Open plan or seperate kitchen

[ThatLimeEagle]

Hi everyone,
We have recently bought a small 3-bed bungalow (2 doubles, 1 single) and are working on modernising it. We're a family of three — two adults and one child.
I'm torn between creating an open-plan living space to make the small home feel more spacious or keeping a separate kitchen with a living/dining combo. Each option has its pros and cons.
The total open-plan area would be around 31m², and we don’t have an additional living or utility room—just three rooms, a bathroom, and a porch. FYI, we can't extend the house.
I would really appreciate your advice based on our situation. What would you do if you were in our shoes?
Please keep in mind that we don’t have any extra space like a guest room, utility room or separate living area, so advice based on similar constraints would be most helpful.

I have attached photos of the two plans: Plan 1 for open-plan living, and Plan 2 for a separate kitchen with a large sliding door and a living/dining combo.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Separate all day long.
No cooking smells, able to shut the door when washing machine is on, cheaper to heat.

A normal floor plan would be easier to understand IMO. How old is your child? If a toddler or needs supervision, then the open plan would be good to see them from the kitchen, if older, option 2 might work better.

Another vote for separate. Think about heating costs in one large area and cooking smells that waft everywhere in a big open space. Having an extra room is definitely a bonus.

I like separate. Instead of combining living and dining with separate kitchen, could you not combine kitchen and dining with a separate living area?

Separate every day for me. In one space clutter just migrates all over it and you can't ever shut a door on washing up, piles of clothes, homework. With separate you have a much better chance of keeping at least part of it as an "out of sight, out of mind" haven of peace.

In a small house open plan is always better. Otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy spending thousands and still not being able to entertain / live normally.

Can you share a normal birds eye view floor plan? As I can't really work out the layout from those images.

How is it cheaper to heat ? If you have 31m2. It makes no difference if its split into one room , 2 rooms or 5 rooms…….your still heating 31m2

Heat from cooking and general living is trapped in a smaller area with less air to heat. And less room for the heat to dissipate.
Doors and walls reduce draughts.

Agree with a previous poster, kitchen/diner and separate lounge would be better if you decide against open plan.

There is no way I'd do open plan. Kitchen smells, washing up laundry should always be separate. Can you do big folding doors into the garden instead? Extra light often makes a room look bigger and you can fold them back during summer.

I agree with this too. Kitchen/diner and a cosy snug is what I'm planning to do in my new house.

Separate every time but I agree with others on doing a kitchen/diner and separate lounge. Also as your daughter grows up it's nice to have separate spaces if she has friends round etc.

Only outside doors and walls reduce draughts. Adding a wall between one bigger room will not make any difference.

general living is done in every room.

the only way its cheaper to heat 2 rooms instead of one bigger room is if you heat one of the rooms less than the other one.

Open plan... from the pictures it looks like the kitchen will be very small if separate. Extractor fans are much better these days and keeping an eye on DC is much easier if you don't have too many doors in the way.

I’m in a small bungalow, keep the rooms separate. Otherwise it feels like you’ll do all your living out of one room. More like bedsit than a house.

Cooking, washing and cleaning houses getting in the way of chilling out, no thanks.

All living on top of each other with nowhere separate to take friends too. Nah!

Definitely separate, it means you can shut a messy kitchen if you have unexpected guests in. Also keeps cooking smells in one room too.

The ideal for me is kitchen/diner with a separate lounge.
Traipsing through with food is a bit annoying, but having no separated spaces downstairs is bad too.

semi separate

kitchen separated from dining area by a counter or breakfast bar.

dining area separated from living by narrowing the opening or adding a curtain or pocket doors.

Separate.
I redid the kitchen a couple of years ago and everyone was trying to convince me to make it open plan with the dining room and utility room. My rooms may be small but it’s worth it to have separate rooms to keep away the mess and have more of our own space.

I would keep them separate - open plan is useful for keeping an eye on them when they are small but they will all of a sudden not need that level of supervision and you might be left with a living space where you all feel on top of each other. We moved from a more open plan downstairs to one with separate rooms and being able to shit a door on the kids mess and chill in a calm living room is golden.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to share your views and suggestions. Based on most of the feedback, I believe we w3il stick with having a separate kitchen. However, I’m still considering whether we can combine the kitchen and dining area while keeping a separate living room. My husband thinks it might be a good idea to hire an interior designer to help us make the most of the available space, so that might be the way forward.

Thanks again for all your help.

Definitely kitchen-diner.

I would not buy a house without one unless there was no alternative.