What's it like living in an open plan home

[CorpusCallosum]

We are about to embark on a big extension. Keeping our existing modest living room, turning the kitchen into a utility and putting the staircase there then knocking down a conservatory and going 6m out the back for a kitchen/diner/ family space. Bifold doors on the back into the garden. Very zeitgeisty.

My question is, what's it actually like living in this type of space? In my head it's amazing but are there pitfalls we haven't thought of that make family life harder? We have 1 18mo DD and are planning another.

I disagree with the PP. I have a 5 and a 2 year old. LOTS of toys! They are in the main extension and are tidied away each evening before they go to bed. With good storage it is out of sight and the room is ready for a grown up evening. You'll have plenty of floor space to cope with toys out during the day. We find it great as there's enough room to build big train tracks etc.
I don't want to shut my children away in another room - the whole point of the extension is so we can be together in one space. Obviously they do play in their rooms sometimes, but are mostly in the lounge. I'd had enough of going back and forth between rooms to check on them, speak to them, answer questions, help etc.

Noisy!

I love doors now we have a lounge, study, hall, playroom, kitchen and cloakroom downstairs and it's great to be able to close off sections depending on what we're doing.

I'm reading lots of people's responses about why they don't like open plan and I don't know if it's just me but most people seem to not like them because they are messy. All of these things people are mentioning as faults and problems, I genuinely cannot say I've ever encountered.

@Fatted

I'm reading lots of people's responses about why they don't like open plan and I don't know if it's just me but most people seem to not like them because they are messy. All of these things people are mentioning as faults and problems, I genuinely cannot say I've ever encountered.

Agree, it's like any room - it will be messy if you let it get messy. We have boxes for each type of toy and it's easy to chuck it all in at the end of the day.

We are open plan and the only downside is the noise when the baby is sleeping. If someone is doing something in the kitchen or comes in the front door it can wake him up.

The mess problem is not really about small kids, it's easy enough to tidy up toys at the end of the day.

It's older kids/teens and all their school stuff/electronics etc. Once you reach the point of having to live with other people's standards of tidying (or fight with your kids every day) not having a space you can just shut the door on to keep the peace and still have somewhere tidy to sit becomes a lot more important!

Having said that. I don't mind open plan really. Kitchen smells are the only big issue for us.

We did it 20 years ago, before we had a child. It still looks good and we still get compliments on it.

It really wasn't so much of an issue when dd was small. In fact it was great for her roaming around when she was learning to walk etc.

Now she's a teenager, I really, really wish we had a separate living space. If she has friends round, they can only go up to her room.

Also, yes, the noise is a pain. I would definitely have a closed off utility room if I did it again.

Oh, and a downstairs look would also have been helpful during potty training.

I have a big kitchen diner with a separate living room - they are connected by a big arch (former owner was a wheelchair user) though, no door to shut them off.

I would love a utility room so good that you're doing that OP. I plan when to run waking machine/dishwasher quite carefully.

Aside from that, the only real con is when DS has friends over and they hog the telly - we're a strictly one telly family, DS knows he has to finish gaming by a certain time at night normally but I cut him slack when his pals are here.

I probably should have said that we are downsizing as both children have left home....we've had 4 floors mostly separate rooms except a massive basement room when they were teenagers.
It's just the 2 of us now and we want the best of both worlds! Massive kitchen space and master suite plus smaller cosy rooms.
I know we are incredibly lucky but we relocated to the NW many years ago from the South despite many saying we were mad.

I guess it depends on th number of children and the age gap. We were v much a 1 TV family too but it stopped working when we had one child with loads of homework in secondary, one in primary with very little homework and making a lot of noise (autism) and me trying to help the distressed child and cook dinner. For our family, us all trying to do that in the same space was horrendous.

I can't bear open plan. Nowhere to hide. Also, nowhere to put anything - I have a lot of books, and a serious sideboard habit, and there's no way I'd manage without walls to put things on/along.

We currently have a kitchen / dinner but are planning to expand to make a living room and utility room. We find we use the kitchen as the heart of the kitchen anyway and we will still be keeping a separate living room and study downstairs.

I hate being in the kitchen for hours cooking or washing up etc whilst kids are in the other room so will be nice to be able to be together.

The big downside I see is mess everywhere as we are a very messy family !!

A lot of flies in the house in summer. That my experience

IMO it’s fine, as long as you still have a separate room for P&Q or whatever. It’s wholly open plan that to me would be a complete no-no.

My dd has just a smallish sitting room and a large, extended kitchen/diner, with bifolds to the garden. For her family (3 little ones and a lot of friends often round) it works very well. The extension has made the most enormous difference to the house. She did have plenty of garden space to extend into, though.

Our last home was open plan and it was terrific. It had a separate lounge but no doors. It was always cold though and expensive to heat. It was ideal when DS was younger but not so great as he got older. I always thought my obsession with doing dishes and cleaning came from living there but I'm the same now and we have separate rooms