Some Common Problems in Kitchen Design
Too many doors, or doors fitted in the wrong places can badly affect the smooth running and comfort of a kitchen, getting in the way of the work sequence, as well as encouraging people to use the room as a throughway. If there is a door that you don't need, you can either ignore it, treat it as part of the wall, or block it up and build the kitchen as though it wasn't there. This may make it easier to accommodate a dishwasher. Removing a door is a relatively easy alteration for any DIY enthusiast to do.
Most kitchen cupboard doors are designed so that they either hinge on the left or right hand side, so make sure they open in the most convenient way for you, so that they don't get in the way of other doors or open out against a wall.
Double doors, opening out onto a terrace or garden, are an excellent way of joining both home and garden, especially where there are young children. It can be argued that they take up valuable wall space, but if you can plan your kitchen to run along one wall, you may be able to put a new door in the other wall. If there's no space for a double door, a single door can be attractive and could incorporate a small porch to store muddy boots. A stable door is often a practical solution and this serves a dual purpose: it will keep dogs and children out (or in), while letting in fresh air and sunshine.
Alcoves
Sometimes a straight run of wall is interrupted by an alcove created by an old fireplace. It may be best to ignore this and treat the whole wall as one - perhaps using the alcove for a deeper worktop or breakfast bar, with a painting or decorative dish on the wall behind it. The chimney opening should always be blocked off at the bottom to prevent old soot and birds' nests from dropping down. Alternatively, this could be the place to install a range-type cooker, where the chimney could be used to house an extractor fan. Or you could build a tall cupboard in the space, with glazed doors at the top to show off china.
Partition Wall
Kitchens in converted houses are often divided from the rest of the home by a partition wall, rather than a load-bearing one. Cutting back an unwanted partition wall is easy and fairly inexpensive, and may open up the space to provide one generous room, rather than two uncomfortable ones. However, obtain an expert's advice first before going ahead. Load-bearing walls cannot be moved so easily and the wall above will need extra support, which will necessitate the fitting of an RSJ (steel beam). Always get specialist advice and you may also need to seek planning permission for this.
Windows
Windows can be expensive to move because it may be difficult to match the lintels, which hold up the wall above the window. Always get professional advice for this. If the window is above ground floor level, you would need scaffolding as well, which would greatly add to the cost as you would need to get in professionals. However, you may be able to extend the window out by a few inches to give a slight bay, just enough, even in a small kitchen, to allow a circular or semi-circular folding table, where friends or children can sit and eat breakfast or chat to the cook over a drink.
Irregular Walls
These walls make it difficult to be accurate when measuring. Get worktops especially cut and measure the wall in two places, where the top and bottom of the units and appliances have to fit. Or stop the units several inches short of the corners, leaving enough space for a chopping block, chair or vertical tray storage, to make sense of the gap.
Don't try to use every square inch of an awkwardly-shaped or over-sized room. It is much better to concentrate on making the neatest and most convenient kitchen without slavishly following the lines of the existing wall. Any wall you don't use will have another use - if only as space for an armchair.
Bathroom Through Kitchen
This is a surprisingly common problem in converted houses because it is convenient to have the bathroom and kitchen plumbing close together. It means the bathroom user has to run the gauntlet of the kitchen and the kitchen itself is diminished by people walking through. The best thing is probably to re-site the bathroom, perhaps directly above, where the plumbing may have the shortest distance to run. Alternatively, if both kitchen and bathroom open out onto the same passage or corridor, the bathroom could be rearranged so that a small door could be knocked through from the passage, or you could extend the house slightly to create a new corridor. Always seek professional advice before going ahead with major alterations and check whether you need to obtain planning permission.
Columns
If the room has a column supporting the roof or ceiling structure, it will be cheaper to try and incorporate this into the design of the room rather than to change it, because expensive structural work would have to be carried out by professionals to provide alternative support for the roof. Try to arrange things so that the column does not interrupt the work triangle. It might be incorporated into a room divider, with the cooking area on one side and the eating or playing area on the other. Turn it into a feature with decorative painting.
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