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How to make this dining room and kitchen into open plan?

8 years ago

I can always rely on you lovely people to help...
We've just bought this property and need some help!
We really want this space to be the hub of the house and we have two young boys. We'd like to knock through, but not sure how much of the wall and if the shower room at the bottom would look strange if we kept it.
Also, what happens to the wall next to the door of the dining room if we knock the wall down? What becomes of the door from the hall to the kitchen?
So many questions and I know you'll have so many ideas.
I need good designers and builders too. We re in north London

Comments (3)

Brandi Nash Hicks
8 years ago
I would build a wall at the end of the kitchen across from the bathroom and make that a back hallway, gets the bathroom out of the kitchen, then knock down the wall to the living room ,build an island out from the counter with seating for entertaining
Sherbert Barnes
8 years ago
I would suggest that the living room remains seperate and that perhaps internal doors are replaced with half glass doors so that they are more welcoming - as we have dogs with wet noses! we tend to keep glass on the upper half of the door only! Keeping the living room seperate will give you and your wife an adult area that you can disappear to when children have friends round in later years.... And also means you will have an area that is free from cooking smells etc for guests to walk into.

I would move the door from the hall back into line with the existing wall of the kitchen to dinning room so as to get rid of that small little entrance from hall to kitchen. I would then knock down the dinning room to kitchen wall to have this as open plan with an island in the middle - with islands I would not recommend having it as your kitchen 'wet area' - I see this a lot in magazines but does after all mean that the main focal point of the kitchen becomes the kitchen sink and its dirty dishes!!! Instead I would have a hob etc on the island so that you can cook on that and eat on the other side of the island perhaps on a curved top. I would keep the toilet where it is but just loose a small corridor area between it and the kitchen for boots coats etc... thus separating toilet from kitchen. I have done similar to this in my home and it works a treat - love the fact that we have a seperate lounge (our sanctuary!) and a regular living space as well.
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Thank you for your response. We had plans pretty finalised until we found out that we can keep just that long wall into the large space as it is a load-bearing. There is an opportunity to put a door in though. I am attaching what it looked like with all the walls that we can now remove. We have also been tinkering with ideas which I am adding as well. I added some comments on the plans as well. What we want to have is a dining area with a large table that seats 8-10 people. We want enough space for two people to work and cook in the kitchen. Thus, we were thinking of an island or an L-shape workspace coming out. We'd like to have a utility room to have space for all the cleaning utensils. Washer and Dryer will be upstairs in a separate laundry room. The living room is nothing formal but an area to relax and watch TV. We'd like to have an L-shaped cough in there for a family of four (2 kids under the age of 10).
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It just depends on the space you have. Like the comments above, there will be noise/clutter/food smell from the kitchen - do you really want that in full view when you are relaxing or entertaining? I think open plan only works if you have a separate living area, then it's great. Need to be careful with the noise aspect. Have you also considered a pantry area? Ideal to house all the extra food items/small appliances and a washing machine. Hope this helps - good luck :)
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Sherbert Barnes
8 years ago
Just one extra tip! Although we have a large island opposite the hob - I have also kept the dinning room table in the open plan area as well - when we are not entertaining love sitting down here and sewing and my husband sits working on his laptop in this area as well with neither of us feeling we have to be shut away in study or craft room - NB with induction hob, I have extractor fan rising up out of granite worktop thus not spoiling eyeline of anything coming down from ceiling - we are both tall people - extraction goes out under the floor to an air brick on outside wall so would need to be thought out and planned when the builders are there! Hope this gives you some ideas!

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