Making downstairs completely open plan

[pinkyshirt]

We are considering changing our ground floor from a small front room (14x11), small utility room and separate kitchen (13x11) to a ground floor with sq footage of 456 (a lot of room is taken up with the hallway and stairs. Is this a terrible idea?

Was wondering if anyone has done this. The living accommodation now is ok but so much space is wasted in the hallway. We are in south east and also wondering how much we might be looking at having to spend for it.

We have a semi open plan downstairs. The living room is at the front with a small vestibule from the front door. It's nice and cosy, especially in winter.
The family room is through the living room. You walk into the kitchen and beyond is the sitting area with patio doors occupying most of the back wall. It's SW facing. This area has a built in unit that houses the washer, dryer, boiler and has the to on top. I love the layout!

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I agree with SolitudeIsHighlyOverrated I'd never buy an open plan house. We stayed in a holiday home for a weekend once and I was driven insane by the noise and smells, who wants to listen to the dishwasher while they relax after dinner.

It's handy when children are young but by the time they hit their teens you'll be begging for walls (can you tell I speak from previous experience?)

This!! Teens roam around at night - no way would we be able to watch GoT with no doors/walls!

We wanted to do this. We had an estate agent round for advice on re-selling and he said to bear in mind that if it's all open plan they struggle to categorise the number of reception rooms etc when advertising it. And people looking for 2 reception rooms might be put off.

Structurally you may be limited, some of those walls will be load bearing.

Next door ( same house as us but reversed) did it and when they came to sell it was apparently one thing that made it difficult, although there were others
They sold after 2 years to a couple who reduced the price by how much it would cost to take the house back to how it was. I know this because the new owners called round last week to ask if they could come and see what the house will look like when it’s back to NOT being open plan
So apart from all the practical issues around living in an open plan house there’s the resale aspect too

I personally wouldn't. I have an open plan and I hate it (had no choice as it is housing association). When we eventually save enough for a mortgage, we are definitely not going for open plan rooms!

Ironically we moved to a much bigger house and we spend all our time in the open plan kitchen/diner/family room to the extent we gave the lounge over to another bedroom!!! Still have a separate room for washing machine though. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I do always say though it's noisy but now ours are teens it's a good way to actually have a natter with them when they pass through to get food...

You can do clever things with hatches/doors etc to give you that feeling of space but without knocking walls down. Also decent storage.

We have the living/dining/kitchen all open plan and a separate second living room and utility room. There’s no way we’d have gone for one big open space - we need to shut off the kids as they get older!

Plus noises of cooking etc are loud! Even making a cup of tea is too loud as our kettle sounds like a spacecraft about to launch 😂😂😂😂

All great advice. We only have one small reception room and a small kitchen so I suppose even if we stayed here we wouldn’t get much other privacy anyway. I’m now thinking maybe keep the front room and open up the rest of the ground floor.
Good point about the structural things to think about.
Good thing about separate front room is I do have a tendency to munch every single time I venture near the fridge. Perhaps open plan isn’t the way forward for me

Can you post a floor plan see what ideas we come up with?

Do you or guests ever end up sleeping in the living room? If so, fridge noise through the night can be an issue if it's open plan. There are other ways round it though - Travelodge, earplugs.

I remember reading in a property section of the newpaper a few years ago that open plan was a big trend or the latest thing. And i thought at the time how stupid it was to make it a fashion! Its not like a wallpaper feature wall, or paint colour, or fashion for faux fur throws etc that you could change easily and cheaply when no longer in fashion. Knocking down walls is pretty expensive and permenant! We have tweens/teens and i like having separate rooms although when we all want to watch the same tv show all 4 of us squish onto the 2 seater sofa leaving the biggest sofa for the cats

Could you use the money to extend out the back making your kitchen bigger with room for a couch? Then you still have front room for relaxing but can stay in kitchen if suits. Also still have hall, utility, stairs closed off, more wall space etc. Depending on garden size of course. Extending with a glass roofed area can increase light and double doors to garden making it a lovely space.

A utility is essential for open plan. Be aware though that open plan is quite a marmite situation, so if you sell half will love it, half hate it. As for costs it depends on supporting walls which will require steels.

I think it works to have a big open plan kitchen dining space. But I'd keep the utility shut off and retain a separate living space.,

I’m back! Please see attached a dodgy drawing...

We don’t have a big enough garden to extend. I’m beginning to feel even more sorry for myself

Interesting! Thanks for sharing. Can I ask how wide and long the annoying hallway is?

Do you think the current utility was originally a kitchen?

I would take down the lounge wall and have the stairs in the lounge or potentially do what we did - have the wall put up along the staircase with a small square hall at the bottom with a glass door that you leave open most of the time against the wall!

Also I do take PPs' point that the a separate utility is important but IMO it is not essential in a house this size. I'm tempted to think knock utility and kitchen into big kitchen diner and keep the lounge wall.

Could you move/extend the porch so it opens next to the stairs? Smart doors on cupboard under stairs for coats etc?

Stick washing machine etc under the stairs with solid door and make utility room part of large kitchen diner?

Will try work our hallway measurements now... yes the utility room was once a kitchen according to a someone I met randomly who used to live here decades ago. Which I suppose allowed for two reception rooms but alas. 7x7 kitchen I think not!