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?

We deliberated on a new kitchen as we weren’t sure if we should open it up into our large dining/music room. Everyone said how great it would be but I wasn’t convinced. I hate people being in the kitchen when I cook and I like to put the radio on and close the door. I hate mess from cooking being on display too. We decided to just replace kitchen and not remodel and we’re really happy- no regrets.

Op for the moment I'd do as little as possible, clean, paint and furnish.

Once you are in you can see how you use the house. And what you'd really like to change.

I do agree that a table / family room would make good use of Bed3. I think little kids make less mess eating at a table.

Long term I'd like an extra loo and find some way of making the bathroom accessible without going through the kitchen.
A bit of me would be tempted to look a turning the lounge into a lounge / dinner / kitchen. Narrow the existing kitchen into a utility area. Narrowing it would allow for the hall to reach the bathroom and straighten up the doors of beds 2 & 3.

Congratulations on your new house.

I should add I don't mind open plan providing you have a separate lounge and utility area.

I owned an open plan flat the washing machine drove me nuts.
My current house has seperate lounge and open plan, eating and family room. I love being able to supervise homework while getting dinner sorted.

We have a kitchen diner and I love it. Previous house was a living room diner with separate kitchen which was a nightmare once we had a baby throwing food all over the living room!

I should add our kitchen is big enough for a table but we went for a large bar area at one end so we eat breakfast there and kids can sit and chat / do homework while we cook but as they are teens they mostly don’t . Remember that as kids get older , they like to separate.

Open plan is popular with magazines and architects because it gives long sightlines for photos. It looks achievable for people with smaller properties but only really works if you have room for utility rooms and separate breakaway rooms.

You need to think long term. When children are toddlers they want to be near you but that changes very quickly. My youngest is 6 and happily plays by himself in the playroom for hours, my DDs are 9&11 and hide away in the sitting room or (if feeling particularly hormonal!) will disappear to our spare room up in the attic to sulk read. They don't want to be near us at all.

Sounds like you need 3 bedrooms, a work space (salon?), a bathroom, kitchen-diner, a sitting room and/or playroom. I'd recommend squeezing in a utility room if possible. Our house was extended by the previous owners to create a large kitchen diner. But they also used the garage to create a utility room and second shower room. Half the old garage is still officially a garage, we have the bikes in there and a load to storage space.

Looking at your house extending into the garage will be a cheaper extension than going back into the garden. Get an architect to look at it to give you some ideas - you can get a cheap 1hr consultation via the 'architect in the house' scheme.