Kitchen and laundry reno design help

The kitchen in this house is pretty old (from a 1980s reno). I am thinking of replacing the cabinets.

Would you just replace the cabinets in the same location? Replace the wall oven with bench oven?

I have also considered moving the laundry/shower. It’s probably not worth it for an IP - but still interested in any ideas (again, the current location was from a 1980s reno).

 

that sure is a weird laundry location
what about moving it to the workshop and opening up the living areas

 

Ooooh I have plenty of ideas.
That could easily be a 3x2 with not much work.
But first do you have a budget and what sort of area is it? Worth spending some money?

 

I wouldn’t want to lose the second shower.

 

It’s Cheltenham, Melbourne - suburban, middle of the range houses (not the expensive part!). Backs on to a park, near schools.

I definitely have the budget (and a close friend who is a builder). It’d be good to have an idea of the possibilities in my back pocket.

 

Could you attach the toilet/bathroom to bedroom 2 as an ensuite and then move the laundry/shower over to be in the opposite corner of the living room, adjacent to the current bathroom, with a door out into the hall rather than the living space? Or alternatively just close the door from the laundry into the living room and open it into the hall instead. Add another toilet in the laundry/shower and then you have a 3 bed/2 bath.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about and no renovation experience!

 

It looks like the dining area along the back is an old add-on - the kitchen sink is not under a window. I would turn the lounge into a master bedroom with en-suite and walk-in robe - entry off the entry hall and close up the opening to the little dining area. Move/extend the opening between the hall and the living room so there is a line of sight from the front door to the back. Bed 3 could become a study/media room.

Agree with wylie about rejigging the laundry to open onto the horizontal hall - perhaps just a cupboard laundry.

 

Here is option 1

- I'd convert the laundry into a bathroom seeing as it already has a shower in it. Put a vanity where the trough is and add a toilet.
- I'd convert the formal dining room into a laundry accessed via a slider off the kitchen - or you could put a doorway from the hallway where the linen is. You convert the window to a sliding glass door to outside from the laundry if you wanted.
- Not knowing the sizes of the rooms I did add an island bench into the kitchen which opens up some more layout possibilities but I have no idea what size that area is.
- I put an entrance to the formal lounge from the entranceway

 

Option 2

Turn the front lounge dining into a master bedroom with ensuite

 

This option addresses the issue with this house that the master is smallish and no ensuite. There is already a door into the hallway - just not shown on the plan.

I wonder if it would be possible to have an ensuite/laundry in the location shown in your markup - which would allow the current laundry to be a pantry or similar (though not sure if this is an advantage in an IP).

 

That could definitely work - though I might have to change the current lounge/laundry sliding door to a swing door that opens into the hallway (the construction drawings from the 1980 reno show the door opening to the hall) for privacy ...

The living / dining / kitchen extension area is about 6.5 x 8 metres (not including the coexisting laundry).

The formal lounge already has a door to the hall - just not shown.

 

It was the original laundry before the 1980s extension.

 

Yes, the rear is a 1980s extension - the rear was the same width as the wall in the existing rear bedroom & main bathroom.

Previous tenants did use the lounge as a master bedroom -even without doors between it and the little dining area!

 

Yup I drew a line over the current slider to depict a wall and put a pink "door" shape on the hallway to fix that. Sorry my artistic skills are lacking

Do you know the measurement from the top of the laundry to the deck door? That will determine if there is space to put in an island bench. Ideally we'd want 4m but I could probably make something work with 3m.

 

The measurement from the back wall of the laundry to the deck door is 3.950mm as per measurements below (mark up of the floor layout and construction drawings from the reno.)

 

Is this house on stumps or concrete slab?

 

Stumps - with good clearance underneath.

 

Yippee that does make life easier for moving plumbing around!

I have some more ideas now I have those dimensions, should have some illegible pink scribbles for you later on

 

Option 3 and 3a - variation on a variation

If you wanted to take out the current laundry it would open up the living areas but I suspect it's probably load bearing and not so easy as it was part of the original

3 and 3a are just simple variations where I'm still trying to leave stuff like windows in tact. If you were happy to do something with the front loungeroom window then more design options come up but for now I'm just leaving what I can and working around it.

So in Option 3

- take out the laundry (in 3a I'll put it back in)
- this gives you a yellow zone which is 5.48 wide and 6.61 long if I got my maths right.
- the 4m is enough for a decent kitchen with a 2m island bench with 1m either side of it for access to deck and around to an area I'm closing off
- the new closed off area is a scullery and laundry - you could have laundry down one side and scullery down the other or just make it a kick arse laundry but I think if you're going to spend money I'd make it more useful as it's quite a large room
- I made the ensuite a bit different shape than version 2 to make the new master a more regular shape. I estimate the ensuite to be 1500mm deep which is plenty and stole some room off the linen area.
- the new master is now a regular shape and I put robe along the air con wall but you can adjust to anywhere really.



Version 3a - left the laundry where it was still with access from the kitchen side

- I nominated the yellow zone to be living area as it's larger
- I put the dining in the old spot next to the laundry
- same kitchen as 3 but now has a kick arse scullery and you could put the fridge and pantry in the scullery if you wanted the new kitchen area to see larger.
- same master bedroom set up as before