Open plan living: is it compulsory?

[greencottage]

Just that, really. Planning my new kitchen at the moment and every magazine/Houzz image I look at integrates the kitchen and dining room, and maybe even the living room too. I easily could knock the kitchen through to the dining, but I quite like a separate dining room. I also like a separate living room. I like to be able to close noise/smells off in different areas. But thinking ahead to a possible future buyer when I move on, will it be a wasted opportunity if I don't do the whole open plan thing now while I can?

Hackedoff you do seem to be getting very hacked off by other people's living arrangements - why do you care?

It is where you cook and eat, but having a big space with a sofa in as well as a TV encourages the whole family to hang out together. We have teenagers, so anything that stops them sloping off to their rooms is a good thing to me.

Right now, for example, dh is cooking, kids and I are all sitting around the island chatting/homeworking/MNing. And yes, we have the back opened up with bifold doors so we can look out over the garden.

If we had stuck to our small kitchen, he'd be on his own.

I am not keen on open-plan, I prefer separate rooms or rooms with sliding/bifold doors that you can close off.

In our current property there is only one main living space (lounge/diner) and I miss having separate rooms. The conservatory was a lovely (quiet!) place to sit and read.

DH would like to extend the kitchen as he misses the space of our previous property!

No one is on their own just because they don't have a kitchen diner. We all still spend loads of time together - we just open the door and go into another room.

At the moment in our open plan room, dd is sitting at the island doing her homework, im sitting on sofa with the dog about to finish the online grocery shop and ds is cleaning up while he chats....there's no craziness. I like to have another living area though for quiet time if you need it but it doesn't get used much.

We had the same quandary. We moved from an all open plan home to one with a traditional layout.

Open plan is not cosy in the winter and it is also potentially noisy and smelly. If you throw in solid flooring it can be quite echoey too I found.

Anyway in our new home we have put double doors in between the kitchen and dining room. We already had double doors from the living to the dining. This has worked well as we have small children so I can keep a close eye on them. But if I want I can go back to the two reception rooms which may be useful when they are older (and when the nights draw in). But at the moment we like the openness of the living space.

I have open plan, but the living area can be shut behind sliding doors, plus have separate "formal" living room. I like the open spaces, great for parties. Plus I found it easier to keep an eye on the kids whilst cooking etc when they were toddlers.

Our house is big so there's lots of other places to escape noise. I usually go to my study when I want to read in peace.

I like having a kitchen that we can eat in. In our previous home there was a large sitting/dining room and a separate kitchen and it was a pain in the neck with small children as I spent most of every meal walking between the two rooms. We definitely need a separate living room or play room though as DS has ASD and can't stand any noise when he's watching TV, even boiling the kettle makes him slam the door between the kitchen and sitting room so we could never have a big all-in-one room.

I think the perfect combination is breakfast kitchen - ie big enough table for family meals, sociable cooking. Definitely separate lounge and ideally a dining room aswell. I don't think I would have a kitchen too small to have a table in ((would knock through to dining room if that was the case). But if the kitchen is big enough for a table for four/five I would keep a separate dining room. We do like to be able to do the more formal entertaining when we have friends/family round and I think it's nice to have a room that is separate from the kitchen.

I do actually think the tide will turn a bit from big open plan living, but will never go back to small Victorian galley kitchens as just don't live like that anymore. But perhaps something in between, if the space is available.

In my previous house I had kitchen diner and a separate living room and it was perfect.
In my current house I have L shaped kitchen dining living space and hate it. Especially TV noise. So I have decided on partition wall with a sliding door to separate the living space. Can't wait to have it.

By the way I don't understand when people say "I love my open space but then I have a separate living room". Then you don't have an open space!

I think people are saying they love the open plan nature of the main "living" area - so the kitchen / dining / hanging out space, plus enjoy having a separate snug / lounge / sitting room.

It doesn't have to be ALL open plan - i.e. the whole downstairs open, or ALL separate rooms. It can be a hybrid.

I do like a separate living room but would NEVER want a separate kitchen and dining room. I can't understand why anyone would want a separate dining room where you had to trundle back and forth with plates and forgotten condiments. Or do you have a hostess trolley / dumb waiter for that ?

Meadow I have a big open plan living/dining/kitchen which I love but have another sitting/living room. Which is absolutely needed, without that I'd have split the living off from the dining kitchen for times when the kids have friends around and when they are playing video games or watching annoying programmes on TV.

I love me a seperate living room.
I have a few builder friends who say they're spending a lot of time putting walls back up. I think open plan is over.

Kitchen diners are fine.

But living / diners are hateful. The dc's hurl food onto the sofa and only care about putting the tv back on.

I have a tiny kitchen separate dining room and separate sitting room and I hate It. I am so fed up with carrying plates back and forwards to the kitchen. I have beenknow to be in tears at the end of a bad day as the layout annoys me so much. However
We are soon to have kitchen diner separate playroom and separate sitting room.....I cannot wait and I honestly believe our lives will be sooooooo much better

I loved it on holiday, but in real-life with 2 teens it wouldn't work for us. We have a kitchen with a table to eat at and a snuggler sofa, and then a completely separate sitting room with a table in the back for them to dump their stuff on work at and a PC.