Kitchen/diner - knock through?

We knocked though to add the utility room to our kitchen making it a big enough kitchen to seat 6 when needed but we still had a dining room . I like to hide the kitchen chaos when cooking for a lot of people .

A North facing kitchen tends to be cold and uninviting. If you do not have space to dine in it and maybe have glass doors into dining room then a kitchen/diner with a southerly aspect would be popular I believe if you are selling in 5 years. It would also be a warmer room with less energy to heat. I love my kitchen/diner. Have always had pokey kitchens with no table till now.

When I bought this house a few years ago it had a separate kitchen and dining room. The door between made me feel claustrophobic. So I got the builders to take out the wall and door so that I had an archway ( well square way ). It opened it up, brought the light in and made the house look bigger - no regrets at all. Well, there is one - you can’t shut off the cooking smells ?

When we bought this house the kitchen had already bern knocked through to the dining room. You have to go through the DR to get to the kitchen so it make sense. Both are south facing at the back of the house.
The drawback is that you can see the mess in the kitchen but we do not entertain apart from family so that is not a problem.

On Escape to the Country a lot of people say they want big open plan spaces, but it is nice to have a separate closed off area as well.

I wonder with increased energy costs if ‘open plan’ living might lose its appeal.

Rooms you can shut off and keep warmer in winter makes sense.

It wouldn't be possible in my house the kitchen and dining room do not share a wall and I like to keep my kitchen separate. Both are quite large and would be extreme if joined together.

We knocked out the wall between dining room and kitchen, the dining room was too small. Never regretted it! The extended kitchen is the hub when family come over, and we can chat while the cooking is going on. They don’t mind the mess that’s on view while we eat ?

There are predictions that separate is the coming trend.

We would like a bigger kitchen but our kitchen and dining room don't share a wall either. Our dining room is 23' square anyway but has the stairs rising from it.

I think we will knock through ro the utility room as our kitchen is where people congregate and it needs to be bigger.

We did it and never regretted it especially as the family grew and never seemed to arrive home on their own. It gave us a big informal space. However, many years later when DS came in one night calling us as he walked through from the kitchen/diner along the hallway to the sitting room we decided to downsize but I must admit I miss the big space (both working and relaxing) it provided.

Knock through and take a slice off the kitchen to form a utility room.

If both rooms need renovating, could you move your kitchen into the south facing room and keep the north facing one as a dining room with a cosy reading corner by the window? I imagine you would get the late evening sun there in the summer

If you are not planning on staying there long I wouldn't knock through. As it is a bungalow, this room could be used (and advertised when selling as a possible extra bedroom). If you are OK with it, I would leave it.
The next buyers could then have the flexibility.

Grayling ????

I’d definitely knock through then put glass doors in using parliament hinges so when open the doors are flat against the wall. Then you have the option of open plan or not. We’ve done this in our last 2 properties and everyone has loved it. Or look at pocket doors.

Some great ideas everyone - thanks ! I like the sound of a square arch .... or dividing doors perhaps. We only really entertain the family. I think bringing the sunshine in may be the deciding point !

yes knock through to make a nice sunny kitchen/diner with a double aspect. Mine is like that but E/W. I once had a n facing kitchen, never again and btw I would not like a dividing door, old fashioned and bulky. Better to have unobstructed flow

if you use parliament hinges you barely notice the doors when they're open.

E/W is a lovely aspect - morning and evening ! We’re south west/north east so not bad ..... I’m not sure about dividing doors - has to be somewhere for the doors to fold to so wall space is lost anyway ..... . We won’t be doing it for a while so plenty of time to dither !