‘Separating’ a kitchen/lounge.. how?

[MyMabel]

We’re about to reverse a new build and the kitchen is open plan with the lounge, how could we separate this if we wanted to?

My idea was to have a breakfast bar going across with some pretty stools.

DP just wants a big partition put up so you can see the kitchen at all.. but I feel like that might make the kitchen and lounge feel smaller and less social?

Is there any other suggestions? I’ll include a screenshot of the floor plan.

I don't think the space looks big enough to take a partition or a breakfast bar. I would just set up the lounge furniture so that it faces away from the kitchen, so the back of the sofa creates a partition.
If you're dead set on something I would keep it open and use something like a set of IKEA kallax shelves as a dividing wall

I'd put a dining table with maybe a bench on one side, chairs on the other, in the 'corridor' space between the sitting room and the kitchen, by the little window. Then as a PP said, the back of a sofa would define the sitting room area.

I'm not sure there's room for a divider like Ikea Kallax shelves but if there is that would work well too.

Thanks all, it may not be big enough.. it’s not built enough to view yet so we’re purely going off the floor plan at the moment.

I’m happy to keep it open plan but DP wants to compromise and separate it a bit. Hope may change his mind when he see’s it though.

Where on the plan would you want to divide the space? Would the loo open into the lounge or the kitchen/diner? And which side of the divider would the dining table go, assuming there would be one?

I'm not at all sure that either a breakfast bar or a partition wall can work in that space, but if you can give more idea what you're looking for, maybe someone can suggest a way of achieving more of a sense of separation by arranging the furniture etc.

OP Can you make any changes to walls/doors etc if the house is not yet built?
If you can, this is what I'd do:

1. Block off the downstairs wc door and see ehether you can open up a door in the wall of what is now marked as a cupboard.
2. Use the store as an entrance lobby to the wc and as a place to hang coats/keep muddy boots etc
3. If necessary, this might mean making the store doorway slightly wider.

That would free up so much more space in the area between the kitchen and sitting room. There would be room for a narrow dining table or (not so good) a breakfast bar against the left-hand wall, as previous poster suggested, and also for a floor to ceiling set of shelves or a tall shallow cupboard approx where the wc door would have been. Together, these would create a visiual barrier between the kitchen and the dining room, expecially if you had a tall plant or flower arrangement in the middle of the dining table, or a low-hanging decorative light fitment above it. It would also mean that the wc door would not open directly into either the kitchen or the sitting/dining area. Neither of those arrangments seems very pleasant to me.

I think the OP will be very limited - the downstairs loo would not meet accessibility requirements with the store cupboard access I don't think. I agree the wc directly in to the livingroom isn't great

Good point statistically, but if the store cupboard space were an open alcove (wheelchair accessible) , with coathooks/narrow shelves on two walls and the wc door - proper building regs width - on the third, I wonder whether that might do? It would all depend on the size of the rooms and the height and width of the staircase, I suppose.

It might do - I think it might be too tight to turn in?

This is a classic case of them trying to squeeze in just a bit too much/few too many houses. It really needs to be about 1m wider to allow for a hallway imo.

I thought most councils didn't allow a toilet opening into the kitchen unless it's behind two doors? (I realise lots were built that way when bathrooms were retro fitted to houses of course).

The kitchen looks about 3m if I'm not mistaken. That really isn't enough to be separated so I'd leave it open plan as designed.

@scottishnames

OP Can you make any changes to walls/doors etc if the house is not yet built? If you can, this is what I'd do:

1. Block off the downstairs wc door and see ehether you can open up a door in the wall of what is now marked as a cupboard.
2. Use the store as an entrance lobby to the wc and as a place to hang coats/keep muddy boots etc
3. If necessary, this might mean making the store doorway slightly wider.

That would free up so much more space in the area between the kitchen and sitting room. There would be room for a narrow dining table or (not so good) a breakfast bar against the left-hand wall, as previous poster suggested, and also for a floor to ceiling set of shelves or a tall shallow cupboard approx where the wc door would have been. Together, these would create a visiual barrier between the kitchen and the dining room, expecially if you had a tall plant or flower arrangement in the middle of the dining table, or a low-hanging decorative light fitment above it. It would also mean that the wc door would not open directly into either the kitchen or the sitting/dining area. Neither of those arrangments seems very pleasant to me.

I think this is a good idea. Although I wouldn’t have the downstairs loo at all in this house.

Unless you really need a downstairs loo I would ask that it is not included. Then you would have a lovely big sitting room with space for a table between the kitchen and sitting area to divide it a bit.

Is this possible?

I think building regs say that all new houses have to have an accessible downstairs wc.
And I also think that if the wc has a hot water wash-hand basin, then it can open off a kitchen.

I like Chrissy's plan a lot; but I think it would depend on the outlook from the front of the house, and also on how the occupants preferred to spend their time: sitting and chatting /working from home in the kitchen or relaxing on sofas in the sitting room?

I agree, the wc will be required. I like Chrissy's plan too, but I'd be surprised if the builder would do it. They aren't normally that flexible...

Lightwise, if you do put in a wall, what about a glass partition one with glass doors? Still lets the light through, but makes separate spaces.

Thanks for all the suggestions; I think as the house is ready at the end of this month that it’s perhaps built too much to change any actual planning? So far we haven’t had much communication with anything to do with the actual house itself, only the mortgage/buying side of things and reservation of the house. I think we’ll have a better idea of what we can do once we’ve actually seen it in the flesh!

Can you go see the house type on another development nearby?

We did this when buying off plan and was so helpful

@NewHouseNewMe

I thought most councils didn't allow a toilet opening into the kitchen unless it's behind two doors? (I realise lots were built that way when bathrooms were retro fitted to houses of course).

The kitchen looks about 3m if I'm not mistaken. That really isn't enough to be separated so I'd leave it open plan as designed.

Building regulations used to require two doors between a toilet and kitchen, I think, but this is definitely not required any more. You just need a place for hand washing, either in the room with the loo or in an intermediate lobby-type space.

Unusually, there is actually an explicit note in Approved Document G stating that a lobby arrangent with two doors is not required - see pic.