Open kitchen: regret or the ultimate experience?

And I think the smells are the main argument against an open kitchen. Personally, I don't like being able to smell in the living room the next day what I prepared the day before^^.

That's due to kitchen appliances and/or ventilation. The open kitchen itself is not to blame. Berbel hoods, for example, filter out smells incredibly well - which is no wonder when, for example, 2 kg of activated carbon are installed. Or direct exhaust.

And I really don't want to smell the cat food in the living room, either,

Totally agree. That stuff smells horrible (but actually doesn't taste bad).

But I only have a cheap, used Sconto kitchen and it will stay that way for quite a while. When I cook, I just open the window, our kitchen has a big window. Door closed, window open, the matter is quickly settled. When we didn't have the kitchen door yet (it was like that for quite a while), it always smelled all the way up to the first floor. Since we finally have the door installed, it's no longer like that. This way the exhaust air goes out directly without escaping into the hallway first.

I haven't tried cat food yet^^. Our animals get high-quality food, but it still doesn't smell good. At least the wet food for the cats. The dog gets BARF and the dry food for the cats doesn't smell either, but the wet food... well.

We made a breakthrough in our terraced end house from 1970 to connect the kitchen with the living area. Especially with 2 small children, the open large space that has been created is very nice. Otherwise, the kitchen would have been a separate room, accessible only through the hallway. It would have been difficult to notice what the kids are doing in the living/dining area while working in the kitchen. We are rarely bothered by smells. We don’t even have an extractor hood, but we also rarely fry anything. Then a window is tilted open or the large sliding door is opened. We have not regretted it. But often your own circumstances also count...