Can you please tell me how you use your kitchen/ family breakfast room...

[NormaSnorks]

We are planning to knock through to make a single big room for kitchen/breakfast room, with doors into the garden

We trying to decide what 'zones' we need.

Obviously kitchen/ cooking area, and table/eating area.

However the kids are 7 & 10 and I can see that as they get older we/they might use the space for different things. We've been thinking about all the following:

• breakfast bar area on end of kitchen units
• flat screen TV - where? Kitchen bit or in table area?
• do we need soft chair/ sofa area?
• what about a combined TV/PC instead - I find I'm using PC more and more for 'kitchen' stuff (recipes/ food ordering etc), also ti might be useful for kids' homework within 'supervision' range.

If you have this sort of space, can you tell me how you use it...

• what works?
• what's a waste of space?
• what do you most wish you'd designed in, but didn't?

Tell me about how your family uses the space please!

[ChasingSquirrels]

we have a kitchen (12x12 ish) with an open conservatory (12x10 ish).

Kitchen is just kitchen. No breakfast bar area as it wouldn't have worked in the space.

Conservatory is eating area - has table and chairs. Plus has a small ikea kids table for crafy things, colouring etc. Not much used by nearly 7yo but still in use by 3yo.

My main regret about the conservatory is that we didn't make it bigger and fit in a sofa.

We had a tv in the conservatory area which could swivel to be viewed in the kitchen. But is is broken and I haven't replaced - been 6mo+. I probably will at some point.

Table is used for eating all meals, 7yo uses for homework, drawing etc, we play games on it, sometimes sit at table with friend and chat while children are in the garden, or when they are playing in the lounge and we want to talk quietly.

[ChasingSquirrels]

oh - combined tv/pc. I have a laptop so it just gets taken where I need it. So not something I considered.

[LaDiDaDi]

We have a very open plan ground floor. We have a slightly L shaped kitched with a breakfast bar bit that separates it from the area where we have our PC which in turn links through into our dining area and then living room.

I like having the PC downstairs in the middle of the house so that I can easily nip on it when in kitchen/playing with dd and still see what's going on elsewhere. Dd is 3 and so only goes on Cbeebies with my help so that sort of supervision isn't an issue for us.

The people who we bought this house from had had the extension work and knocking through stuff done and they had a sofa and storage for children's toys/bookcases where we have our PC and desk but their children were around 8 and 6.

[BuckRogers]

We have a kitchen/dining/family area. It is quite a big room and I wish we had different flooring zones. We don't sit on the sofa and watch telly as much as I had planned because it seems 'cold' IYKWIM. Wish I'd put carpet or seagrass or something in that corner.

[ADriedFrogForTheBursar]

What flooring have you got BuckRogers?

[Quattrocento]

The kitchen is the sort of focal point of the house and stretches all along the back

So it sorts of morphs as you walk through it

Side door - utility area and coat cupboard
Cooking area - about 15'
Eating area - farmhouse table - about 15' - with doors into the back garden
Sitting area/piano bit - about 10' - with more doors into the back garden

What works really well is the farmhouse table - everyone eats around it now. The doors into the back garden are nice and it is lovely and light.

I wish I'd gone with my instinct and ordered one of those massive larder fridges and larder freezers. I didn't because I wanted lots of cupboard space but we just filled the cupboards with rubbish we should do without and are struggling for fridge space

So much so that I've had to stick a white wine fridge in the garage ...

[janeite]

We just have the kitcheny stuff at one end, with utility beyond and then table and chairs at the other end. I store my cookery books in the window sill and on a corner shelf and have a rotating corner unit for pans, which I love.

Tbh I wouldn't ever even contemplate having a TV in the kitchen/diner - horrible idea imho.

I agree that a big American style fridge would be nice but we decided we'd lose too much space if we got one. We do have an understairs cupboard off the kitchen too, which is v useful for storing the ironing board, roller skates, bottles of sherry (!) etc.

[janeite]

Oh and we have a little built in fridge too, which is v useful for chilling beer, storing cartons of juice etc.

[BuckRogers]

Sorry, we have limestone.