[Closed] Kitchen diner or living / dining?

So i’m in the process of house hunting (currently in a 2 bed flat with the misses with a small kitchen and a lounge/dinner setup) and would say we are after a kitchen/dinner setup. The kitchen is where everyone ends up in if you have people over I find and it just makes more sense when it comes to food prep to eating transferring.

Our layout sounded similar to yours with long/narrow kitchen and separate dining room. Knocked through and added a single storey extension on the back so now have one big room with doors onto the garden. Got a large island between the 'kitchen' and the 'dining' areas. It does feel more social and its now the hub of the house. The smells are not an issue as have a good extractor fan and solid foors. Because its now a do it all space it does sometimes get cluttered with all sorts but we are not the neatest family! Also wife says sometimes she used to like her own space in the stand-alone kitchen without me interfering. Minor stuff really and not a single regret! good luck

Also we had glazed doors into living room but changed them for solid to create a bit of a cosy/privacy room!

Kitchen/diner where the main table becomes the social focus and hub rather than a gogglebox.

Separate living room into a snug with comfy big sofas and TV, etc.

My preference from what I've lived with.

Kitchen/diner we don't have quite that setup but there is an open doorway(no arch) between the 2 rooms.

Our living room is like a snug, big deep sofa, big TV etc it is nice to be away from the kitchen coming and going's

Kitchen diner every time, separate dining rooms are too 70s sitcom, and living diners are just odd.

Kitchen diner

Kitchen is the root of a house, other rooms are it’s branches

Kitchen diner every time. They’re popular for a reason. Nice social space and as some have said, snug lounge / tv. Never an issue with noise from cooking and always nice for everyone to be in the one room. Go for it!

Definitely kitchen/diner. The previous owner of our house basically took out half the walls downstairs opening it right out, and we have a good sized kitchen opening onto a large dining area with the rest of the rooms radiating from there (it used to be a bungalow). The dining table is right in the middle of the house and is very much the focal point: we eat on it, do homework on it, do crafts on it.

We have kitchen, diner, conservatory all open plan and spend 80% of the time awake in there.
One thing that helps is a separate utility room for washing machine etc. So on a fast spin you don’t have to sit there listening to it.

Kitchen diner as others have said, especially if both rooms are of a similar size. If they're relatively small then you lose a room in number but gain a bigger, better more useful 'space.' The house I'm in had the two rooms joined and that arch was filled in. If the kitchen diner looks out onto a back garden then you could look at incorporating french doors so you've got external focus instead of looking at the kitchen activity all the time.

My old layout was a through lounge, dining plus conservatory with a galley kitchen.

I basically turned the kitchen wall 90deg to separate the lounge and put a steel support beam in.

Result is a far better setup although we do miss the wall storage but have a breakfast bar and the white goods along the original wall base line.

We started off with a lounge/diner.
Now we have kitchen/diner, much prefer the kitchen/diner set up.
It did involve erecting a stud wall and knocking down part of another wall.
If you're going down the double door through to the lounge route.
You should consider pocket doors for this!

Big kitchen/diner and a separate cosy lounge is the best layout IMO. Separate utility room, too, if possible.

Think the house we purchased has the same layout as yours OP, we closed the gap from lounge to diner putting a single door in there and plastering/decorating to hide what was there before. Then later down the line we have now removed the wall between the kitchen and the diner and fitted a new kitchen.

The wall between the kitchen and diner was just cardboard in the middle with plaster boarding either side, 10mins with a handsaw saw it removed. I was concerned about removing it, but the moment we removed it I saw how much of a nice space it would be, I am now sat in it WFH.

Kitchen diner for sure. Our house has 2 dining rooms, one off the kitchen and one separate. We've only even used the one off the kitchen so I use the other one as my study instead.

Kitchen diner every time, helps with a family and kids too because you can cook while they do homework, eat their tea of whatever.

Also means you can close the doors and leave the cooking mess/smell/noise in the kitchen while you watch the telly.

I had a lounge diner in a flat and it was fine when I lived there on my own. Not great when my Mrs moved in.

If the kitchen diner looks out onto a back garden then you could look at incorporating french doors so you’ve got external focus instead of looking at the kitchen activity all the time.

Well maybe not french doors - perhaps something less 80's!
Although we knocked this room into the kitchen about 18 years ago we've recently completely re-vamped both rooms and knocked from the kitchen into a separate snug to make one massive room. We took out two sets of french doors and two windows and made the openings much larger to open up into the garden on both sides.
Spendy but undoubtedly the best money I've spent in a long time! Don't underestimate the potential of opening the house into the garden if you can.

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French doors are 80's? would've gone nicely with those barstools then! 🙂

That's a nice space, good job.

Kind of depends how you want to use the house. We went open plan with a kitchen/diner with a couple of breakfast bars and we now live our lives alot more socially. Some disadvantages regarding noise but they're minor compared to the inconvenience of living a compartmentalised life with so many doors and walls to get through as you move through the home and a wasted dining room that was only ever really used properly a handful of times a year. Now the space is so much more airy, open, light and convenient.

Well, I think you've sold the concept to me!

Sharkbait, that looks amazing!

Kitchen Diner.

I still ride 26in wheels, buy DVDs and use an SLR camera. But even I wouldn't consider a separate dining room.

lol at gribble! 🙂