Kitchen - more units or space for kitchen table?

[Puffinshop]

We're moving in a few months and the kitchen is about 30 years old so we're going to redo it right away. It's not a massive space - on the plans it's 10.3 m3. Approximately 3040 x 3390 mm but we haven't had the chance to get in and measure it completely accurately yet. The north wall has a doorway (no door) that opens onto the main space of the house which is the dining/living room. The south wall has a large window that takes up almost the entire wall.

The original kitchen that is there now is L-shaped along the west and south walls and then there's a kitchen table with chairs on the east wall. DP wants to make a u-shaped kitchen to fill the entire room and just have a dining table in the space outside the kitchen.

I'm torn because we have a kitchen table currently and I do like it a lot. We also have a dining table in the living space just outside the kitchen that we mainly use for games and lego and drawing and folding laundry, only for dining when we have guests.

I like sitting in the kitchen while something is cooking to keep an eye on it. I also like our house rule of no eating outside the kitchen in order to contain the dropped crumbs and cornflakes and tiny bits of broccoli. We adults break the rule in the evenings because we are capable of eating neatly and I do assume at some point my children will grow out of dropping part of every meal on the floor but they're 8 and 6 and haven't done so yet 😩Yes, we sweep up but it's nice to have all the food mess in one zone. And it just seems a faff to have to leave the room with your food when you're just having a bowl of cereal or a normal family dinner.

But our current kitchen, which is about the same size, a little larger, doesn't have that much workspace and ideally we'd like more cupboards and drawers. The way the new room is, if we keep the L shape design then we'd probably have a bit less storage space, not more. If we tried to make a u shape that didn't go all the way up the east wall it would probably be a bit cramped with a table. If we make it a whole u then we'd have bags of storage space and I think it would be a lovely kitchen. But no table!

Anyone who has read all this ramble have any opinions on what should we do?

do you have to do the kitchen right away? I’d try out both with and without the kitchen first to see which you prefer if you can. We need to redo ours soon and the layout we’re going with is completely different to the one I thought we’d use when we first moved

We're a bit worried about losing momentum. We always thought we'd redo our current kitchen, also about 30 years old, but we never did after living here for 8 years. And we might be able to start a bit before moving in, which would be ideal since obviously it's not easy living without a kitchen.

Also, while I'm asking for tips, does anyone have any advice about how to arrange things in the living room in general? It's a large space and a bit overwhelming to think about how to use it, since it's lots bigger than what we have currently.

Some of it is sunken with one step going down and a half wall separating the space off, but it's all the same room.

Oh man I was editing the image and forgot to remove all the white space. This should be easier to see.

I took a walk of low and high cupboards out of my kitchen so I could put a table in it. I really like sitting in the kitchen, hated it when it was all cupboards everywhere. I put shelves above the seating area so that's new storage and am making do with the cupboards that are left.

I also love my kitchen table. But I'm wondering if it's just because I'm used to it and I would adapt? If it's stupid to compromise on having a spacious feeling kitchen just to stick with what I already know

I think we could get enough storage in an L shape with high units and maybe just a fridge on the east wall, but will that be too cramped?