Completely open plan downstairs - yes or no

[PippaFawcett]

We want to remodel the downstairs of our house, there is a redundant chimney breast in the centre of the downstairs and an internal kitchen causing issues. The cheapest and seemingly most logical thing to do is to knock out the wall and chimney breast and make it all open plan.

DH is keen, but I am worried about cooking smells, noise and privacy. We do have a separate converted garage as a playroom/study area and loo downstairs but the living room, kitchen and dining space would all be open plan and the stairs come into it too. Do you love or hate your open plan?

Keep thinking, Mango!

The thing that irritates me about the house is that there is collectively enough space downstairs but it has been poorly configured so a lot is redundant. Wish our budget was bigger and we could do more.

You should get more light into kitchen by taking away the current separation between entrance hall and living room - glass panel in front door will give light through into new, bigger hall.

You could even have no door into the kitchen if you wanted, and if it was opened through to step down into back dining room there would be even more light.

You could even bring kitchen area forward to include up to almost level with foot of stairs if that's possible.
You can use under the stairs for extra kitchen space too.

Like this:

We had this in our last house we were there 10 years even the conservatory was open plan to house (in breach of building regs as we discovered when we tried to sell it). I didn't mind it at the time but 2 months into our new house I love having defined rooms, doors, no noise of rain or washing machines and it's so much warmer!!

We are extending to create a kitchen diner living space but will still have 2 separate reception rooms (lounge and playroom) and a utility. Can't wait!

What about something like this? Ignore the grid on the island!

Everybody has graph paper for just this sort of thing!!