Advice please - knock through kitchen into utility or dining room?

[MrsSee]

Hi, hopefully someone can help indecisive dh and me on this!
We have an open plan living room into dining room, then there's a door through to the kitchen which leads to a small utility. Imagine it all in a C shape as you come in the front door...
Our dining room has patio doors which lead into the garden and the back door is really a side door in the utility room.
Originally we wanted to knock through to the utility room to create a larger kitchen with breakfast bar/seating space. The walls which we'd be getting rid off are not load bearing.
However the utility room is very useful to us. It houses a pulley, large fridge/freezer and all manner of junk! The main issue is that by knocking through, we'd need to get rid of the pulley which would mean the house could look like a Chinese laundry if the weather is bad...which means most of the time!
So we started to think about knocking through from the kitchen to the dining room. This would mean removing a load bearing wall. But it would mean we could have a breakfast bar as you come inside from the back garden, which would be quite nice and make the space quite open. We would still have our utility room too.
BUT, it would mean wed'd need to put some kind of sliding/folding door contraption between the living room and dining room as we'd want to close it off to any kitchen noise/cooking smells. So far, I've not seen any which would look right, as lots look kind of temporary.
What do you think is the best option? We are going round in circles now and swithering! Thank you for listening/reading, any advice/tips would be much appreciated :-)

I'd definitely go for the knocking through to dining room option, your utility sounds too useful to lose!

Yout C shaped layout sounds a bit like ours, we're about to extend to give the through kitchen diner, and we're debating where to put folding doors!
Floorplan here if that makes it any clearer

I would knock through to the dining room and put a wall up between the living and dining rooms. You could have double doors put in if you wanted to, it would look much better than trying to divide a large space with folding doors.

Hi
Thanks very much for your replies :)
Yorky, your floor plan does look like ours! I suppose I am a bit concerned that the living room will seem much smaller with the doors installed. Good luck with your plans btw, they look good!
Bamaluz, thanks, we cant put up a wall between the living and dining room as there is no other access into the kitchen/utility. Wewill have a look around at some double doors instead, just wasn't sure how "proper" doors would look since if they were open, one door would lie against a wall but the other would open into the kitchen/diner and would cut into the room, if that makes sense?
Thank you both :)

I'd keep the utility room if you can. I have a utility space off our kitchen now and it's invaluable. If you ever need to sell up I think it's something that can differentiate your property from another too.

I'd also keep the utility. Do you have children? We definitely use the utility room as a junk room and yes, Chinese Laundry describes our house perfectly - even when its lovely weather. I'd much rather have that stay that the dining room (which most people don't tend to use as a proper dining room anyway). If I were looking for a family house to move into, I seriously wouldn't consider a house without a utility room.

Thanks Sue and Mandy. You're all right, we do need the utility. We have two young children so it's laundry day most days in our house!
Thanks to everyone for your advice, we will keep the utility :)