Ideas for my breast (chimney breast, that is!)

Howdy folks,

I am currently building an extension. Making the kitchen larger, and updating it. Gonna fit new kitchen, new floor, etc. etc (you get the idea, 'modern' overhaul).


Anyway, as part of my construction plans, I am at a T junction. I want to pull the chimney breast out of the house. It will free up about 2ft in 4 rooms (kitchen and sitting room downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs). The breast is slap bang in he middle of the house, so two rooms back onto it on each floor.

The fire was last lit in the house over a decade ago. It'll never be used again and is a waste of space.

However, I have to be budget-conscious.

I can pull the whole lot out, and spend about 5-6k in the process. The potential issue here, being that I might exhaust my budget before I get into much decorating at all (although all construction work will be done, things will just look rough for a while til i get the money together to do the place up).

Alternatively, I can leave it there and use the cash towards decor, and come back to it at a later date when I've more money.


So what I'm looking to ask is, does anyone have any idea what you can do with a chimney breast in a kitchen that serves no purpose?

I was thinking of running the kitchen (or at least some of it) against that wall, and perhaps have the fridge on the left of it, and then the cooker on the right with units, and then hang a large picture or something on it, or something like that.

But I am not overly sold on that idea, and that idea makes me feel I'd be best to pull it out and live in a worn kitchen for a while.


Has anyone any ideas for the breast that would look decent? (the fire place itself will be knocked out of it regardless, as it is just a dumping ground, as you can see, at the moment).


When I mention the chimney breast, Im talking about the centre part, painted red in the pictures:









Anyone got any suggestions or advice?




(The pics are poor, and taken quickly in a dimly lit kitchen, but they'll give an idea.)


Cheers

Candlemania

Hi,

I don't know what your budget is, but this chimney breast in the middle of the house makes a great opportunity to create a unique feature.... I would knock down the walls on the sides of it, to create a sort of an open plan with a nice flow between the kitchen and the living room (if the other room is a living room?). That's just my suggestion.

Candlemania

And by the way, open fireplaces should be banned in Ireland - they are so inefficient. They suck out the warm air from the house (all the time, not only when they're being used) and they only heat by radiation, meaning it's only warm when your're near it...



Having a double sided fireplace insert would eliminate the need of having a radiator on the side wall - it would create enough heat for the two rooms (you could even have air ducts distributing the warm air to the other rooms). So you would gain more space if you wanted to add any more kitchen units there.

Candlemania

Here's another one that I like...

Hey Candlemania,

We use central heating/radiators in the house, and the fireplace itself hasn't been used in well over a decade, and will likely never be used again (unless we have a zombie apocalypse or the likes, but I'll worry about that when it happens haha).


You're correct that the breast backs onto a sitting room, and theoretically i could indeed knock the walls either side. However, with the extension on the back of the house, and doing that, it would mean that downstairs in the house is all one single room, which i wouldn't be keen on, to be honest.

Candlemania

Deleted User wrote: »

However, with the extension on the back of the house, and doing that, it would mean that downstairs in the house is all one single room, which i wouldn't be keen on, to be honest.

Yes, that's always a big question: to go for an open plan or not? Everyone has different needs and it's all fine.

I personally love open plans for living spaces, with some subtle divisions between the zones (kitchen - living - dining). It gives you more freedom to move about the space. It also makes people feel less isolated. Especially when you're preparing meals, and the rest of the family or guests are having a conversation in the living room. With an open plan space, you can be a part of it, too.

Good luck with the refurbishment!

purplepatchit

Whatever design/usage of this space you're thinking of, if you never, ever plan to use the fire again - get rid of it now and only have builders in the once. No one needs the mess, stress and potential damage to newly refurbed areas that a second renovation will bring.

Best of luck with it all.

Sausage dog

If you plan on putting kitchen presses there & the lay out would work, could you put in fake or shallow presses on the chimney breast so that you have a line of streamline press doors to look at, but only you know that one or two hide the chimney breast. That way you would save on the cost of removal, outwardly hide the breast, but just not gain the extra space.

Sausage dog

Sausage dog wrote: »

If you plan on putting kitchen presses there & the lay out would work, could you put in fake or shallow presses on the chimney breast so that you have a line of streamline press doors to look at, but only you know that one or two hide the chimney breast. That way you would save on the cost of removal, outwardly hide the breast, but just not gain the extra space.

I've read this post ages ago when you wrote it and although I don't love the idea of 'fake' presses, it did set me off on a mental project of thinking how to incorporate the breast into the kitchen design.


So here's a query...


Considering there will never be a fire lit in the fireplace again.. is it possible I could cut a large rectangle hole into the face of the breast? and stick an integrated oven and microwave in there? Then tile all around them (just on the breast) with a stone/rock facade, like below:





to try and turn it into a 'feature' in that regard? Could be a way of making it usable? And stick unit's either side as normal?

Or is that just a generally dreadful idea?