How do I plan my open plan kitchen/dining/living space?

[potteringaround]

We have done a couple of refurbishments in the past, and I normally really enjoy the planning etc, but we are about to start refurbishing our bungalow (forever house, hopefully) and I am really struggling with this space.

It is currently a 24ft square living room (previous owner had a wheelchair so after it was extended, the two existing reception rooms were knocked through to the extension to create this), a 12ft by 7ft kitchen and a 11ft by 7ft utility room. We want to knock all three rooms through to create a large open plan space (utility room moved out to garage). It will end up about 30ft by 24ft. However, we have done open plan living before and know how important it is to 'zone' the space (!!). So need to decide exactly how we want to use the space, and then I guess we want to use furniture, low partition walls, glass doors etc to define the different areas for its different uses...

But I am getting overwhelmed by the number of options and, not being a professional, I obviously don't have the knowledge/experience to get the best out of the space.

We already have an architect who is doing plans for us for a loft conversion, but not sure whether an architect is what i need. He is doing a good enough job on the plans for the planning etc., and has charged us a fixed price for that, but when I have broached the subject of planning the kitchen/living space, he said that he would quote for that as a separate piece of work. However, I'm not sure whether it is an interior designer that I need rather than an architect??

Any one had any experience of using one or the other for this kind of job, or indeed done it themselves with the use of helpful websites/books etc?

TIA

Luckily we don't need watersoftnering in Scotland - lovely soft water already. I wish I had put in one of those qwooker type taps - you know that always have boiling water. My friend swears by hers.
We went to a posh flooring shop and got a 'split' shipment from their warehouse - only 3 or 4 boards were unusuable but saved about 70%. Worth asking around.
Oh and start snapping up sale bargains. We got our kitchen from Howdens 6 months before we needed it and also an ex demo hob from mfi and a dishwasher from Habitat when they had zero % purchasing.

Hi, our house is half open plan. It's a converted bungalows with all bedrooms upstairs but small(planning on extending them when dh decides we can risk the money) then downstairs we have a separate living room and loo. One of the old bedrooms downstairs is now a play room. We then have a open dinning, kitchen, living area. However we still have a wall but no doors separating the kitchen from dining room as that wall has the stairs on. It's kind of UU shape room with the bottom of the UU being glass. We didn't go for the whole wall of glass as I wanted walls to put cupboards etc so have a wall on the kitchen side and glass on the living side. We're hopefully going to knock the stairs wall down when we do the upstairs work to create a 2426ft space, our kitchen will stay in the same place and use 2412 of it and then the other half split into a dining area and seating area. We don't need a big living area part due to the separate living room and play room.

We have underfloor heating in our kitchen and tbh it's expensive to run so it. Never gets turned on. If you are having the floor taken up consider hot water underfloor heating instead of electricity.

I have matt white handleless for the wall units and the island with very pale oak flooring. It's warm and calming.
Open plan living can be noisy - I tend to think of our open plan room as a kitchen that we live in - we have a separate living room which for us is essential because when I'm clattering around the kitchen cooking the kids can't hear the tv and while they are watching tv, I can't listen to the radio - which can be a pain...hence the need for another reception area. All our appliances were bought with noise levels in mind. But apart from that I love it.

Fresh - I've seen the diagonally-laid floorboards and think they look great. Like you say they add interest to a large space. Particularly adore oak herringbone parquet, but mum n dad have in their ground floor so would rather something different... Re dividers, have also considered a low wall and a desk area but will need to consider carefully as it could be near to the centre of the room along the width. Do you think dividers that are ceiling height (with space side) are a no- no (especially with my light issues)?

TracyK - Good tip on shopping early. Been getting so bogged down with sorting plans i am watching the winter sales opportunity pass me by. Anxious to think things through properly before committing though.

Kbaby - your bungalow sounds very similar to mine. 3 beds in loft and open plan space with separate reception and playroom/4th bedroom plus open plan living space. Very interesting that you are thinking about opening the kitchen up more to the living space. Now planning bedrooms in a roof conversion is a whole new thread...

Thanks again folks. Your advice is invaluable

Oops - there is only ONE open plan space...

potteringaround

Someone who is not qualified as an Architect can technically be a director of an architectural firm, he may be an architectural technician / technologist instead.

I suspect this is possibly what has happened however if he has called himself an Architect then I would be very grateful if you would mention this to him as not being registered is very naughty indeed (actually it's illegal and probably fraudulent misrepresentation as well).

Technicians / technologists are often very experienced and good on a technical level but do not have much in the way of education or training in conceptual thought or design.

As far as wonkylegs is concerned, yes I quite understand as most Architects do, after a while tend to focus on areas of practice.

Pottering - it's amazing how often that comes up about not wanting what your parents had. If you love oak parquet, could you have it in a slightly different finish to your parents' floor? It's timeless. And it's only you who knows your parents had it - everyone else will just think you've got great taste.
Am wary about full height room dividers as by that point you might as well just have a wall. When behind the divider, you'll feel visually cut off from the rest of the room but still be able to hear what's going on, which personally I'd find irritating. Consider using colour for zoning (rugs/furnishings) but beware of falling into the feature wall trap. I'd rather see a massive piece of artwork on a wall than have it painted one strong colour, esp if the rest of the room is neutral. Pattern can also mark the move to a 'softer' seating zone.

I am an interior designer and I would be able to configure a space like that.

Hi noddyholder,

Very interested in talking to you. Do you want to CAT me?

Pendeen - thanks for clarifying!

Fresh - the problem is that the folks have parquet down in their current house, so I will be showing off my fab new space and everyone will be thinking 'Ooh she's copied her mum and dad, bless her'. Although we will possibly going darker than the light oak colour they have.

Ooh no, not keen on feature walls. I like my walls neutral and to add colour with art, photos etc (god that sounds poncey!). Thanks for the tip on dividers...

Oh and wintergoddess. Love the sound of your kitchen. I really want to use matt white handleless too.

Parents will be flattered. No-one else's opinion matters!
Just a small word on neutral walls. Completely understand wanting to have a lovely light fresh space with pale walls - we did exactly the same. However, a large space can take a stronger colour, so don't dismiss the mid-toned neutrals. Last year we repainted with a pale milky chocolate colour for the kitchen/living space which also now runs up through the stairs and landing, and it's pulled everything together and made it look more 'finished'. Artworks look better on it too. And I've been able to use stronger accent colours. Just a thought, and anyway you're miles away from thinking about wall colours.....good luck with it all, it sounds great and exactly the sort of project I used to love...much happier stamping about with a hard hat on deciding on electrical layouts than choosing s*dding tiebacks...

Yes cushions and tie backs soul destroying much happier with steels and copper pipes! Will cat you later x

What colour did you go for fresh?
My whole house needs freshening up - and am fed up with my all over cream scheme.

Little Green Paint Co Ultimatt in Button. It's allowed me to use some stronger purply-reds amongst others in the rest of the scheme. At the same time have painted kitchen units LGP 50's Magnolia (i.e. cream) - they were oak - and the island unit is now LGP Adventurer (plum) with a walnut worktop. Sofas, cushions etc in range of really warm colours. Floor is oak. Well, we like it!

We have mid to dark brown kitchen units, caramel kitchen tiles and worksurface, cream and dark raspberry curtains, mid to dark brown antique couches, chocolate rugs and cream, cream, cream walls!
We have two lovely oil paintings with creams, chocolates and a metallic orange. So I'd like to move away from raspberry and go creams and oranges.

Have you thought of something along warm grey lines? The Button I used is probably too pink if you want to pick up the orange accents. But a warm grey could look really smart with dark units and antique couches. (Pottering, sorry for hijack)

Y sorry pottering.
I hadn't thought of grey. I have been putting off making a decision as I have vaulted ceilings so not a quick fix if I get it wrong.

Not at all - go for it!

marking my place.

Pottering, we bought it for the same reasons you did ie with the bedrooms upstairs you get so much more living space than a typical semi.

We now have a lovely sized downstairs with a separate play room and living room and the kitchen has a high vaulted ceiling which adds to the overall spacious feeling. However the reason we would like to open up the kitchen is mainly to make use of the dining room. It's hard to explain but the kitchen and dining room were originally separate rooms side by side. Along the back of the house and therefore the bottom of both these rooms we added an extension and removed the back of the original house to open into the extension. So the kitchen was extended into half the extension and the other half a living area in the other. Our dining room is still in the old space next to the kitchen with the old wall separating it but yet the bottom open s into the extension so it's half open plan, we never use the dining room though other than a walk through to the stairs so we figure if we remove the wall it will then become one big open space and hopefully means we will use the dining table and let more light into the original part of the house.
The loft was already converted when we bought the house to four funny shaped bedrooms but there's only roof windows in place and no bathroom up there, ideally we want to move the stairs to make better space downstairs, create one master bedroom and two even spaced bedrooms and add a bathroom. Plus add dormer windows to get better head room.

We were due to do it last autumn but then the share price dropped and we've lost some savings so dh won't do it now till we've saved some more :(