Do you prefer open plan or separate?

[WBWIFE]

Just got the keys to our house which is a full renovation job.

DH wants to knock kitchen and lounge wall through to create open plan living room and diner (in a few years we will be knocking down conservatory and extending across the back of the house too), where as I like the kitchen as is and would rather extend out the back of the house in a few years and have an L shape lounge/diner that looks out onto the garden. I like the thought of separate kitchen and lounge.

So, just wondering what you prefer?

OMG dog poo and wee everywhere 🤮 you poor things but it will be amazing in a few years. I agree with you, it’s better not to really do anything now except get the basics sorted and do an amazing extension when you have the money. Good luck.

@WBWIFE so pleased to hear you got the keys! And yes I prefer separate rooms to open plan. We have a lot of reno work to do with limited funds too. Exciting times ahead for us both

My kitchen is off my living room and I find that annoying as I can hear the washer and dishwasher when I'm trying to watch TV.

I wouldn't want the smell of food following my either, and I sometimes make chutney so it's not always a nice smell.

The one thing I do like about my house is that the kitchen is at the front overlooking the road and the living room is at the back with a door straight in to the garden.

dog poo and wee everywhere? I don't want to piss on your chips, but you could be looking at replacing all the floor boards in that...

I LIKE open plan but I don't LOVE it.

When we first moved in, DH was all on to knock every wall downstairs, including the hall, to make it entirely open plan. We decided to not do that. Downstairs was a hall (stairs straight up through it), sitting room to the left as you walked in, and kitchen/diner across the back of an ordinary 3 bed semi.

About 5 years after we moved in, we extended out the back across the entire width of the house. Kitchen and dining stayed roughly where they were (but both improved), but we put on the "playroom" going out into the garden and a downstairs bathroom with shower and a utility cupboard holding the washing machine/dryer/ironing board etc.

The "playroom" is in effect a second lounge. There is a tv there, and we have 2 decent chairs and a 3rd that DD uses, when we are all out there watching something. There is a big open space to do yoga on the floor. The dresser moved there (under tv) from the dining room holding the "good" crockery etc. DD has a study desk there.

We do a lot of living in the playroom, all together when we get home and cooking is going on while schoolbags get emptied/homework started and someone is on the computer at the kitchen table etc. We often sit there together in the evenings after dinner.

But we also really like having the original sitting room, that we can close the doors on, has a wood burning stove, and feels more cosy at times (smaller space, lower ceiling, darker walls, less light from windows, north rather than full south facing etc). DD likes to retreat there a lot (ASD). The Xbox is on that tv, and that is the large tv. The 3 piece suite, so room to lounge, is in there. The firelight (and candlelight) in winter does make it cosy.

We had changed the doors between the 2 rooms originally to have some glass in them, and more recently changed again to have large glass panels in them, and into the hall. So neither room is cut off from the rest of the house entirely, but being able to close out the smells of the kitchen, or the noise from someone clattering up and down stairs, or to let someone have some peace and quiet alone, is useful for us.

Also, putting the washing machine and dryer behind a door really made a positive difference! (We had previously had a washer/dryer in the kitchen as that was the only way it worked).

The sitting room has cosy carpet underfoot, whereas the kitchen/diner/playroom is tiled throughout. Sitting room is a darker mushroomy colour (that we like) and faces north so less light, whereas big room faces full south, lots and lots of light with big windows and roof windows and double doors to the garden, and is painted white. So having 2 different "feeling" rooms, one bright and more Meditteranean, the other darker and slightly more "cave-like", is nice for us to be able to choose.

We can watch tv and play music in both. DVDs and Xbox only in sitting room - so on occasion, DD and her friends can make noise in there and relax while DH and I can also relax in the playroom (including watching tv if we want). But neither are completely blocked off from the other because of glass in doors.

I think open plan looks amazing BUT practically the cooking smells and the noise from the kitchen would put me off and I know friends have complained about this also. So if you do go open plan I would install bifold doors or something similar so that you can cordon it off easily for those times that you want it separate.

Doors, all the doors!

Can't think of anything worse than open plan living.

Doors! We've in the process of getting quotes to put a door between our kitchen/dining room and living room.
As others have said, great when the kids are little but a nightmare now!

I agree with other posts - I’d knock kitchen and lounge together and when you do your extension have a nice kitchen/dining/family room with separate more formal living room at the front (the old dining room). I do not at all like your idea of making the dining room your bedroom and the third bedroom with a dining table? That does not make sense. As for playrooms - kids want to be with you when young not in a separate room. As they age they want their own space and it is great to have a second living room for times they want to hang out with their mates but not in their bedroom and not with you.

Hate totally open plan. We have a big kitchen diner, but a separate sitting room, and a dining room which we use as a library/study. There’s also a study downstairs, which we planned to use as a playroom for DS, but it’s tiny and he never plays in there - it’s basically his toy store! I would quite like to have the dining room as a formal dining room but it would be a waste of space really as we don’t do much formal entertaining - when we have people round we eat in the kitchen diner.

If you have to knock through, I’d definitely repurpose the room at the front as the separate sitting room so you can get away from mess and smells.

You mentioned a salon room. Do you run a beauty business from home? If do, use the garage for that.
Keep all the "daytime" rooms on the right hand side of the house and the bedrooms on the right. Adults only tend to use their bedrooms fleetingly during the day so it doesn't need to be too big.
I have a friend with a bungalow and she says that she doesn't need a playroom because everything is on one level. If her kids toys threatened to take over she would sweep them across the wooden floor with a broom and back into the bedroom.
I would leave the dining room as a lounge/snug.
I would then open up the wall between the existing kitchen and lounge to make a kitchen diner. I hate the idea of cooking smells and grease getting on my soft furnishings.

@BlueSkiesLies nope floorboards are sound luckily - no rotting, very thick underlay has caught it and we have zoflorad the floorboards about 10 times, as good as new nearly Haha. Skirting is out which has helped as shit and piss stains over that too

@Pipandmum toy room I would be sat in with her in the day as their will be a tele in there etc, craft room essentially. We wont be using as a dining room! We never use a dining room..

When I was a teenager (older teen!) And had mates round I would always be in the kitchen and conservatory personally, not in my bedroom.

@MrsMoastyToasty we dont use a diner so I dont see much sense in having a huge kitchen.

We cant afford to knock through now anyway as we didnt realise the back had already been extended, it would mean a T steel beam going in as already a beam in there going across which we cant afford.

We only have 20k to do whole renovations. We thought we could spruce up bathroom and kitchen but it's all horrendous so will have to wait probably 5 years to extend out/up

On the plan, it looks like bedrooms 3 and 4 don’t have windows. Is this right?

@Jem01 thank you yes we got the keys Wednesday and it was horrendous. Dead flies about 40 per window when we opened the blinds, a skip full of their rubbish they have left behind it's awful!!

Nearly completely stripped out though thankfully. Ripping out kitchen and bathroom tonight then wallpaper stripping. Plasterers quoting nextweek it's all go! I'm worried the 20k will not stretch!

Sounds like a really exciting project. Good luck with it all.

I would use something enzymatic to remove wee smells - biological washing powder solution, or simple solution pet stain remover from Petsmart, or some specialist cleaner. Disinfectant alone is designed to kill germs, not necessarily to break down the molecules that cause the smell.

Someone on another thread recommended shaving foam as a good way to clear old urine smells. No idea how well that works but she sounded very knowledgable.

We moved into a house with separate kitchen, dining room lounge. My husband wanted to knock the wall down between kitchen and dining room. I wasn't keen, but actually it transformed the house. The dining room would just have been a walk through without doing that.

We have lights on different switches for the kitchen and dining area so we normally just turn off the kitchen lights while we eat so we don't look at the washing up while we eat.

The much bigger room looks better too than two separate rooms.

I'm not a fan of open plan living as it just doesn't work well with children. I do like a big kitchen diner, although the house we are buying has them separate. Can you knock through the kitchen to the conservatory and eat in there? Would be nice and light and airy in the kitchen then. I would also add an en-suite into the dining room eventually if you are having that as the master bedroom. You could take some space out of the garage.

You will need to put the washing machine and possibly the dishwasher in a utility room because of the noise in an open plan space. I think knock through and have a kitchen diner/family room where the lounge is. Turn the dining room into a lounge.

Could you list out the rooms needed and the arrangement of your perfect home - then overlay it on to this house. Call it your “long term, forever home masterplan” - and then you can do it it stages. This will tell you where to spend the £20K and if you have the bigger picture in mind then you can plan around it.

For example one of my friends put in a really posh kitchen in her new house - the kitchen wasn’t big - not even eat in size - but because she had her master plan and she knew that in 7 years she would extend the kitchen - the unfits were laid out exactly where they would need to be for the future. She even had the wall side of her granite hop finished correctly as on the masterplan this would become an island as the wall behind it would be knocked out.

It looks like a really great house and an exciting project. I had to do the cat piss thing recently - I would say be absolutely thorough - scrub, scrub with proper stuff - and consider taking the boards up - scrubbing the sides and relaying the other way up - if it has penetrated deep - invest in replacing them.

My family masterplan is:
Separate Laundry room.
Loads of coat, shoe, school bag, pushchair storage.
Play room needs to be adjacent to kitchen - with with clear sight lines in but closed off with a stair gate - as kids and toys migrate to be always under your feet when cooking. Playroom needs direct level access to garden.
Large kitchen, dining and sofas (no TV) - overlooking garden - level access to large patio for entertaining.
Separate adult cosy lounge - with open fire and TV.

We stayed in an open plan barn conversion on holiday last year and we absolutely hated it. You had to pause the TV every time someone boiled the kettle; the dishwasher made a horrendous noise and it was so so hard to try and keep tidy with 2 dogs in it.

I've decided my dream home will have a separate living room; large kitchen with room for a table to seat 12 and a walk in pantry cupboard; a laundry room and a separate utility room for the dogs!

I like fast cooking using a grill pan. I really need a smoke hood for some things. No way would I want that finding it's way into a social area.

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