Can you show a picture? I don't think tearing out a wall costs too much money. We had a couple of walls taken down and they did it in a matter of an hour or so.

Hi Jo, and welcome to the Decorating Forum!
Three years ago we finally redid our kitchen that opens into our family room. For years before that, I was very frustrated with how the two rooms did not work well with one another. There wasn't a good flow, and I think that this is the first thing you have to think about: will the look of both rooms work well with one another? Mine didn't. Our original kitchen had white-washed pine cabinets, a too long, light maple butcher block island counter and blue stone-look (hmmm, kind of) laminate counters. On the other hand, our family room had dark cherry furniture, with a beautiful dark brown leather sofa and some very nice art work. In our eyes, the kitchen was too casual. The two rooms did NOT work well with each other, especially since the view from my lovely family room was first and foremost, our refrigerator. We eventually bought a ss fridge , but it still didn't help the flow. I called it my Darth Vader fridge and ended up giving it away when we redid the kitchen. Here are 3 pics of my Before kitchen, the first 2 taken from our family room:
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My point in showing these Before pics, is to remind you that kitchens open to your family room are wonderful, but you really need to plan thoughfully so that they work well with one another and the flow is easy.
For example, take a look at my fist pic, The half wall had to have that chair up against it, as we needed that extra seating. Now look at the third pic. The island was so long, that when the fridge was open or someone was working there at the end, or when the dishwasher was being emptied, I had to walk around the person/chair in the family room to get to the other side of the kitchen! It didn't work well, even though it was great being able to talk with my family in the FR.

So, after many years of thinking and planning how I could make this open plan work for me, not against me, we had the kitchen gutted and started over with only our adobe walls and brick floors.
First, the view and flow were drastically changed. Our new view from the family room is now of a beautiful Old World hood over our cooktop, instead of a fridge. And the new dark cherry cabs work so much better with the furniture and the art ~ and the entire atmosphere~ of our family room now.
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This next pic was taken right after we could use the kitchen again. The lace tablecloth on the window was just to get an idea if I wanted some sort of curtains in there. I didn't.
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The storage and work areas were dramatically increased, too, without adding even one more sf of space, but that's another story. My point with all these pics is to stress making good decisions that let both rooms flow nicely, before you commit to ordering new cabs, knocking down walls or ordering new appliances. And think long term. Our needs and tastes evolve and redoing a kitchen is a very pricey reno!
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Good luck with your kitchen reno and be sure to join the Kitchen Forum here on GW. I saved a lot of money and time (and stress!!) by reading and asking questions over there before I bought anything. I also avoided making some big mistakes, by first learning from other people's mistakes there. They're a very helpful, knowledgeable bunch.
Lynn

My kitchen is in the middle of the house. There was supposed to be a wall separating the kitchen and dining room and a wall separating the dining and living room. I wanted open concept and the builder said that I would lose too much cupboard space. I had pot drawers put in as many as would fit in the space. I have never regretted leaving out the wall.

Thanks so much for the photos!

I'll try to get pictures up, but right now, my family room is a big square room of
sheetrock with a fireplace that I will refinish - basically there's nothing to coordinate or match. :)

I'm just itching to redo my house cottage-y. :) I live in the 'burbs, but the exterior of my house - while not exactly cottage - definitely lends itself to going in that direction.

I'm thinking of adding some bead board to the kitchen, and I want to have a tile mural hand painted for over my range. My kitchen has very little wall space and built-ins for decorative purposes, so I think that would be one way to add some flair to the kitchen. Of course, the mural would have to go with cottage style.

Jo