If you have set your heart on making a big open-plan kitchen extension, you’re not alone. It’s considered as one of the most sought-after features in modern home and a famous home improvement project. Majority of households find the dining or kitchen space as the heart of family life and rooms they spend most of the time in to cook, relax, work, socialize, and eat. The key to make an ideal open plan kitchen is to get the layout and space right first before you decide on the kitchen units, decoration, and design details.
If you like access to the privacy and garden, the kitchen is to be at the side or rear of the house. If possible, this must be accessible from the primary hallway as well as not through another room. You might be able to achieve the space you require through remodeling the current layout, getting rid of some internal walls in linking 2 rooms together or through linking and converting integral garage.
You may extend at the side or rear of your home to gain space. In the townhouse, this makes senses in converting and extending the cellar for forming a basement storey with lightwell leading to the garden.
A small extension to a house might not require planning permission once they fall within the permitted development’s definition. Bigger extensions and additions to a flat, always require planning permission. Alterations to the listed building always need building consent whether or not the work is actually permitted development.
Designing a Kitchen Extension
If you’re planning to redesign your home and make only some internal alterations to make more space, you might draw up the layout plans to scale and commission an engineer. They’ll be able to read calculations and drawings for structural alterations for submission to local authority and for passing on to your builder. There are no planning permissions required. Nevertheless, if your property is basically leasehold, you’ll have to obtain permission from the freeholders.
If you’re planning to extend more space, you’ll require drawings of layout, elevations, and design details that show how the project would comply with regulations on buildings. It is also best to leave the drawing of such to architectural designers, either an architectural technical designer or an architect.
Getting the space design right is important as it will help you ensure that the kitchen is in the right place in the house and has great access from central hallway and on to the patio or garden. It’ll also help you make most of light, plan various zones for dining, cooking, and living, and decide where to place utility space and proper lighting.
If you have the space you wish to design, you may start thinking regarding the layout of the kitchen. It’s worth consulting 2 or 3 experienced kitchen designers for their ideas. See to it that you provide them a clear brief of what you’re planning to achieve, yet listen to their advice when it comes to layout to suit space including designing an L-shaped layout, a galley, an appliance wall, and so on.