Kitchens/dining rooms, what`s fashionable now?

[deptfordmarmoset]

After two flippant posts, here's an honest question: what's the problem with cooking smells? One of my most cherished olfactory food memories is the smell of salad veg soaking in dressings when I came into their flat. It was a smell of food not the smell of school canteens. Open to the kitchen is fine in my book, unless it's a school canteen over-boiled greens style of cookery. (With the exception of home pickling, which can break your tear ducts via your nose.)

 

[Jenkins]

My kitchen doesn`t have room to swing a cat, drives me nuts.

Don`t know whether to bin the wall and start again, is it worth it??

Get a smaller cat?

 

[MichaelW2]

My kitchen doesn`t have room to swing a cat, drives me nuts.

Hold it down on the chopping board by the scruff of its neck.

 

[EltonFrog]

Move to a bigger gaff.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

My kitchen doesn`t have room to swing a cat, drives me nuts.

Don`t know whether to bin the wall and start again, is it worth it??

Get a smaller cat?

Or shorter arms

 

[cd365]

I had a separate kitchen and dining room, so January 2015, bored one Saturday afternoon I took the wall down to open it up, ended up doing a lot of work on it, dining room oak flooring up, kitchen tiles up, kitchen out, I laid new tiles, bricked the kitchen door up, took out the kitchen patio doors and put a window in, plus other bits & pieces.

It looks amazing now, fitted a new oak kitchen with granite worktops, Belfast sink, Rangemaster double oven. It was the right decision, a lot of hard work and effor for me but worth it.

 

[Bazzer]

Whatever suits you.
Mrs B and I had a dining/lounge area in our first two houses out of necessity (first one cost, second one location). For us it was the preferred option over a kitchen/dining area. Third house has a separate dining room, which we prefer. If fact extended the house partly to make an even bigger dining room.
Child 1 has lived in three properties with kitchen/dining area. This has confirmed our preference.

 

[Milkfloat]

I had a separate kitchen and dining room, so January 2015, bored one Saturday afternoon I took the wall down to open it up, ended up doing a lot of work on it, dining room oak flooring up, kitchen tiles up, kitchen out, I laid new tiles, bricked the kitchen door up, took out the kitchen patio doors and put a window in, plus other bits & pieces.

A busy Saturday afternoon! Fancy popping round for half a day to do mine?

 

[swee'pea99]

Have to say I'm firmly in the 'open it up' camp. Cooking smells really aren't an issue unless you cook unusually smelly foods and/or have no extractor fan, and I really can't see the point of having separate kitchen and dining areas now that so few of us have even a basic domestic staff. You positively want whoever's cooking to be part of the assembled multitude - otherwise they end up isolated, and feeling like a skivvy.

 

[summerdays]

I want to open mine up... Currently I have a smallish living room and separate dinning room and a reall small kitchen. I'm thinking of knocking through the living room/dining room (to let the light through as much as anything and extending the kitchen.

 

[cd365]

A busy Saturday afternoon! Fancy popping round for half a day to do mine?

The wall was a stud wall (new house), the rest was obviously not done on a Saturday afternoon, but over a few Saturdays the following weeks. I didn't install the granite, heavy stuff!!

 

[Piemaster]

We took out the wall about 5 years ago. Best thing we've done with the place. Very wide worktop between the 2 spaces still give it a 2 room effect but we can talk to each other while clearing up.
Stud wall..hmm..thought ours was a stud wall, lots of tapping seemed to confirm it then...ooops. Removal of a section of plasterboard revealed a supporting wall with a very deep dot'n'dab holding it on. Steel beam in then. That wall also had a radiator either side which caused the biggest upheaval - changing the entire space to underfloor heating. We cooked/lived in the living room for a month.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I hate the term 'space' - whatever size it is, a room is just a bleeding room.