Connecting a kitchen and living room, hole in wall?

[Pannacotta]

We have a very dingy 1970s pine kitchen which we are planning to replace as soon as we can work out what to do with it.
It is quite small given the size of the house (5 bed Victorian townhouse).

We had thought about opening the kitchen up to the main living room - the rooms face each other and both come off the hall, but this would mean losing lots of wall space in both rooms.

I was thinking about creating a large wall opening in both the kitchen and living room, to allow light and views of the garden into the kitchen, the openings would mirror each other. This also means we could use the wall space below for kitchen units and a sofa.

Could this work or are all wall openings stuck in the 1970s and forever naff?

I can't quite work out how your house works, but wouldn't you end up with cooking smells in your living room, and being able to see left over washing up?

I dont think so, as there is a hallway which separates the two rooms - the house is double fronted, with a hall which runs from front to back with the kitchen on one side and sitting room on the other.

I was thinking of a modern wall hatch/largte hole in the wall, not too low, so you would get light through but hopefully not an eueful of dirty dishes!

But have never done this so no idea how it would work in reality...

We did have an architect to draw up some plans and he opened up the whole space, but his plans were totally impractical, esp given we like to cook and sit down to eat every night.

Should have said, our living room is also an occasional dining room, so we are looking for a better way to connect it to the kitchen.
At the moment the door into it is where we would have a large sofa, rather than near the eating area, if that makes sense...

It sounds rather odd to me, but might be less odd in reality. I can't see how you can have a hole in your walls without it being drafty, cold and letting smells through.

It all sounds a bit potentially unhappy hipsters to me...

Yes I know what you mean, I'd hate for it to be drafty and cold.
At the mo its very dark though, despite the kitchen facing South, we really need to get more light in...

My friends have what (I think!) you are describing - a hole above their kitchen sink, where you might expect a window to be, through to the dining area of their living/dining room. It is very sociable and handy for passing dirty dishes through! They have another main sitting room though, so smells etc less of an issue I suppose.

in our last house we had a hole with glass. sorry that doesnt soung right. but anyway it let all the light in but still kept a barrier between our kitchen and living room.

HerHonesty yes a glazed opening could work, it would let light in but keep out drafts and cooking smells.
Did it look ok?

I think with a bit of help from a designer or just someone imaginative you could take the wall down and still have a sofa table and kitchen.It is all about scale and effective use of space.I remodelled a victorian terrace last year and took out 2 'pieces' of walls to create a more open feel and when the agent did the details he put extended kitchen on them and I had to correct him as it hadn't been extended at all!But looked that way comapred to others he had sold on the street.If you get an architect student from a local college you can get a cheap drawing otherwise send me a floorplan and I'll take a look

We had what HerHonesty said, a 'window' between two rooms, not created by us but I think probably due to a light issue. Don't know how old your kids are but when mine were small it was a definite advantage being able to spy on them from the kitchen! Solved all sorts of 'he started it' rows!

However....if you had visitors, it meant they could see straight into the kitchen so if you'd been preparing dinner and there was lots of washing up etc...well, I was always quite conscious of that

Why's the kitchen dark if it's south facing? Could you put French windows in onto the garden?

It seems to me that banging holes in the walls of two rooms and redecorating around them isn't going to be cheap, so you might be better off spending the money giving the kitchen a facelift in the first place.

I would take nodders advice! She is an expert

Also it might seem like you are losing a wall if you took the whole thing down but free standing pieces would still delineate the areas but wouldnt need a wall., like a sofa with a console tabel behind it or a fre standing island unit

What other living areas do you have on the ground floor ? 5 Beds sounds like its bigger than I'm imagining from your description.

We did exactly what you are descrbing for the same reasons but we were able to swap the dining & living room round so it made more sense.

Its hard to explain as its an odd layout. I'm usually quite good at finding solutions but its quite hard with this house!

We did ask an architect do some drawings but his plans were unworkable in terms of kitchen/cooking space as we like plenty of storage and room to cook.

The kitchen is approx 5m x 5m but a very odd shape and has two doors off it (door to hall and French doors), one cupboard and an opening to a utility area, so very limited wall/storage space.
We have two receptions rooms at the front (TV room and home office), plus the main living/dining room and kitchen facing each other off the hall, at the back of the house.

The kitchen is dark partly as the ceiling is clad in varnished pine, but also because the windows are small, there is an overhanging wood porch (nice!) and a large supporting column next to the French doors.
We are planning on complete new kitchen plus will address the access to outside, but the light from the living room would be great (it faces West).

Confused?!

And cyb we would do what you suggest but there is only room for a sofa and not a console table behind it in the living room area where we'd put the "hole".

Forgot to say thanks all for yor suggestions!

How about putting double doors from the kitchen into the hall and the same double doors from the living room into the hall. You can get doors that fully open back against the wall and you could fit them so both sets open against the walls in the hall.

When both sets are open you would have an open plan look. Presumably you need to keep the door from the kitchen to the hall anyway so just make it bigger. The sofa could still go infront of the doors, you would just need enough room to get behind to open the doors. You would lose a bit of wall space in the kitchen though.

Could you take some photos so we can have a look? You could take them down again straight afterwards.

p.s. I agree that Noddy gives good decorating advice. Does making it open plan really make it impractical? My mum had a big old-fashioned kitchen table that she prepared food on, not on the worktops. It was much easier for family life, as children could sit round and help. If you have drawers rather than cupboards, you can fit far, far more into them for the same amount of wall space - the effect really is astonishing.

Thanks all and thanks Noddy for your offer - I dont have an electronic floor plan at the mo but am hoping to get this done.

Double fold back doors are an option, its just that the kitchen is already very short of storage and there is little depth between the woodburner and the current wall for a sofa to go, both rooms are long but not that deep. My thinking of just having an opening in each wall would mean we could place kitchen units or table on the kitchen side and a sofa on the living room side.

I quite like the idea of a large kitchen table for food prep, plus drawers rather than cupboards. Think I need to get a good kitchen designer round to take a look. Any recommendations would be great...