Hi. We have a very small U shaped kitchen that we would like to make larger. We have an 1800 sq ft colonial. As you enter the home, to the left, is the living that is L shaped into the dining room. In the back of the house, there is the small U shaped kitchen w/a small nook adjacent to a pantry and to the right, a very small den area. Our thoughts are to get rid of the dining area by moving the wall the dining & kitchen share more closer to the living room. We would remove the pantry also to enlarge the area for kitchen.

My question is, by removing the "dining area", would that decrease the value of the home even though it is not a formal dining room and we would be enlarging the kitchen?