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??

I like it... I'd love to build a home like this:
www.porterdavis.com.au/homes/prestige/waldorf

Great for parties . And having all your extended family all round for lunch. And when people come round , I can chat and here what is happening while I am cooking rather than banished to the kitchen like a servant. We do have another separate room for TV which helps. And I don't listen to all the Radio 4 that I'd liek to when I am cooking

We used to have a kitchen / diner downstairs and a lounge upstairs. That far worse for toddlers who want to be joined at the hip to you all the time.

I am not a fan - although will admit I have never lived open plan.

We are in married quarters and have moved lots over the years. I am not even that keen on Lounge Diners. Give me a Kitchen Diner or Seperate kitchen and seperate dining room any day please.

The only time I like a lounge diner is the 2 or 3 days a year when family come to visit and we are feeding 10 plus people,such as at Xmas.

We have recently moved to a larger house but with lounge diner from a smaller house with seperate kitchen, dining room and lounge. We are all missing the extra reception room. There were times when we would want to watch what we want on TV and the kids wanted to do something arty at the dining table or homework or play station. You cannot have 2 TV's in in a lounge diner.

As a result of our lounge/diner my teenage kids spend more time hidden away upstairs in their bedrooms since we moved here. Although they used to be in a seperate room sometimes in the last house they were still kind of with us and we had to walk through the dining room to get to the kitchen etc so it was more sociable.

I also have an issue with cooking smells. What do you do if you live open plan and are cooking fish or a spicy curry?? When I cook these I have the kitchen door open, kitchen windows and even the extractor fan (a luxury to have one for us). Do you sit and watch TV freezing with the windows open or let the smell linger on you,your clothes and furniture???

Open plan looks lovely - but I cant see the practicalities of it but then I am not a fan of ensuite loos either!

I grew up in the US where open plan is pretty much the norm, so,it doesn't phase me here. I hated living in a pokey Victorian terrace with bloody doors and walls everywhere.

Can i ask what the obsession is with avoiding cooking smells? What on earth are you cooking that is too dreadful to smell in another room? Maybe you need to reevaluate your recipes if they don't smell nice.

Ah Hazle - I have a child friendly oven - didn't when DD1 was small.
But DD2 at around 18 months took to standing just behind me - the amount of times I nearly tripped over her...the idea of not being able to lock her out the kitchen when draining pans fills me with horror - you only needed to forget to check she wasn't there once .

I saw an article recently about an architect couple who had put back loads of walls in their house to make small separate rooms - as their children had got older they wanted their own space and their parents needed a bit of peace and quiet.

I really don't get open plan. It's as if your house has to embody some mythical loveliness where all the family want to be together all the time. Well not in my family! Three of us play musical instruments and some of us want to read and some of us want to watch the television and some of us want to listen to the radio, and those are not compatible activities in an open-plan space (especially if it's all hard flooring, another bug-bear of mine).

Also open-plan spaces are really expensive to heat, whereas small rooms that you can heat when you are in them and not otherwise are much cheaper. Also, when you have rooms you also have walls that you can hang pictures on (MIL was an artist so we have lots and lots of her work) and put bookshelves against.

YY, niminy!

We have a shedload of bookshelves and paintings, with less wall space due to windows as walls, in the Aussie style.

I should STFU though, as the view is to die for.

Seriously though, I'm sure the big rooms, shit thin windows and lots of them is a clue to Aussie global warming figures.

Ensuite loos and breakfast bars are two of my least favourite things.

I told DH I would divorce him if he suggested we have a breakfast bar in our kitchen.

We have a dining room. OK, it's a faff when you have to nip through and tinker with the meal while you have guests but if you plan the meal well and have stuff ready you shouldn't be isolated in the kitchen much. And I hate staring at all the pots and dishes while I eat.

I think the 'open plan' thing is probably a recognition of the fact that houses are getting smaller and pokier, so everyone is busy making a virtue of a necessity when the reality is more usually that you are cooking in your sitting room.

Yes echt, exactly the same problem here in NZ!

as for cooking smells - I have 2 large dogs. Any food smells are an improvement

(well actually I have quite a nice extractor fan and as the room is so large, haven't really noticed the sofa smelling of curry.)

The North American style of house is best, IMO. Over there a lot of houses tend to have separate rooms but they flow from one into the next - no doors shutting one room off from the next! I hate how closed-in rooms can feel over here.

We don't really have lingering food smells. Good extractor fans both built inside oven and above stove and open windows during cooking

We have very minimal stuff so haven't noticed storage issue

I love a good door.

Our current one flows - but can be shut off with doors.

Proper hall - stairs up to first floor and door into living room.

Living room - old living/dinner but one room now so very big - one end double door into kitchen at back along width of house so two huge window out onto back garden so can open get rid of smells - and smaller door into dinning area - old kitchen -that lead into current kitchen via an arch. Basically DC can lap round wall via living room - kitchen and dinning area - then back living room.

The noisy washing machine and drier and another toilet all through a outdoor door - then from there another door back of that leads to back garden. So muddy boots and clothes can go by washing machine and if they just want loo they can pop to down stairs one rather than traipse through house.

We've been here since eldest was toddler - now preteen - works great - door mean heating and cooking can be contained but can also have door open and hear young DC. Kitchen big enough when DC were small they could be near but not under foot - now they can sit at dinner table do homework and I can keep an eye on them and do tea.

Very few of the families looking round have appreciated how good the layout is.

Finally selling to a couple whose DC have left home but love the space we have.

Have to admit though next house are looking at two reception rooms and separate kitchen -more because that's what there and thinking teenagers might want more space to be apart.

That's one of the things I like about open plan certainly in my house, it helps cut down on the level of shite I keep in the house. I'm now exceptionally ruthless with stuff I would have previously stuck in a room and closed the door on.

Much as I love the look of open plan - all those Scandinavian and swish LA interiors - it's not practical for family living imo.
Once kids are older they need their own space - we have 2 reception rooms so it means that the dc can be in one room and we can be in another.
Ditto door between kitchen and eating area.
I dont like the kitchen/diner thing - I dont like eating whilst looking at all the dishes in the sink!

So I'm not the only person who watches grand design and thinks WHY?
Those great big glass windows - no matter how good the glass they are boiling in the summer and freezing in winter.
And no privacy ...there was one with an older couple retiring to the middle of nowhere with their big glass windows -no blinds/curtains. So easy for burglars to see exactly what they had, if they were awake or asleep, in or out. And creepy in the dark - everyone could see straight in but they wouldn't be able to see anything outside except black...
(The other one I remember was a young couple who renovated part of an old factory or mill like a big chimney- house was basically 8 floors of one room...with a lovely winding staircase, no lift. Great view from the roof - but who fancies carrying their groceries up 4 flights to the kitchen, going up 4 flights to go to bed etc? guess they would be fit though! And their heating bill would be sky high - all those external walls and the heat rising like up a chimney)

Baddz - we have a dishwasher to hide the dirty dishes

I think having a sitting room and kitchen as one room makes you fat :D

Me too, but not all dishes can go in a dishwasher.
I hated looking at pans on the sink whilst eating.
But I realise I am a minority.
Most people love kitchen/diners.

That's what I always think with floor to ceiling windows too unlucky. At night time 'they'd' be able to see in but you wouldn't be able to see out.

I've never understood the whole no curtains thing either.

Ah we we only bought pans etc that can all go in dishwasher. We have dishwasher drawers so one can be on and the other can be filled up

We are open plan, but in Australia, so two of the walls of the main living area are glass, which gives us lots of light and warmth. I've "zoned" (sorry ) the space so we have a living area, dining area, kitchen and another living area with sofa, books, piano, music stands etc. We also have another study/general room with a TV, desk, daybed, Foxtel and xbox.

I think it really works here, but I think I'd probably hate it back in the UK. I'd probably want something warmer and cosier, with nooks.