To Think That Open Plan Living Is Just a Fashion of The Moment

We are very fortunate in having both open plan and separate spaces. If I had to chose one I would definitely not go for open plan though. We have a breakfast/living room which is open plan and a formal dining room and formal sitting room. We always keep the formal sitting room tidy so that if we have visitors the rest of the house looks like a bombs hit, or we have the dishwasher and washer on, or we’re cooking fish or curry it doesn’t matter. The living room / breakfast room is lovely, but cold in winter. Also if we have family round and the fellas want to watch football, we’re not all subjected to it. I also think open plan can make furniture placement tricky. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Our bungalow has a large dining and sitting area, and we love it. We have a separate utility room. We also have a fairly small sitting room if either of us need to escape! The kitchen has underfloor heating which is surprisingly economic to run, and as I like a very cool bedroom, don’t often heat the rest of the house. I could care less about fashion, it suits us very well indeed.

cc

I’ve just read the comment about separate laundry rooms and kitchen smellls. We do have a separate laundry/shower room and a very efficient extractor with takes and sells outside.

I don't think open plan is a fad - it's just a good choice for some.

I love what we cook, smells good to me, no problem.

Also, our dishwasher is virtually silent - a noisy dishwasher? If you do have a noisy dishwasher, purchase a quiet one next go.

The back half of our home is somewhat open (not stylishly open) with huge cased openings - makes me happy to look all the way through end to end and know the happenings in all areas. We have lots of family, open is a necessity.

Apparently Covid put paid to the fashion for completely open plan and people who don't actually want separate rooms are going for partially walled areas that give privacy while still keeping the feeling of space...either actual part walls or bifold doors that can be open or closed, or even screens.....but as I said that's fashion, and you should be doing what you want. Worst decision we ver made was to redo the kitchen on the basis of what would "sell" We didn;'t sell because my husband died and I HATE the kitchen.

Sorry, that should say “all smells”!

I’ve just read the comment about separate laundry rooms and kitchen smellls. We do have a separate laundry/shower room and a very efficient extractor with takes and sells outside.

If you have young children and lots of parties open plan is excellent. Getting older and living alone it's not worth changing anything.

We like open plan, though when the children were at home we had a big house with a separate living room for them.
Personally I would not live any other way once the children have left home. My husband has a separate room for his music and we have a very big bedroom with a table for my stuff.

One thing to think about when completely open plan you need to be very tidy or the whole area looks a mess.

If you like it does it matter if it goes out of fashion?

My personal preference has always been for a dining kitchen, but separate living room - and that goes back to the late 1960s when we bought our first house and in those days it was all living diners.

I enjoy home makeover programmes such as the George Clarke ones, and have noticed that for about five years the vast majority knock kitchen and dining room together, sometimes incorporating the sitting room, put an island and a table with three pendant lights above it in the new 'family kitchen' and open the new room, often with bifold doors, onto the garden, to 'bring the outside in'. It is a very 2020s look, which will date, as it is so popular.

The important question is whether that matters to the people who live in the houses. The style of my house is Victorian/Edwardian. Sitting room at the front, dining room behind, large kitchen at the bottom of the hall with a boot room behind that. The layout has been in and out of fashion since it was built, but we knew when we decided to move here 25 years ago that this is the style we wanted, and it still works for us now. I don't care if it is dated.

If a young couple buy it when we decide to sell (which is likely, as it is a family house) they can knock out or put in walls to suit what is in fashion at the time, and how they want to use the space.

IMO, if the OP wants to knock the walls down she should, and if she and her husband are having second thoughts they should hang on until they've decided what they want, but either way, they should do whatever suits them and their lifestyle, without worrying about fashion.

PS they have been building homes like this since the 1940s, with no sign that it’s changing, so I don’t think it’s a fad.

Most homes in America and Australia do have one or more of a separate Lounge/CinemaRoom/Games Room/Basement as well as a big open plan kitchen/diner/family room though. Their houses are much bigger on average than in the UK, and the sense of space in their homes, with the open plan areas and the choice of retreating to a more intimate room in the evenings brings a completely different feel to the house, which I like.

I agree that open plan living is nothing new and from what I can remember very prevalent in both N. America and Australia. No doubt a reflection of the space both those continents enjoy, so square metres in their layouts of homes tend to be less non confining as opposed to the way smaller new builds are presented here. A frequent aspect of those appears to be the integration of the kitchen/dining/living areas. Imo the without walls approach merely means that prospective buyers are a room light. It can't be great not having any separation between the kitchen cooking area and the living room, that just amounts to one room living it seems to me

CanadianGran

Gosh, you would be hard pressed to find a house here that wasn't open plan. I think every house built since the 70's has been that way, and any older houses have been re-done.

I think it's just something we are used to now.

I'm surprised to hear that because I always assumed large countries had plenty of space for building. The UK is so small and crowded we have to build small and cram as much as possible into the smallest space.

By the way, I love your username because it says where you are, which is something I keep asking for, that we have the country next to our name. Only regular users know where people are based and it causes confusion sometimes.

My small house is 25 years old, it is open plan, I do not have a door into the kitchen it is an archway and directly off the lounge. the stairs are also in the lounge. (no door).

I hate it! always have but moved here in a rush . All my heat goes upstairs so it is always cold. The kitchen cooking wafts through the house and upstairs. There is really no way of putting doors on it is just not feasible.

Would never choose open plan if I had the choice again.

At least if you go for a house with walls /separate you do have the choice to remove a wall.

I wouldn’t do it. It’s nice to close a door.

Open plan living - as we know it now - probably started in the 60’s.

Open plan living is nothing new. 🙂
Personally, I prefer separate rooms for the reasons mentioned in earlier posts.

Gosh, you would be hard pressed to find a house here that wasn't open plan. I think every house built since the 70's has been that way, and any older houses have been re-done.

I think it's just something we are used to now.

Never mind what's in fashion .
Have what pleases you !
I hate open plan .
It looks great , but I dislike cooking smells and I can't relax if I see an untidy post -meal kitchen if I'm having a glass of wine with friends or I want to enjoy a programme .
I've looked at houses with open plan designs and thought how I'd section off the kitchen area .
And grey is the new magnolia .

Fully open plan is not for me. Like others say, I don’t want to look at a pile of pots and pans when I’m sitting down to eat, nor listen to the dishwasher whilst relaxing in front of the tv.

We are lucky in that the kitchen is large enough to house a table which we use at breakfast and lunch time, but also have a separate dining room which we use every evening and a separate sitting room to read, relax , watch tv, etc.

When I see these open plan arrangements, often in barn conversion (but not always) on tv programmes, I’m always struck by how echoey they sound and also wonder how people “zone out” in order to read quietly or listen to music/watch tv without being disturbed by or disturbing others. I also think they must be expensive to heat.

Our dining room is more of a second sitting room with a table. We've got a very extendable table, which is usually left on the second size up (basically a square), so there is room for easy chairs, a wall of bookcases, a TV and occasional tables as well.

We do eat in there most nights, although there is also a table in the kitchen. That usually has assorted 'things' on it though - the dining table is deliberately kept clear so it's just a case of setting it once a day. It's next to the kitchen, but totally separate, so I can shut the kitchen door and ignore any carnage whilst we're eating.

We live in a bungalow too. It has a smallish kitchen (no room for a table etc) and an L shaped living room/diner. If I were designing it I would have gone for a smaller living room and a dining kitchen. One of our neighbours has this and it seems to work better… although they have now built on a dining room extension.