To consider opening my kitchen up to the dining room

[Dylaninthemovies1]

We have a bit of a fixer upper house. Finally have renovated the living room and playroom, but next on the list is the dining room.

It’s currently a separate room to the kitchen (both decent sized), but with a door between them.

I’m swithering as to whether we should keep the dining room separate or open it up to the kitchen. Opening it up to the kitchen will be expensive and I’m not sure if I could face all the work. Both rooms as very dated, so if we knock them through it would mean both rooms would need refurbished, so looking at up to £30k rather than just £1k to decorate the dining room just now, and another £20k ish in the future to do the kitchen up.

So, can I be cheeky and ask your thoughts on open plan kitchen dining; do you prefer this, or do you prefer a separate dining room.

Yanbu: open the two rooms up into one
YABU: keep them separate

N.b. I hate living room/kitchen though.

We knocked our wall down to make an open plan space, it doesn’t need to cost a lot. I love that I’m not cut off from my family when cooking, we have an island thingy in kitchen, I often sit at that for hours, watching DC, cooking and drinking endless cups of tea

Don’t use Wren kitchens when you come to do your kitchen up.

@Babdoc. Thanks for that. I’ll estimate £6k to be on the safe side

I think £20k is a reasonable estimate for the rest. It it a fairly big kitchen and I’d like a reasonable standard of work and for it to last a long time.

14 years ago in our first flat, we had a tiny kitchen put in, and it still cost around £5k

We did this, finishing in November just gone and like you we also have a separate playroom and dining room.

100% do it! It's been great for entertaining (friends with kids/ MIL/ my parents) but also just as a family space throughout the day.

We also managed to get a separate utility space out of ours which is amazing!

I love my separate dining room, with a door in from the kitchen. Kitchen is small, but functional and I like to close the door on the mess!
Not a big fan of open plan living, grew in a noisy household with everyone doing different things and so nice to have seperate rooms to relax and do different things in..... And not have to hear others rubbish music or programmes... Not an ear phone wearing family either.
Am also thinking that I could convert to a bedroom at some point....rather than having a star lift.
You will know what is right for your family OP

Now I’ve seen the floor plan it’s even more of a no brainer. That will be a stunning huge room. Get your sledge hammer out!

I think open plan kitchens can save a lot of shouting at kids and means you can see a lot more while doing time-consuming stuff like cooking (or cleaning the bloody kitchen yet again) and it is really nice for hosting.

We're Jewish so expect to have large family gathering a couple of times a year - when we bought our current house, having somewhere we could potentially seat both sets of parents and our siblings and family was important and if the kitchen were separate from where we ate it would make those times a less pleasant experience as the person in the kitchen would be separate from everything rather than part of it,

We won’t be having a “family room” in it whichever option we go for as we already have a separate lounge and playroom, and an (unused) conservatory. For 3 people I think that would be overkill.

I mentioned to DH and he thinks separate, but doesn’t seem too fussed either way (clearly we would both need to discuss further and come to an agreement; but this is just idea finding times

I had a separate kitchen and dining room. I knocked the walk down and it was the best thing I ever did. I love it.

@Choppedupapple what’s wrong with wren?

We had a house which had a kitchen and separate dining room. We opened them up and it was much nicer especially as our children were still really young at the time. In our current house we have kept them both separate as our children are now adults and we like being able to leave the kitchen mess behind to eat in the dining room. It really depends what will suit you best. Both are good options.

[quote Dylaninthemovies1]@Choppedupapple what’s wrong with wren?[/quote]
Massively overpriced.

We've knocked through to make a kitchen-diner and it is so much better for us as a family. More sociable and there's more room to move about.
The only thing I was concerned about was having a separate utility room so that if the washing machine or tumble dryer is on it doesn't disturb us using the dining room. We managed to squeeze on in with a new partition wall.

Just popping up to say we knocked through our dining room and living room (load bearing wall) and it cost about £2k. Very straight forward and took them about 1.5 days to do.

Here in France everyone has open plan kitchens. I hate them. Cooking smells spread and mess is visible.

We are planning on opening up our kitchen and dining room unto one space. I think it will make the whole space much more usable.

Do it and get some big doors from the dining room out to the garden. Also have the same flooring throughout the kitchen/dining space. I see dining room ms as a bit pointless, shut away only to be used for meals 3 times a day or homework maybe. Where as when it’s one space you use it more, I’m always sitting at our kitchen table, it’s such a sociable space.

We are currently redoing our kitchen, and I did think about knocking through to the dining room as all those lovely big rooms look lovely on TV. I think it does depend on how you use your space and how you entertain.
My best friend knocked through, and she even added a tv area. She has two young boys and they have made it a real family room where they sit and work/play/watch tv while she cooks, and as a family they spend a lot of time in there.
We decided not to knock through, as we don’t have young children and I prefer to shut the door on mess. With separate rooms, when people come round I can shut the cooking mess away and we can relax with food and drink in the dining room. We have dogs and it is also nice for friends to have space to eat in that we can shut the dogs out of.

My aunt has a similar floor plan to your kitche/dining room. The only difference is rather than the adjoining door to the side she has a set of double doors in the centre of the wall. Any time i visit the doors are open wide against the wall and it feels open plan as the opening is so large. The light flows through both rooms. But she can also close the doors over to separate the rooms. At times she has used the dining room as a family room and had a snall table in the centre of the kitchen, but at the moment she has the dining room as a dining room. Both have been lovely and funtional and airy.

@Chocolatepeanuts actually, that’s a good idea! We’ve actually got that between the lounge and playroom. They are closed currently. We have a little child safety lock on the doors to stop DS making them open plan again! But, we wanted the option of being able to open them if needed

You have a lot of doors!! I would open up and gave the door/window turned into french doors if feasible. And block up the door opposite the lounge in the corridor then you can have a U shaped kitchen.

I'd do the utility room at the same time, making sure it is a really useful space with the dishwasher and a double sink and some worktop in there - then you can shove dirty dishes etc in there and hide them if you are keen to keep the kitchen space clear.

But I would definitely knock through - I've done this in three houses now and loved it every time.

Just think about where you will put the washing machine etc. They can be very noisy so they’re better off going in a separate room.

Our last house had a kitchen diner. I hated it. Could see all the cooking mess while trying to eat, plus the incessant noise of the extractor fan. (I have a hatred of repetitive noises like that). And the cooking smells.

Got a separate dining room now. Mostly dining room, but a third is our bar area. It's got an old fashioned serving hatch between the two. It's mostly been used as a home learning area the last few months.

We like having seperate rooms to retreat to for peace and quiet.