Open concept is what most people are looking for and this trend probably wont stop. You will appreciate the sightlines when you are entertaining and people are in the dining room and you are in the kitchen. Same thing with children, sightlines are always good. It would also brighten up the space. Every renovation show I have watched, the homeowners dont like compartmentalized living and dining rooms and they want a wall/ multiple walls removed.

That wall is no doubt structural and unless you have a large steel beam, a normal structural beam and few pillars would not hurt in my opinion, but open is always better than walled off. If you did do pillars, the point load would have to be transferred below it to a footing. A local engineer would need to be involved.

Thanks -- it's the exterior wall, so yes, structural. I don't think we'd do anything drastic to alter the wall -- the one opening is already a walk through because it's a door and the one in question already houses a window so it seems like it should be pretty straightfoward just to make it bigger.

I guess I didn't know if it would still be "open concept" enough since it does have the double-door width opening into the kitchen (which would also provide sightlines from the kitchen into the dining room), plus on the south side there are two openings into the existing family room (that is cut off).

Ah yes, the powder room issue. We debated for a while if there was any way to change the powder room so that the door didn't open into the "dining room" but there wasn't anything feasible. I will say that the dining room is going to be huge because it's our current kitchen, and will be much much bigger once all the cabinets are gone. And it's going to be way better than way we have now (which is a tiny eating area right in front of the back doors and the powder room door can't even be opened unless you move the chairs). So I don't think it's going to be right as "on top" of the dining room as it seems -- we did debate some half walls/pillars to make a faux hallway, but that would make the dining room much smaller unless we closed down the size of the double door opening significantly. So at this point I think we're going to figure out how the space feels after is done and maybe even change the layout of that powder room sometime down the line.

Consider putting sound proofing in the powder room walls?

Our home is ‘open concept’ and yes it does make the home feel bigger when entertaining. The down side is that like yourself, my kitchen opens to the family room. It drives me nuts when I am sitting there trying to watch my 55” tv and anyone is in the kitchen…simple conversation becomes annoying while trying to hear the tv, the exhaust does not help, then they start up the dishwasher and if they really want to stick it to me they turn on the little tv that sits atop the fridge! In these respects I really miss a separate family room. Your new dining room looks almost similar in size to the living room…have you considered making that your family room..then you have a ‘great’ room for entertaining and a more private family room – with a more appropriately placed bathroom. My guess is that the room sizes are not appropriate or you would have thought of this…but just a thought….<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I think it depends on the house style. My older home wouldn't look good as an open concept and would be harder to unload if we wanted to sell it. I don't see much open concept in my neighborhood.

it's all about intimacy, having a separate dining room means having a dedicated, private space to eat with your family. It also means that when you are having dinner there is no watching tv, or worrying about any distractions coming from the adjacent rooms. Having divided rooms allows you to isolate places which can be beneficial and can create separate intimate environments for people in the home.