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?

put

I do, although I live in a housing association flat so I didn't have the luxury of choice anyway!

I have a large open plan living/dining/kitchen. There's only me and DS, it was great when he was younger, I could cook and do washing etc while still being able to keep an eye on him. We have our bedrooms for privacy.

know that most people on mumsnet are British and carpet is "a thing" but does anybody really still have carpet in their living area? It's not the 80s.

Yes! I am about to buy another one. 😂

I hate open plan. It's only genuinely useful when your DC are 4 and under when you need to be able to see them.

We are lucky big kitchen diner with TV seating, larder, utility, playroom, office and lounge. I love having these separate spaces, particularly as my DC are getting older - 11 and 8. Everyone needs their own space - downstairs as well as upstairs

The dream is to have both: open plan kitchen diner with some seating so everyone can hang out/kids can play while I cook, etc, but then have separate components:

Utility
Sitting room
Formal dining room

So basically open-plan plus all the components of a traditional house. This is what my parents have and it’s ideal: boiler and washing machine and microwave are away in the utility, kitchen is more usable and tidy and looks out into dining table then garden, then to the side a seating area onto the garden. Then after dinner everyone buggers off to the other sitting room, so no noise from dishwasher or view of kitchen (however pristine). Plus the dining room for Christmas/dinner parties/using a laptop/dumping piles of clutter so everything else remains pristinely minimalist grin

What I can’t get over with fully open-plan is ending up with the TV in the kitchen, which I hate.

We have carpets and rugs on top of them, I don't like wooden floors especially modern fake ones but we have no children to mess them up anyway.

boiling water tap

Does everyone on Mumsnet live in a mansion?

We have a kitchen/utility (not big enough for a table but plenty big enough cooking, laundry, baking etc), an L shaped dining/living room and an unheated conservatory. Plus 2 double bedrooms and a single bedroom. Bathroom obviously.

And yes, we have lovely warm carpets....

Of the 7 houses we lived in... 5 have had living/dining rooms. 2 have had 3 separate rooms.

We have one of those boiling water taps but they aren't good for tea so DH uses the kettle for that

I'm 50/50, the people who had our house before us opened up the entire downstairs, so the hallway, living room, dining room and kitchen are 1, the stairs are open too. We have 2 young children and a toddler, I like that we are all together, but I hate the mess. We have a conservatory we can close that is a playroom and a porch, but when people come round there's no hiding the laundry, untidy kitchen or toys out everywhere. We are looking to move to a much bigger house, I still want a large open plan kitchen where we can sit, eat, hangout, but I want at leat 2 separate reception rooms and a utility room. I want a living room that I can sit in that is tidy and I can close the door, plus another room my kids can have as a playroom now, then eventually somewhere they can go that isn't in our space (without sitting in their bedrooms). I think it works OK ish with young kids (although we rely on gates to keep our toddler safe) but I know we need separate rooms as our children grow up.

Love them. Planning to build an extension in our new house for one.

I used to hate them but I now like the idea of everyone in one room, rather than one person away in the kitchen, everyone comes to eat and then disappears after. I find it actually brings everyone together.

I also really value it now I have a toddler and want to be able to keep an eye on him whilst I’m in the kitchen.

That said, I think it only really works if you have more than one living area.

Me.

I hate shut off rooms, the house looks so small and it's claustrophobic.

We renovated recently and opened up our kitchen/lounge area and it feels so much nicer not being all shut in, also good when people are over to not be all forced in either one room or feeling excluded when cooking etc.

I would t calla kitchen/diner open plan (or a lounge diner). To me, open plan means kitchen/diner/lounge all in one room - and I hate it! It’s not just the noise and lack of privacy, it’s the lack of walls. I have lots of books and like walls to put my bookshelves up against, and sideboards too. I also like space to hang pictures and to theme areas. If I imagine my house with all walls downstairs gone, it would look weird - no sections, furniture in the middle of nowhere with backs on show, or pushed against walls. It’s also harder to get that cosy feel.

My ideal house would have a separate lounge and dining room, along with a kitchen large enough to eat in for breakfast and every day meals, plus a utility/laundry room.

I could sacrifice the separate dining room, but I wouldn’t like it all to be open plan. I think it looks smaller too (unless you have a bloody great mansion, of course!)

We had it in our last house. Really good when kids are small as can keep an eye/ear out wherever you are downstairs, great for parties etc.
Now we have a kitchen diner & separate reception but the k/d isn’t really big enough. This does work better w teens with two separate living spaces - the kitchen area is just about big enough to contain a teen party esp as it leads straight on to the patio.
ideally I’d have a big k/d which could incorporate a sofa/tv (our does but it’s a squash) , separate through reception w dining room for special occasions.
Separate utility w all the humph - w/m, t/d, extra cupboards for cleaning stuff that doesn’t need to be in the kitchen.

I wasn't very open plan in the house my kids grew up in. When they were small I would've liked it. But when they get older and were gaming and having groups of friends round having separate sitting rooms was much much better. Otherwise I'd have ended up seeking refuge in my bedroom.

I like a bit of peace when I watch TV, I wouldn't want older DC in the same room yakking away

Totally agree, I really hate open plan

My parents have a large house but the kitchen diner is separate from the snug and living room so whoever is cooking is separated from the rest of the family.

The ideal, as PPs have said, is to have a separate lounge, study and utility.
Large sink in the kitchen to fill with washing up so you are not looking at it (or stick it in the dishwasher).
Hob on a run, near window, rather than on an island/ peninsular to limit spread of smells.
If there is space, then sliding/folding doors to close off areas if you wanted to

We've got a big open plan kitchen/diner/living room with bifolds to the garden. It's wonderful. The hub of the house when people visit. But we really love our proper formal living room too. Also got a formal dining room which to be honest is never used. Last time was Christmas

I would hate to have everything open plan as I don't want to be around other people all the time. I like having the peace and quiet of separate rooms.

How are you meant to work if you are in the same room when the kids are playing, the TV is on, the washing machine is on, etc. It would drive me bonkers.

We hae a very large open plan living space with folding dooors on to the garden. We love it especially in the summer. We also have a seperate living room so if somebody wants to get away from it all they can.

I dont think I would like it so much if we didnt have the extra space.

Nobody I know has their washing machine in their kitchen and you work in the office.

But open plan does not mean all of your downstairs walls are gone! We have open plan but also have a separate hallway off the main room which leads to, for example, the utility room, the downstairs loo, storage cupboards, etc. The stairs are not on full display. Good zoning can also fix a lot of this. If you have your furniture shoved up against all of the walls then yes, you will feel like you have no walls and the spaces will feel awful and mushed up. Furniture that’s toward the walls and break up the space a bit. Distinctly zoned areas will make each part feel much cozier and separate from the others.

Surely books can go in the library/office in addition to the living area? And why can you not have art and books in the living area?

My theory is that people hate open plan because they have mainly seen open plan done badly in houses that are too small for it and were not built that way originally. Done right, it is zoned well and provides lots of other separate areas in the house. We have open plan but also have a big hallway off of the space where we have a cupboards, a downstairs loo, a big utility room, a storage room, etc. We have a play room for toys and and office/library for books and workspace. We have an annex if people want to escape to a different living area. These kinds of spaces are important to keep so that the open space doesn’t feel stifling.

@clarrylove boiling water tap

We have a small kitchen with just enough room for a small table. Our neighbour with the same house opened it up to the living/dining room.

Our kitchen is much easier to keep warm then his and same with the living area.