To ask if anyone actually likes open plan living?

[Thesystemonlydreamsintotaldarkness]

I love property porn. Always looking at big fancy houses well out of my budget.

I’ve noticed that there is a lot of open plan living out there! I think it would be horrible: a kitchen/diner with a bit for sitting, and a separate living room. Fine. But completely open plan?! Gives me the horrors! How do you escape the noise? What about privacy?

I love it. I hate pokey little rooms

Not for me, we have mostly separate rooms (although our kitchen does have room for a dining and seating area then additional separate reception rooms which is best of both I think).

Open plan works great with young kids but less so with older kids.

It's different if it's a sprawling American style house though like on those property porn sites, most UK homes are just too small to pull off open plan well.

We loved it when DSs were small. They could play, I could be in the kitchen and keep an eye on them. We’re still fairly open plan now…no problem at all, I like the space and being around the family. Anyone needs their own space then they’ve got bedrooms (or the study).

I'm in NZ, it's all open living here. A closed off kitchen is pretty much unheard of now (although I can see the bonus of being able to close it off, now that I have a toddler ans it's always a mess).

Its horses for courses......we have a kitchen / small dining/sitting area then a separate lounge.....but when all the children and grandchildren and my mum are here, I would like to be able to open it all up..

It's lovely but I can't stand being around too much mess and I'm not naturally tidy nor is DH. So I like being able to close the door on the other rooms sometimes!

Why do you need privacy in the kitchen? From who?

Loved it with small kids and tweens. With older teenagers we prefer lots of doors so everyone can escape from each other if needed. Open plan offers no privacy

Horrible. Food smells in the living room, sound of pots banging when you’re trying to watch TV, little kids running in and out as you’re dishing up, that feeling of spending all your time in one space! I hated it and now insist upon a separate living and kitchen/diner area

What is your AIBU OP? I dont know how to vote.
I like open plan living.

I love our big open plan kitchen which has a big table and lots of seating at that table, island and a sofa.

But I couldn’t have just that, you need other separate ground floor living spaces too.

This is exactly what I thought it would be like, and why I would never buy open plan.

We once booked a self catering cottage that was open plan. When I sat on the sofa, a waft of stale cooking enveloped me.

I really don’t like it either. I can’t imagine watching tv with the noise of the tumble dryer, washing machine and steam from cooking. I like all of my rooms separate.

I hate it. It would send me mental having the sounds of cooking in my living space, and feeling like there's no privacy would unsettle me.

I like it. I enjoy cooking and I prefer being connected to my family while I do so.

We love it. Open plan kitchen/dining/snug so dinner can be made/cleared away with us all in sane area. We also have a separate living area with sliding glass doors so we could sit separately at night if we wanted to. I wouldn't like it if there was no separate living room though.

My dream house would have:

• Big open plan kitchen diner. We have the kitchen mostly running along one wall with a big table running most of the length and I love it. Means when you’re cooking you can still interact.
• a separate utility with space for gadgets like breadmaker to reduce clutter in kitchen. Also space for washing my archive so it’s not making noise in the kitchen.
• a separate living area with tv
• a separate playroom for DC that I can close the door of and ignore the clutter.

I’m not keen on my open plan kitchen/living room. I can’t hear the radio or TV if the dishwasher or washing machine is running. Plus I’m constantly aware of the things that need washing up. I live alone now but when my ex was around the sound of pots and pans drove me bonkers. My ideal home would have an open plan kitchen/diner and separate living room.

I hate the noise
I like being able to
Close doors on mess
I like having more than one room

I was in a house recently that was all open plan in like a U shape but there were pocket doors so it could be split into 3 rooms. I really liked that idea. We put our playroom upstairs once kids old enough to be mostly unsupervised because I need quiet sometimes especially when attempting to cook.

Love it. Pouring drink while still chatting to peoples in living area, not missing tv etc.

I like the pocket door idea for ultra big spaces though!

I have washingachine not in the kitchen. Still can't get over them being there so moved it,😂

That seems to be the way it's going now. Had an architect round recently to get ideas for an extension and all his plans included open plan kitchen/diner/livingroom. It's not for me though. I like the kitchen to myself, kids and dogs are a flipping hazard. Also if I cba cleaning up after a late dinner I don't want to see it until morning.

The children (late teenagers) have their own bedrooms upstairs so there is no need for separate rooms downstairs for privacy. They come downstairs when they want food and socialising with the rest of the family.

A open plan kitchen diner is great. It is not as convenient for them being in separate rooms as it will be a trek for serving food. Most of our time as a family is spent in the kitchen diner. I dislike islands in kitchens because they get in the way when I am cooking so I prefer the table bit of it to be within easy reach but in a different space.

Fine if the living room is also connected but that is not so vital. In our house, all 3 are interconnected but slightly partitioned - difficult to explain. You can run rings around all 3 rooms which is the best of all worlds IMO

I love our kitchen diner but also love our dc being in the separate living room while I cook or if we have friends over. We’re a family of 5 and dc are 11-15 so need space from each other. Open plan feels like we’d all be forced to watch whatever nonsense dtds want whereas I can play music and she can watch tv etc in different rooms.