To think open plan living is not actually that great?

[Dancergirl]

In almost every homes magazine, tv programme etc these days the focus seems to be on open plan living space. Same old story - the main cook of the family feels isolated in the kitchen, everyone is doing their own thing in different rooms, families are not being together. So the answer is to knock down walls to create one big 'space' so all the family members can be together.

We currently have separate rooms downstairs although some are connected with doors. Kitchen is big enough to have a table in where we have every day meals. Sometimes I do think about going open plan but I can see huge disadvantages:

-Sometimes (especially in a bigger family) you do crave a bit of space to do your own thing and you can't really do that in one big room.

-Dh likes to listen to sports on the radio in the kitchen while the dc are watching telly in the other room. This wouldn't be easy in one big space.

-Dd1 plays piano and flute and practices in the living room. Other family members can sit in kitchen or small tv room and can do something else without having to listen to music practice.

-We are a close family but don't feel the need to spend every waking minute at home in the same room.

Do you think this open plan thing is just fashionable at the moment and we'll start craving walls soon? Or am I missing something??

Unless you have a GIANT bedroom / bathroom, it's essentially someone having a poo in the corner of the bedroom.

I have a totally open plan downstairs kitchen, living room, diner is one large room. I absolutely loathe it. I feel like the whole of downstairs has to be clean and tidy at all times as you can't just "shut the door" on the messy pots or kids games on the dining table. Not forgetting the smell of cooking permeating everything. The only thing open plan is good for is pretty pictures in magazines or people who live alone and never make a mess! Don't give in to the temptation!

Totally agree on en suite and we do have big bedroom and big bathroom.

I think living in an open plan set up has actually made me quite anti social. I need tons of notice if someone wants to call around because they will see everything. If I had a more traditional set up I would just need to make sure the sitting room and bathroom were respectable

You've hit the nail on the head ballet. I feel just the same!

If your dd take up trumpet and / or oboe no amount of doors is going to help!

My sister lived in an open plan house in Denmark. It was quite cleverly designed though. It was a long house and the kitchen area, dining area,living room area were all sort of off the main hallway but were separated from each other by shelving, counters, etc. It meant that if you were in the living room you did still have some privacy.
I have a couple of friends who knocked down walls in their houses and now you walk straight in off the street into their living room. I don't like that at all
Personally I like being able to close over the doors and keep the heat in.

Open plan has been sold to society as aspirational; picture smart young professional people socializing in a spotless home!

Now add kids, or bookshelves (lots of them in my case) or music practice vs TV vs X-box vs homework, or mess/clutter. It no longer works does it - different picture, different lifestyle.

I never wanted open plan, I've never lived in it, and understood that I was never going to be the smart, social, trendy, professional type so I needn't aspire to the house either!

I don't consider myself obsessively clean and tidy, but I could not relax in the living room, if I knew kitchen was a mess. So the argument that you can't just shut the doors and not look at the dishes does not work for us.

And I'm forrin, we don't keep washing machines in the kitchen, so muddy kits are not soaked there, whether open plan or not

Most people in London live in such small flats/ houses though that open plan is the only option as there is no additional space

My house isn't that big, (victorian terrace) but open plan dining room/kitchen with separate living room, there's also a 2nd tv and sofa in the dining room. Best of both worlds.

I have a lounge/diner and separate small kitchen. This means that there is essentially only one room downstairs in which to chat to friends have a meeting. When the children were younger and stayed downstairs (teenagers now so live in their rooms) it made it awkward.
I am considering blocking off the dining room to make a lounge and kitchen/diner.

Did open plan in naice apartments pre DC and it was fine, but agree with others it'd be an utter nightmare with toddlers. Also with DD1 I couldn't bear the smell of food for ages during the pregnancy, so basically didn't go in the kitchen for three months. That would not have been fun in an open plan home, you'd be confined to the bedrooms and not in the fun way. I think open plan kitchen and dining area is fine, or living room and dining area, but wouldn't want the whole thing all in one.

Agreed re ensuite, and our bedroom was pretty big too. We eventually instituted a no solids policy.

Living in Australia, we had to really look around to find a kitchen with a door. Most Au houses have two living areas, but DH likes to have the radio on when he's cooking, so it would compete with any TV watching. Having said that, the kitchen door is rarely closed, but then we can escape cooking smells by going to the back room.

That thing about having to keep the kitchen tidy is so true about open plan, though I still keep all surfaces cleaned up and tidied away after every meal because the kitchen is small by Au standards and I can't abide a mess.

Ideally I'd like to have a dining area in the kitchen, but it can't be done, without, effectively a re-build of the front of the house, which is what will happen when one day the house is sold - it'll be bulldozed and an open-plan house built, as seems to be the rule here.

creating a sense of space in an otherwise small home

Well, that can work. But I'm pretty sure open-plan living was designed for HUGE spaces, where you can create areas & pathways. Then there's a sense of airy open space, with the advantages of being together but doing different things. And I love it :)

Unfortunately I live in a tiny space which would be a bedsit if it didn't have walls

Once, and once only, I owned my dream of a great big kitchen with table & sofa. I loved it and would have knocked another room into it (sacrificing the living room) if the layout had allowed.

Yanbu.

I like Our layout - eat in Kitchen, dining room, lounge, conservatory - plenty of separate Spaces to spread out.

My friend is in the process of extending her rear, and knocking walls out to make open plan the entire ground floor. I have told her why I would never do that, but it is her Choice. She will not be able to ever Escape her kids, unless she goes to the bathroom.

Knocking the two front rooms together in 2-room houses works if the kitchen's on the back: there's never enough light in the separate rooms, and joining them opens up the downstairs. If there's no kitchen annexe, though, you're basically making a walk-through kitchen - hard to enjoy if you're a busy family, but nice for singles & couples.

Sorry, you can tell I used to do a lot of this, can't you.

I definitely agree re ensuite. We do have one-felt our house prob needed two bathrooms and one had to be en suite to squeeze it in-but dh and I don't have the ensuite room. In a house where we're all family, it's no trauma to step across the landing and I so get the "poo in the corner" argument.

I like my kitchen which has windows and two sets of doors between it and the hall: I hate kitchen smells and sounds permeating the rest of my home!

However, we have a very large hall/sitting room/dining room with glass doors between them that are always open to make it one space and I quite like that we can all chat to one another even though we have separate places to be.

twiggy yes, the distraction of tv and toys totally ruins our mealtimes. not helped by grandma turning the tv on and around to face the table so they can watch TV while they eat .

Open plan living is useless with teenagers when they bring friends home-unless you want them to be up in their bedroom all the time.
Even now if DH is watching TV and I have friends round its good to have two rooms. I have a large kitchen -diner and separate lounge-I would hate only to have one room downstairs, even if it was lighter.

YANBU.

When we moved in to out house we did knock down the wall between kitchen and dining room, as I wanted to be able to cook and chat to people at the same time.

BUT Everyone and their dog told us we should knock our two reception rooms through to create an 'open plan living area'....and I'm so glad we didnt!

I love being able to close the door of the front room and say 'I'm going to read/listen to music/watch Eastenders...you lot can watch Hey bloody Jessie and play the wii next door'.

In last month's Ideal Home magazine they featured a house which had an ensuite to the master bedroom. The shower was a walk-in and ran along the head of the bed - the 'wall' was completely clear, plain glass. It was like having a cubicle in your room. I couldn't believe it - surely it would be horrendous to keep clean, watermarks and so on. Plus there's the whole 'being on display while you shower' aspect. The owners loved it. I thought it was crazy. Takes all sorts I suppose!

They at least hid the bath and toilet behind a curtain.

I cooked cauliflower last night- steamed it.

I surely don't need to expand on which side of the fence I'm on?!