Is there anyone that DOESNT want a kitchen/diner/open plan?

[palacegirl77]

Ive posted recently about loft conversions as this is next on our list - so my youngest daughter can have a larger bedroom. However, I was speaking to my brother and his wife and they suggested we concentrate on (opening up the downstairs) first - they totally assumed that we would want to knock down the chimney, several walls, extend and have a massive kitchen/diner/family room type thing. Don't get me wrong, I think these are nice but I LOVE the downstairs in my 1930s semi. I like having separate rooms - I dont want kitchen smells in my lounge and I like the kids to have their own space, I also want to keep some of the character of the house. They were genuinely surprised as they thought everyone wants open plan nowadays - am I really the odd one out?

I prefer separate rooms

-prefer to eat in the dining room without looking at the pots and pans

-prefer to keep the sitting room free from food and certain cooking smells

-when children are older they’ll be able to have space wothout being in the same room as us 24/7 (will probably need to share bedrooms)

-cosier and more characterful

@museummum "I hate hate hate separate dining rooms - you’d need waiting staff to make it anything but a massive faff."
lol - never thought of myself as a waiter when I walk those few steps to the dining room - also its a good way to get kids involved with helping - they come and grab stuff and lay the table etc. Ive never thought it difficult to take it to a different room. Funny how you get used to what you have isnt it? I couldnt imaging dishing up into a room full of steam, washing up and cooking smells - that would be like being a waiter eating in the kitchen to me :-)

I suspect most people who knock walls down are either pre- children or have little children.There is a short period in family life when open plan might be convenient for some reasons. Once you are past the small children stage though the more separate rooms the better.

Ok with kitchen and dining together, in fact I prefer to eat in the kitchen and use the dining room for a study etc. Would hate completely open plan though, kitchens are noisy and smelly at times. Like a nice cosy sitting room which is separate.

my ideal would be a large kitchen/diner/seating area with big bifold doors out onto the garden with a seperate utility room, cosy snug/tv room for evenings, playroom for kids and a study!!!
so just about everything really!!

I suspect most people who knock walls down are either pre- children or have little children.There is a short period in family life when open plan might be convenient for some reasons. Once you are past the small children stage though the more separate rooms the better.

Absolutely. We have an open plan downstairs and when you have teenagers and they have their friends round... I have to sit on my bed upstairs! We have a separate sitting room but you have to walk through the open plan to get there so even if you/they are in there it doesn't quite work.

I totally hate those awful giant kitchen extensions everyone seems to whack on the back of a Victorian house these days. On Rightmove every person has a "showpiece" kitchen consisting of an autopsy area and a whole heap of glass. They look so cold and uncosy and you know the arched glass ceiling will get covered with mossy slime that is a constant battle to remove and the big folding doors will be a mass of finger prints.

Open plan layouts matter more for small houses. If you have a big house with lots of useable space then it doesn’t matter as much.

I hate open plan. I like to feel cozy!

I love separate rooms. I have a 1930's house and have separate lounge (at back of house next to kitchen), dining room in front of house. I love the doors! DS uses front room as his for games, plus used as dining room. lounge is used by me and DD - her playroom, and my lounge. Then separate kitchen so can shut the door. My ExP kept trying to push me to make it open plan but i said no. My kitchen is small, but to be honest I don't spend much time in there, only the bare minimum out out necessity.

Our current house is a 1930s which hasn't been updated in years. In fact the only updates I think it's had in its life is adding central heating and double glazing (love military housing!). It's even got sinks in the bedrooms.

But I live the downstairs layout. Separate living room, dining room and kitchen. Kitchen has utility area off it. There is a serving hatch between the kitchen and dining room, so it's easy to pass plates etc through. I have an armchair in the dining room so I can read in peace while DH watches action films. We have a quiet room for phone calls. No noisy appliances while you are trying to eat.

Open plan works if you all want to do the same thing at the same time.

My last flat was almost completely open plan to the point that the bedroom was a balcony (with a rail not a wall) over the living room with the kitchen area being under the bedroom but with no wall between kitchen and living room.

There is a reason my current flat has a separate kitchen and living room with doors to each and each bedroom also opens only onto the hall with doors that close!

It took me forever to find - apparently it is assumed that if you want a flat, you must want the kitchen to be a wall of the living room.

I completely get where you’re coming from.

We have a separate front room but also a big playroom/family room including the dining space and a not great conservatory, and the kitchen is off it to the side through an arch, and we do have a plan to knock down and rebuild all the mishmashes of extensions but if it wasn’t structurally dubious I’d be quite happy leaving it for ages. Although it’s not a showpiece kitchen it’s very functional with lots of storage and I do find that the big flashy kitchens can look like we are expected to somehow perform in them which is just not how I live. When we do renovate I want a really good utility /pantry with the dull stuff in it. Where my parents grew up, people had a “dirty kitchen” where the work happened, and then a “pantry” with units like our kitchens, for serving up and for drinks etc, which was a bit excessive really but I can see the sense in it. I am also currently finding that even my current “broken plan” arrangement means there is ALWAYS stuff on the dining table however much I tidy. What I’d really like is a dining space that feels lovely and that doesn’t involve you staring at pots and pans, and another casual table for the table stuff that spills onto it like drawing etc. My old house had a nice big open plan kitchen and I was completely incapable of keeping the island clutter-free.

DS has one of those flats with a kitchen in the living room. Developers do this because you can cram more flats in a building if they have fewer rooms. He thinks it's brilliant, but he lives alone and seldom cooks. It still means his laundry is hung up at one end of the living room.

Another thing I don’t like is looking at black glass at night. So a living room that has big glass doors for example is another thing that I find uncomfortable about open plan spaces.

secondsop I agree about lots of glass at night.

Our house is very out of fashion. We have a kitchen with a small table and a lounge diner. It suits us perfectly. The lounge diner is perfect for kids' homework and us WFH in the warmest room in the house, and the separate kitchen table means we can have one table for eating and another for everything else, day to day. Also our son is autistic. Having the dining table in the same space as the sofas means he can interact with the rest of us a bit while also doing his own thing with a jigsaw at the end of the room. The lounge diner works really well for us. I do get a bit irritated and lonely cooking dinner, but then if we were open plan then we'd both be irritating each other!

Why would you want to knock out a chimney breast unless you had no choice, they add character. I would want a through kitchen/diner but like a separate sitting room too. I wouldn't want a completely open downstairs at all.

Open kitchen diners work very well for dinner parties and dinner in general and if you have young children.

I like a separate sitting room . I also like to eat in the kitchen so a decent sized kitchen plus separate dining room or kitchen diner would be fine for me.
There are major downsides to open plan if you have older children because they can't split up and do different things( and nor can the parents find a quiet spot). If you have v a dog, everywhere is doggy. You have to heat a large room etc. I certainly wouldn't choose full open plan. I do understand the temptation when children are tiny but that time period is very short and not worth a complete change to one's house for. Some ultra modern 'passive' houses look very good but even without the heating costs I would still only be tempted if I had plenty of other rooms as well. I also think that the fad for open plan is waning, probably because of the obvious drawbacks so it might prove to be a financial risk if it starts to look a bit old fashioned in the short to medium term.

Kitchens in particular look dated very fast. Those big bi-fold doors are going to look naff before too long. Also that "bringing the outdoors inside" thing of those giant grey rattan sofas on the patio. This is the UK, people! That rattan furniture is going to be damp and mouldy after six months.

I think people will continue to like eat-in kitchens (no food ground into the dining-room carpet!) but having the whole caboodle open plan is as those of us with teens have observed not very practical.

I really hate cooking so maybe that’s why I don’t give a toss what my kitchen looks like - I just want a lovely big square living room with a grand piano

I'm not a fan of open plan. We have a kitchen that leads to a breakfast room for informal meals. It's my favourite room, with a comfy sofa, tv and a old pine dining table. I have a separate dining and sitting room. Perfect for my large family when the DC were growing up. Space to be alone.

Black glass at night is horrible. No idea how you could relax with that.

I think it does depend a lot on the age of your kids.
Big family kitchen diner with toddler toys = great.
7 year old doing homework/music practive while you are cooking dinner and older teen has music on = nightmare.

But to me a proper kitchen table is non negotiable. I can't bear a kitchen where you can't sit at a table.

I think in an idela world, I would have a lareg room that can be divided with doors.
One probelm I have is that I like to listen to the radio, so the kitchen needs to be spearate so I can do that when I am cookign without drivgin everyoen else mad.

I agree with you OP. I love having a big open kitchen diner at the back of the house but I love having a nice cozy living room/sitting room that doesn't have kitchen smells and distractions.

I think with a semi (unless it's huge) you're limited when it comes to space and I don't think a semi lends itself to open plan as well as a detached house does.

My dream is a cottage with a kitchen extension and orangery.

Oh god yes, those autopsy kitchens are one of my pet hates. Having actually been in one (observing) it's not a set up I find aesthetically pleasing or particularly relaxing.

I much prefer a modern country kitchen. Probably showing my age though as people seem to love them.