Open-Plan Kitchen Zones: Cooking, Dining, Living
The kitchen sits at the architectural heart of the home. Open-plan living brings cooking, dining and relaxing into one continuous space, and the set-out carries a bigger share of the room’s success in daily use. We begin with interior architecture: we map routines, align adjacencies, and fix key circulation routes so the room supports the life lived within it.
We coordinate the island line, dining position, and lounge edge as one plan, then carry those datums through lighting layers, storage logic, and junction detailing so the space reads as a resolved whole in use.
THE NEW TRIANGLE: COOKING, DINING, LIVING
We plan open-plan kitchens around three linked zones that match how the room is used across a day. The classic kitchen triangle — sink, hob, fridge — provides a planning base, and the wider open-plan layout extends that logic into clear zones with defined purpose.
Open-plan kitchens work best when each zone has a clear job, a clean clearance, and a direct relationship to the next decision:
Cooking & preparation – a clear working run, practical clearances around the island, and storage placed where it is used.
Dining & gathering – seating positioned so people join the room comfortably, with circulation routes kept clear of the working area.
Entertaining & relaxing – sightlines that keep the space connected, with lighting used to define the shift from task to rest.
A disciplined set-out lets these zones operate independently while the room stays coherent as one space.
A clear storage map keeps surfaces usable: drawers carry daily items at prep height, tall larders hold bulk and small appliances, and waste and recycling sit on the shortest route between sink and prep. This placement reduces search time, keeps the island clear for cooking and serving, and lets the dining and living zones stay composed across the day.
The Island as Anchor
The island acts as the primary datum in open-plan kitchens. It anchors the working run, defines the social edge, and sets the relationship between kitchen, dining and living zones so movement stays legible.
We detail the island as architectural furniture: proportioned to the room width, aligned to appliance lines, and resolved at the junctions so it performs through daily use. Where a breakfast bar forms part of the brief, we set out the overhang and knee space, protect walkway width behind stools, and coordinate door swings so circulation stays clear while the kitchen is in use. Material selection follows the palette logic, with timber and stone specified to reinforce balance and hold the room together visually.
Furniture That Belongs
Furniture extends the kitchen set-out into the wider room. We position the dining table and lounge pieces to reinforce proportion, maintain threshold clarity, and keep circulation comfortable around the working area.
We have used this approach in projects such as Pangbourne Hill Country House, where a bespoke banquette fixed the dining line and held consistent clearances at the table edge. That set-out created a clear transition between kitchen and living areas while keeping sightlines and movement continuous.
For homes built around entertaining, we keep the living zone visually connected to the kitchen with seating, media and storage aligned to the main axis, then use layered lighting to define each area without breaking the plan.
Designed for the Way You Live
The most successful open-plan kitchens read as settled in use because the plan carries through to installation. We set out the room from routine to clearance, then coordinate services, ventilation routes, lighting circuits and joinery lines so the built result matches the intent.
When the brief requires a specialist manufacturer, we specify through established kitchen partners, such as SieMatic, and carry the set-out through technical drawings, site checks and final fit so junctions land cleanly and the room performs day to day.
Explore our kitchen design approach to see how we plan kitchens around proportion, flow and daily life.
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