Open-plan kitchen diner in the 1980s – how typical?

[Darlingyeap]

Hi everyone,
I’m writing a novel set in 1980s UK, and I have a slightly odd question – but it’s important for the setting, so I hope you don’t mind!
I’m curious about how common it was for a middle-class home in the 1980s to have an open-plan kitchen diner — not with a kitchen island, but just a regular dining table placed in the middle of the kitchen space where the family would eat. Was that a thing back then, or is it more of a modern trend?
And if a family did have a kitchen diner, would they also usually have a separate dining room — maybe one reserved for guests or special occasions?
I didn’t grow up in the UK, so I’m trying to make sure the details feel realistic for the time. I’ve also heard that people used to be more particular about keeping food smells out of dining areas — is that something that influenced home layouts back then?
Thanks in advance for any memories or insights you can share — they’d really help!

We’ve bought a 80s style house to renovate. It’s still got all its original features and hasn’t been changed at all since the 80s. It has a small kitchen with a serving hatch into a dining room

We had a kitchen with a table in the middle where we ate as a family day to day. We also had a formal dining room.
this was a 1970s detached house in a cul de sac.

https://www.houseandgarden.co.uk/article/1980s-interiors-lessons

The chintz! I know that is not about the dining room but I would get that in there somehow.
You can also try and watch old TV series set in the 80s.

Serving hatches between kitchen and dining rooms were far more common.

In my house we had a sort of kitchen diner but with a divide where the top units that backed into the dining area had a backside to them and the lower units a back wall so the space in between was open like an oversized serving hatch.

Most houses in the village I subsequently moved to that were built in the 1980s had a serving hatch and/or a lounge diner rather than a kitchen diner

A relative bought her property in the late 1970's. It was a mid terrace 1950's built house which had originally had a tiny kitchen, small dining room and smallish living room. The sellers had made the kitchen and dining room into one room. One of the walls had pine wood panelling which made it feel quite small. In the late 1980's/ early 1990's, my relative had the rooms reconfigured so that it is now a separate,larger than original kitchen and a lounge diner. So, whilst maybe not as common as now, kitchen diners definitely did exist in the 1980's.

My parents bought a three bedroom semi in 1978,we had a kitchen table with a bench at either side in the kitchen where we ate most of our meals and there was a a,lounge with a,dining area attached you could seperste, them with concentina doors which they used for special occasions
In 1984 they bought a,much bigger semi and the kitchen had a,dining area,attached I think originally there was a,sliding door which separated it from the rest of the kitchen and my mum grandly,called it the breakfast room😂 and we ate most of our meals there
They also had a proper dining room which we used on special occasions
The room is very versatile and when my mum became disabld they turned it into their bedroom ,my Dad still lives there and still.sleeps in what used to be the dining room.

Wowsers @Araminta1003, our kitchen was that colour with the same shade of wood. Brings back memories! My mum couldn't get enough of those drapey curtain things.

I had matching Laura Ashley chintz curtains, headboard & valance & thought I was very sophisticated 😆

I grew up in a period terrace in the 80s with a kitchen diner and it was called that. We had an extension to create this. In reality it was a larger kitchen with a table at the other end, the flooring changed from lino to carpet to differentiate the areas.

Now I have a kitchen that fits a table at one end but has the same floor throughout. I just call it a kitchen.

I was at primary school for most of the 80s and this was very much my experience. Lots of big kitchens with a table in the middle where 99% of meals were eaten. We did have what we called the dining room but in fact was a study/computer room - I don't remember us ever eating in there. However, my grandparents and aunt/uncle did have separate dining rooms used for big meals like family Christmas.

My granny had a 1970s two bed council house with a big kitchen diner. We thought it was very fancy.

In the 1980s we then had first a kitchen with dining space in it, then a huge kitchen with a small table in it (and a breakfast bar!) with the dining room up a couple of steps off it.

I was a kid in the 1980s, we lived in a detached house in a city suburb, kitchen was big enough for a table and we ate there but it was literally that … a kitchen with a table in it, the concept of open plan living was non existent!

My Grandparents had six kids they live in a,three bed terrace ,with two reception rooms they first reception room was only used in high days,and holidays and had the best furniture etc,
Ridiculous to only use that room occasionally,when you have six children!

We had what I would now describe as a kitchen-diner. It was, like a pp described, a u- shaped kitchen on one side of the room and a dining area at the other. We referred to it as the kitchen and the dining room as if they were separate though; I don't think the term "kitchen-diner" was a thing then.

We had no other, separate dining room, just a lounge. Our house was a semi, built in the 1970s.

Some people had a kitchen with s table in it. It would not be called a kitchen diner.
Most houses had a dining room for eating (unless tiny new build) and a serving hatch was common.

My house (built in 1985) is lounge with arch through to dining room, as is my parents house (built in 1981) best friend from high school had a bigger 4 bed detached, that had large kitchen with dining table and a lovely serving hatch through to the separate dining room

My grandparents and elderly relatives did this too. You never went in the front room unless it was Christmas. Coronation street used to be like that too. Watching old repeats from the 80’s I’m reminded of this.

We had a breakfast bar with stools in the kitchen and a separate dining room.

I grew up in the 80s and lived in two Victorian terraces. In both, we had a kitchen table where we ate most of the time and then a separate formal dining room.

What your describing isn’t open plan, it’s a big kitchen with a table in it. Pretty common in all ages surely, where the kitchen was big enough. I’d imagine an old farmhouse with a table in it for example. It’s just where the kitchen is big enough for this.

We had kitchen diner in 1978 new build as well as a utility room and a separate dining room,

My detached house was built around 1985 and had a tiny kitchen with a separate small dining room, fairly large living room and massive double garage. All the houses round here were built to approx the same style and virtually all have now converted their garages into kitchen diners. My old dining room is a play room and my old kitchen is a utility room.

My parents house, built late 1700s, was remodelled in the early 80s to have a kitchen/breakfast room and seperate dining room. Such was the fashion of the time!

I'm early 60s, and have never had a dining room. My childhood home (council flat in Victorian property) had a table in the kitchen. When I was 16 we moved to a derelict Victorian terrace, and knocked through the sitting and dining rooms to make one larger space, as did most houses in the street.

All my later homes had the table either in the kitchen or sitting room. I don't think this was unusual. My grandmother raised 10 kids in a small cottage - the table was in the living room. I also remember visiting 60s new builds which had open plan kitchen-dining-living areas.

I grew up in the 1980s in a house that was built in the 1970s. It had a kitchen with a breakfast bar (where we did eat breakfast) and a dining room next door that we had the rest of our meals in. There was a serving hatch between the two.

I've seen that same house I grew up in on Rightmove recently and it's totally transformed - they've taken down the wall between the kitchen and dining room to make a big kitchen diner. I just don't think that would have occurred to people to do in the 80s.

My family home then was fairly large and detached. My parents renovated to an extent when they moved in. They put a door between the kitchen and dining room so it certainly wasn't open plan. There was also a table in the kitchen though, which we ate at.

From what I can recall from visiting friends' houses, the dining room was separate from the kitchen. I don't recall it being much of a thing to knock through rooms back then. More so by the 90s. Traditionally houses either had a table in the kitchen or separate dining rooms.

I bought my first house in the late 80s - terraced 2 bed. The two reception rooms had been knocked through but the kitchen was separate and had no space for a table.

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