Kitchen extension ? To utility room, or not??

[pebbles]

I've thought of another reason for having it downstairs.

If you have kids they come in dirty from sport and playing in the garden pretty much every day so you strip them off as soon as they come in and then send them upstairs for a shower. I would hate their muddy clothes to go upstairs in the state that they come in???

[Audrey]

Yup, a friend of mine has a utility room at the front of her house, such a good idea for dumping wellies, coats, scooters, especially when the weather is rubbish.

She lives in a more modern design house tho.

[mooncake]

Amazed by all the replies! What a puzzler it's turning out to be. And also how much of a luxury a utility room really is!

I vaguely considered having it upstairs, but I do put the machine on at night sometimes. I also like to think I would hang laundry outside if possible, though it's true that that's only for a few months of the year! I'm actually starting to wonder whether we could put in a laundry chute from the bathroom to solve the problem of lugging laundry down the stairs... Anyone got one of them?!!

It's a bog standard vic terraced house but has 5 beds now because we managed to get 2 extra from the loft conversion. There isn't really a sensible space to put it on the first floor.

The layout is a little awkward for fitting a decent sized utility room downstairs, so if we can fit in an oversized cupboard with a butler sink in, then that would probably do us and we'll have to work around most of the other things it seems a laundry room would be used for otherwise. I can definitely can see the advantage of having a 'messy' sink other than the kitchen one.

Part of our problem is that one of my biggest priorities is to get in a large dining area that doesn't feel like its right in the middle of the kitchen (mess), and I think that's possibly a little unusual in London!

[AnnaCBH]

We are also planning one and are adding it on to an already (mostly) completed full house refurbishment. We put in bi-folding doors when we started and so don't want to loose them. Our solution is to retain them and a small part of the original outside wall, that will encroach into the new kitchen/diner and we'll build a downstairs toilet and utility there, with a small window.

Hmm, not sure that I'm making sense but I'm hoping that will still leave us with a decent dining/ family room and a washing dumping room. Love the idea of a chute! Haha. I think I'd find children at the end of it, or stuck in the middle in a willy wonker style.

[jennyb123]

sb Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You could combine a utility/laundry room with a

> mud/boot room which solves the problem of where

> muddy boots/coats/gym kit gets stored too (and

> ensures it's not in the kitchen)...

We have this arrangement... it's better than having it all in the kitchen so I would definitely say yes to separating kitchen from laundry room (no infiuriating spin cycle while I'm cooking), but combining muddy outdoor footwear and clean clothes in the same (small) room has led to some laundry mishaps!

[Kes]

Oh this is such a useful thread!

Has anyone got a utility room in their side return?

Our kitchen is a decent width and the side return is fairly narrow so it doesn't seem worth extending into it to make the kitchen bigger but a long thin utility room/storeage space would be really handy, even better if we could get a shower room in their too.