Open plan living / dining / kitchen - or divided?

[Mandy21]

Sorry for all the questions today, just got drawings through for proposed extension and questioning whether we're doing the right thing.

We have a 3 bed semi and plan to do a wraparound extension on the ground floor - will have separate lounge at the front of the house (15' square) and then proposal at the mo is the have large kitchen / dining / family space at the back of the house - overall dimensions will be around 27.5' x 22'. Idea is that there will be a seating/TV watching area (probably with some toy cupboards!) then dining table and chairs, and kitchen with island (and stools). Will have a separate downstairs loo and utility room.

My mother says we'll regret going completely open plan and should try to incorporate another room somehow as a playroom / TV watching room (we have 3 children aged 7 and under). They'd all have separate bedrooms, and they tend at the moment to want to be where we are - hence the plan to have such a large living space. We'd have the separate lounge anyway.

Has anyone any advice? I think if we did try to divide it off, the living space wouldn't work as well and would undermine why we're doing it (ie so we can all be together rather than currently, where I can't see the children if I'm cooking / faffing in the kitchen).

Any comments welcome!

kitchen needs to be separate imo, I don't want to see the mess and hear washingmashine and dishwasher running when watching tv...

I think if you have a seperate living room then this arrangement will be fine

personally I don't like completely open plan -cooking smells everywhere! and it is nice to be able to close the door on the toys but a good size family space is fantastic when you are cooking/doing homework/ playing all at the same time

problems with an open plan kitchen/living room.

1. everything you cook makes the living room smell, so a pain if you like curry. You can't dry your laundry on the radiators without your pants smelling like bacon butties.
2. you can on ly put the washing machine/dishwasher on when no one is in the front room. There is always someone in the front room.
3. it's depressing to see dirty dishes when you are trying to chill out.

open plan seems to be fashionable, but I would always prefer separate.

I prefer separate. Second what other posters have said about kitchen smells/noise and also open plan is much harder/more expensive to heat.

Assuming it's you standard 30s semi layout, could you leave up the current wall between kitchen and rear reception room? Your new room would still be open but the seating area (if in what is now current reception area) would be separated slightly but still part of overall room? I'm not sure I like these really huge open rooms at the back. See too many on 'May the best house win' and they look as though they'd be a nightmare to keep tidy. Also, think about where your radiators might go if you have fewer walls.

My mum has a strange aversion to open-plan living rooms. I wonder if something traumatic happened to them all in the 1960s/70s (shag-pile carpet, maybe). It sounds like open plan would work perfectly for you, given the separate sitting room and the way you'd use it.

There's no harm in future-proofing though - I can see a separate TV room being useful with teenagers. Could you perhaps incorporate the possibility of future division into the design? Ie if what you're having is an L-shaped living space, make sure a suitable "room-sized" chunk of it has two nice clean opposite walls with no radiators or windows on and then you would only have to put up a stud wall to create a new TV room. Or build a bit of wall there now and put in a wide square opening with permanently open folding doors which could be closed if need be?

Washing machine would be in utility so not an issue, but I guess we'd have to get a quiet dishwasher!

Heating might be an issue - I'm always cold! Thank you for your replies so far....!

We have an open plan downstairs (in a 3 bed semi) and I hate it with a passion! You can't get away from kitchen noise (extractor fans, washing machines) and smells, tv and radio noises compete, and there's nowhere to get away from children and mess and enjoy peace and quiet!

We have a similar set up - kitchen/diner/living room/playroom in one - and I love it; it works really well for family living. We knocked 4 small rooms into one and don't regret it for a second. Yes it can get fairly chaotic but with young children it does mean that you can all be in the same room doing different things but keeping an eye on the little ones. We have a lot of storage so everything can go away if it needs to (and we do tend to keep it tidy which really helps). I also have a separate living room for "grown up/quiet time" space in to which we can escape if need be - but we hardly use it at all.

As its such a big room, I don't find the kitchen smells too bad and regularly dry washing in that room too (but I am also a bit of a crazy window opener so that probably helps). As you have a utility room - you could do all your washing/drying in there anyway.

I think if you have a separate lounge and utility it will work well, as long as you can incorporate lots of built in storage for toys. The lounge will be somewhere to escape if needed. And you will still have 2 separate living areas when the kids are older and want their own space.

I hate that our current large kitchen (with smallish breakfast table) is separate from our dining room/living room/playroom - it's so anti-social. And I don't really understand the problem with cooking smells. I love cooking and love the smell of my cooking! My washing is hidden away in the utility, it's only when we cook steak about once a month that the smell lingers (and that's cos DH has his cooked to resemble leather!) Good quality modern dishwashers are very quiet, as are modern extractors.

We're going to completely change our layout to create a separate lounge, big open plan kitchen/diner/family/TV room, separate playroom & separate utility.

Good luck with the plans.

Yes you do need one separate living space downstairs as with young children that can be their play room with a stair gate on if you need to keep them out of the kitchen but a big open plan family dining/living space alongside it will be a huge selling point and you will enjoy using it yourself.

Definitely do it.

We have open space kitchen, dining, living and a separate small lounge. Works well for us. Washing machine is in utility so that's not an issue, we've got a good extractor and i love not being shut away in the kitchen.

We have similar - big L-shape kitchen into dining room into playroom, and separate front room.

We do not have tv in the big room. This is deliberate. The intention is to keep the back as play/commune/homework space, and front room as tv/chillout space.

Washing machine and tumble are not in kitchen though (have utility) so noise only from dishwasher (typically at night) and extractor whilst cooking.

We are in the process of doing exactly this - L shaped kitchen (with island) dining area and family room. Have separate (albeit tiny) utility and a large shut off sitting room at the front. We are living in a static whilst the work is being done and I am finding the experience of open plan living (in a teeny, tiny space) is lovely. I am no longer hidden in the kitchen if everyone is watching TV and it is just so much more "together-y". Love it and looking forward to more of it.. ANd if nothing else at least we wil use our outrageously expensive dining room furniture which before was shut away in a "posh" dining room which we never used.