To Think That Open Plan Living Is Just a Fashion of The Moment

[Lazypeopledrivemecrazy]

Me and my DH have recently moved house, and the plan for the place we chose was to integrate the kitchen, dining room, and living room. However, now that we've settled in, and begun getting prices for the work, I'm getting a bit worried that all this open plan living, is just a bit of a fad that will go out of fashion in a few more years, and then we'll all want all the walls that we knocked down put up again. Thoughts please people.

If you've got young kids an open plan kitchen diner is fab when you have a separate living room. When kids get to around 11+ they start to want own relaxation space. IME I still have a big open kitchen diner, snug but also a separate living room. The older kids get the more you want walls!

This. We have a big kitchen diner but we also have two sitting rooms, one of which is the 'playroom'. The teenagers entertain their friends in the playroom and we can be out of their way in the kitchen or sitting room (or vice versa if I have friends over). Kids only want to be in the same room as you when they are preschool and once they are older they want their own space. I'd rather they entertained their friends downstairs and the bedrooms remained private.

I would only consider trends if you were considering selling soon.

You will get varying views from people, a mix of genuine and those trying to justify their choices or lack of.

My experience, FWIW, and perhaps totally irrelevant to your lifestyle:
We have an open plan area with kitchen, dining table and living area. Lovely views of the garden from all three areas.
The kitchen is very well designed such that sink is out of the line of sight and there is tonnes of storage, so no issues about mess.
Our teens seem to like spending time with us and we with them so this set up suits us well. Having said that, we have a separate living room, studies, utility and laundry room.

I wouldn’t buy a house with open plan layout. We’ve stayed in lovely open plan houses on holidays, but not being able to separate out dishwasher noise and cooking mess is not for us. I like the sanctuary of a quiet tidy lounge to relax in.

It’s possible to have both

No idea if it's fashion of the moment or here to stay, but I am 50 and dreamed of one since I was 20.
I love our open plan space as it allows a bigger space to socialize, for our family time, no segregation of roles. However, we also have a separate utility and another reception room to watch tv.

@noworklifebalance , the open plan + a separate snug/living room (+utility room etc ) is not the one OP had in mind.

@user1471523870 , as my pp. the open plan OP had in mind was not "However, we also have a separate utility and another reception room to watch tv."

I feel one sounds great and the other one sounds awful.

It’s lasted for a long time. I like the look of some, but much prefer a separate kitchen.
As much as I enjoy the smell of a lovely aromatic dinner, I don’t want it lingering on my sofa or in the living room.

My house I've lived in for 20+ years is open plan. We didn't plan it that way, we were just pleased to find a house we could afford. I'm quite pleased if I'm currently fashionable though! 😀It was useful being able to see the kids from the kitchen when they were little and we've got enough rooms we can all be on our own if we want.

We have a big open plan room and I haven’t noticed the cooking smells issue at all. I’m not sure if I am noseblind or we just have a really good extractor fan? Perhaps it helps that our room is in a L shape and the sitting area is round the corner from the kitchen.

I think it depends on the home. We knocked down a wall to make our kitchen/dining/living space open plan. I would have just had an open plan kitchen diner if my house was larger, but it's a standard 3 bed detached home and open plan living makes our kitchen feel larger. I think open plan living is great for couples that are planning to have children or have a young family. I can see how it isn't great for families with teenagers in the house! We don't plan to stay in our home that long.

Ultimately, I think there will always be a desire for open plan living in smaller homes. You should do whatever suits your lifestyle or budget.

Oh, and we put our washing machine in the downstairs loo. I wouldn't have wanted a washing machine in the main living area. We set the dishwasher off at night to avoid the noise.

This. Totally agree. I think it works ok in large houses with loads of space, but the street I'm on, they're trying to make all the 2 bed terraces open plan and it just doesn't work- they're too small. I certainly don't want to have my kitchen bin and washing machine prscticslly in my living room with me when I'm relaxing.
I like to close the door on my non perfect kitchen thank you!

I like a big kitchen diner rather than a dining room but I need to have a separate living room to cosy up in at night.

I’d hate open plan. My sofa would stink of garlic.

We have a sitting room at the front of the house, then a large open plan area at the back. It looks great, people are impressed when they see it and it is the hub of the home but it annoys me. If now teenage DS is watching something in the front room, ill sit down to watch TV in open room and as soon as I do he comes in to boil the kettle or use the microwave and it drives me crazy. We often argue about who gets the TV in the front room. Also you have to censor what you watch as little people wander in. My sister has an door wall or whatever they are called so it's open plan for during the day and closed off for evening. I'd love that. I don't think its just a fad but I think architects, especially TV ones are overly obsessed with it.

My DPs pulled down walls in the early 90s for the same purpose, and further extended the room in late 90s. They are still there and still use the room that way.

I had DGPs who had put a folding divider between 2 reception rooms rather than the double door already there, which was always folded back. They actually removed the doors totally in the early 2000s, and DAunt who still lives there has no thoughts of making that room back into 2 rooms again.

We left our doors between kitchen/diner and sitting room, but extended out the back almost 20 years ago for a larger open plan room and still love that.

Does that help?

Agreed. Kitchens need a door or there needs to be at least a separate sitting room.

IMHO open plan only works if the space is huge. We're currently renovating a house and until upstairs is finished we are sleeping living etc on the bottom floor and have a temporary kitchen in living room until new kitchen is done, I can't stand it! Separate kitchen/diner and living areas are under rated.

When I lived in a house with a completely open plan downstairs, if I WFH, that room was my office, living room, kitchen, dining room and utility room.

I like open plan in moderation. We have an open plan kitchen diner, with a sofa in there too as I like to chat while I’m preparing food – which I do a lot! But our two other reception rooms are separate, which I love so I can get some solitude from house full of kids and DH. we viewed a house with an entirely open plan downstairs, andI realised my kitchen would have to be spotless all the time to have it looking decent (it hardly ever is). If one area is a mess then it all is.

Camp 2 here!

I like how it looks (and we've ended up with an open plan) but I HATE the smell of food in the living room and I'm looking for a place now with a separate kitchen. I can't imagine that it will go out of fashion. I think a lot of new developments have their houses like this because I'm sure they're cheaper to build and look bigger and more spacious even though they're actually quite small.

Literally everything about interior design is 'a fashion of the moment' - that's just how things are. At some point in the future, people absolutely will start buying open plan houses and putting dividing walls in them, just like people now replace the period features that previous generations ripped out of their Victorian houses in the 1950s and tear down the conservatories that were put up in the 1980s.

The important thing is that your house works for you and suits your tastes and lifestyle. There's no point living in a home that you don't like just because of some vague worry about what its value will be in years to come.