to ask why open plan kitchen/living rooms are appealing

[alliecat567]

I'm looking to buy a 2+ bed flat at the moment and approx two thirds of them have open plan kitchen living spaces. I just don't see what the attraction is. Why would you want your cooking smells intruding your living room, and why would you want to look at your fridge / sink etc whilst relaxing on the sofa? Can anyone tell me what the benefits are?

I like them in theory but once we had a child open plan was a horrendous nightmare. However, now I have a kitchen that is so tiny you can touch a hand on each wall at the same time...

We have an open plan kitchen, diner, living room and a second separate front room. Dh had to put in a better fan over the cooker, it now vents to the outside to prevent the house smelling like food and steaming the place up. No idea why every house we looked at had a cooker hood that didn't vent outside. Pointless.
I miss my bigger open plan US house, we are now looking for a large bungalow that we could make more open and replicate that open feel just a little bit.

We are about to knock down our kitchen wall to create the larger kitchen dinner.

We will still have the benefit of a separate lounge and conservatory, and the washing machine is hidden in the utility.

I'm hoping to create a more social space at the heart of the home

they are - till you have teenagers. THen they are shit

In the last four years I've had big kitchen with island, dining table area and sofa. Great because we had separate formal dining and drawing rooms.

Then extremely modern town house with shiny kitchen, dining area and then sitting area (big space) with a drawing room upstairs.

Now, and we were going to open this out: a biggish self contained kitchen (16x11ish) leading through glass doors to a large dining area and then into a garden/sitting room. Sep utility. We are no longer going to open up - it is bloody wonderful to have a separate proper cook's kitchen and not to have to worry about pots in the sink when eating.

I'm in the U.S. My washer and dryer are in the laundry room. I've never actually seen one in the kitchen, I don't think. Interesting.

We have a big open plan living room/dining/kitchen. It has a step down from the kitchen to the lounge.

It's hard to heat, but we do have a wood burner.
I can't cook curry as I can't stand the day two curry smell in my living area.
When someone comes in from outside into the kitchen it's too open.

Our washer etc is in the utility room tho and I don't put the dishwasher on til bedtime.

It looks amazing. Everyone who comes in says wow. And I do love it; it's gorgeous. But I would like a snug.
When the kids move out / move to upstairs rooms I am making ds bedroom into a tv room. Or the playroom maybe.

I love ours! The washing machine is in a seperate utility room but the dishwasher is in the kitchen area but it's a big space, so still a good distance from the sofa at the other end, and I think the peninsula unit blocks the sound too.
I insisted we have good extraction to the exterior and cooking smells haven't been a problem. It's just so sociable as we love to cook, and it feels so light and spacious. We have bi-folding doors in the sitting area end and French windows in the dining area, as well as the big window in the kitchen area, so the light and views are amazing. We have a massive L shaped sofa that helps to zone off the sitting area, so with the stove lit and the secondary lighting on, it's still cosy even though you are in a large room.

I hate open plan. A separate living area and a big kitchen diner is ideal to me.

I had one, it was a nightmare, grease and dirt and smells just spread and ruined furniture and was constant cleaning.

But I think that's part of the reason some people like them. Often they are only practicable if you have a cleaner, can afford to redecorate often and replace furniture = expensive = status symbol.

I'm in the U.S. My washer and dryer are in the laundry room. I've never actually seen one in the kitchen, I don't think. Interesting.

outside of London you might have a laundry room, but that's far less common in London on account of the small dwellings.

so the kitchen is the place of choice.

Completely open plan is a pita, but before moving to the UK (over 10 years ago) I had never had a kitchen which wouldn't fit a dining table in as well, and here the two houses I lived in only had room for a breakfast bar in the kitchen and a separate dining room.
I absolutely loathe it, everyone still tries to perch up and eat in the kitchen, our dining room is massively underused in the winter as well (being north-facing and not cosy enough), when socialising I either miss 70% of the evening being in charge of the food, or everyone ends up hanging out in the kitchen and people are in the way/watch me prepare food closely getting on my nerves...in the last couple of years, the impossibility to entertain combined with having a baby basically made me give up on any friends coming round to it. It's also really inconvenient with small children, a small space quickly gets boring for crawling baby/toddlers, but I can't let the baby out of my sight, so have to lock her in the tiny kitchen space with me and then deal with her restlessness.
We have teenagers as well, but I honestly think it'd do them good to have to spend more time with the rest of the family!

Our washing machine is in the garage, dishwasher is quiet..

In my previous non-UK kitchen, socialising was going on only there, I had a round table with chairs and tub armchairs round it, and a sofa in the kitchen. Had a lounge but it wasn't used much as such, as I didn't have a telly or a fireplace(it was an apartment), so if I wanted to wind down I'd normally just read in bed... Now I cannot imagine life without a living room, but then if I did have a kitchen big enough for a sofa again it'd probably wouldn't be as important.
We are on the market and I am not even looking at houses which don't have a dining kitchen or where it's impossible to create one relatively easily, so fed up with just the cooking kitchen!
Yeah, by the way, cooking smells seems to be a UK specific problem (along with damp and mould etc), due to poor ventilation in houses. Where I'm from, all the extractor fans are in shafts taking smells outside.

The only reason is because you can fit flats into a small square footage than if you put in a separate lounge and kitchen/diner.

Anyone who says they love their open plan living space generally lives in a house with a second lounge space, or at least a separate utility room.

And these threads always make me laugh with all the stealth boating "oh I just love our absolutely ginormous open plan kitchen / dining / entertaining / living space. It's just fabulous for parties when we have 150+ guests. Obviously we do have a formal sitting room and a study so DH and I can get away from the teenagers, and they can hang with their friends in the snug. Love my utility room as well, so important to have a separate space for the unsightly white goods and the wine fridge"

THATS NOT WHAT THE THREAD IS ABOUT! He thread is about properties that have only one room which isn't a bathroom or bedroom. As in one room for eating, cooking, watching TV and having your washing machine on.

Hate them.

OP said 2+ bedrooms in an apartment, so I suppose rooms would be fairly flexible being all on one? level, so if it's a choice between kitchen and separate dining room or separate living room, or kitchen-diner and 3 bedrooms, I'd recommend going for the kitchen diner and then using/setting up one of the bedrooms as a lounge-living room. If there's room, stick two sofas in, one being a sofabed, and it could work as a guest bedroom :).

Something like that.
Yeah, people who talk about their million rooms are missing the point of the thread, I agree.

As whois says, what you need is:

L shaped kitchen/dining/living space - 5x3m kitchen in one part of the L, with the other hving a dining table for 8 and a 3 piece suite at the end. (washing machine in utility) for family. A separate dining room and separate living room for guests etc.

Personally I really dislike open plan spaces. If you have a huge house then I love the look of a massive 'family room' with kitchen, dining table and sofas in. But only if there's a separate lounge as well.

And also hate living room/diners. We're house hunting atm and they're both big no-no's to us.

A kitchen/diner is fine and so much more desirable than having your dining table in your lounge IMO. I want my living room to be comfortable, to have carpet, to be a nice space. Not the dc eating their dinner in the same room and dropping rice and spilling soup and everything else that goes on at dinner time.

We wanted open plan so that I'm not stuck in a separate room away from everyone when I'm cooking and because DH likes to watch TV when he washes up. I don't really cook bad smelling food and our washing machine is in the laundry so that wasn't a problem. My kids are young though, so I guess we'll have to wait and see whether we still like it when they're older.

I'd hate it. We're far too messy!

I live in Florida and it's standard here. In fact, I've never lived in a house that did not have an open plan. Also our cooking smells are very pleasant.

We have a fab kitchen/diner, in fact it is my favourite room. It is so sociable but equally a beautiful space if no one is around.

DC can cook, I can supervise without having to get up , it's the warmest room in the house, dc/dh often come here to do their homework at the table even though they have places to study elsewhere, there's a counter top so not compromised where to eat if the table is full of arts and crafts...there is plenty of room for a party or buffet and that anyone who visits is free to help with whatever needs doing and as a result entertaining is much more enjoyable and relaxing.

With a good fan, delicious food and patio doors and windows there is no problem with smells.

We are lucky in that we do have a large house with separate living room and music room/library but tbh if I were to move or downsize I would want to recreate this space wherever I lived.

You certainly wouldn't want a carpet there, a wooden floor is best.

We have an open lounge/ kitchen and dining area. I love it. We do have a separate utility room though, so the washing machine never disturbs me and I only run the dishwasher at night.

I can make dinner with one DC doing homework at the table and the other at the opposite end playing with her toy kitchen and be accessible to everyone.

That said, perhaps when the DC are older it'll be annoying but we have a separate playroom (which they never use because they like to be in the big room with us) and might make that a smaller, grown up lounge.

It is a b*stard to heat though.