Kitchen Extension in Cheshire: 8 Things to Decide First

A kitchen extension in Cheshire is one of the most common — and most expensive — home projects we design kitchens for. The customers who end up happiest are the ones who made the big decisions before the architect’s drawings went in to planning, not after. These are the eight things our designers wish every customer settled first.

1. What is the extension for?

Sounds obvious. Rarely is. “More space” isn’t a brief — it’s a symptom. Write down the three things the current kitchen doesn’t do. More cooking room? A dining table that seats six? A view of the garden while cooking? Somewhere for the kids to do homework near the adults? Each of those gives a different extension — and a different kitchen inside it.

2. What’s the kitchen layout before the walls?

Most architects design the shell first, then the kitchen has to fit. This gets you extensions with load-bearing steels in exactly the wrong place, or windows where cabinets need to go. Do it the other way round: sketch the kitchen layout you want, then design the extension around it. Bring a designer into the architect conversation on day one.

3. Single storey or two storey?

Single-storey rear extensions are simpler and cheaper. Two-storey side-rears add a bedroom above but double the structural cost and the build time. Most Cheshire kitchen-diner extensions land at 4–6 m deep single-storey, often with a glass box roof lantern. Make this decision before the structural engineer costs anything.

4. How much of the back wall do you want to be glass?

Bi-fold, slide-and-pivot, French doors, picture window, corner-post slider. They all give different things:

• Bi-fold: fully opens the back wall in summer, but the folded stack sits in the garden.
• Slide-and-pivot: cleanest year-round look, doesn’t fully open.
• Corner slider: dramatic, expensive, needs structural steel to remove the corner.

Most of our customers end up with a mid-size slider plus a large picture window — not bi-folds — because they realise they only fully opened a bi-fold three times a year.

5. Underfloor heating: yes, but check the height

Underfloor heating is now standard on Cheshire new extensions. Two things to check at the architect stage: (a) the floor build-up (insulation + screed + tile) adds 150 mm, which affects threshold heights, and (b) radiators on the existing rooms stay separate from the UFH zone — mixing the two is common and confuses the system.

6. How does the extension meet the original house?

The weakest link in most extensions is the “old to new” junction — an awkward step in the ceiling, a beam across the room at head height, or a frame that defines “kitchen here, rest of house there.” Three good approaches: (a) full vaulted ceiling with a steel ring beam, (b) flush plasterboarded soffit, painted through, (c) deliberate cased beam that matches existing. Whichever you pick, pick early.

7. Utility: does it belong in the extension or outside it?

A utility room added to the extension is warm, close to the kitchen, costs kitchen floor area. A utility converted from a garage or outhouse is cold, further away, frees up floor. For families with dogs, wet kit and muddy boots, the separate “boot-room utility” usually wins — your kitchen stays cleaner. For smaller households, a utility cupboard inside the kitchen run (our designers call it a “kitchen tidy”) is often enough.

8. Kitchen delivery against build schedule

Our lead time is 8–12 weeks from signed order. A typical kitchen extension takes 14–20 weeks from breaking ground to occupation. The kitchen is delivered in the last 2 weeks. That means you sign off the kitchen design roughly halfway through the build — and you need the extension drawings finalised before that. If the build slips (most do), so does kitchen delivery. Ask your builder for a firm “walls up, plastered, screeded” date and work back 6–8 weeks to book your kitchen sign-off.

Why local matters for an extension kitchen

Our three Cheshire showrooms — Chester showroom, Nantwich showroom, Warrington showroom — are all within an hour’s drive of most Cheshire extension projects. Every cabinet is built in our Winsford factory. If a worktop needs a template retake, or a cabinet needs adjusting on-site, a van is on the way in hours, not weeks. That matters when a builder is asking for decisions on the day.

Next step: a site visit

We’ll come to the site (or to the architect’s drawings on a screen) and sketch the kitchen layout with the extension walls in place. You’ll also get free 3D visuals of the room in photoreal 3D before you commit. Read more on our process on Why Deelux.

Related: modern kitchens, traditional kitchens, hand-painted finish.