Semi detached knock through

[DiyNewbie]

Hi all,
I'm about to exchange on a 1950's semi. It's currently knocked through from the front room to the dining room. It's unlikely we're going to be able to afford an extension so we're going to knock through from the dining room into the kitchen. Has anyone else done this and would be prepared to share photos. I've seen so many online but they're all so "staged" and not real life iykwim!!

Do you mean you're going to have the entire ground floor completely open plan? Or are you reinstating the separate lounge?

Fully open plan is an utter horror show IMO But each to their own

The reason you can prob only find staged ones is the rest looks awful/like a bombs hit it

We've done the reverse, putting the wall back to create a separate front room. Fully open plan is a PITA, noisy, messy, smelly (from kitchen), cold, I could go on. The pix online probably look staged because they'd be off-putting if shown for real. If you're making a kitchen diner I'd seriously consider putting the other wall back in while you're at it.

I loved it when I was young with a new house and new born, because I could leave the baby in the living room while I went into the kitchen. We didn’t have much stuff at that time, and the baby was too small to make a mess, so it looked great. But as we settled into our house and got more stuff and the baby grew into a toddler and got more stuff, I felt the need to have more walls!

Before you knock down another wall think of the heating bills. My DS moved into an open plan house and nearly had a heart attack when he saw the bills for the first winter. Also, how do you get any privacy? No the children are older they are putting a door back onto what was the playroom.

Yes go ahead and create a kitchen diner but to get the best of both worlds consider some doors, possibly glass, between the diner and lounge.

Shamelessly following. Im in a similar boat that there’s not many 1950s instagrams/pictures out there..

A house up the road from us has done that. Ex council house, semi detached. They've done a two storey extension as well, but the living, dining and kitchen is all one room, with bifold into the garden. Not for me, I like a separate living room, but it sold recently very quickly and for a much higher price than the rest of the road, so people do like it.

Just found the details and have screenshot the room.

I agree with the others, I like a nice big family kitchen, but I'd have to reinstate the living room as a small separate room.

We have a through front room dining room and a separate kitchen. We are about to close off the front room and open between the kitchen and dining. I don’t think I would like the whole thing open. I need to be able to close off the kitchen mess if anyone turns up unannounced.

Put the living room wall back up but put some doors in, french, pocket slide, or bifold, that way you have the privacy but can easily open it up

We have a big open plan living area kitchen diner but does still have some area designation thanks to a supporting pillar we didn't remove.
But!!!!
We have a decent size living room off the kitchen too which is invaluable when there's 5 of us and a dog.
I would always try to have 1 separate area.

If you are talking about one big open plan downstairs, our first house was like that and I'd not buy another one the same. The cooking smells and noise from kitchen were annoying. It just looked a bit of a mess unless you constantly tidied as everywhere on show (not a corner of a room to hide bits in).

Yeah, I think we'll end up putting doors to the front room especially as there might not be enough room for the washing machine etc to go in a utility room like I originally wanted. We've got planners going in as soon as we complete so we can get some designs drawn up but we've only got an absolute max of £40k and that needs to include new kitchen, reflooring throughout and family bathroom refit!

@DiyNewbie

Yeah, I think we'll end up putting doors to the front room especially as there might not be enough room for the washing machine etc to go in a utility room like I originally wanted. We've got planners going in as soon as we complete so we can get some designs drawn up but we've only got an absolute max of £40k and that needs to include new kitchen, reflooring throughout and family bathroom refit!

you mention in passing that there might not be enough room for a wshing machine. To be honest the no. 1 reason for a utility room is to get the washing machine out of the kitchen. What else is going in that utility room? I bet there is a way to rejig it to make the washing machine fit.

If you have a kitchen diner, and especially if you have small kids, so plenty of washing, that means you always always have to think about when you put a wash on, or put up with washing machine noise at meal times.

Can you post the floor plan OP? We might be able to help more if we can see the layout/sizes.

We’ve got a 50s detached. This year we’re extending to make a kitchen/diner/living room. But we’re also going to block up the current living room to have that as a separate space.

I had open plan but with a wall to the proper lounge. Your kitchen diner may have room for a sofa so more like a family room?

Sorry steppemum-what I meant was there's no utility room and I don't think there is the space and/or budget to put one in.
I've got a teenage daughter, so it's just her myself and husband. We're relatively neat people, and I'm planning on having built in storage wherever possible as I hate clutter (mostly because I hate dusting!)
Annoyingly the house didn't have a floor plan but I'll try find a similar one and will post in a sec.

@DiyNewbie

Sorry steppemum-what I meant was there's no utility room and I don't think there is the space and/or budget to put one in. I've got a teenage daughter, so it's just her myself and husband. We're relatively neat people, and I'm planning on having built in storage wherever possible as I hate clutter (mostly because I hate dusting!) Annoyingly the house didn't have a floor plan but I'll try find a similar one and will post in a sec.

Oh makes sense.

Here's a similar floor plan and I've just tried edit to show the lounge knock through, plus the kitchen door goes out to the side not the back.

I’d put the living room wall back in and knock through dining room and kitchen

Is there a particular reason you want to keep it semi open (with doors)? I think the front room wall is crying out to be reinstated. Think of the extra wall space you'll gain in each room. If the new kitchen diner has space for a small sofa, you'll really appreciate the separate rooms with a teenager I think.

Our's is a three bed semi with the majority of the wall separating the kitchen and the back room knocked through. We bought the house like this

It's very light and airy but always very cold in the winter. Big slate tiles for the kitchen floor don't help

We would probably rather have the front and back rooms open plan instead and not the way it is as it would be better with DD two years old

It's a must on our next house. Take heating into account if you do it, large area to heat. French doors very good idea