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 don’t know actually. We are currently lucky to have best of both with a kitchen/diner with seating and tv and a separate living room. But if I had to choose strictly one or the other I think I’d go open plan. When I was on maternity leave I basically spent my whole time in the kitchen with my daughter. Now I’m back at work it’s where we hang out after nursery before bedtime usually one of us plays with DD while the other is making dinner.

It is good to go into the living room in the evening or when we have guests and it’s always tidy (ish - it is of course over run with toys now too) - but now that I’m used to the kitchen diner being such a multi purpose family space, I would hate to have a totally separate kitchen where whoever is cooking/washing up is completely separate from everyone else.

I like to shut myself away to cook and listen to my audiobook or listen to music. I can shut the door and my DH can watch TV in peace in another room. Cooking can be noisy. I can then sit down in the dining room and eat with no TV and no mess to look at.

i need rooms.

I love cooking. Closing myself off in the kitchen with my music on is heaven. I hated open plan

i loved my parents home. they had the kitchen with a semi island/worktop across the middle seperating into a living loungish bit. this had a sofa and the dining table. it also had a seperate lounge though. best of both worlds.

I love open-plan.

i really dont like the thought that the lovely victorian and other styles will lose their rooms and all be changed and opened up.

I love open plan - we have large kitchen/dining/living room with lots of natural light and another living room and the living room gets very little use...even when the kids come back from uni. I hate little rooms, they make me feel a bit claustrophobic.

I love it. Everyone together when cooking, I can watch tv too when cooking. Ours is about 11x5 metres so plenty of room so not all squished in. We have a second separate lounge too which is good for sloping off if the kids are watching rubbish telly or if I / we have friends over

I need doors for when we burn toast and the smoke alarm goes off!
And seriously, no, I have kitchen, dining room and lounge plus tiny entrance area downstairs and I love it. Small and cosy and can close doors on kitchen noises if I'm trying to hear the telly. Plus, somewhere to shut animals in if necessary.

Those pictures of open plan living just don't look homely to me.

I couldn't stand open plan. For a start , I live in Scotland in a draughty house. I need doors closed to keep the rooms warm. I even have industrial door closers because nobody in this house is seemingly capable of shitting a door behind them. I got fed up shouting "DOOR" at them.

Then there is the mess. My kitchen can be carnage at times. I want to shut the door on the carnage and not have to look at it till its dealt with. Certainly don't want to sit and chill amongst it.
And cooking smells, I want them in the kitchen , not in the area I am sitting watching telly.
I also need doors to shut on mess if somebody is popping into the house. My lot leave things at their arse, I need at least one tidy room to invite people into and I want to shut doors on the rest of the hellishness.

I don’t like it all open plan either

I prefer dining table in kitchen and living room separate

I prefer separate rooms but an open plan kitchen with a sofa too would be nice. However for me it would only work with a utility room for noisy appliances like the washing machine.

We have a large open plan room plus a snug if we want to be more cosy (or if the kids want to play on the PlayStation). Perfect combo.

I only have a flat but love open plan living, I have done my best to open up the flat. I've removed the doorway completely between the kitchen and living area so that it runs together, washing machine/tumble dryer is in a separate utility room though, so they can be shut off.

I hate closed, pokey areas, makes me feel hemmed in. I seldom close doors except for the front door, I even sleep with the bedroom door open. I don't want to be shut in as though I'm in a prison cell! (Nor do I shut curtains for that matter, for the very same reasons).

I can't understand the British obsession with dividing up lovely, light airy living spaces into small, dark boxes.....and don't even get me started on "the corridor" !!

My friend has an open plan flat, and I hate it. All the smells and steam from cooking whilst someone else is trying to relax in the lounge area. The noise from the washing machine and dishwasher whilst trying to watch tv. Having to immediately clean the kitchen after dinner, instead of being able to shut the door on it for an hour or two first.

Each to their own but it’s not for me.

These trends tend to come and go. Give it a few years and everyone will probably be building walls again to divide up their open plan areas.

I don't like open plan, we have a large kitchen and two separate reception rooms, I wouldn't like it to be all one room

Huge difference between having a huge open plan space for cooking/dining/sitting with a separate hallway, snug, utility and everyone also having their own bedrooms and having a big room you step into off the street with all your stuff in - your tv and pc, your clothes horse and washing machine, your muddy dog and it’s food and it’s bed and your kids toys which don’t all fit in their shared bedroom. If you can afford the former then the equivalent isn’t going to be “pokey little rooms”. I like the former but can’t afford it and I have decent sized separate rooms with a utility for laundry, and a kitchen big enough for a table. I don’t mind cooking smells so that wouldn’t bother me. I am glad I don’t have to dry laundry in my main living space. I like that I can have my tv/audible/podcasts on when I am cooking without disturbing everyone (with noise and content).

A new estate near me has open plan - nowhere to keep anything and no privacy (only place for the table is against the wall of the loo) - (avant homes)

Not all separate rooms are small boxes, maybe they are on a small house but not all houses with separate kitchens are small

I think it’s on the way out due to more wfh. All the 20 somethings i work with who are looking to buy absolutely detest open plan. They’ve had enough of trying to work in shared space at home and are looking for places with doors.

Like a few others, I’m keen to extend my kitchen to have a much bigger space and to probably have a kitchen-diner but that is as far as it goes. I’ll always want a separate living room, office etc.

How do you boil a kettle without drowning out the noise of the TV?

We have an open plan kitchen, sitting room space (no tv) and dining area in an L shape. This works for us during the day especially with a toddler who i can check up on while cooking.

We do also have the luxury of a separate sitting room (with the tv) and downstairs office.

If it was all open plan it would drive me mad!

And when I used to have an open plan flat, the space was nice but it used to drive me mad having the washing machine on while watching tv or seeing the dirty dishes while sat on the sofa.

I think open plan suits some lifestyles, climates, families and properties.
Divided rooms also suit some. Heating is also a big issue.

I enjoyed open plan living in the tropics, traditional style meant no real division between outside an inside anyway, kitchen, lounge area meandered into the garden and beyond, the only private rooms were bedroom and toilet.
In this country I love a snug, a den to escape, an open fire or heating pumped up high without having to heat the whole house to such a level.
I am in Scotland - doors are our friends, to contain and maintain heat. We don't entertain much.
If I am settled on the sofa in the evening, I want the heating to be higher in that space, without having to also heat the kitchen or dining area.
No point in heating the kitchen to the same level if I am only visiting once or twice to get a cuppa in the space of an evening.

Size of house is quite relevant though, a lot of very open plan houses are small so rooms would be poky if separate