Parties often end up in the kitchen—so why not design for it from the start? Whether you're hosting 20 for Thanksgiving, supervising homework while prepping dinner, or simply want your morning coffee spot to feel less like a back-of-house operation, dissolving the wall between cooking and living transforms how a home functions.
But openness alone isn't enough—the best examples balance flow with intentionality, using islands as anchors, materials as subtle dividers, and lighting to define zones without disrupting sight lines. From a SoHo loft designed for parties to a Normandy farmhouse built for lingering, here are our some of our favorite open-concept kitchen and living room ideas pulled from the ELLE Decor archives.
Petite and Personal
For designer Thierry Lemaire’s 19th-century Normandy farmhouse, he created an intimate refuge where the kitchen and living room share space beneath original exposed beams. A chunky custom dining table anchors the open layout, surrounded by low wooden stools and a built-in bench that encourage lingering.