Through lounge or Kitchen Diner dilemma,please advice......

[GatheringRequirements]

Hello MN'ers

We got keys for the house we purchased yesterday, it has a tiny kitchen so hubby suggests we remove the wall between kitchen and dining room.
But I thought removing a wall between lounge and dining room and will give a through lounge and so kids can play and we can still watch tv whilst keeping an eye on them.Also we checked with the builders and they said wall between lounge and diner is load bearing so they have to put RSJ's etc and will cost a lot of money where as wall between kitchen and dining is not load bearing so will easily come off.Here is the link to the floor plan www.sandradavidson.com/property-details/24885677/essexbarkingsideardwell-avenue/floorplans
any suggestions ,pros and cons of having them would really help us make a decision on which wall to remove.

[Hong888]

Can you do both?

Kitchen/diner for friends and families. (preferred)
Living room/dinner for kids.

Make sure your builder did investigate whether the walls are load-bearing. He should lift up the floor board to check the direction of floor joists. I assume this is a victorian house and they can give you a surprise sometimes. Unless he has previous experience in a similar house on the same street which will give you a safer bet.

[PrimalLass]

Have the builders had a good look? In my experience of only three houses it is usually the 'side-to-side' walls that are supporting, not the 'front-to-back' ones.

[LOLeater]

Personal opinion only but kitchen diner is ace. And I have a sofa bed in my lounge so it serves as a spare Tom a couple of times a year too, completely enclosed.

Lounge diners less useful.

[PrimalLass]

Kitchen diner.

[LBOCS]

Kitchen diner.

We did this a couple of years ago, and it only added about £1k to the price of the work - £200 RSJ, £400 structural engineers costs, £200 building regs, plus a bit more labour.

[Inertia]

Kitchen diner definitely !

[VeryStressedMum]

I have a big kitchen diner and I'd always choose it over a through lounge. Whenever anyone comes over (and a lot of people seem to come over!) we always sit in the kitchen it's very easy for making coffee...and it leaves the lounge free for the dcs or dh to sit in without them disturbing us and us them.
I can't imagine sitting in the lounge with my friends, and we always sit in the kitchen at my friends houses too for some reason.

[mandy214]

Very similar layout in our house to this although the rooms are slightly bigger - we could just about fit a table in our kitchen for example. We have been here 4 years, children were 5 and 1 when we moved in. The "lounge" was a playroom. Worked OK, but drove me mad when I couldn't see the children when I cooked, and when we had friends round, its a really antisocial lay out.

We have just knocked through between the kitchen and what you call the lounge. It is brilliant. It feels like there is so much more space. Use the living room at the front of the house as the sitting room with TV etc, more adult, and then we're all just living in the new kitchen diner (have sofa and TV in there too - with dining table and small island unit or we will when we finish it). For us, we spend much more time pottering in the kitchen (its also our access to the back garden) so if there was one configuration that worked for a family i.e. we could be doing stuff whilst the children played, it had to involve the kitchen!

[noddyholder]

It depends where the services are but most of the time gas and water can easily be put more or less anywhere. What layout have you got now?

[greenfolder]

our last 2 houses. first was open plan kitchen/lounge job. Great when kids are little.

2nd house we changed from big lounge/diner across the back of the house and kitchen at front to kitchen/diner into conservatory and seperate lounge. Thank God now we have teens

[ABeautifulLie]

Noddy, do you mind me asking how easy it is to move the kitchen to another room? Is it a long, expensive job? More so than removing a wall and having RSJ installed?
It's exactly what I want to do to my downstairs but I don't know anybody that's done it.

[LondonGirl83]

In your layout, I would go for know the back reception room into the kitchen and then keep a separate lounge. I think lounge-diners are fine but only if you have a totally separate large eat-in kitchen (ideally with seating).

[Lelivre]

We have this layout in the house we are moving to. There are double doors though through to the diner from the lounge. We will make a kitchen diner in due course the dinning room is big enough to be a bit of a downstairs play room.

I think this is better with a young family also so you can cook and supervise if they are playing/eating or in the garden (assuming you also have a back garden). I know I I seem to spend lots more time in the kitchen since having the kids!

[Sandthorn]

Definitely kitchen diner. Sorry, but I think through lounges are almost never a good idea: there's no escape from the mess and noise, and they massively inhibit furniture layouts.

[minipie]

kitchen diner, no question. we have a through lounge and have actually divided it with a massive baby gate to keep all the kids stuff at one end. Not a good look!

Alternatively if your garden is large enough, you could put an extension on the back across the width of the house - this would give you a dining space off the kitchen and also connect the kitchen with the current lounge. this might even be cheaper than knocking the wall down RSJ etc, especially if it means you don't need to replace the kitchen.

[noddyholder]

If you don't want to knock down walls move kitchen into back room with sliding doors and turn existing small kitchen into utility/ office. I sometimes do this in refurbs

[foreverforaging]

Kitchen diner definitely

[MummytoMog]

We originally had that layout with the lounge diner. It was ok. Not great and the tiny kitchen was a nightmare. We've extended across the back and the side so now our downstairs is a massive L shaped kitchen diner lounge playroom with a utility and a sort of hallway/cloak room in the middle of the L. If I was doing something in your house I'd put in the RSJ too.

[Littleoaktree]

Definitely a kitchen diner, much more practical.

[MillyMollyMama]

I think your kitchen is small and cut off from the rest of the house. I would extend it into the adjacent lounge area.

[burnishedsilver]

Any chance you could introduce yourself to the neighbours and perhaps get their experiences? It really helps if you can see it already done.

[icklekid]

We specifically looked for house with kitchen diner not lounge diner! I think of lounge diners as one big but not very usable space where as kitchen diners more sociable and practical. We may extend out back of kitchen diner in future to add sofa/chill out space and still have separate living room. Could this be a long term option?

[Pancakeflipper]

We have a large kitchen/diner and it is wonderful. Best decision we made when knocking our house walls apart.
RandomMess is very right about having 2 reception areas.

I have a huge comfy chair in the dining area and often sit there with a soothing drink and biccie whilst the kids rage war in the lounge.

I only sit in the lounge at weekends.

[MothershipG]

Through lounges are very passé, don't ya know?

I'd say knocking the dining room through to the kitchen is worth the extra expense of an RSJ, but then I would because that's what we did with an identical layout. Our NDN liked it so much she's getting hers done now. It also makes more sense if you subsequently want to extend out the back.

[MisForMumNotMaid]

This is what we did as our half way measure.