Open plan kitchen dining and living area

Emcm

I hope I am posting this in right place.

I am looking advice about whether or not to knock my existing kitchen and living room together.

I am in a lucky position that I have 2 living rooms, a kitchen and a play room downstairs but my problem with my house is that I find the kitchen and diner area a bit of a squeeze We are now a family of 6 so I want more space at dinner time. Building an extension isn't an option as we wouldn't have the budget so thought utilising the space we have better might be the way to go

My kitchen is directly behind my living room and it is a structural wall so I will need a steel beam My hubby is an engineer so he knows what is involved on that end but I am looking to know about people's experiences with a more open plan type of living
I would plan to use the room more as a kitchen diner with maybe a small area for a living room. The room would end up being about 33ft long with a 2 ft bay on top of that and it is about 15 ft wide. Would this be incredibly hard to heat ? We have at the minute oil central heating and an open fire in the living room.

Has anyone ever made the decision to do this and regretted it. I just really love the idea of having a big kitchen diner with a nice area to sit also. Its just with 4 kids I spend most of my day in this room and i just think opening it all up might be a good idea.

Any feedback or advice would be much appreciated my husband is not sold on the idea so positive stories might help convince him.

paddy147

Emcm wrote: »

I hope I am posting this in right place.

I am looking advice about whether or not to knock my existing kitchen and living room together.

I am in a lucky position that I have 2 living rooms, a kitchen and a play room downstairs but my problem with my house is that I find the kitchen and diner area a bit of a squeeze We are now a family of 6 so I want more space at dinner time. Building an extension isn't an option as we wouldn't have the budget so thought utilising the space we have better might be the way to go

My kitchen is directly behind my living room and it is a structural wall so I will need a steel beam My hubby is an engineer so he knows what is involved on that end but I am looking to know about people's experiences with a more open plan type of living
I would plan to use the room more as a kitchen diner with maybe a small area for a living room. The room would end up being about 33ft long with a 2 ft bay on top of that and it is about 15 ft wide. Would this be incredibly hard to heat ? We have at the minute oil central heating and an open fire in the living room.

Has anyone ever made the decision to do this and regretted it. I just really love the idea of having a big kitchen diner with a nice area to sit also. Its just with 4 kids I spend most of my day in this room and i just think opening it all up might be a good idea.

Any feedback or advice would be much appreciated my husband is not sold on the idea so positive stories might help convince him.

Once you do it,then you wont regret it.


Thats from our personal experiece of doing the complete open plan theme to our house.:)


If you slab it out internaly with 50mm insulated slab and fit the right size rads for the space.......then heating the space and heat loss wont be a problem.

scudo2

Fan assisted radiator are great for heating big areas. You only get problems in big areas if you have very high cealings or split level ie. 15-20 feet . As hot air naturally rise.

Pinky123

I would definitely recommend it, my kit/diner is approx the same size as yours would be. We are a family of 5 and the space works really well for us. I have a good size kitchen with an island, a table (3ft6in x 6ft) with clear access to all the chairs, 2 large armchairs at the fireplace and there is still loads of space for the kids to run around.
Considering you will still have a separate sitting room that you can kinda keep as the " good room" and a play room for all the kids toys, your kit/diner won't be overflowing with the chaos that comes with small people

We have a rad at either end of the room and a stove in the dining area and the room is never cold. If you currently have an open fireplace you could switch it out for an inset stove and it will kick out way more heat

HTH

gctest50

Emcm wrote: »

..... My hubby is an engineer so .........

you could do all sorts

Emcm

Thanks for the replies its great to get feedback from people who have a similar set up.

I think my husband is finding it hard to visualise and in his head he is still trying to allocate 18 ft for the kitchen diner and then 15 ft for the living so we won't gain anything but I am trying to say you have to forget the original layout and work the space differently.

As you said Pinky we are lucky that we do have 2 other rooms downstairs so it won't be filled with lots of kids clutter and toys.

That picture is amazing unfortunately don't think the budget will stretch to that. I was just wondering what you guys do with flooring do you run the same flooring with tiles or wooden floor throughout the whole space or did you have different flooring for the living area

paddy147

Emcm wrote: »

Thanks for the replies its great to get feedback from people who have a similar set up.

I think my husband is finding it hard to visualise and in his head he is still trying to allocate 18 ft for the kitchen diner and then 15 ft for the living so we won't gain anything but I am trying to say you have to forget the original layout and work the space differently.

As you said Pinky we are lucky that we do have 2 other rooms downstairs so it won't be filled with lots of kids clutter and toys.

That picture is amazing unfortunately don't think the budget will stretch to that. I was just wondering what you guys do with flooring do you run the same flooring with tiles or wooden floor throughout the whole space or did you have different flooring for the living area

We did white oak wide plank flooring in the open plan living area and then this stoped at the entrance into the open plan kitchen/dining/chill out area.

600 x 600 x 25mm marble flooring in this area.

The wooden flooring and marble flooring are dead level with each other and its a smooth transition from one surface to the other.:)
No door saddles or edging trims to worry about.


We have double doors to section off both areas (if needed),and these doors slide back into the walls and more or less vanish.You cant see them,when they are open.
This also saves space from not having a door that swings open.





We have the chill out area sectioned off from the rest of the open plan area with what we call a "live room divider".
A large custom built fish tank and some nice large 7 feet tall palm plants and fig trees.

It kinda hides the chill out area away from the dinning area and kitchen.



This might not be to everyones taste,but we love it.So do the kids too.:D

Emcm

Oh wow Paddy your house sounds amazing clever idea having a chill out zone with fish tank sounds fab It must be a very large space. Post some pics if you have any.

When I search for pictures of open plan living they tend to be American and my god do they build big houses their open plan rooms are sometimes 60ft long. I would love to see a picture of one that was similar size to my own space

paddy147

Emcm wrote: »

Oh wow Paddy your house sounds amazing clever idea having a chill out zone with fish tank sounds fab It must be a very large space. Post some pics if you have any.

When I search for pictures of open plan living they tend to be American and my god do they build big houses their open plan rooms are sometimes 60ft long. I would love to see a picture of one that was similar size to my own space

My "wife to be" and my daughter love fish and fishkeeping.

So she came up with the idea of a fish tank and planting scheme as a way of a divider.

We painted the walls different colours...(dont like a room with 1 colour only).


Our daughter and her friends have more or less taken over the chill out area nowadays as they just love watching TV there and playing with their toys there too.


One the kids are happy,then we are happy too.:D

AnnaThe

Open plan works well as long as you have another room (which you have) which can be used as a study when the kids are very small (read that as an escape room) as a playroom when they are bigger or as a tv room if you want to get the tv out of your face.

Emcm

In the end my husband couldn't be convinced to knock down the wall so we have come up with a compromise and I am knocking the wall into my utility room to include it into the kitchen along with a bit of our hallway. It will give us a great big room and We are gonna get a boiler stove put in too for the sitting area and a new kitchen so I am trying to pick stoves and kitchens at the minute it can be a bit overwhelming so much choice out there but can't wait to get started !