Knocking through kitchen/dining room - experiences

[foreverblessedbee]

Hi, there. Just as the title says really. Our house is 11 years old, we've lived in it for 2. We have separate kitchen and dining room. In the current kitchen layout the room is large enough to be classed as a kitchen diner already. There is enough room for us to have a bar table and 6 stools, which we eat at thr majority of hr time. However its quite cramped at the table although there is enough room in the kitchen itself iyswi. The dining room fits our large table. Considering knocking through kitchen and dining room, just getting rid of he wall altogether. My questions are for those who've done it already - i can think of lots of pros but have you ever missed having a separate dining room? I cant think i would miss it apart from a room for drying laundry! As that is what it tends to get used for most what were your experiences and have you been wildly delighted or mildly disappointed. Did it vastly improve things or not.
Thanks in advance xxxxx

Someone? Anyone? I can't decide what to do. Husband is "against" as he says houses need a separate dining room! I think he's concerned it will knock value off the house if we moved. However I think a great planned updated lovely new kitchen with dining space and room for a chill out sofa/having a coffee in the sun area will add dollars lol plus would be much nicer to live in x we have 3 d's, age 11, 4 and 9. They all have own rooms and we have potential to transform our garage into a chill out zone as they get older. Plus if we kept it as a separate room I'm not sure if want 3 giant teenagers plus "guests " hanging around in it anyway

Do it as long as you still hsve separate lounge ares. We did last year plus extended and love it

Following, we have just moved house and have plans to knock through kitchen and dining room. Will be great when finished but dreading the actual knock through

Bifold or sliding doors? It’s the most flexible option.

We have a 23ft ish kitchen diner. I love it. You can have a massive table extended at Xmas. Between the big table and a small round one I could seat 14 with everyone still having space. I have a sofa in there so can sit down comfortable in between cooking. Laminated floor so all painting craft activities take place in there.

Daughter will also scoot around it.........

I think most people live or want to live in a more open plan and integrated way. We know 2 couples with separate dining rooms that get used at Christmas. The rest of the time they use them for storage!

Ours is knocked through into a very big lounge/dining room, so I guess the lounge part makes all the difference if you have a separate one.

DH (who really wanted the knock through) does sometimes regret kitchen noise coming into the lounge/not being able to listen to Radio 4 in the kitchen if someone's watching telly, but he does accept it was his idea!

We have another reception room which is the 'quiet' one, although still not properly decorated, but DH doesn't really use it as for some reason his laptop won't pick up wifi in there.

We did it and have put large double doors in the gap. They fold right back onto the dining room wall and are painted the same colour as the walls so you don't really notice them. We close them sometimes in the winter if we want to be cosy - they are rarely closed tbh but it gives you a choice to separate the rooms if you need to (and good for resale).
It was messy when it was done but well worth it. You have to get advice from an architect though as walls could be load bearing and supports may have to be put in

Can you also create a utility room/somewhere to dry the washing?

We have open plan. Kitchen/diner plus separate lounge is fantastic IMHO.

Ahhh thank you, replies we have a fairly big lounge that has doors going through to dining room but I have a sofa in front of hem at the moment as it was my wish to keep the areas very separate when we moved in. So I guess as the boys get older we could have them more open, to make it even more open plan . First week after moving in we decided to close it up and make it separate as they literally used it like a race track circuit, running between lounge into dining room, out through kitchen and down the hall back to the lounge! But seriously the dining room is used perhaps a couple of times a week. I know its only the next room but it's so much easier to eat in he (cramped) kitchen. It makes me sound so lazy now I'm typingit! But I do love the idea of having all one room. I've got a builder coming tomorrow to quote.

We have our tumble dryer in garage at the moment which is accessed through kitchen. My ideal would be create a utility im there for washer too, but dh says no to making an "actual" utility room with walls but says i could have the washer and drywr jn thwre togethwr when we have kitchen done. If we sortedtheshitinthegarage organised our space more effectively in he garage there is no reason I couldn't use it for drying and storing huge baskets of ironing

This iswhat we have currently...

I would create a large kitchen diner/ family room with a laundry/ utility/ storage room off it. Sounds like you have enough room to do it, you just need to work on your DH!

jumpingwithjoy -he wall is not load bearing it is just a portion wall with a door as far as I understand. Would also be thinking of changing he patio doors in kitchen to a window thinking that would make room for more units? But I guess by the time I ever get to KITCHEN PLANNING that will be a whole other thread lol. I don't know how people do it...it's only 1 poxy wall and a kitchen... we did a whole house up when i was in my 20s before we had children..... 1 husband, 3 children, and a cockapoo later and I'm drained just making simple decisions!! Sorry everyone, thanks for any advice you can give me. Xx

We have a utility/ laundry/ storage room ( dumping ground). It's a room of doom, all dirty pants and dog food, but I wouldn't be without it!

Absolutely yes to creating a utility room - peace from washing machine and somewhere to put washing to dry!! We have an overhead drying rack they are brill!

My friend combined a dining room, utility, kitchen and extension into one big room, I was a bit sceptical about is but it is an amazing living space now. They have a separate hall and living room and it really works.

GVmamma , that's what our garage is like!!! It's the dumping ground of doom! I wouldn't be without it either. In our old house I had a little pantry that I managed to a washer, a dryer, 2 scooters and a pushchair in were midlands/slightly more north, and it's old fashioned name is a Glory Hole! Make of that what you will

*We're

Has anyone ever regretted knocking it though?

Our layout was very similar to yours. we knocked through and extended. Have kitchen / diner / sofa area. We blocked up the lounge too so its totally separate now. No regrets

We had an extension and ended up with a kitchen/diner. Previously the dining room was barely used as it was dull and not a particularly nice place to be.
On the basis you have a separate lounge I would absolutely knock through.

I wouldn't buy a house where I couldn't have a large kitchen diner.

Absolutely knock through.

I wouldn't buy a house now with a separate dining room. Such a waste of space. I wouldn't want all the faff of knocking through myself so would always look for someone who has done it for me.

If you are worried about the Kitchen planning take the dimensions to a Kitchen company and let them plan it out for you.