Creating openings between kitchen and dining room, is there a minimum width?

[Dancergirl]

So at the moment our kitchen backs onto the dining room. On that kitchen wall there is a full height larder unit in the middle with base level units on either side. I want to take the base units away and create an opening on either side of the larder to walk through to the dining room if that makes sense. This will let more light into the kitchen and connect the kitchen and dining rooms better.

Only problem is, the openings will be quite narrow. Do you think this matters?

Crikey, the more I hear and see of this the worse a plan it sounds. I'm with your DP.

So not the window option either?

Nah. Windows would be so small they'd look mean.

As I said, you could create some sort of (small, mean looking) serving hatch type thing to the left of the larder by swapping the base cabinets but I really can't see any advantage to doing that.

Unless you can move the larder to anther wall I really just leave it as it is.

Not sure about serving hatch thing, too 1970s

I suppose then the only option is moving the larder to the left. It IS a bit deeper than the wall but the current base unit also is a bit deeper and looks ok. There is a gloss panel on the side of the larder which finishes it off. I could then have an opening on the right.

No? Not something worth doing?

Surely you can understand that partially blocking off a doorway with a full height unit is A Bad Idea? The counter top sticking out into the doorway is already pushing the boundaries of sense. TBH all the possible permutations of this plan are A Bad Idea.

I'm confused now! The door is to the left but its parallel to the unit not 90 deg to it. So if we shifted it to the left it wouldn't affect the doorway.

Your kitchen looks lovely and has table in it. What's more to want?!

Thanks for your very kind comments.

I suppose the only issue is the kitchen faces the front of the house (north) so gets very little light. And although there is a nice view out the front, it would be nice to see right through to the back garden.

So essentially you want a big gap but with a tall cupboard in the middle of it? Have I got that right?

To me, that just seems um...weird.

Sorry, I'm aware that wasn't too helpful.

I think after going to all the effort and trouble to design and build what looks like a nice kitchen, you shouldnt start dismantling it piecemeal. If you want a kitchen diner combo, make a long term plan to rearrange the whole thing. For now, worry about a space you havent already poured money into.

(my OCD would disallow something like that larder not being centered with EQUAL sized cabinets either side, whenever we finally remodel. Aaagh!)

Knock the wall and move the larder into what is now the dining room. It is, realistically, the only way of doing it

.....or lose the larder altogether.

Thanks all, some things to think about.

I definitely don't want to lose the wall completely, not keen on open plan. We use the kitchen table on a day to day basis but I like having a separate dining room for when we have family and friends come round.

Yes I can see window option would look not quite right as they won't be big enough. I suppose the only option is shifting the larder unit completely to the left and creating an opening on the right, maybe with a door into the dining room. That would give the option of leaving the door open linking the kitchen to the dining room, or keeping it closed if we wanted it separate.

we opened our kitchen in a similar way but have put glazed doors on so that when we do want to create 2 separate rooms we can do so and it works very well. I wouldn't create 2 openings with a cupboard in the middle, that is definately weird. I would live without the larder cupboards or move them somewhere else. If you have another door into the dining room you probably don't need that and only use the door from the kitchen - that gives you a bit more wall space in the dining room to use for cupboards.