kitchen ideas opinions please

  • Thread starter sarahhurray
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sarahhurray

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this is a design question I guess, I'm looking for feedback.
We have a wee narrow kitchen, about 4ft by 8ft, and we were thinking of taking down one wall and replacing it with a counter to give more counter space and open up the area. The counter will take about two feet off the living room if we do it with cuboard space underneath. I'm wondering would it be better to take down the wall alltogether and just open up the space?
 
Re: kitchen ideas

no one has an opinion on this?
 
Re: kitchen ideas

Sarah

It's a bit hard to answer with the level of detail here. I wouldn't offer an opinion without knowing what size your house is, what the layout is, what your usage pattern is etc.

Nogser
 
Hi Sarah,

The reason why you did not get a reply is probably because its quite hard to judge something like this without seeing the 2 rooms involved. This decision is also very much a personal one as only you know the full usage of both rooms.

There are a few quick thoughts that spring to mind:

1. If you are talking about a dining room losing 2ft then its probably not too bad but if its your main living/sitting room then it needs more careful consideration.

2. Extra press space is always handy. The counter that we did away with some time ago had 8 presses (top and bottom) and was quite handy for sitting at as well.

3. Judging by looking at recent kitchens counters/breakfast bars seem to have gone out of fashion and islands are more favourable. I'm a firm believer tho in ignoring whats in fashion and going for the practical/what suits option. Invariably these things go full cycle and the counter will probably come around again.

P.S. See posting guideline 5 re. "Please don't duplicate or reply to your own recent posts just to "bump them up" to the top of a topic list".
 
I didn't mean to bump up my message, I didn't realise it was hard to visualise what I'm talking about and I was surprised by the lack of response because posters here are very helpful and opinionated!
It's a very small apartment, about 400sqft total. There is no dining room just a living area, about 16' * 11' I think. I have seen some tiny new apartments done in a style where the kitchen is basically units and appliances on one wall of the living area and I'm wondering what people think of that.
Is that any clearer?
 
I think you are talking about "OPEN KITCHEN".

1) Is this wall a supporting wall for your building?
You don't what people living above you "coming down" for dinner :)
2) Are you a clean cook?
Do you want to spend time tidy up your kitchen before you eat or can you look at the mess while you eat.
3) What kind of cooking do you cook?
Some type of cooking will produce lots of smoke and strong smell and this might dirty your living room.
4) When you have guest in the house do you mind them watching you cook?
 
Hi Sarah,

Picture is a little clearer now. IMHO it would not be a good idea to make this change for most of the reasons stated by the previous poster.

You may well find

1. that it is a supporting wall
2. the option to cook and leave the pots etc. in another room while you eat/relax separately is definitely a plus.
3. It would appear from your description that making the change would make it into too much of a bed-sit (don't take offence) everything in one room scenario.

Hope this helps.
 
Personally, I don't like kitchens that feel small and enclosed, and a 4'x8' kitchen would be just that. So, the idea of opening the kitchen out into the living room would appeal to me. It certainly does raise the issues of supporting wall, escape of smells and steam, etc., as others have mentioned. If the wall really is a supporting wall, then maybe you could put a smaller opening in it though (e.g. the size of a standard door opening) - you'll need to put in the necessary supports over the opening so it wouldn't be cheap (you'll need a "proper" builder complete with insurance).

I lived in a (very) small house for a couple of years, where the kitchen was about the size of yours. There was a counter top partly dividing the kitchen from the living & dining room, otherwise the it was effectively one large combined room. I liked it a lot. The patio door in the living/dining room would steam up in the winter when I was cooking in the kitchen, but overall the place felt much bigger and more spacious than it really was (the window in the kitchen area helped a lot - it sacrificed cupboard space but it kept me sane!) - a wall would have made both rooms feel more pokey. I'd recommend a very good extractor fan as it might help avoid some of the steam and smell issues in the living/dining room. Having the rooms opened like that means you can't escape the sight of the mess left behind immediately after cooking a meal though, but that just encouraged me to clean things up more often and more quickly, which is no bad thing.

There are some pretty good books out there on the topic of kitchen design and layout. It'd be worth having a look in a local bookstore and flicking through a few of them. We did that when designing the layout of our current kitchen, and it was very useful. A quick search threw up the following links, which might be of use too:

interiordec.about.com/od/...nplanning/
www.kitchenremodelideas.com/
 
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