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

We have a big kitchen-diner with a good extractor fan. Washing-machine, dryer and freezer in a separate room - the old wash-kitchen.

The rest of the ground floor consists of two front rooms (sitting-rooms) bathroom, behind the utility room, storeroom and workshop.

Upstairs, bedroom, study and small passage-room with toilet and handwash basin off it.

If by open plan you mean all rooms knocked into one, this would not suit me either.

I see no reason for a dining-room as no-one here gives dinner parties any more.

I have recently downsized & bought open plan bungalow. It would be a really poky place without it & I love the light & space for guests. But…it is COLD. It’s expensive to heat open plan so we’ve turned a bedroom into a snug. This works well. Our bungalow could not be returned to its original state without huge expense so think carefully about how you will use & heat the space. Log burner?

SporeRB

I sometimes wonder why the houses here in the UK do not have a laundry room. In the Far East, the flats have a service bay with a drying clothes rack with pulleys to hang your clothes.

Modern houses definitely do, but I older houses were built on the assumption that clothes would be hung out to dry, either literally outside or on a maiden above a bath or in an outhouse. More recently-built houses have laundry rooms and utility rooms/areas as washing machines/driers became standard.

We opened our kitchen/dining area up to the living room- it looks spacious and light, will say it’s noisier, especially when working in the kitchen, but it works for us (retired couple)

Separate rooms for me. We use our dining room every evening. We have a tv in there so we can watch the news or anything else that takes our fancy. I don’t want to look at the dirty dishes while I’m eating and I don’t want cooking smells in my lounge. I dislike people talking to me while I’m cooking or baking. I always make mistakes if they do or forget what time I put something in the oven. I know it’s just me but I have to give it all my concentration with no distractions.

We have new house - sold as K/D/L big l shape and a 'dining' room. We use the dining room as an office for two (just about), and divide the K/D from lounge with interior bifolds. Flexible - I can have radio or read while F1 plays in lounge, no cooking pong on furnishings etc.

Never had or will have open plan living .

No extra walls! Only a few for bedrooms, privacy and storage, etc.

My open plan living is going on 24 yrs. I love it❣️ Some days I feel like I’m cooking in the living room and watching TV in the kitchen 😆, and we eat in the middle. Family and friends are always together for occasions.

I happen to have my vaulted ceiling living space with a second story loft so it is very open, airy, light and bright from the all the windows and breezes. Closed up rooms are stuffy!

This is NOT a trend - it’s here to stay. Enjoy your new home. (Easier to clean too!)

Another vote firmly against open plan, for all the aforementioned reasons. I looked for a long time to find a flat with a separate kitchen. All the new builds seem to be open plan, which is cheaper to build. Fewer walls mean fewer cupboards, if that’s of importance. My son and his family, with 3 children under 7, have open plan and there is nowhere to escape the noise or the cooking smells.

I think that I’m the only one on our little estate to have left the living and dining room as separate rooms. Everyone else has ‘knocked through’ but now, as heating charges rise, wish they hadn’t. I wouldn’t like to have a kitchen in the living room but that’s just me. Some like the inclusivity of it.

MrsAF - you say your space is COLD. My open living space is very WARM and cozy. It’s because of your windows - they are probably leaking heat.

You don’t realize that is happening - but when I replaced some loose windows it made all the difference in the world!! Check your windows (and doors) - especially if some face North, West or East - those are the exposure and wind culprits. Storms generally come from those directions and can blow right through your house.

Windows are the most important source leaking your heat!

I think most houses designed with open plan were to compensate for smaller homes where individual rooms would have been tiny - that is my experience anyway afrom house hunting 5 years ago - none of the open plan homes had the space we wanted, they seemed to squash kitchen, dining and sitting areas into a small area, we much prefer seperate rooms.

I lived in a rental for a year once that was open plan, it was hellish. The noise of the kettle, washing machine and fridge freezer drove me mad. The smell of the cooking even got upstairs. Hard to heat and expensive to heat. Never again, it was torture.

Cooking smells are never confined to one room - they permeate through the whole house.

You can wake up and smell the coffee upstairs. You can walk in any door and smell what’s for dinner. Baking bread is a smell everyone loves, no matter what room they are in.

We had an extension 6 years ago and have a man open plan kitchen /dining /living area and we both love it.
We used to have a separate dining room which was rarely used. That is now a tv , snug room . We and our AC use it if we watch something else on tv or to read .
I love that I’m not isolated when cooking or prepping food both just for us or when entertaining. And my dh now is keen on cooking and we have room to work together in the kitchen area .
We have a very efficient cooker fan and a fairly quiet dishwasher , so smells and noise are reduced .
We also have underfloor heating and a wood burner , so it’s cosy .
My DM has mobility issues and finds it easy to get around our open plan area .
I’d say go for it , but have a separate tv room .
Is it a fad ? I don’t know but estate agent friends are in favour and it’s popular with families . And our house is a family home.

Go with what suits YOU- never mind whether something is currently fashionable or not! If you decorate etc to be in fashion one thing you can be sure of is that the day will come when it is out of fashion !
Eg all the dreary grey living rooms with grey carpets, furniture, rugs and other soft furnishings!
Unless you like grey of course.
I have never decorated/converted/altered according to what is deemed “fashionable” - if I like it that’s good enough from me!

BlueBelle

Never had a kitchen incorporated in a living area The snells of cooking would be awful to me bad enough when you can shut a door and heating a great area would be prohibitive too
A fad …stick to doors and walls
Totally agree with Chestnut

exactly my opinion on this.

I like separate space. Amount of available light makes a big difference.
I'm not tidy enough for open plan minimalism . My preference is for an open plan kitchen/ dining room, with separate larder and a utility room with sink for laundry . With a separate sitting room and ideally a downstairs loo, and study/ hobby room. All with walls for storage shelf space.

Had avisit from a pkumbrr last week who commented on how he liked the separate rooms (with kitchen and dining area all in one) in the house. Sitting room, small sitting room, conservatory. He was mid 30s and commented he snd wife had refurbished recently bought house, all open plans and he is going to start putting up walls again. With energy costs, too difficult to heat large areas, smells and moisture from cooking and noise. Seems the younger folk are figuring out some disadvantages already.

I would say it isn't about fashion and whether or not it will be 'in' or 'out' soon. Its about how you wish to live your life in your home.

I have a kitchen/diner family room with television and easy chairs and also a separate lounge. The arrangement worked well in our old Victorian terrace and we have replicated it in our current 1960's dormer bungalow. We spend the bulk of our day in the family room and retire to a cosy lounge in the evenings.

There are just the two of us but it works well, especially as we look after grandchildren one day a week.

Although we may downsize in the future (and the room dimensions grow smaller) I'd still want this kind of arrangement.

J52

I’m not sure it’s a fad. Our first house in the mid 70s was open plan, it was built in the early 60s.
Our second house, built in 1850, had been ‘modernised to be open plan. Our third house was a traditional Victorian villa and had a large kitchen, separate dining room and sitting room.
We liked the separate rooms and each subsequent house has had separate rooms. Our current house has a dining room that is large enough for a sofa as well as dining furniture, so it’s comfortable to use as a second sitting room.
We will probably make one more move and will definitely be looking for separate kitchen, dining and sitting rooms.

Totally agree with you J52. If open plan is a fad the “fad” has lasted a long time. We moved to the UK 27 years ago leaving a house that was open plan in South Africa.
We have just recently sold our house in the UK that was open plan, an area where we constantly were in. We did also have a second sitting room that was never used. We are now looking for a home to buy and open plan is definitely on top of our list.
It’s all up to individual taste rather than a fad

I think it’s a fad.
We are looking to downsize and DP wants new build - they (3 beds) are all tiny or one big room - I am desperate for a kitchen big enough for a sofa…I’m looking for a refurbished older style property (with separate smug/or sitting room/lounge)…
The search goes on 🙈

Much prefer closed off areas, don’t want to see the kitchen from my living room we have 1960s detached home and have lounge diner suits us just fine.

I prefer separate rooms, like to shut the door on the kitchen whilst eating especially if we have company and prefer the lounge separate, no cooking smells which get into curtains & soft furnishings. We have a good sized kitchen and have been to neighbours houses that have knocked kitchen and dining room into one but still prefer our layout.
Easier & cheaper to heat.

I remember in the 70’s when everyone was knocking down dividing walls down to make kitchen/diners or loung/diners, my dad said it was a modern fad that would pass, but here we are these days expanding the open plan idea even further into one large ground floor area. A friend recently moved into a new build Bungalow where entrance area, lounge, kitchen and dining area were all in one, no utility room, the only separate rooms being the two bedrooms. They soon realised their mistake and had some internal walls installed to separate off the kitchen/ diner, it was only then that they realised what a tiny space they had and dividing it off made the lounge area very tiny, dark (even though there was a window) and very claustrophobic. They have it on the market now but very little interest, even though they have reduced the price below what they paid over a year ago! Personally, I have a lovely large three bed bungalow, with large kitchen diner for everyday meals, a Large lounge with formal dining area for entertaining and a beautiful large garden room that opens full width onto the patio on two sides with folding doors. It is all too big for me now and I hardly ever entertain these days so I am about to put it on the market as I am going to live in Australia with my only so. we are having a granny annexe built in his garden, which will be all open plan, except for my bedroom and hobby room! Exciting times, watch this space to see how I get on, if interested of course!