Turning your kitchen and dining area into one large, open plan space is full of benefits. From design features to everyday routines, having an open plan kitchen-diner is becoming more and more popular within interior design today. Whether you’re planning on knocking down a wall and opening up the rooms, or your current kitchen is large enough for you to split into two different areas, you can create a stunning combined space that will enhance your interiors and add value to your property.
Here are a few key points to remember when combining your dining and kitchen areas together:
Opening Up the Area
If you need to knock down a wall in order to merge your kitchen and dining area together, there are a couple of elements that you need to consider before going ahead and making any changes to the current building work. The first thing to consider is whether or not the wall you wish to knock down is supported. If your wall is load bearing, you may need to support the newly created opening with a rolled steel joist. You often see this term as RSJ, and it’s always best to consult a structural engineer to ensure you’re doing things properly.
Flooring Options
In many kitchens, today, you see a slight change in flooring when it comes to the dining area that has been added. Whilst you may have one type of flooring for your main kitchen area, it may suit your kitchen style to introduce a new flooring style to the dining area. You can do this by switching up the current flooring material, or simply adding in some colourful rugs to make the area stand out more. This will also help to create a zone feel, which will make it much clearer that your room is split into two different sections.
Controlled Lighting
The lighting in your kitchen is essential to create the ideal atmosphere. Once you add a dining space into your kitchen area, you suddenly have two different areas that will require different atmospheres. One of the easiest ways to control these two areas and have the lighting just how you want it, is with mood lighting. Mood lighting is perfect for keeping the right balance in the room, you can introduce it underneath your kitchen units or even as the main lighting within the room. Mood lighting is ideal for giving you the option of having your lighting bright and bold, or soft and gentle.
These different settings really help to control the atmosphere within the room and will work really well with a dining area. You can then focus on your natural lighting. Just like any room, natural lighting helps to create a spacious, bright feel. By allowing as much natural light to flow throughout your kitchen-diner as possible, you can create a bright feel and lift the atmosphere beautifully. The natural light will help the two areas of the room to flow together really nicely.
Keep It Consistent
Whilst you want your kitchen-diner to be two separate areas, it’s still important to keep the décor within the room consistent. If you begin to introduce bold bursts of colour that clashes with the décor in the other half of the room, then you may suddenly find your kitchen-diner looks cramped and messy. Stick to a certain theme, but switch up your features for each area. For example, you may have a light grey theme running throughout, but choose to have purple and pinks in your dining area, with blues and greens in the kitchen area. It’s important your home follows a similar theme throughout, to ensure your home feels as welcoming and homely as possible.
Make It Work
Dependent on the size of your family and number of people using your kitchen-diner areas, it’s important to design the areas to accommodate everyone and work well for you and your family. Whilst creating a space that looks stylish and unique is really good, it’s not going to be worth it if it doesn’t suit your everyday routines.
Try to design the areas with numbers in mind, it may be beneficial to have two bar stools in the kitchen area for breakfast, with a table for everyone to use for dinner time. Similarly, you may need to introduce some key features such as a sideboard and bookcase to store essential items that you may need to use, such as table cloths, napkins and so on.
Have you incorporated a dining area into your kitchen?
What worked for you?
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