ᐅ Kitchen island with sliding door/partition to the living and dining area – Inspiration ideas

Hello everyone,

we have finally found a nice plot of land (421sqm (4530 sqft)) and are now starting to think about the layout. We are looking for inspiration so that later we can tell the architect what we want and also critically evaluate his designs. The footprint will probably be 9m (30 ft) wide by 10m (33 ft) deep, two stories as an urban villa. It can’t be wider due to the building envelope.

The kitchen combined with the living area is very important to us, and I also need inspiration for that.
My wish: a kitchen island parallel to the terrace, with a view of the garden, and right next to it the dining area (with a solid wood table measuring 120 x 260cm (47 x 102 inches)).
Additionally, the ground floor should include a small guest bathroom with a shower and a study/guest room.

Now we are looking for possible solutions on how to temporarily separate the kitchen from the living/dining area (only during intensive cooking). How have you solved this in your homes? Or do you have it completely open? How do you manage smells and noise from cooking in the living space? Please feel free to share your floor plans or photos with me so we can get an idea and find possible solutions. Our internet search hasn’t led us very far so far.

Best regards,
xstelas

xstelas schrieb:

Now we are looking for possible solutions to temporarily separate the kitchen and living/dining area (only for intensive cooking).

That’s what you pay the architect for 😉 .

Regardless, I wouldn’t separate the kitchen, because what exactly do you mean by

xstelas schrieb:

intensive cooking

?

xstelas schrieb:

How about odors and noise when cooking in the living area?

Have you heard of a range hood? Noise cannot be avoided. But since you don’t have much space on the ground floor anyway (9 m x 11 m (30 ft x 36 ft) with 40 cm (16 inches) exterior walls = 91 m² (980 ft²) minus interior walls = 85 m² (915 ft²) minus hallway = 79 m² (850 ft²) minus utility room = 69 m² (740 ft²) minus guest WC with shower = 60 m² (645 ft²) minus guest room = 48 m² (520 ft²)), you should consider planning differently. It will be very cramped if you want a huge table and also a kitchen island.

By intensive cooking, I mean frying meat and fish with the kitchen extractor fan running at full power. Does this bother you or your partner when you are watching TV in the living room or have guests over? I still find it quite difficult to judge this.

Thanks for the note about the floor area and the rough estimate. At least the utility room would be located on the upper floor.

We have an open kitchen and will have one again, since my original wish for a separate kitchen-living area could not be realized.

We rarely fry meat at home, which would bother me quite a bit as a vegetarian in an open kitchen. Without meat frying, the smell is kept to a minimum with a proper (!) ventilation hood. And elaborate cooking is usually done together.

On the negative side, my husband likes to rummage around in the kitchen in the evening when I want to read in peace, or we always have dirty dishes right in front of us that aren’t cleaned up promptly. That can be annoying sometimes, but in the house I can go to the reading room.

It’s also harder to keep the child “in check” in the open living area :-D.
But on the plus side, everyone is always together, especially when we have guests.

xstelas schrieb:

By intense cooking, I mean frying meat and fish with the extractor hood running at full power. Does that bother you or your partner when you’re watching TV in the living room or have guests over? I’m still finding it difficult to judge this.

Odors are effectively removed with a good extractor hood (and if there’s a ventilation system installed, you can also set it to boost mode). No, it hasn’t been a problem so far (the reasons for the divorce were different...). That’s just life — personally, I find it much more relaxed with guests than constantly running into a separate kitchen to chat briefly or the cook stepping out to talk to guests. I’ve experienced both, and in the new house everything will be completely open again.

This is how it looked open in the previous house:

We had a similar question as the original poster. In a show home of a well-known provider in Bad Fallingbostel, you can see a solution with glass sliding doors. It’s quite rare, but we thought it was a nice, modern option.

For now, we have left out the partition with glass sliding doors.

Thanks to our downdraft extractor, cooking odors are less of an issue, and the open design also looks nice. Maybe we will implement it later (glass doors cost around 3,000–4,000). Structurally, we have made provisions for it.

And no, 9x11 meters (approximately 30x36 feet) is not too small. You just need to plan carefully.