New Kitchen Advice

[Lord Tyrion]

We don’t have gas appliances in the kitchen so it would be a re wire and getting the water/drains around the current kitchen by roughly 10 metres.

You need to speak to Kirsty Allsop . She loves a bit of that.

Joking apart, I've seen that done on Love it or List It and also the virtual reality design show. Hard to get your head around but often a great idea. Well worth thinking about if the cost of moving the utilities is not that great. Gives you an extra option.

 

[BrianM]

The two rooms never to compromise are Kitchens and Bathrooms.
Do the Kitchen the way you want it, even if it means saving for a while, you will always think what if otherwise.
Also if you ever sell, for whatever reason, a lot of people can’t see past doing a Kitchen or Bathroom due to cost but could soon paint a room or two.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

The two rooms never to compromise are Kitchens and Bathrooms.
Do the Kitchen the way you want it, even if it means saving for a while, you will always think what if otherwise.
Also if you ever sell, for whatever reason, a lot of people can’t see past doing a Kitchen or Bathroom due to cost but could soon paint a room or two.

We have plans in place to re-jig our 6ft square bathroom - it’s small plus it has a camceil one side that makes things doubly difficult. We do not have a shower in it at the moment but #1 priority is to have one.

Lots of head scratching and options considered but best approach seems to be to remove the existing cast iron bath…pity - but it is deep and quite narrow so not ideal for us in any case - replace it with a reasonable sized shower cabinet. Also looking to maybe steal a couple of feet from upstairs landing and push a little out over the staircase. That’s add significantly to the cost…we’ll see.

It will still be a small bathroom but it will be what we want. If (and when) we move any buyer will see a lovely bathroom - and they can change things back or around as they might see fit in their future - but they wouldn’t see something they’d have to deal with as a priority immediately (unless they love having a bath…in which case…shower out…new bath in)

 

[Tashyboy]

Your thoughts on possibly moving the kitchen, again works for me but again do it when you have explored all options and are happy with the final decision and costings. One of the main things to consider is that back in the day when I bought my first house. When it was first made it was state of the art. However 80 years later the state of the art coal house built into the house was riddled with with damp. The walk in pantry which had a stone slab which was the fridge was no longer needed. Each room had one single socket in it. It needed changing to be fit for purpose for the next 80 years.
I have a feeling your Gaff may well be in that category. Like you mention the old living room is now an office, but it wasn’t designed for that way.
Good luck exploring all options. It may not seem it, but it is a happy problem knowing it will look the danglies once done.

 

[Beezerk]

Your thoughts on possibly moving the kitchen, again works for me but again do it when you have explored all options and are happy with the final decision and costings. One of the main things to consider is that back in the day when I bought my first house. When it was first made it was state of the art. However 80 years later the state of the art coal house built into the house was riddled with with damp. The walk in pantry which had a stone slab which was the fridge was no longer needed. Each room had one single socket in it. It needed changing to be fit for purpose for the next 80 years.
I have a feeling your Gaff may well be in that category. Like you mention the old living room is now an office, but it wasn’t designed for that way.
Good luck exploring all options. It may not seem it, but it is a happy problem knowing it will look the danglies once done.

I started a thread last year about our house when we turned the old dining room into a new living room. The old living room is long and much narrower and a pain tbh, it would potentially make a great kitchen, specially if we paved the outside and fitted doors to walk out to the garden. But then where do we have the wife’s office, we couldn’t have it at the entrance to the house as it would look naff.
The extension is by far the better option in reality, create a proper entrance to the house and move the kitchen along a bit so it opens out into the old living room. I know this doesn’t mean a lot as you can’t visualise our house

 

[Beezerk]

Found these from a website, shows the kitchen from when we bought it 10 years ago, note how the washing machine is in a proper naff place

 

[Tashyboy]

Flippin eck Martin, am losing sleep over this and the Samaritans keep hanging up on me.
But.
I know you like cooking outdoors, does that outdoors on yer back garden come off the kitchen and potential kitchen extension. More so would moving the kitchen to you wife’s office take the kitchen away from the outdoor cooking area or nearer.
Would moving the kitchen to your wife’s office move the kitchen to the front of the house, ( which I am not a lover of).
Finally re the current kitchen, is it north, south,east or west facing..

Oh ah really finally, the cupboard in the kitchen. Can that be dumped.

 

[Bratty]

At least you've got Pringle jumper tiles!!

 

[Beezerk]

Flippin eck Martin, am losing sleep over this and the Samaritans keep hanging up on me.
But.
I know you like cooking outdoors, does that outdoors on yer back garden come off the kitchen and potential kitchen extension. More so would moving the kitchen to you wife’s office take the kitchen away from the outdoor cooking area or nearer.
Would moving the kitchen to your wife’s office move the kitchen to the front of the house, ( which I am not a lover of).
Finally re the current kitchen, is it north, south,east or west facing..

Oh ah really finally, the cupboard in the kitchen. Can that be dumped.

Ha ha, as it is the kitchen is on the other side of the house to my bbq area. BBQ's can be moved though

 

[GreiginFife]

If you floor is concrete slab then think carefully about moving plumbing, it won’t be a simple job. Having just moved plumbing under a suspended wooden floor, even that was a pain in the arse.

 

[Aztecs27]

Adding to this thread as we are just about to start work (well end of march) on a kitchen/diner single storey extension as the current layout, with two kids and dogs, just isn't sufficient.

In case anyone is interested, current and proposed plans. Builder sorted, planning permission in place and currently (to keep it on topic) trying to price up a kitchen. It'll either be Howdens or Wren; one of my best mates is a chippy and has told us who to steer clear of (not that it matters to me as our contractor includes kitchen fitting as part of the project) and these two options are within the price point we're looking at (and all being well we will get mates rates on granite work tops as we have a contact)

Not the most conventional layout (with the utility on the side, but utilises the space we have whilst still giving us a decent sized garden and side access (which a lot of other houses in the group of houses on our street, don't have)

And yes, the extension ends up being close to the garage, but we'll end up converting that into a sliding door/window fronted building with a separate office/sofabed/toilet at some point (would have been nice to incorporate it all and join up but we don't have the budget for this)

Will share pics of the kitchen design once we have it.

(@Bratty )

 

[Golfmmad]

Adding to this thread as we are just about to start work (well end of march) on a kitchen/diner single storey extension as the current layout, with two kids and dogs, just isn't sufficient.

In case anyone is interested, current and proposed plans. Builder sorted, planning permission in place and currently (to keep it on topic) trying to price up a kitchen. It'll either be Howdens or Wren; one of my best mates is a chippy and has told us who to steer clear of (not that it matters to me as our contractor includes kitchen fitting as part of the project) and these two options are within the price point we're looking at (and all being well we will get mates rates on granite work tops as we have a contact)

Not the most conventional layout (with the utility on the side, but utilises the space we have whilst still giving us a decent sized garden and side access (which a lot of other houses in the group of houses on our street, don't have)

And yes, the extension ends up being close to the garage, but we'll end up converting that into a sliding door/window fronted building with a separate office/sofabed/toilet at some point (would have been nice to incorporate it all and join up but we don't have the budget for this)

Will share pics of the kitchen design once we have it.

(@Bratty )

I would steer ciear of granite worktops. Expensive, cold, difficult to get stains out and if you drop anything on them they're not at all forgiving.

 

[Aztecs27]

I would steer ciear of granite worktops. Expensive, cold, difficult to get stains out and if you drop anything on them they're not at all forgiving.

Yes you’re right, I think it actually might be quartz we’ve asked for a quote for, for the very reasons you mention

 

[Fade and Die]

Yes you’re right, I think it actually might be quartz we’ve asked for a quote for, for the very reasons you mention

Your layout and extension is similar to my house, we went for an L shaped kitchen with a peninsula. What is your plan for the extension on the dining room side? We put a log burner in the corner and extra sofas and made it a second lounge.

Edit: we went for quartz for the reasons above.

Edit 2: make sure your velux are electrically operated.

 

[Golfmmad]

Yes you’re right, I think it actually might be quartz we’ve asked for a quote for, for the very reasons you mention

Yeah, much better!

 

[Aztecs27]

Your layout and extension is similar to my house, we went for an L shaped kitchen with a peninsula. What is your plan for the extension on the dining room side? We put a log burner in the corner and extra sofas and made it a second lounge.

Edit: we went for quartz for the reasons above.

Edit 2: make sure your velux are electrically operated.

Aside from a dining area, we’re not sure yet. The room to the left of it on the plans is current dining room (dumping ground with red carpets and yellow walls) and that will likely be a play room/sitting room area with the other bit dining/few comfy chairs.

Our kitchen will be U-shaped(ish) and we may buy a moveable island if we think we need it, but having experienced fixed islands at various family houses, they annoy me because they’re in the way

I like the idea of a log burner in the corner though!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

We did a similar project a couple of years ago. Pictures of our end result are on here posts #344 and #348.

Knocked out the wall between our kitchen and dining room which were frustratingly inflexible and sizes similar to your existing i.e. not very big; we demolished a conservatory similar to yours, extended out where the conservatory was and a bit more - with a lantern rather than velux as we had to have a flat roof over the extension part. Like you there were a couple of things - one quite significant in going full width of house (we haven’t) and one connecting to our garage - that we thought of doing but budget and other constraints held us back. But we might well still do them in future…nothing done to stop us or make it awkward.

We hoped it would make a difference to how we used our downstairs and these spaces. We had no idea just quite how much it has transformed our downstairs…we absolutely love it…good luck - all being well you’ll have a similar outcome. And we used Howdens - were going to use Wren, but lost confidence in their designer, then our next choice went bust…so to Howdens - and we are very pleased with it…in the main…so far

 

[Aztecs27]

So, it turns out a friend of ours has a sister who owns a Granite and Marble business....and they also supply Quartz and gives friends and family discount.

Less than £3k for nearly 5sq.m of 30mm quartz worktop instead of the nearly £5k they're charging at Wren?? Ok then.

 

[Bratty]

Aside from a dining area, we’re not sure yet. The room to the left of it on the plans is current dining room (dumping ground with red carpets and yellow walls) and that will likely be a play room/sitting room area with the other bit dining/few comfy chairs.

Our kitchen will be U-shaped(ish) and we may buy a moveable island if we think we need it, but having experienced fixed islands at various family houses, they annoy me because they’re in the way

I like the idea of a log burner in the corner though!

Islands are crap in the wrong kitchen. Totally crap.
In the right kitchen, great. But we're talking in a LARGE kitchen!

 

[Aztecs27]

Islands are crap in the wrong kitchen. Totally crap.
In the right kitchen, great. But we're talking in a LARGE kitchen!

Yea, exactly. Ours won’t be small but would definitely significantly reduce the available space to move around to the point it’ll annoy me for the rest of my days. We've got plenty of worktop space for food prep etc which is my biggest gripe with kitchens we've had up to now. That and room for my coffee station and also cupboard space, which we will have in abundance now.

This is what we've decided (for now ) - simple but effective. Only differences is that there's a door next to the Fridge that leads to hallway/utility. And just out of shot on the right is where the sliding doors to outside. We wanted a ceiling to floor corner pantry but annoyingly the width of the kitchen won't allow it without compromising cupboard space...plus this is pleasingly symmetrical.


Still undecided on cooker and hood colour.