Folding windows in Kitchen or Living Room?

fifib

Recently granted planning permission for 1.5 storey house & garage and thats as far as we've gotten other than OH has been looking into steel frame, timber frame etc but no decision has been made yet.

I've been having doubts about our choice of windows/doors to the rear of the house. We will have a fantastic view at the rear overlooking the nearby village facing south west so we have put in 2 large folding windows in the family room and living room that will as they say in the magazines "bring the garden into the house". In between these 2 rooms we have the kitchen/dining area - we had planned on an arch or something to this effect that will divide the kitchen and dining area as oppose to open plan

Can I ask for an opinion if we were to put in a large folding or sliding window/door in the kitchen that will open the kitchen out to the garden instead and in the living room keep the corner window but not a folding window, just an large ordinary window and corner window that will be a foot or so above ground level.

Will this be a huge impact on our kitchen? Will we lose alot of space in the kitchen? cupboard wise etc? while also have a door leading to utilitya nd a door leading into hallway.

I can see us using these doors (as in actually opening them up fully) alot more than the ones in the living room eg the likes of BBQs and summer days etc.. and it will be a room we will be spending alot more time in than the living room...we reckon the family room will be used more than the living room. Also we could have a large patio running from the kitchen to the family room and around side of the house, rather than a patio running all the way across the back of the house.

Is this a better option than what we currently have?
Would love some opinions

Edit- BTW its the kitchen in this link that got me thinking. I think something like what they have done here may be a better option for us
Self-Build Magazine - Kitchen

bee06

It does look like you would lose a lot of the kitchen if you put in those doors in there. Without changing anything else you'd only have 1 wall of cupboards and that would include sink and cooker. If you really wanted the doors to maintain a decent sized kitchen maybe you could remove the door between the utility and kitchen and have the door to utility from the hall instead? Or change the arch to the dining room to double doors?

LoriB

Hello fifib

We are also in a similar situation with a similar layout. Our sliding / patio door was located in the sunroom. We want to change it to the kitchen end of the kitchen-dining area. We also have two doors leading off the other wall in the kitchen - one leads to back hallway, the other to front hallway. Both doors are needed.

We also had the same quandary whether to decrease the useable cupboard space in kitchen to change the door leading to patio.

Have you made a final decision?

We are trying to find a kitchen design which works with the patio doors and the internal doors. We will probably opt for a large island with hob on it, overhead bulkhead extractor and storage on the island. We also have a separate largish utility room. This leaves the back wall for fridge, double oven, sink and double larder cupboard. We felt this also opened the kitchen up to a more modern design.
Not really sure if our budget will stretch to a sliding door over a patio one.

fifib

Hi LoriB,
no we have not made any decision on this yet. hubbie not too keen on the idea- thinks we will lose alot of space in the kitchen area but Im holding out until we get a chance to see a kitchen designer. I'm hoping they can tell me if its feasible or come up with a few suggestions.
I was thinking also if we had a large island that would give us a good bit of storage or even an L shaped kitchen which would also act as divider between the kitchen/dining area.
My dad suggested we move the kitchen to the front and dining to the back of the room but I think we will run into problem with window height and already we are planning to have higher than normal counter level as we are both quite tall.
at the start also i was absolutely no-no on putting isnk on island but now if it means ill get my opening to garden from kitchen I will do it!:D

I wish we had thought of this at the planning phase would have been alot less hassle!:(

fifib

Hi loriB
Did ye get any further with your kitchen design? Would love to see what outcome was if you went with the patio doors