Combining the kitchen and dining room

gt568

Just after some opinions/experience people have of this.... Basically we're debating knocking down the wall between huge DR and K to make one large kitchen diner. We haven't moved in yet so now would be an ideal time....

The kitchen at present is just about big enough for a small table to seat the wife, me and the 2 kids....the DR is a separate formal room and quite cold as it is on the north side of the property and a bit dark.

I worry that if we don't knock through the DR is never going to get used and will in effect be a waste of space....we always intended to knock through, I'm not really sure why I'm having doubts now to be honest.

Thoughts?

DRP

gt568 wrote: »

Just after some opinions/experience people have of this.... Basically we're debating knocking down the wall between huge DR and K to make one large kitchen diner. We haven't moved in yet so now would be an ideal time....

The kitchen at present is just about big enough for a small table to seat the wife, me and the 2 kids....the DR is a separate formal room and quite cold as it is on the north side of the property and a bit dark.

I worry that if we don't knock through the DR is never going to get used and will in effect be a waste of space....we always intended to knock through, I'm not really sure why I'm having doubts now to be honest.

Thoughts?

Kitchen-living/dining/family room seems to be the favoured layout these days.

Usually a knock through is carried if the kitchen is tiny (think late Victorian or Edwardian terrace), but your kitchen seems decent size currently (you say it has a table large enough to eat around).

For the price of the knock through, you can do a lot of renovation to make the existing dining room a more comfortable space (insulation, decor, bigger rads).

ANother thing to consider is the noise, unsightly dirty dishes and food prep, condensation and smells from a working kitchen would now be in your family room. Obviously you can disregard some of this if have a utility room. Do you have another living room? Remember a knock through ultimately reduces the number of rooms by 1.

We are planning to do something similar (but extend, rather than knock through), so this is a useful discussion as a lot of these thoughts have been going through my head...!:D

Grimbal

Do the kitchen & dining room share a wall?

Rather than knock through completely (I agree with DRP about the condensation/smells etc), could you create a large doorway that can open up when required - like internal bifolds or similar ?

gt568

Yeah we have another separate living room.

gt568

Grimbal wrote: »

Do the kitchen & dining room share a wall?

Rather than knock through completely (I agree with DRP about the condensation/smells etc), could you create a large doorway that can open up when required - like internal bifolds or similar ?

Yes they share a wall. So it would only be a kitchen diner. The LR is the other side of the house.

Doozergirl

If your dining room is only set up for dining, then it is almost certain that it will rarely be used.

It's a matter of preference. Mine is certainly for a much more sociable space where friends can talk to us over a glass of wine as we cook etc. and DD chatters to me as she plays and I cook. I get very lonely in the kitchen by myself.

Grimbal

So then, for me personally, I would go with something that meant that you could open up the space when you wanted to. Access would also be improved if you had a connecting door rather than having to go out of the kitchen, into hall & then into dining room too (if that's the layout !), hopefully meaning that you would use it more often

EssexExile

It depends how you live, we use our dining room for breakfast & dinner every day despite having a breakfast bar in the kitchen. How old are the kids? Would it be good to have a separate dining room for homework/games etc?

On the other hand - knocking walls down is fun.:)

trailingspouse

I'm not keen on the dining room/kitchen combo personally.

In your situation, you say the dining room is cold - if you knock through, the kitchen will also be cold, as you'll have a much bigger space to heat.

I like a separate dining room - you can enjoy the meal without having to look at all the pots that need washing up.

If you don't think you'll use the separate dining room, why not turn it into a room that you will use? Snug, kid's playroom, den, whatever. As to it being dark, you can fix that with changing the decor so that it's brighter, lighter and well lit.

Trig1903

We knocked through a couple of years back and have never looked back. Personally find that it makes it much more of a social area. We have another dining space at the back of the sitting room that is used at Christmas only which reflects how well the kitchen diner concept works for us. Sad waste of space in sitting room though which we are racking our brains on how to put to better use. Absolutely agree with other viewpoints though in that it's down to personal preference and the way that you like to live.

Mojisola

Trig1903 wrote: »

Absolutely agree with other viewpoints though in that it's down to personal preference and the way that you like to live.

This is what it comes down to.

I don't like all open-plan living but, as you have a separate sitting room, I would go for it. It's possible to design the kitchen so that you can't see all the clutter in the kitchen when you're sitting down to eat.

If your house is of a similar design to others to the area, have a look at the floor plans on the house selling sites and see if you like their layouts.