Serving hatch, am I mad?

[9millioncansofbeans]

Hello
I (hopefully) move house soon. This is my downstairs layout. I don’t fancy one big open place space, I just prefer being able to close rooms off.

I am thinking of putting my dining table in the living room “nook” which is a shared wall with the kitchen and I really like the idea of putting in a serving hatch. The kitchen will need replacing at some point once I’ve moved in and saved a little. Would I be mad?

Any better suggestions?

Or put a door in between the rooms.

If I had one I would pretend I was a Passport Officer based in an oppressive regime. Bark a question through the hatch and then slam it shut. I'd like that.

I would definitely play this game with you. Every time you slammed it shut I would alter my disguise and knock again, with varying accents and mannerisms. I feel we could while away a happy afternoon!

Lovely idea

My in-laws have a huge serving hatch like in the picture you've posted and it's great. We can chat through it if some are cooking and some are lounging in the living room, and pass coffees through without having to walk round. They do have quite a small kitchen and it really opens it up.

I love them and have no idea why they've gone out of fashion.

I think a serving hatch is great! You can be responsible for them making a comeback!

Looking in Pinterest and I like the ones where it is effectively a breakfast bar on the other side. Then it would be really useful and easy to pass stuff through.

I would go for sliding doors rather than shutters as I would get annoyed with having to clear everything off the worktop everytime I wanted to open/close.

I've never had a serving hatch but always fancied one, I'd keep it!

I was just searching through old MN threads to look at serving hatches/pass through ideas, so weird to see a post about it today. I don't get the dated comments, if something works, it works.
Means you can close the kitchen off but have it semi-open, so you don't feel closed off when entertaining.
I think it's a great solution when a kitchen-diner is not possible without making the whole of the downstairs open plan. Love a kitchen-diner, but only if you also have a separate living area.

We have one similar to your picture OP, with shutters, and it's awesome. We don't use it for serving (our dining table isn't near it), but it means I can see into the living room while working in the kitchen, either to supervise DD and friends or to chat to guests. It also means that noise/mess/smoke/smells from the kitchen are kept contained, and I'm not a tidy cook! It works really well for us, but we do have a fair size kitchen - it does reduce walls for cupboards. I'd say go for it!