Ideas for comfy sitting area within kitchen-diner?

[runningLou]

We are having an extension built to the back of our house this summer to create a kitchen-diner that will be roughly 4.5 x 5.5 metres. We are also having a knock-through to the existing dining room which will create a big L-shaped space at the back of the house. I am having trouble working out how best to use the space ... I want to create a comfy seating area, almost like a back sitting room, in the extension as it will be south-east facing and look out over the garden and the park which backs onto it. I want to be able to cook/make drinks for people in the new kitchen without feeling like I am isolating myself from the current front sitting room. Is there any way to have a kitchen, dining table, and sofa in the extension, or would it be better to have kitchen and sitting room in the extension, and leave dining room where it is?
I also want to create a space where I can relax as kids watching screens (when I can't persuade them otherwise) currently monopolise downstairs space leaving me in the kitchen with nowhere to sit to have a cup of tea.
Hope this isn't too confusing! Head a bit of a mess atm. Just don't want to get into debt for this extension without being sure we will get what we want out of it.

Watching with interest, we're hoping to begin a similar project in the next year or so, total space much the same as yours approx 5m squareish. Not even at the formal planning stage yet, just gathering ideas.

Depends on how much storage you require, what you are used to in the way of prep space etc and how many seating at table and sofa etc . You want the kitchen to be an improvement on your current one ! Needs time spent on the design stage Either on your own or with a pro. If this is your forever home it's worth investing in an independent design that you can then shop around with.

We did a similar extension a few years ago. The kitchen is in the original bit of the house and the living/dining area is in the extension,and its all knocked through to make a big L shaped room.

Weve put a big sqishy sofa in the bit of the extension that the kitcgen faces, and the dining table the other end. We also bought a couple of armchairs and a coffee table, so it's a proper living area (we do have a separate living room as well). If I'm cooking, people can sit on the sofa and chat to me. If we have people round to dinner, the dining table is almost out of sight of the kitchen bit, which means they dong see me juggling pans etc.

I absolutely love it. I quite often lie on that sofa to read, watch birds in the garden etc, in preference to being in the living room. It's also a real family space. The teens quite often drift down and lounge all over the sofa whilst I'm cooking, which is lovely.

That sounds like exactly what I am hoping to create UsedToBe - I love your description! We would end up with an L shape where the base of the L is the original house, and the top of the L is the extension, pointing out into the back garden. I'm trying to visualise how to recreate your arrangement here - would you put the sitting area in the top of the L, and then the kitchen/diner across the base? I love the idea of lying on the sofa to read and look out into the garden ...
Do you also have a smaller eating area in the kitchen (breakfast bar etc)?

We started off having the table at the kitchen part, but moved it so that guests were slightly out of sight of the mess in the kitchen when i was cooking! We do have a breakfast bar bit in the kitchen.

Our extension goes across the back of the house, so all of it faces into the garden (South West). We've got big patio doors there so in the summer open it all up.

As well as our sofa, we bought a couple of small tub chairs, and a low coffee table, so we can have a lovely sitting area, but also can easily move the tub chairs into the living room if the table is extended for lots of people.