How To Design An Open-Plan Kitchen And Living Room

A full-width extension in this renovated Victorian home in London has allowed for an open-plan kitchen and living room with floor-to-ceiling Crittall doors leading onto the garden. Although this space is large enough to take a tall and chunky divider like a bookcase or media unit, a low sofa has been chosen to maximise the flow of natural light.

An open-plan kitchen and living area doesn’t have to be divided equally between its two functions – the footprint of each should be dictated by use and lifestyle rather than a neat division across the centre of the room. This contemporary basement kitchen in Brighton has a subtle framing design that contains it within the larger footprint of the living area.

The temptation with narrow rooms like this is to line your furniture along its outer walls to create a corridor of space down the middle. There is, however, only so much room we need to manoeuvre around – a walkway of one metre is recommended in the kitchen – and so dividing down the middle is usually more efficient. There is no hard and fast rule about the positioning of a sofa here: it might be dictated by adjacent doors, the distance from the TV, or you might need extra floor space in the living area for little ones to play.

Pictured: Marlborough Terracotta Tile at Ca’Pietra

This is a great example of using colour to distinguish between the kitchen and living room. The overall palette is totally aligned, but a blue feature wall contains the kitchen in lieu of a physical divider. This shows too why chaise sofas and L or U-shaped sofas are more effective in open-plan spaces – the right angle acts as a soft boundary defining two sides of the living area.

Pictured: House Beautiful Freya Sofa at DFS

Large archways are an increasingly popular way to delineate a kitchen from a living room, all while maintaining an open-plan layout. Where once they might have been rendered in plaster, they are now designed with integrated shelving that frame each side and continue overhead. Filled with books, trinkets and art, they are particularly appropriate in maximalist homes, like this Nottingham flat owned by interior designer Jodie Hazlewood.

In this farmhouse-style home, a third function is introduced into the open-plan kitchen and living space in the form of a dining area. The long and narrow table has been positioned very cleverly, acting as a divider between the spaces but retaining its own function as a spot to gather and eat.

Pictured: Marlborough Terracotta Tile at Ca’Pietra

Large, open-plan rooms can be very tricky to arrange because they can end up feeling cavernous and impersonal. It is usually more effective to fill up every inch available to you by creating lots of little pockets – like this kitchen with a breakfast bar, cosy seating nook, dining area and a window seat – rather than leaving an expanse of open space.

Pictured: Bespoke kitchen by Pluck

With an island that seats seven guests, this kitchen has been designed as a truly sociable space. It would be counterproductive to close off the adjacent living room by facing sofas away from all the action – placing them at right angles to the kitchen better facilitates interaction and conversation between both areas.

Pictured: Bespoke kitchen by Olive & Barr