I'm afraid I know nothing about dry/wet kitchens. If possible, switch living and dining areas. I personally prefer a larger living area than dining, but that's personal preference. Float both dining set and living arrangement in their areas. I like to have a lot of "elbow room"! Measure twice - buy once! In living area, use lighting as follows: a table lamp or wall sconce in each corner. Apartment Therapy says distance between walls and dining room table need to be at least 36". Seats on all sides need to be able to slide out easily. Between dining room entrance - 48" to allow people to enter and exit with ease. In the living room, at least 3.5 feet between seating, and 18 inches between sofa and coffee table. 7 feet between tv and seating. In my opinion, rug needs to be under entire seating area.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dimensions-to-follow-proper-furniture-spacing-basics-149156

Many thanks Elaine, appreciated. For further clarification: wet kitchen is a kitchen in the traditional sense (ie where all the food preparation is to take place), it includes all relevant appliances (fridge, oven, dish washing etc). As for the 'dry kitchen', the proposed design is really an island + stools, as well as a cabinet including wine cooler. So if we were to place the dining table in the area designated for the dry kitchen, we would effectively abandon the idea of a bar counter.

Btw: may I clarify what you mean by 'floating' the dining set & living arrangement, respectively?

What I mean by floating is don't have any of the furniture back along the walls - have them in the middle of the room as much as possible. That allows for the best conversation. In other words, if the seating arrangement is to far apart, conversation is not intimate and close. You end up yelling to have a conversation, which is not at all the goal of a living room! So, in the dining room, have the dining set in the middle of that area, and in the living room, have the seating arrangement in the middle of that area. Don't forget the all important details that make the house a home. I like large art for the walls, throws on the couch, accessories such as sculpture, real flowers, etc. They are conversation pieces for guests, and personal mementos for you!

Thank you. So is it fair to say that you would skip the kitchen island? in this case, you could place the dining table in the 'dry kitchen area' and are left with a massive space (comprised of the 'dining' and 'living area'), the question is though how to fill up this space (apart from a sofa set...)

Hi there Dagobert Duck,

I would suggest an interesting screen when you enter the main entrance and you can put your dining table behind it so that it becomes a semi private dining space. The screen can also be an interesting conversation piece to the space.

Being a lay person, I can't really decipher where your entrance is. But if you believe in geomancy, I learned a few tricks recently as I am also moving my house :

1) your dining area should not be immediately visible the moment you enter your main door ;

2) the sofa should be against the longest and strongest wall of the house ;

3) the stove location and direction should be based on the female owner of the house while the living is based on the male ;

4) Lastly, the main door should be the widest. So make sure the entrance to kitchen is not wider than that.

Hope this helps in anyway.