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Tiny Kitchen and a Growing Family!

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  • 04-12-2019 6:21pm
    #1
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭


    Our kitchen is very small and poorly laid out. Our kitchen/dining table is situated between 2 doors. 1 is the door from the hallway into the kitchen and 2 is the door from the kitchen into the bathroom (the only bathroom is on the ground floor, in an extension off the kitchen).

    What this means is that the kitchen table is always pushed up against the wall and whenever we pull it out to sit down as a family for a meal, anyone coming in or out to the bathroom or kitchen from the hall is opening the doors on top of us.

    I was thinking of swapping things around, and having a new kitchen fitted on the opposite side, and moving the table & chairs to where the current fitted kitchen sits. The problem with this is that the kitchen units would be squashed
    in with little or no counter space to prepare food.

    An extension is out of the question for now as finances do not allow for this.

    See attached layout drawing of the current set-up, which is far from ideal.

    I was hoping for some inspiration / guidance / ideas here...


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    #2
    Thespoofer
    Registered Users Posts: 1,051 ✭✭✭Thespoofer


    Is it possible to blank off the bathroom door and relocate it on other side of wall?


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    #3
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,094 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Would a round table be an improvement? Or leave the table against the wall and have seating on each end and the open long side. I don't think it would be very satisfactory to reverse the kitchen, you would have people walking very close to where cooking is going on, and there would not be a lot of space for kitchen units, even less than you have at the moment.

    That's a lot of doors in the kitchen, as Thespoofer says, is there any chance of moving the bathroom door? Even a tiny extension over the back door and into the existing extension, closing off the bathroom door (obviously depending on how the rest of it is arranged) would help.


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    #4
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭tempnam


    Thespoofer wrote: »
    Is it possible to blank off the bathroom door and relocate it on other side of wall?

    No. the bathroom extension is the width from the wall on the right hand side to the door leading in to it.


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    #5
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭tempnam


    looksee wrote: »
    Would a round table be an improvement? Or leave the table against the wall and have seating on each end and the open long side. I don't think it would be very satisfactory to reverse the kitchen, you would have people walking very close to where cooking is going on, and there would not be a lot of space for kitchen units, even less than you have at the moment.

    That's a lot of doors in the kitchen, as Thespoofer says, is there any chance of moving the bathroom door? Even a tiny extension over the back door and into the existing extension, closing off the bathroom door (obviously depending on how the rest of it is arranged) would help.

    We actually had a round table there for 10 years since we first bought the house. the slimmer rectangular table is a better fit.

    never thought of a tiny extension just to accommodate moving the bathroom door.


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    #6
    DublinDilbert
    Registered Users Posts: 5,366 ✭✭✭DublinDilbert


    Can one or both doors be flipped or replaced to open the other way? My own parents house the kitchen door was reversed, it opens in to the hall, which leaves more room in the kitchen


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    #7
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭tempnam


    DublinDilbert wrote: »
    Can one or both doors be flipped or replaced to open the other way? My own parents house the kitchen door was reversed, it opens in to the hall, which leaves more room in the kitchen

    That's a very simple but effective solution. Will have a look at that.

    I will say however that the table & chairs where they currently sit is a real bugbear of mine. Because of a door on either end it feels like sitting in a corridor. With the kids being so young the door is always left open so I'm never comfortable sitting down for a meal at the kitchen table. Also, the proximity of the bathroom to table where you eat meals really gets to me!


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    #8
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,094 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    That was not clear - whether the extension was just a bathroom or the bathroom was in an extension. I absolutely agree, having the table right beside the bathroom door would bug me too! Ok, in that case trying to organise reversing the kitchen might be worth it.

    What you could consider in the other end of the kitchen would be having the whole of that recess to the top left filled with 30cm deep presses, floor to ceiling. I cannot emphasise enough how useful shallow presses are in a kitchen, you can see everything on the shelf without having to 'root'. If they had 2 narrow doors rather than one big one they would not come too far into the room.


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    #9
    mp3guy
    Registered Users Posts: 3,956 ✭✭✭mp3guy


    Sliding doors.


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    #10
    Calahonda52
    Registered Users Posts: 12,199 ✭✭✭✭Calahonda52


    where are the windows?
    Can you add them to the drawing please

    “I can’t pay my staff or mortgage with instagram likes”.



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    #11
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭tempnam


    Calahonda52 wrote: »
    where are the windows?
    Can you add them to the drawing please

    There aren't any. The French doors to the back garden id where the original window was...


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    #12
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭tempnam


    looksee wrote: »
    That was not clear - whether the extension was just a bathroom or the bathroom was in an extension. I absolutely agree, having the table right beside the bathroom door would bug me too! Ok, in that case trying to organise reversing the kitchen might be worth it.

    What you could consider in the other end of the kitchen would be having the whole of that recess to the top left filled with 30cm deep presses, floor to ceiling. I cannot emphasise enough how useful shallow presses are in a kitchen, you can see everything on the shelf without having to 'root'. If they had 2 narrow doors rather than one big one they would not come too far into the room.

    yes i had looked at that idea or st least a side board going in there. my problem is putting the kitchen on the right hand side (where the current table & chairs are) leaves no counter-top space after accommodating a sink & draining board, a hob, a grill/oven and a fridge-freezer.

    there's no space for an island


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    #13
    Calahonda52
    Registered Users Posts: 12,199 ✭✭✭✭Calahonda52


    tempnam wrote: »
    There aren't any. The French doors to the back garden id where the original window was...
    Thanks.
    .
    Right so what about reinstating the window and open a door though the bathroom into the garden.
    Not ideal I know but it does three things.
    1. Gives you a lot more room
    2. the bathroom will act as a draught lobby for retain heat
    3. the sink under the window will enhance the user experience and allow garden supervision

    “I can’t pay my staff or mortgage with instagram likes”.



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    #14
    Gumbo
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 38,487 Mod ✭✭✭✭Gumbo


    What about getting rid of the table and building a high level breakfast bar against the wall. Bar stools then would give back lots of floor space.


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    #15
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭tempnam


    kceire wrote: »
    What about getting rid of the table and building a high level breakfast bar against the wall. Bar stools then would give back lots of floor space.

    That might work if it was just my wife and I. But we have 3 kids under the age of 7. It's just not practicle.

    The only other rooms on the ground floor are the living room which is small also, with no room for a table & chairs; and the bathroom. So the only place we can have a family meal together is at the kitchen table, or else sitting on the sofa with plates on our laps...


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    #16
    tempnam
    Registered Users Posts: 491 ✭✭tempnam


    Calahonda52 wrote: »
    Thanks.
    .
    Right so what about reinstating the window and open a door though the bathroom into the garden.
    Not ideal I know but it does three things.
    1. Gives you a lot more room
    2. the bathroom will act as a draught lobby for retain heat
    3. the sink under the window will enhance the user experience and allow garden supervision

    Funnily enough, that's the way the bathroom extension was built when we bought the house. If you wanted to get from the kitchen out to the back garden you had to step into the bathroom.

    As the kids get older this is not going to be practical. If someone wants to use the toilet/bath/shower, they're going to want to lock the door. This time of year it wouldn't make much difference, but in the summer time the kids and/or their friends would be in and out. not to mention if we have our own friends round and want to go into the garden for a BBQ or whatever...


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    #17
    Spanish Eyes
    Registered Users Posts: 15,893 ✭✭✭✭Spanish Eyes


    Quickest short term is to have doors opening into the hall and into the bathroom. Not opening into the kitchen.

    In time and when finances allow I’d put a small lean to conservatory type extension off french doors with door from there into bathroom.


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    #18
    Lumen
    Registered Users Posts: 31,013 ✭✭✭✭Lumen


    Assuming the picture is to scale, that table is too big.

    My kitchen table is 132x91cm and it will sit six people, and extends another foot or so for occasions. We normally have one chair on each side, but I can get two chairs between the legs on each long side.

    I've marked with dotted lines the limits of my table, you can see how much space is freed up.

    image.png


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