Is that furniture all to scale with the house as it looks huge, and all of it looks way tight.

I think having the dining area next to the kitchen makes more sense than the other way. I hope you aren't just removing all the walls before you think this through. Sometimes when a space isn't working people think removing walls is the solution, but it isn't always. When you remove a load bearing wall you have to replace it with a substantial beam which isn't cheap. Do you have a second floor? If so, there is probably plumbing and electricity running up to the second floor in at least some of those walls. Maybe just widening existing openings would work instead. Millworkman's question also occurred to me. You can't put ten pounds of sugar into a five pound bag.

I like the dining room by the kitchen. It also serves to separate the two living rooms for two different functions. TV room/sitting room, or formal/ informal.

How was the partner’s parents’ house set up? My husband and I find ourselves in these conversations leaning toward the way we were brought up. He had the dining set in the kitchen. My family aleays had it in a separate room. It could be that simple of a bias.

I don’t understand the point of 2 livingrooms open to eachother with no doors. no privacy or sound separation for tv, etc. diningroom in middle makes most sense. also furniture looks squished next to kitchen.

Currently we don’t have much furniture so I’ve been using what I can find on the pottery barn design application.. the dining room table, fireplace and kitchen is to scale (but kitchen design could be changed as it’s not 100% decided on yet).

We do have a second floor & the walls were looking to remove aren’t load bearing nor do they have plumbing in it. Not sure about electrical. The only load bearing wall is the one between the family room and the rest of the house, which we’re keeping an opening instead of opting to remove it with an expensive beam.

At my parents house, the two living spaces are pretty far apart which I like since it provides more separation (though my partner doesn’t think they’ll be much of a difference with the sound, I do think the physical separation will be nice & feel more separate). At his family home, it was an L-shape with the kitchen looking on to the street, the dining room looking to the back of the house with a patio door, and then a living room also with large windows looking to the back. The dining room connected the 2 other rooms (so not biased in terms of flow of rooms, but I see the bias in terms of having a large window / lots of natural light in the dining area). I also notice these types of biases when we discuss design so it’s funny you mention that & I hadn’t thought about the natural light bias he might have! Thanks 😊