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

Had a look at your plan and I see that your cooker is on the wall separating the dining room from the kitchen which means moving electrics and or gas pipes. Before making presumptions on cost I'd get a builder in for a quote and see what they say.
If it's not too expensive I'd be tempted to take the wall down and leave the kitchen as it is just now, putting some t & g or other panelling on the back of the existing base units on that wall. Decorate the dinning area, then you have the open plan concept without the major outlay at the moment.

I wouldn't have open plan unless I had a separate living room - who wants to see dirty pots/pans, hear the extractor fan, dishwasher etc....

I had my kitchen done Last year. We knocked down the wall between kitchen/utility, relocated the utility to the downstairs cloakroom. The kitchen is about 5mx4m. We had floor to ceiling units all along one wall and in total 17 units consisting of pull outs, drawers and cupboards. All integrated appliances - microwave, oven, hob, extractor, dishwasher - were included and the total cost to full completion (I bought the kitchen, local,builders did the work) was just under 11k. It's stunning. So I think your costs are overestimated.

With the kitchen renovation, utility room move and refurb of the upstairs shower room I still didn't spend 20k.

Obviously not in the SE then. Some of the low prices quoted here are not achievable in some areas.

Regarding the dishwasher - Miele are ultra quiet. We put ours on overnight most of the time but we have a tv in the kitchen and do sit around watching it with the dishwasher on. No problems - barely know it’s on!

@My0My I'm in the SW

Kitchen prices can be how long is a piece of string no matter when you live.

Even in the southeast, you get a massive range of prices. Just shop around.

I hate this continual thing that everything in the southeast is expensive. There are many expensive places up north as well, including tradesmens prices. Just shop around wherever you are.

Open it up. I really wish we had done this when we had our kitchen done and definitely will next time.

Personally I prefer separate dining room.
The idea of eating in or near the kitchen just doesn't appeal to me.
I like to go into a separate room away from the heat and mess in the kitchen to eat

Open it up. We extended last year to create an open plan 6x6 kitchen/ diner/ sofa area. We also have a separate utility and shower room, a snug/tv area off the extension (no doors) and a front room. We never use the front room, rarely the snug (only for tv in the evening occasionally). We spend majority of our time in the open plan area overlooking the garden. It's changed how we live and I love it.

When we moved here DP was adamant about knocking the wall between kitchen and dining room down and having it open plan. I loved the idea but was a bit meh about having washing machine etc in the kitchen. Reason being was there's an archway between living room and dining room, so knocking wall down would mean downstairs would be mostly open and I was wary of the noise.

We rejigged figures and had an extension built for a utility room. Cost more and meant we have had to redo garden as well but it makes the house feel & look so much larger.

Definitely recommend going for it.

When properties cost more, trades people charge more! They need a roof over their heads as well! The SW will almost certainly be cheaper than where I live. No Architect would charge £100 and no structural engineer £150. Ever.

Yes I do agree shopping around can be helpful but in your locality there are limits and I’m sure some places are expensive in the North but not universally as expensive as all over the SE.

I think few people under the age of 60 want separate dining rooms n average size houses. I’m over 60 and we have gone Swedish - large table in the lounge! I do have a separate dining room but we have a large house. I love large dining rooms which give great character to a house but a small one is pretty useless and it invariably means the kitchen is shut off.

Someone upthread mentioned the utility room. We have one already, but it is extremely dated. Concrete floor and everything: so that will need completely redone

I like kitchen/diners, but the layout of our house means the door is at the end of the dining room and much of the room is lost as a walkway to the kitchen. Awake now as ducking neighbours are singing and dancing in the garden. Loudly.

Re your utility room. Again that could be done fairly inexpensively. Don't usually need very many units in a utility room, decorating and putting some tiles or lino on the floor and it's done.
Having read more of the comments I'd say that you have a separate lounge and a playroom so 'losing' your dining room wouldn't mean you have lost your only separate living area. When your child/children are older the playroom can be adapted into a 'games room' or their own snug so again they will always also have their own space too. Having a large kitchen/dining/living space along the back of your house certainly won't reduce the value of your house, it may well increase it. We have found that we do loads more as a family in ours, it's a very social space and fantastic for entertaining. Our dishwasher is on everyday and it never interferes with our ability to hear the T.V. The only thing we have had to do is make sure we have a quitter kettle but our kitchen diner is nowhere near as big as the one you are proposing.

I'd just make the dining room temporarily prettier, as cheaply as you can. Then when you are ready to do the kitchen, rethink. Who knows, in 5 years the fashion for big kitchen dinners might have changed again, or your needs might have changed.

We did this end of last year, steel was about £2500. We kept a little bit of the original wall so the sink is still hidden, which means you can’t see the mess when eating

We entertain quite a lot (before lockdown) and it’s is so much nicer not having everyone in the dining room. I love it so much would highly recommend.

Definitely open up, much more useful space, plus you can move to the lounge to relax if the kitchen is a mess and you don't want to look at it. So many people end up with a dining room thats cold and unloved or a dumping ground.

We had a separate dining room and kitchen with a serving hatch between. It cost us £1000 to take the wall down and put in an RSJ. Gives us a Much more workable space as the kids can be sat at the table while I’m sorting dinner.

@Snailsetssail what is an RSJ?

I have this, works for me, but you need to be prepared to open windows even in the winter or use plenty of air freshener.

@Doubletrouble99 yip, the plan is that when DS is older this could be a teen lounge / snug for when he has his pals round. Although, at the moment, we all seem to spend most of the day in the playroom, only going into the lounge in the evening

It’s the steel joist that you may need to hold up the ceiling if you take a wall out.

Children never play on their own without supervision. Playrooms are from the days when people had nannies! And never saw their children! Chatting to them helps them learn. Shutting them away rarely works! Even when they are older!

I think we’ll agree to disagree there...

In fairness @My0My DS rarely will play on his own in the playroom. But DH or I are in there playing with him most of the time he’s in there. Maybe this will change when he is a bit older. But right now, it’s great having a separate room for playing in, and leaving the lounge nice and tidy for DH and I to relax in when DS goes to bed