Small Kitchen - Extend or knock through?

[cmj306]

Hello

Not been on here for a while - a new addition to the family takes all ones time.

We have a 1930s semi. Currently the small kitchen (2.5m by 2.2m) is separate from the dining room (3.8m by 3.6m). Pretty much everyone else has knocked the internal wall down to make a kitchen-diner. My other half is keen on doing this, but I remain to be convinced by it's merits. After all it doesn't gain any floor space, and loses some wall space.

The other (more costly) option is extend - however the land available to the side to do so isn't square (the house is on a somewhat triangular plot) and any extension would be around 1.5m at the smallest point. We could also extend to the back and sacrifice some garden, but that may be more costly still as I think it would need to extend both kitchen and dining room, and we would probably lose the nice original french doors.

I guess it's hard to tell without seeing, but does anyone have any thoughts? Perhaps it would "work" better than I imagine.

 

[Zebra]

I see your dilemma. Knocking through does indeed, as you say, lose you valuable wall space. Extending to the rear could probably be done under permitted development, whereas I think side extensions necessarily need planning permission. If your house has nice period features, then you would have to consider carefully what a flat-roofed extension would look like - it may not add to the character of the house much. I take it you're not listed.
Small kitchens can be very workable. How long have you lived in the house?

 

[88v8]

Large kitchens are inefficient. A lot of walking.
The kitchen in a nuclear submarine from which three chefs have to feed 130 men, is little larger than yours - 10x12'.
Our first house was built in 1932. The kitchen was about 6'6" x 10'. Oddly enough, this slightly elongated shape was known as a galley kitchen.
There was a serving hatch to the dining room, which was about 12' x 10' iirc.

I think kitchen/diners are a hideous idea. Cooking smells, cooking mess on show while one eats. Plus as you say, a double loss of wall space.

And the previous occupants of your house have managed just fine for 80 years.
Before one starts mangling one's period house, one should ask oneself whether it's really necessary.

Ivor

 

[JBean]

The previous owners of our Edwardian house knocked though to create a sort of L-shaped kitchen diner. It is a nice bright space, but apparently they took out an original fireplace to make it happen, and it certainly reduces the period feel of the house. Our neighbours still have the separate dining room and I rather wish we did. We could certainly have managed with a small kitchen, and would have loved to have the fireplace!

 

[steveb]

I don't know the layout or how you use your house but our combined kitchen/dining area is the most used social room in the house by far - I guess we spend a fair amount of time cooking so the other one will be sat at the dinner table chatting / disrupting/ whatever so we use a combined room very well, but your mileage may vary

 

[cmj306]

Thanks for the replies. The existing kitchen probably isn't a great layout, and there is a problematic bit where the old range once was. We had planned to put a new range in the gap - it would fit but there wouldn't be enough room above it, because the chimney tapers in quite 'low'.

We also lose a 'cupboard' to the washing machine. Our previous house had a kitchen that wasn't a lot bigger, but didn't contain the washing machine, and was big enough to allow for cupboards down both sides. We don't need to remove any fireplaces to join the two (the fireplace is on the opposite wall). Sadly I am pretty sure it's not original.

I think I need to draw out on some paper (or spend weeks faffing with some CAD system) to see what can be done. The decor in the kitchen is also hideous, which makes coping with it a bit harder too.

 

[tobydog]

I agree with steveb. When we had our linked extension built we made it a kitchen / diner / living room. It's 24' x 12' so a useful size and we live in it pretty much most of the time. It opens up nicely onto the patio and garden.

A small kitchen and purposely furnished dining room are not areas I would particularly want to hang out in and therefore their use becomes part-time and a time inefficient use of space. I agree that you do lose a wall but that doesn't stop you including a linked island (a sticky out bit if that makes sense) where the base units used to be, and the gap you would walk through is where the kitchen door would have opened into previously so no lose of space there. The new space could be bright, open and sociable. It doesn't get away from the fact that the kitchen floor area will still be 2.5m x 2.5m but I get the feeling you have pretty much discounted the other options anyway.

Finally, with a new arrival running around, put a temporary child gate on the gap to the dining area and you and your other half will be able to keep a good eye on what they're up to.

 

[cmj306]

I may need to go nose at next door again.They had theirs opened up and it may help to have a good look at it as it would be the same size as what we'd get. I guess I am trying to weight up the various pros and cons of various options and may be getting bogged down in details a bit.

Good point about keeping an eye on the little one - she will be walking before we know it!

 

[parkview094]

This is a topic dear to my heart as we're wrangling with a Kitchen extension and the myriad of possibilities ourselves currently.
If you extend to the side, would that take you up to 4m at a minimum width? That seems to be a quite a practical size.. if you're looking to create a sociable dining/living space, why not extend to the rear of the kitchen only - leaving the dining room in-tact? 6mx4m should be a good sized space for getting a table and some seating in a kitchen?

 

[J-Nevil]

I think for any period property owner - everything we do really is about striking that balance between old and new.

To truly accomplish this balance you must know a little about your property, know its story and whether there were any fundamental moments in history that shaped what it is today. There is a site ( which I'm sure you are all familiar with) called myplan.ie - this allows you to view your house at different points in time http://www.myplan.ie/en/index.html

I have heard people say in the past that since they have extend onto their period property, the extension has become the hub of their home. Their life soon revolved around it - unfortunately leaving the the older an traditional part of the house to simply form a backdrop. Ask yourself what role you see your kitchen playing, do you see it as a place for simply cooking and cleaning or do you see your children completing their homework there, watching television and drinking cups of tea with friends.

Contemporary living demands us to have many rooms for similar functions. You seem incredibly worried about wall space but surely floor space offers you far more potential? Maybe hold fire on making an immediate decision and take time to get some inspiration.

Before we updated our kitchen we spent a huge amount of time looking at showrooms down south before we fell in love with a kitchen showroom in Surrey http://www.abwaters.co.uk/Showroom

The end result was a beautiful family friendly kitchen that every family member now uses for more than just cooking and eating. It fits perfectly into our beautiful Brighton town house, complementing its period features.

Goo luck with your decision, I look forward to hearing how you get on.

 

[Owain]

I'm not a fan of kitchen-diners although I understand from Sarah Beeny that they're desirable for families with children (especially if they have doors to the garden).

A small kitchen is perfectly workable if you can get all the non-kitchen stuff somewhere else. A utility room for the washing machine / dryer / mops and buckets / pet feeding / chest freezer / can get a lot of stuff out of the kitchen, and if you build it as a lean-to outside the main structure of the house probably needn't comply with full Building Regs - so making it cheaper to build.

Eating lots of pot noodles (or gruel if you want to be historical) helps too.