Open plan opinions (from those who have it please!)

[hlr1987]

Has anyone with an open plan downstairs (with no additional seperate sitting room) regretted or disliked it? I'm looking to open up the kitchen to make the most of the south facing garden either by knocking through to our large lounge or adding a well glazed conservatory to the kitchen for an attached dining room. No chance of an extension (no side access). My kids are small if that helps.

Miw = Now 😁

Empty (open-plan) nesters here. It's light, easy to clean, sociable. It's noisy, cold and you can't get away from cooking smells. We're working with a designer to make some changes which will give us the benefits of open plan while resolving some of the issues. Probably a glass wall.

we have teenagers - open plan was awful for us, so we now have an extension with a couple of rooms for them to "entertain" in.

Having everyone in one room or their bedroom all the time is not how I want to live.

Never again. It was noisy and smelled of cooking, even with an extractor. We didn’t have a separate utility room, so noise from the washing machine and dishwasher were a pain.

Looked fab though - in the estate agent’s photographs

Open plan here. Previous owners built and extension across the width of the house and knocked out walls to create a u shape open plan kitchen, dining, living room. Was v handy when the dc were toddlers. But now they are older, it is a real pain. Mess just spreads, it is noisy. No cosiness.

We will be putting in a dividing wall with double doors to create a separate living room and snug. Which is what was taken out previously.

Open plan family houses have had their day IMO

If you can keep a small sitting room, do. I second that about noise travelling up the stairs, especially if you tend to leave the bedroom door open and landing light on for D.C. - you may as well be in the room with them when talking or clearing up downstairs, it's not sound proof at all.

We have mostly open plan but DS has serious fear of missing out and if he hears the tv on he'll be out of bed desperate to join in. We used to have an all open-plan flat and we couldn't put on the tv til after 9pm (asleep plus 30 min clearance!). I'm very glad to have a door we can shut between us now.

Our current house has a sitting room as well as the open plan kitchen/lounge. It also means if a friend comes over, she and I can have a glass of wine in there while DH wrangles kids or does his own thing after they go to sleep.

I love it, but we have a slightly compromised layout. We have an open plan kitchen, diner and sitting area (which was an extension) and a lounge which has a huge double doorway arch (previous owners were wheelchair users). That gives us just enough 'shut off' space for people to feel separate - ie DS gaming, us in the extension.

Our extension has loads of glass but it's definitely an extension rather than a conservatory - I live in Scotland and conservatories are too cold for most of the year to be properly open plan. There wasn't that much difference in the cost. Since the extension is new, it's much better insulated than the rest of the house and actually acts as a warmer for the whole ground floor, it's like one giant radiator.

So I think there's a point between open plan and traditional which can work for families. But I wouldn't get a conservatory in our climate (you may be in the South though OP)

I agree with others re keep a separate sitting room. We have massive kitchen, come sitting room come dining room and then a separate sitting room. Both are well used. Things like when family round, the kids might want to watch a dvd and they can do that next door while we still talk.

Even times when just dh and I he might want to watch something different and will go to the other room while I am cooking or whatever. We do have a very very small tv in the kitchen end more for me and not used much other than that.

The big room has a wood burner and can feel cold at times.

I agree with all the pp. It's great with little ones but as they grow it becomes much more difficult. We moved but my overwhelong memory of open plan is you cannot shut the door on the mess and food smells drift upstairs. But its the noise and the nowhere to escape to to make a phone call or trying to help one child with homework or even just get them to concentrate whîle everyone else is in the same room. It is a nightmare.

We now have an open plan kitchen / diner / snug and a separate living room / TV room and it is perfect.

Ours is semi open plan. Essentially we don't have a door on the lounge or kitchen, and under the stairs is open too. Also a conservatory with doors off the kitchen.

We're getting a loo put in under the stairs, and a door put on the lounge probably at the same time. As per everyone else has said - smells, noise, heat. Oh and I can't shut the cats away from the front door if I need to. I like nicely defined useable spaces of the right size for that purpose.

Our lounge space is the smallest of both the last place we lived and ALL of the other places we viewed - but because of the layout, and defined separate space, it is also the most functional. It's not a corridor, a dining room too, and the front door doesn't lead straight in. It is just a seating area, and works better as a smaller single use space than any of the mixed-use spaces we saw.

We have an open plan lounge kitchen dining area... I love it... ds plays while I cook and when in the kitchen you are part of the family not shut away! We do have a separate study for work/homework and a playroom which when ds is bigger will be a snug for him and his friends.

Open plan here with kitchen, dining area and living room in one huge open space.
Like a pp I loved it when the children were younger. I could cook etc while supervising.
I hate it now and long for my own space. Our bedrooms are very small in comparison to the living area so no where to create a little sitting area.
Our open plan is hard to heat, noisy, difficult to keep looking neat and tidy.

Couldn't stand it - we did have open plan when renting once (before children) but we were both working long hours and not really spending much time just 'being at home' so it didn't impact much on our lives - but I remember hating seeing all the kitchen mess/smells & if DH had friends round that I didn't particularly want to socialise with (or vice versa) the only other option was to retire to the bedroom.

We now have a large kitchen diner/large living room/separate dining room (rarely used) and study - only three of us - but we are all quite solitary people, often we are sitting alone in different rooms doing different things - but it suits us. The thought of only having one room when I want to watch a TV programme in peace - or DH wants to watch a rugby match - would be a nightmare - & I don't like tv's in bedrooms and can't work out how to use sky multi room anyway.

Thanks for the feedback! And for talking me out of it, the radio/ music wasn't something I'd considered and since DH is trying to brainwash our toddler into being a metalhead, there are a couple of times I've turned the radio up in the kitchen! I was being seduced by lovely kitchen/rooms in photos.
The conservatory can be installed with a made to measure Durabase system, so there would be no need to get workman and a digger into the garden for deep foundations (for the side access question). It's like the IKEA of foundations (DIY heaven).
Our dining table is in the kitchen at the moment, but I fall over it a bit when cooking as it's a large one for family meals. The idea of heating the conservatory pre-meals is genius, as the heaters would be on a separate circuit anyway :) Thanks everyone!