Is a big show kitchen worth it? Floor plans included

[Mushroo]

We currently have a small ish kitchen that is 3m x 4.5m that we could get redone and squeeze some seating in.

However, we’re debating moving the kitchen to our current lounge plus extension, that would get us a lot more space, and the kitchen would be the heart of the home.

However it’s a LOT more money, for those that have invested into the ‘wow’ show kitchen with open plan living, is it worth it? Do you regret it?

I am a bit worried about being able to see kitchen crap all the time.

Picture of how we could do the current kitchen (ours is slightly smaller) vs the extension plan.

(obviously on the floorplan you might be wondering why we don’t just knock the wall down between the old kitchen and new one, but they’re different levels so that’s not an option).

Would you still have a separate sitting area?

We have a big kitchen/dining room/family room space and it's great at the weekends with having young children. We basically spend the whole time in there. But in the evening when they've gone to bed, we always choose to sit in the smaller separate snug. This is ideal imo.

Having previously had a kitchen diner + separate living room, that would be my second choice, followed by an entirely open plan space last.

Yes so the existing kitchen would become a small snug / cinema room type thing. So we would have some ‘adult space’ to retreat to in an evening!

Bump

It depends a lot on your lifestyle. How many people in the house? How often do you have guests & parties? Any toddlers?

open plan is great with little kids because you can see them as you cook.

and it can be great if you have a lot of parties and informal gatherings and use the big space.

but if 90% of the time, there are just 2 people who like a tidy home, then a separate kitchen might be best.

Jumping on as I have similar dilemma!

@parietal we have a two year old and another baby on the way! And this is our ‘forever’ house, we’re not planning to move or flip it.