely made me think sensibly about space for when we do buy. A small kitchen is definitely a big no for me, and I think it would be something that would put off any keen cook.

Westie22

I went on the website of one of the big DIY stores and did a plan of a new kitchen, to show the layout of what could potentially be done.

In the plan I've put an oven in the space under the gas hob, and put drawers in

I've put a fridge freezer in the cubby hole, so that leaves me with some free space where the under counter fridge is now. That's given me some extra cupboard space.

In the stool/worktop area I've put a larder thing which has a space in the middle of it to put a microwave. That gives me 2 extra cupboards there.

So the redesign gives about 3 or 4 extra cupboards, and a build in oven.

I've it all printed off the website now and there's even 2 sheets which show the 'new' room at 2 different angles.

Westie22

PasturesNew wrote: »

But it's not just a small kitchen is it - living room's like a corridor too. Too small for what I'd be looking for and I'm a midget that lives alone without visitors.

That's not the measurements for the living room, they were for the dining room. There's a separate living room of about 13ft x 14ft.

Westie22

kleapatra wrote: »

I just checked out how big my kitchen is (I checked on the rightmove details!) and mines 8'2" x 6'11" so smaller! I have a gas hob, proper oven, full size fridge freezer, washing machine and a slimline dishwasher, oh and a microwave. I have at least nine cupboards and 2 drawers, a boiler and a sink. I know people with kitchens a lot smaller than mine, in fact on viewings people have commented that its a fairly big kitchen- must be lots of small kitchens round my way! Oh and I don't have a dining room either, but it is only a one bed house!

Thanks very much! Your post was the inspiration for me to go on the DIY store kitchen planner. I was surprised to see that someone had a smaller kitchen but with more stuff in it.

kloana

Echoing some others, size wouldn't put me off, but lack of oven would. Not just lack of space (I guess the space could be made), but when viewing, I'd be put off by the current complete lack of an oven.

If you can do the planning thing and get one put in, it prevents people having to visualize what the kitchen could look like.

Obviously there's different measurements and fittings and what not, but my fan-assisted, 2-shelf, multi-functional electric oven was something like £96 in this year's January sales (Argos). And it wasn't even the cheapest.

I'd be slightly put off by lack of space for a full-size standing one-piece fridge/freezer unit (or 'slimline' equivalent), but unlike the oven, it wouldn't be a deal breaker.

Westie22 wrote: »

Thanks very much! Your post was the inspiration for me to go on the DIY store kitchen planner. I was surprised to see that someone had a smaller kitchen but with more stuff in it.

Do you have an IKEA anywhere near you? If so, go and have a look at some of their show kitchens. What they can do in the tiniest of spaces amazes me