Having the kitchen and lounge in the same room

Gers

I can't see any benefit on the 'socialising whilst cooking' theme as mostly the appliances / worktops / sinks are against the opposite wall, which means having ones back to the living space. Not all, I know but 'mostly'.

I'd hate it.

WestonDave

The other potential advantage of these set ups is when you have smaller children. Friends of ours have a small child, he works out all day, she is generally at home, but their separate kitchen is so small that its impossible to have their toddler in there with her when she is preparing his food, but if he's not in there then he has to be penned in the lounge because there is no visibility between the two. So they were thinking of knocking through to the dining room as one room so the toddler can play out of the kitchen but in sight. Obviously they still would have the separate lounge but if you don't have the space to separate them I guess that's where the through kitchen/diner/lounge comes in.


I agree though that its a relatively small niche need.

Sausage11

We designed our house with a large kitchen / living / diner and we love it. New visitors tend to say "Wow!" when they first enter the house. We also went for the extractor that offered the best mix of power and quietness, and insisted that it vented outside of the house.

Only drawback is that when cooking is in full swing it can be difficult to hear the television. But we have a snug if that's an issue.

My wife likes entertaining and her friends all prefer to visit our house.

silvercar

Putting the kitchen in the lounge makes it easier to comply with rules on disabled access. If you need a hallway that reaches the kitchen and separate lounge to be wide enough for a wheel chair and have room in the lounge and kitchen to manoeuvre a wheel chair, both would need to be larger than the size needed if you put the kitchen in the lounge.

onomatopoeia99

elsien wrote: »

I You can't drop something then give it a quick rinse under the tap when guests are watching..

Gitdog doesn't deal with (as in "dive in and eat") dropped food for you before you have a chance to retrieve it? Seems fairly standard dog behaviour when I've visited friends with dogs!

Slinky

elsien wrote: »

I am a messy person. It can take me some time to get around to washing up - I need a door to close on it all so that visitors aren't sussing out what a dirty mare I am.
Plus I hate people watching me cook. You can't drop something then give it a quick rinse under the tap when guests are watching.
Separate areas for me all the way.

I agree totally. I hate it when people come and talk to me while I'm in the kitchen trying to cook. There's a danger something's going to go seriously wrong with their dinner if I'm not just left to get on with it.

elsien

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

Gitdog doesn't deal with (as in "dive in and eat") dropped food for you before you have a chance to retrieve it? Seems fairly standard dog behaviour when I've visited friends with dogs!

Gitdog is barricaded in his crate with triple locks when I have visitors.
Elf 'n safety, and all that. Can't have the guests being eaten before the main course.

katejo

I really dislike this and would never buy such a property. I am happy with a breakfast/kitchen with separate living room. My first flat had one but want to be able to relax on the sofa without staring at the sink and dirty dishes.

Tigsteroonie

Open plan just isn't safe for our son, we need to be able to shut away the kitchen and all its interesting dangerous contents so that he cannot play with them.

screwedagain

+1 to whoever mentioned the watching the toddler issue.

Our old house had a separate small galley kitchen, really only big enough for one person to cook in, and no visibility to the living room. An utterly nightmare with a 1 year old... imo separate kitchen is only useful if there is enough room in there for a dining table or breakfast bar or other loitering area.

Current house is open plan so is much easier to keep the kids entertained and keep an eye on them while working in the kitchen. When they get older yes we might choose to put up a stud wall but that is something for another day. We are also lucky in that we have a separate utility room so don't have to put up with much appliance noise. I would draw the the line if I had to listen to the washing machine spinning while watching the TV.

And to the people who want to hide the dirty dishes, stop being lazy and just do the freaking dishes, it's not difficult! Why anyone would use that as a factor in the layout of their home is beyond me