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?

We've just moved. To get everything else we wanted, the house has been the compromise. It has a utility, the a square kitchen, dining room, living room, and then a door off to 3 beds and a bathroom.
There is nowhere for me to do homework with one child without the TV on, or lying on their bed (kids young enough that I need to listen to them both reading in the evenings), and the extraction is crap, so if you don't shut bedroom and corridor doors before you start cooking, and keep them shut impossible with small kids your bed smells of supper.

I can sort of see the advantage of a dining kitchen, but people I know who moved into a house with these complain they need to be tidy when cooking for guests.

I don't think there is a perfect solution, or it would be everywhere. Perhaps I should buy a lottery ticket so I can have loads of big, multipurpose rooms to pick and choose from.

To whoever asked: yes, in the absence of a utility room, in the UK the common place for the washing machine is the kitchen.

If we're having a lazy family day at home, I am inevitably in the kitchen cooking/cleaning quite a bit. Because we have a conjoined snug/kitchen, I'm able to chat with my husband and kids as I'm doing all this (and pull them in and out to help).

I wouldn't like this arrangement if we didn't have a separate, formal dining room which allows me to maintain some separation between cooking and our guests when we have dinner parties.

My ideal is a separate utility room for dishwasher/tumble dryer/washing machine, and then an open-plan kitchen/living room.

Our flat has a separate kitchen and a lounge-diner and I hate it. Whoever is cooking is isolated in a separate room unless the non-cooking partner wants to sit on the kitchen side all evening. I used to love lazing on the sofa while DP cooked and chat to him with some wine or whatever with the TV on in the background.

Now, we have our washing machine etc. in the kitchen, so if you're cooking and the machines are going, you can't have a conversation without constantly sticking your head out the room or yelling through to the living room and having the other person go "what?!" every time you ask a question!

Well said whois - having slogged through the thread I was about to make the same point. This is not about having a kitchen/diner and a separate living room you can retreat to it's about having one room with the kitchen at one end (or in one corner). I live in Paris where this is very much a thing - we are about to move from just such an arrangement and I really wanted a separate kitchen (however small). To answer the OPs question I would say the benefit is when we have people over - nice to chat while preparing food and not have to be out of the room. That's it! I'm longing to have a kitchen where you can shut the door on the mess and open the window to let out the cooking smells. Whatever anyone tells you - we have a window in the kitchen and an extractor fan, but if you really cook the smell of cooking (deliciously enticing before the meal) does linger on. If you don't cook much, just heat up the odd ready meal and eat out a lot it's probably OK - but cook fish, fry steaks or make the kids a fry up after football and you'll find the smells lingering. I'm pretty tidy, but unless you like to jump up straightaway and clear up you'll have to content yourself with sitting in a tip. It all looks lovely when tidied up to show buyers round (or in a show flat where there is nothing out), but the reality is as you imagine.

I do understand the appeal of the 'Friends' style chatting and cooking when you're entertaining, but I'd hate to have cooking smells in the living room. We've just bought a house with a massive conservatory opening off the kitchen, and a separate lounge. There's room for a sofa and a dining set in the conservatory, and there's a breakfast bar in the kitchen so it's the best of both worlds for us.

Ideally I would have a large kitchen with dining table and also a uti,it's and also another sitting room. That might work for me.

I have a medium isn kitchen but it has a table in, so we eat in there and people can sit and chat to me if I'm cooking.

When we looked at houses recently, so many bog standard semis had walls pulled down to accommodate the open plan look. It really didn't work. I think it is a fashion that eventually might disappear. Years ago people knocked through the lounge to dining room, now it is the kitchen.

When my kids are teenagers I will be grateful for extra rooms tbh so they can lock themselves away!

BTW, how about bringing back the hatch between the dining room and kitchen! Standard in many 50s houses.

It's not just the smell of cooking that pervades everything; I find that, even with an extractor, a layer of grease builds up so I am cleaning much more frequently. I am lucky though in that I have a big(ish) kitchen diner and a separate front room.

I wish I had a large eat in kitchen. It is a big house but not designed for modern families. It was built for a family with servants.A separate kitchen was only really an option for wealthy people who had servants or a t least a maid.

Open plan is not exactly a new idea really. Old fashioned large kitchens in farmhouses were essentially the living space. Its were food and warmth were and had durable hard surfaces and kept dirt out of the rest of the house.

That said I would not want a totally open plan floor space. I have lived in flats like that and the cooking is ever present unless you set to and clean up immediately after you have eaten.

We have invested in bluetooth headphones for the kids who still want to be in the (open plan) kitchen with us watching tv, even though they could watch it in the living room - this allows us to listen to the radio and share the space without going crazy. I expect they'll turn into parent avoiding teenagers soon enough.

We changed our house of several small rooms not fit for purpose into a large open plan kitchen which has a dining area and tv, sofa etc. plus a separate sitting room. It works really well as there is much more space to all be together when we want to be but also a separate room when we don't want to. I don't think it would work if there was just one big open space, especially as the DCs get older.

There was an article in the times about this saying open plan works for young families but you need the option of a further living area as kids get older.

We're in a 2 bed flat at the moment and I love it.

It's a T shape, with the dining area and kitchen at either end of the top bit and then lounge area at the bottom opening out onto a patio.

Great for entertaining - means that we can still be a part of the dinner/party even when preparing food.

I think when we eventually buy our own place, we will look for something with an open plan kitchen/dining/living area but with a separate utility and sitting room too.

I'd guess dwelling size is a big factor. If I had a massive house, I would probably want a closed off kitchen. But with tiny rooms, I want to see past arms length.

What is a 'formal dining room' please?
At home we just had a dining room which was where the table was. If it is 'formal' is it only used for guests?
We bought this house with a 'breakfast kitchen' ie kitchen big enough for a table, and a lounge/diner big enough for another table (eighties so that's what was popular at the time). Now we have a conservatory with the bigger table in and the main room is a sitting room, so we eat at either table according to mood/number of people.
A 'formal dining room' sounds a bit like the days when the front room was only for high days and holidays.
The big open plan area thing will be another fad and future generations will no doubt want to partition off the kitchen area.

'Formal' dining room = a room dedicated to a dining table that co-exists with an informal dining table in the kitchen.

In most nicely done kitchen/living spaces I've been to and lived, kitchen was partitioned in some way, positioned in a snug, separated by a worktop/breakfast bar from the rest of the space, so it wasn't all exposed.

Honestly, I don't know what is wrong with ventilation in UK houses, but I hadn't even known what cooking smells were(mind, until a house guest decided to fry a fresh herring!) growing up in flats in a city! And we didn't even have a cooker hood, but kitchen/bathroom, and in old apartments (100 years plus) every room has some kind of air brick or like a discreet mini-chimney in the wall with a little screen covering the entrance to it near the ceiling, in the kitchen or bathroom it was likely to have a little extractor fan inside.

That was it! Though open windows were ubiquitous as well, because heating in flats was on 24/7 in the winter, provided to whole neighbourhoods for a fixed price (like having water with no meter). Never any speckle of mould, no smells. Here I have the same as someone else mentioned, if I don't shut the doors if I'm frying or making soup, or anything is in the slow cooker, even with the extractor hood on full blast, everything upstairs will smell of cooking for hours. Interestingly, the smell doesn't stay in the kitchen or travel to the dining room etc, it always goes straight upstairs!

I just thought, our cooker hood is so loud, when it's on you can't have a conversation with anyone anyway, or listen to the radio etc...People with efficient extractor fans in open plan houses, aren't they loud?

We couldn't put a cooker hood up venting outside, it's not on an outside wall, I got the one where I change two circular carbon filters every three months, and wash the metal net thing every week, it does make a big difference to smells and grease build-up, but filters are expensive and it is loud. Thinking about my friend's Victorian house where they did knock a wall down to make that part of the house open plan, and I never noticed any cooking smells, nor does she have a cooker hood!

Thanks for all the responses. My choice is between the one room open plan kitchen / dinning / living room (with no extra utility, spare lounges etc) or a kitchen and separate lounge with one or other having space for a dining table. I'm now convinced that i need two separate rooms for kitchen and lounge. For me the smell, noise and mess outweigh the social benefits.

We have a kitchen/diner/tv room and although kids have a den and we have another sitting room we rarely use them.

We like being together and I like cooking whilst I can watch the youngest and talk to the oldest 2.

I'd not buy a house where we were all split off in smaller rooms.

I don't want witnesses to what I do in the kitchen.

Kitchen/diner with separate reception rooms is obviously the ideal but if it's a choice between a smallish kitchen + smallish sitting room or one large open plan space I'd go for the two separate rooms.

My choice is between the one room open plan kitchen / dinning / living room (with no extra utility, spare lounges etc) or a kitchen and separate lounge with one or other having space for a dining table. I'm now convinced that i need two separate rooms for kitchen and lounge.

I would rather have a smaller lounge totally separate, and the kitchen being big enough to have a table in.

Because that way you can still be sociable in the kitchen, and also retreat away to a cosy sitting room after dinner.

I must be the only person in the UK that actually likes a relatively small(by today's standards) kitchen.

I have my radio, my cookbooks, and peace - it's meditative. I do not want constant harrassment when I'm cooking most day or even with guests.

I like to come out and away from the fumes, mess and steam when I'm finished.

I do not associate a small kitchen with a woman chained to the kitchen sink with no company; I thrive in this environment tbh.

I too hate the whole open plan living, even something as simple as boiling the kettle for a cup of tea and you need to turn up the TV, it is so annoying.

I realise my first post was a bit boastful... sorry, OP.

Our first place together was tiny weeny new build flat, two minute bedrooms, one with en suite, and then a living/dining/kitchen. We really didn't like it - the fan in the oven was really noisy, as was the washing machine, and the living room bit was only wide enough for one sofa. Then we had a new build terrace, with a largish kitchen, with room for a table, and a separate living room - but the living room was a really weird shape with four doors off it, it felt like a huge hallway. Now we're in semi on three floors, with the kitchen/diner downstairs and the living room above it. The kitchen/diner is cramped and just not a very nice space, but having the lounge on a different floor is a right pain in the neck, especially with a baby - I'm constantly carrying him up and down the stairs and the kitchen isn't very baby friendly. I can't wait for a large nice kitchen on the same floor as a separate living room.

I LOVE my open plan kitchen/dining/living room. It makes the place look bigger and brighter.

I really like the fact I can talk to people when I'm cooking etc and not holed up elsewhere away from them.

We have been intermittently looking at moving and have been drawn to places with open living spaces.

Referring to your points in your OP..

Cooking smells - have never once thought of this, least of all being an issue. My previous place was separate rooms and could smell cooking coming from the kitchen?

Looking at your fridge/sink when relaxing on your sofa - again have never actually registered this, esp that it could be an issue? I can't say I've been unable to relax on my sofa because I'm looking at the fridge or sink?!

In relation to other people's comments about noise, my washing machine is in another room so no concerns there. The dishwasher isn't very noisy. We recently bought a new fridge which was definitely louder than our last one but I don't hear it anymore. New kettle that is loud! But that only really causes issues when trying to speak to the person making the tea!

I guess it's what you're used to, I love it.