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I need advice on this as well. We have a big double fronted house, late victorian, early edwardian. One side is a lovely large through room with a original wooden arch. The other side is a theoretically nice room which we dont really use proerly and the back room had a disabled bathroom pit in it by previous owners (in a state and needs gutted but we have run out of money). Accross in the back is the kitchen which is okay but not really big enough. I am thinking whenever we do the next stage of work to look at moving the downstairs loo and shower into one half of existing kitchen, other half as utility area and get the two other rooms knocked into one as a big kitchen diner. My kitchen is freestanding so can be moved.

I prefer open plan kitchen and dining room. If it was done tastefully it would appeal to me more than two separate rooms.

I would hate it.

The heating bills alone would put me off. then you have cooking smells, the fact that you cant get away from everyone else and if you leave out clutter, washing up, some laundry etc it is on view to the whole house.

We have separate rooms. Would hate that open plan layout, tbh...

I always think this is one of those things that looks fab in an ikea catalogue, but is quite hard to actually live in...smells, noises etx all carry, no privacy etc...
No.
Not for me.

I just took a wall down between our kitchen and living room. Love it.I wouldn't dry laundry in the kitchen, I don't like mess, so nothing that I need to hide and don't cook anything stinky. Haven't noticed any increase in heating bills. I like to have everybody spending time together in the same room - if privacy is needed, that's what bedrooms are for.

I have a kitchen with an arch into the dining room.
My living room I wouldn't want open plan.I only think it's useful if the rooms are dark or very small.

Stuff that i am too much of a slattern to have open plan kitchen i like to be able to close door on the mess

I wouldn't like it.
But it is your house and you are living in it.

Unless you are planning to move in the next 2 years (in which case why are you doing up the kitchen), then have it the way you want it to live your life.

We have a big kind of fat L shaped open plan kitchen diner living space. I bloody love it. We have underfloor heating, you can just heat the kitchen diner bit or the living bit if you like. It's all south facing with massive wall of glass so if there is any sun at all don't need the heating on.

Children are 6 and 9 and limpet like, prefer to be where I am . They have a separate playroom across the hall they rarely use. I suspect they will when they are older and we turn it into a den.

I don't find the cooking smell thing a problem. And I cook a lot. Have a separate futility so no washing machine sounds and we put the dishwasher on when we go to bed. The only thing that annoys me sometimes is the kettle on when I am watching TV in the living room. When it conks out will get a quieter one.

I like it providing there are other rooms too. We have a large kitchen diner and I love it but kids also have a room to do their thing in and also we have a dining room (which doubles as a study) for if people over for dinner etc.

Just a thought, but could you open it all up as you say but put in a sliding room divider for times when you want to separate the two areas?

Our whole downstairs area is open plan and has worked really well for me with 3 young children, I can't imagine how I would supervise them while preparing food in the kitchen if they were playing in the lounge.
The sun comes up on the kitchen side and sets on the opposite side where the lounge is so we get light streaming through the whole house all day. We're moving soon and already trying to work out how to knock down walls to get the open plan feel in an old cottage!

Today, yes. The kitchen's flipping freezing and I'm enjoying being able to shut the door.

I like that we have a 1980s through lounge, though - gives the boys lots of room to spread out.

It would put me off because

cooking smells - it's not while you are cooking, it's later, long after the meal
noise from the washing machine when you are relaxing in the evening
noise from the TV when someone is watching TV and you want to listen to the radio whilst working in the kitchen
having to heat all the downstairs space all the time, rather than just the room you are in
not being able to 'shut the door on the mess' if you have someone round
not being able to have sep spaces to do sep things, be that musical instrument practice, TV, X-box, bit of peace and quiet, reading. noise from something like a sewing machine if that's your 'thing', quiet space to work if that's something you have to do
nowhere private to have a chat with someone that you don't want everyone to hear

Open plan kitchen/diner, definitely. Open plan/kitchen/diner/living room, definitely not. There's only two of us, and sometimes (often!) we need different spaces. I'd have to listen to the Disney channel while cooking dinner, then have the pots waving at me over my shoulder while trying to chill on an evening. You wouldn't be able to relax while there were crumbs on the worktop, because you could actually see them, so would have to get up and clean them. And the washing machine banging away on an evening, as said earlier.

You may enjoy it while little one is young, and needs more supervision, but having a pre-teen who insists on having music channels blaring out and practicing dance moves every night is a different matter, and will soon have you calling a builder for a wall to be put up!

We have an open plan kitchen, dining and sitting room. I love the spacious feel of it, but the lack of walls is a bit of an issue - nowhere to hang useful bits like calendars and pinboards. But, despite that, I could never go back to separate rooms. Although it would be nice to gag the kids when we're trying to watch a movie and they're chatting over the washing up.

We have an open plan kitchen/dining/sitting area/my office. We just have one DS who is a teenager now, so it works for us, but it wasn't something I wanted when buying. It just seemed that all the properties we viewed were set out this way (very modern, city centre living).

It annoys me a bit having to listen to DH's choice of radio when I'm trying to do admin, and I don't like the way the cooking smells carry everywhere. But it's handy when a film is on and I can carry on watching as I'm going to get a drink, and I prefer having DS in the same room when he's online. I think it would be more problematic with younger dc or with a bigger family.

No. All I can think if is one big mess!

I like open plan.

But if you intend to sell in near future, go with what is most popular with potential buyers.