A bonus to the new home we have is the kitchen overlooks the Family/Media Room and backs against the Dining Room. Here are a couple "Before" looks to get the idea.
Looking in from the Family Room. (Dining Room beyond.)
Looking from the Dining Room entry to the Media RoomWhy is it a bonus these rooms are connected? Because all the things that happen in our kitchen actually span the range of a family of the 21st Century. We have the need to congregate for such a variety of activities that the lines of utilization have been blurred between dining, socializing, interacting, media, cooking, schoolwork, business, family time and so many not-yet-named activities (eating eating eating).
This dynamism has figuratively torn down the walls of a traditional home and made the need for separate rooms very- well- useless, at least for us. So we are gutting the kitchen and making it the center of our universe with the Family Room and Dining Room incorporated into the overall space. Here's a couple of template designs that we are using as inspiration (though not as literal translation) for our kitchen. But we will literally tear down the wall that separates the kitchen and Dining Room- a nice metaphor to the dynamic family life-style we are accustomed to versus the traditional nuclear family "dynamic".
The Dining Room will be nearly cut in half to extend the kitchen cabinetry and bar/island that will sit perpendicularly to the exterior wall, thus still creating some form of separation from Dining area to kitchen. A mere formality really. The backside of these pictures, where you cannot see is our eat-in-kitchen overlooking the Media Room. When all is said and done, you will be able to stand at the far wall in the Media Room and look all the way down the house to the other end wall in the Dining Room.
One big happy family in one big happy living space.
