It would be helpful if you could post a floorplan of the rooms. There are architects & contractors here, who might make suggestions, but they'd need to understand how the rooms flow, and which walls are load-bearing.

To Dytecture, I am thinking a partial wall or integrated columns around a cut out. Something so the space is not so closed off. I don't want it 100% open, just some ideas to create SOME openness. I have 3 or 4 ideas. just wanted to see if anyone online could suggest something I hadn't thought of. Thanks.

To astraea, I have posted a floor plan. The sofa runs along the left wall in the living room and the pantry is at the end of the wall on the righ in the kitchen. I am willing to loose the pantry (I have another one in the laundry room steps away.

Unless I'm losing it, I don't see any floorplan that's part of this discussion.

Trying to attach again. For some reason, it's not showing up.

There it is. Do you see it now? Thanks!!

I am facing the same dilemma with an upcoming renovation. The living room backs right onto the kitchen. I am assuming the photo of your kitchen is adjacent to your sofa in your living room and it is the wall in between that you want to remove/or modify.

In our case, the dilemma was that the kitchen counter will back on to sofa which I did not feel comfortable with,


nor did I feel comfortable with the sofa having a raised counter (and then a return).

In the end we are opting for a raised return with a nice on the sofa side...

Are these pics of your home?

Your pics don't show the wall between the rooms.

The two examples above show probably your only solutions.

to Bevballew, the wall behind the sofa with the painting on it is the living room side and the picture with the stove in the kitchen side of the same wall. If you look at the floor plan, it's the wall dividing the living room and kitchen. Thanks!

@rdannahower - Are all/most of your cabinets along the wall backing the living room? What's on the opposite wall .. looks like a refrigerator? What's at the end of the kitchen by the pool .. dinette? Depending on what's on the other side of the kitchen, and how much storage space you need/want, could could remove/relocate the upper cabinets, microwave, and the top half of at least part of the common wall.

To astraea, I could loose some of the cabinets I have plenty of storage, but my problem is I don't want to feel like I am sitting in the kitchen while I'm in my formal living room. I do have a family room. And on the other side of the kitchen are sliders to the pool where I keep a pub table. I have a ttached an idea of something that colud work, a cut out wall. Just want to see what others think. Thanks again!!!

Is the pool enclosed? Why not capture the patio for flow during entertaining?

I would consider putting a header in across the entire width of the back wall of the living room & putting in folding or multi-panel sliding windows that allow everything to be open to the patio and kitchen eat in area. That would create circulation and flow and take advantage of all of the outdoor areas.

With the full wall of glass there, you can use ceiling-mounted traveling hardware for window coverings for privacy.

This is from 2013. Houzz haas a key word generator that pulls up threads based on what you're reading. They're displayed on the right hand side of the page. If you click on one, check the date as most are old, long dead threads.

Oh heck, this is an old dilemma. What did you end up doing?

We ended up taking out the pantry and added a lower cabinet to use as pantry and server for the dining. We also removed the arch around the dining room which opened the entire space a lot. Not completely open, but you don't feel separated when you are entertaining in the space. Thanks for all the comments.