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?

No, I don't like it either.

Sitting feet away from all the cooking smells, and the fan oven still whirring? While I want to watch a bit of Netflix? Nope.

@CakeyCakeyCakeCake

........so you don't live in an open plan house then

so you don't live in an open plan house then

Or in the UK from the sound of things. Pool area!!!!

My house was built well before Walt was born

We could live in a house with a big kitchen - enough space for a big table but not the 1960’s warren we initially bought - that I transformed into open planned heaven or hell depending on your preference, I really don’t like eating in a separate room to the kitchen - eating in another room is too much effort to do something I really value and that’s eating at the table with my family. You want to make something happen - you relive the obstacles or the walls in my case

Not for me. I dont want to be trying to hear the TV over the noise of the dishwasher/washing machine/tumble dryer/kitchen extractor. I like cosy.

I'd hate it. When we extended our house we made a big kitchen that has enough room for a table and sofa area but we also have a seperate large lounge. We have teenagers and they are forever in and out of the kitchen so when DH and I are relaxing in the evening we sit in the lounge and the kitchen is free for them to make snacks and they can watch tv in there too in the sofa area. Best of both worlds. If my house was smaller I'd still prefer seperate rooms.

Hated it when we lived in an open plan house.

DC were young, 7 and 2, so there where toys everywhere, you couldn't hear the TV, or hold a conversation in the lounge if the washing machine was on,there was no where to go to make a phone call, work on the PC etc.

Far prefer my current house with its standard kitchen, lounge, dining room and conservatory layout

I wouldn’t want open plan without a separate utility room, with a door. My dishwasher is very quiet and my extractor fan is very powerful so lingering odours are not a problem. The fan is only noisy for a few minutes.

We also have a separate more formal sitting room, used less.

Privacy from who exactly?

I wasn’t one for open plan as a child/teen, wanted my own walls to keep everyone out.

At some point between then and motherhood, I’m happy for bedrooms to be the private space.

Currently at age 6-9 all my children gravitate towards me. Whichever room I’m in, they are in too, so you can see why pokey is a problem.

We’re currently having the downstairs knocked through to include the Kitchen/dining table/lounge - I’m thinking that as they get older we can still be together in one space.

Admittedly we do still have a separate study and TV room for when friends visit.

I'm not sure there's anyone on here who is arguing against a kitchen diner. I have one and my parents had one in the 70s (or rather there was an arch between the kitchen and dining room, how very 70s). It's hardly radical and it's not open plan (I grew up in the countryside and most people ate in the kitchen and didn't have a dining room). It's having your kitchen, utility room, dining room and single sitting room all in one room that we don't like because of the noise and mess.

No. We have a big kitchen/ diner with tv, sofa etc but it’s lovely having a separate living room. I think that’s the best of both worlds. In our old house the kitchen and diner were separate and that felt too small and separate.

But I couldn’t have all open plan, I’m an introvert and like my quiet/ space.

I love it.

We have a big kitchen dining sitting room looking onto the garden. The whole family is in it 90% of the time. We all like the company. If the kids want to watch TV they use their tablets and headphones. If anyone wants full quiet they go upstairs.

We do have a separate sitting room. It never gets used! Could live perfectly well without it tbh.

We also have a separate tiny laundry room which I’d say is a must for open plan.

The house I grew up in has a big kitchen with a dining table and sitting area, and a separate dining room and separate sitting room. As far as I remember, basically nobody ever used the dining room or sitting room, aside from if there were so many guests they wouldn't fit around the kitchen table. Even now if 3 generations are in the house, everyone is in the kitchen, and if the kids want some privacy they just go upstairs.

My current home is totally open plan other than bedrooms and bathrooms and a tiny utility room. Can't imagine it any other way - more rooms just feels cluttered and a bit of a faff.

There seem to be a few interpretations of what "Open Plan" means.

We're on our second 'open plan' house and total enthusiasts. The first house was an early 80's Scandinavian designed house. No doors, or door frames, just big openings between clearly defined areas. Our current house is the same but a custom new build. In both cases from the sofa, I can see into the kitchen area, but can't actually see the sink, the flow of the design is carefully though about. Both houses have utility rooms for washing machines/tumble dryers, for both we bought expensive 'silent' dishwashers, so no noise problems. There is no problem with food smells, as we have efficient extraction, but also I'm not sure I'd want to cook and eat anything I didn't like the smell of.

If 'open plan' means taking a 3 bed semi, knocking all the downstairs walls out, and 'sitting in the kitchen' as part ofone big ill-defined rectangle, that would be totally different, and I can see people would not like it. But properly designed and thought about it provides light, airy, open and flexible living, and I'd never go back to "rooms" with halls and doors

100% agree with this.

I wonder if it depends on your family. I've noticed DH's family and my family behave very differently when they come to visit. My family spread out and use all the rooms in the house so e.g. DBro will play a board game with DS in the playroom while DSis cooks with me in the kitchen but DHs family move around the house en masse and are all in the same room all the time (it can be quite annoying when they invade my kitchen when I'm cooking!). They do the same in MIL's house (lovely big house with 3 reception rooms and a breakfasting kitchen so it's not like they didn't grown up with the space). It's quite bizarre the difference. My kids are like my family and spread themselves around doing their own thing.

Was thinking this about food smells too - it’s a good smell in our house, something that excites everyone rather than revolts them.

It smells nice in the moment but seeps into fabric sofas and after a few days smells stale and unclean.

But that’s your interpretation - my open plan is kitchen dining living - we have a separate room for utility, a sitting room and an office, everyone has their own bedroom. Dining kitchen can still be a struggle to find. Anyway it matters not we all chose homes the way we like them - small rooms I am not a big fan of - but I don’t have to buy them so it doesn’t really matter.
Designing your house to suit the next owner is total misery, what a limiting way to live your life.

How smelly is your food? Where I live almost all the houses are open plan and they don't smell of food. The only smell I've ever noticed is if someone has a dog, which I'm guessing would be even worse in small enclosed spaces

Fair enough - not something that we either notice or care about.

@Moonicorn is your kitchen quite far away from your living room - in M y parent's house the kitchen and living room were separated by a door - the smells would find their way into the living room as the door was often pen, are you obsessively shutting doors?

Kirsty & Phil’s interpretation is from @Snoreboar ’s version to having everything in one room.

When DD2 makes herself an omelette for breakfast it's pretty smelly even though I like egg. And there's regularly threads about people being pissed off at workmates having a smelly lunch. Or pregnant women struggling with the smell of certain foods. It's a pretty common phenomenon.