Should we knock the dining room & kitchen together?

[FourArms]

We have a 4/5 bedroom house - bed 5 accessed via bed 4, nothing old & rambly, just a poorly thought out over garage extension.

The house feels much smaller downstairs due to the integral garage. Lounge, dining room & small-ish kitchen.

DH would like to knock the kitchen and dining room together. I don't think it would work well for our lifestyle (I like to work in the dining room although DH would like to knock the back of the garage into a study). However, I also think it would devalue the house only having 1 reception room.

Any thoughts?

[Lagoonablue]

Agree you need 2 separate areas downstairs IMHO.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Two of our neighbours have done it, and it does make a lovely, open room, and that might balance out only having one reception.

Don't do what my neighbour did, though - she took a sledgehammer to the wall between her kitchen and dining room one day - her husband had no idea she was planning to do this, and got a bit of a shock when he got home from work! I gather she does have form for this, though.

[Parietal]

i think a big eat-in kitchen is a better reception room than a separate dining room. our house is all open plan (one kitchen - living - dining space) and that works well.

[ShoeWhore]

I would like that arrangement, especially if there was room for a sofa in the kitchen diner

[Shesparkles]

Our house was similar.....we converted the garage into a 2nd living room, then knocked through the kitchen and dining room, which was the best thing we ever did. The kitchen is huge, with plenty of room for a sofa, table etc, and it's where we spent most of our time.

I understand what you're saying about not wanting to devalue your house, but you have to live there in the meantime!

[ClariceBeanthatsme]

We are currently doing just that... knocking down the wall between our kitchen and dining room so downstairs will be living room and a large kitchen diner.

It will work better for us having an open plan downstairs living space while the children are small.

As for possibly devaluing the house I can't imagine it would have a negative effect-these days it all seems to be about open plan living. Pick up any interior design magazine or any of the home improvement tv programmes it seems to be what buyers want but as a previous poster says it's your home and what works for you.

[FourArms]

Hmmm, overwhelmingly positive. Other issue is that we'd lose a wall of 8 cupboards & work top. Unless we extended cupboards down the side of the dining room?

[greenfolder]

i had a large breakfast bar put in which has huge corner cupboard, which takes all the large dishes and mixer etc, a veg drawer cupboard, and 2 smaller cupboards and had 2 wall cupboard on the wall running parallel.

[FamiliesShareGerms]

I'd have a large kitchen diner plus lounge and study as my preferred layout

I'd sort out the bedroom 5 only through bedroom 4 if you're trying to add value to the house, though

[FourArms]

I quite like the odd bedroom arrangement now. Prob wouldn't suit everyone. The walk through room is the old second largest bedroom. We have a run of 3.5m of wardrobes down one wall & use it as a dressing room / study.

Our bedroom is over the garage - it's the smallest in the house but fits a king size bed with bedside tables next to it. The ensuite is off this room. It is a nice haven and would work well as a granny suite / nanny rooms / master 'suite'. The alternative would be swapping the ensuite to the other side and having one massive bedroom so not much to be gained. I don't think we could give the room it's own access without losing lots off another room.

[FourArms]

Its not it's - damn autocorrect!

[Spottybra]

We are doing something similar but with moving/folding walls so the areas can be separated if we ever wanted to.
Although I think the days of having friends round after work with a stir fry and several bottles of wine are well and truly over.

The kitchen/dining room will also be our main living area in the day and our play room with the sitting room for family board games, reading, snuggling and DVD nights.

[Wormshuffler]

I've been debating over this for ages now, in our family we have teenagers and a toddler, I've come to the conclusion that I need a separate space for the teenagers, they invariably don't want too watch the same as us on telly (I don't allow Telly's in their bedrooms) , they play their consoles in there at the moment and toys... I don't want them under my feet.

I'm instead having my kitchen altered to fit a nook seating area in there with French doors into the garden.

[Wormshuffler]

I also have a bedroom over garage extension, the opposite side to the stairs, there is an enormous corridor of wasted space just to get to it, it drives me completely mad how much space is wasted! you've just given me an idea of putting a door on it and using it!!

[RuddyDuck]

As you will still have a living room, I don't see the problem with knocking the kitchen and dining room together, Personally, I would much prefer a large kitchen/diner to a small kitchen and separate dining room. A kitchen with eating area is much more sociable, and you would still have the living room as a separate space.

Converting the back of the garage to a study is also a good idea.

In terms of the bedrooms, think of it in terms of having a 4 bedroomed house where there is a "master suite" rather than a 5 bedroomed house. I would be slightly put off looking at a 5 bedroom house where two of the bedrooms are interlinked. I would definitely be interested in a 4 bedroomed house where the master bedroom has a huge walk through dressing room and en suite.

[KhloeKardashian]

Can you extend the kitchen into the garage instead? Keep the front half of the garage as it is, patrician the rear off and take the wall down between the rear of the garage and the kitchen?

[FourArms]

Sadly the kitchen and garage are separated by the hall.

There would be scope for a complete remodel of the downstairs to improve the layout but I don't think the cost would justify the result. Ours is always going to be the second most expensive house on the street due to the size and type of the others (lots of 3 bed-semis, only 3 x 4 bed detached houses), so if we chose to move we wouldn't see a return. We'd be better off moving than extensively remodelling. :(

How small do you think a study could be to be viable? I'd be happy with a well furnished large cupboard - I just need marking space!

[FourArms]

You're bringing me round more to the idea of knocking through, DH will be pleased!!

[FourArms]

Spottybra - have you got any plans for your conversion drawn up?

Wormshuffler - no consoles in bedrooms here either :) There's a wii in the lounge, but parents take priority, and the kids have the original master bedroom as a playroom. They then have two similar size bedrooms.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

I have the amazing kitchen/dining room knock through. First of all taking the wall away gives you more space than you would think for the combined rooms. In the kitchen area where a small table would have been I have a central island with breakfast bar (5 cupboards and a set of drawers). The dining room as a room you would have got just a table in, but the able is moved closer to kitchen and we have a snug area.
We hardly ever use the living room any more. I cook while DD does how work at table etc. in the summer the French doors are open (I had really wide ones put in) and there is table dir toy outside on the patio and the room seems to flow out there.
I am moving and am specifically looking for a house already with this type of room or the potential to create it.

[Kefybaby]

Spottybra, what kind of doors have you gone for? We are also about to demolish a couple of walls and go open plan throughout and would like the option of still separating the living room from the kitchen- dinner on occasions.

[yegodsandlittlefishes]

I recommend knocking down the wall. Other option is to keep a half wall and the lowe units and make that a kund of low level breakfast bar between kitchen and diner. Works well. We couldn't afford to do that where were used to live and I was very envious of the open plan lifestyle and how it helped wirh family dynamics of thw families of friends in neughbouring houses. Had to wait until we could move to a place with chwaper houses to afford it, but now have bought a hoyse with dream kitchen, French doors to back garden with sofa, and dining area along side in an L shape. We have a big dresser for extra storage or crockery, by the table.

[TeacakeEater]

You could knock through a central door sized space. You then keep more wall space for units.

[tassisssss]

We knocked kitchen into dining room 2 years ago and it is AMAZING. I love it. Only thing is we now rarely leave this room despite having lovely lounge and teeny TV room. Great space. We have breakfast bar where all 5 of us usually eat and lovely big dining room table for colouring/jigsaws/homework/when we have guests. No regrets.

[Vintagebeads]

Ours is already like that.

It suits the way we live and our dining room if a room with a door would have been never used.As we eat the island in the kitchen.Its used more simply because we spill into it.

However this suits us.It doesnt sound like it would suit you without a study?

Kitchen diners from a selling point of view are attractive, I would be very surprised if it devalued your property.