The end of open plan?

[Cloudesley]

Every estate agent who came round to value our house said, "oh yes people will probably take kitchen wall down and open it up here". Fine, do what you want when you buy our house, but whilst I'm here I really really appreciate having separate spaces in the house. With lockdowns etc and people at home more, what on earth is the appeal of a sitting room where you can see, smell and hear the person cooking in the kitchen?

Admittedly my kids are grown up and I don't need to have one eye on them whilst I cook supper, but even so, I don't recall that ever being a problem when they were younger! I just used to yell at them from the kitchen, or have them strapped in a high chair.

Can anyone explain why they would view a house and mentally "open up the kitchen/living area"?

@Karwomannghia

Yours sounds lovely OP!

Thank you! Would you like to make an offer? 😊

We rent and it is open plan, the advantage is we have a space that feels fairly big. The disadvantage is noise from washing machine/dishwasher/extractor fan meaning you can't hear things properly in the lounge area or relax as much. Also less separate space for different activities, eg if someone wants to work they can't take themselves off to the kitchen table.

All in all I prefer separate but I would probably rather have open plan than two rooms that felt really small. The ideal is to have to a separate lounge but also have space in the kitchen for people to sit/chat.

@uisage

I've never understood open plan. I lived in a small flat on my own once, that had a combined kitchen/dining area/seating area. I hated it, I couldn't hear the tv in the evening over the sound of the washing machine and could smell what I'd had for dinner. Open plan always puts me off buying a house!

I lived in a flat like this but the washing machine was in the bathroom - right by the laundry basket - which was great. More people should do that!

I hate small dark rooms. I’m longing for a kitchen diner which we can’t quite afford at the moment but we’re saving for.

I’m Australian where open plan kitchen diners, and often living spaces too, have been absolutely the norm since the 70s at least.

The only downside here in the UK is that washing machines are so often in the kitchen!

I have open plan kitchen, dining and living space. Its the whole top floor of my house and has two windows which look out across the bay to sea. Its lovely when people come round because you can chat with them whilst preparing food. Not so lovely that all the dishes are stacked in plain sight afterwards. I don't have space for a dish washer.

Open plans always been popular, I don’t like it myself and it was one of my requirements when moving to make sure the house wasn’t open plan. I love having separate lounge, dining room and kitchen.

I agree with people working from home more people will want separate spaces, not everyone has an office space but a dining room can offer a good alternative.

I discounted everything open plan when looking to buy both our current house and our last house. Dh teaches from home and ds is always practising his music so e need separate spaces.

Our new house is the best of both worlds as the living room is separated by double doors that open right back into the dining room.

Blame all the cooking shows of the early 2000s, Jamie Oliver and Nigella always had friends around whilst they finished off their dishes.
And the Chipping Norton Set with their oh-so-down-to-earth "kitchen suppers".

And as well as the cooking shows, blame the home improvement shows too. It's all trend driven! Remember the craze for decking? Just asking for rats to move in

I'd like a kitchen/diner but I also like individual rooms. Easier to heat in winter and cosier. Open plan can look clinical.

I dislike open plan living spaces and it would put me off buying. I would be worried about heating such a massive area rather than 1 room. We spend a lot of time in Asia and I love the older style Japanese houses with the sliding room dividers.

When I sold my last house most neighours had knocked through the small kitchen to make a large kitchen diner. I hadn't done that and it did affect the price and made it harder to sell. My house was large so would still have had two separate rooms.
Those rooms are lovely but what do these people with one open space and teenagers/young adults living at home and wanting to play music/play games/watch their own TV/have friends round do? Or husband and wife who work from home or want to watch different TV programmes? Separate spaces are much better once kids are past toddler stage.
New build houses seem to be nearly all open plan kitchen/living room and I don't like them.

Needs a bit of both. Open plan kitchen with dining and seating areas are great, but I would hate if that was the only downstairs space. We have a study, snug and living room in addition to our kitchen/diner and that works really well for us with primary+ aged children. I would pick completely segregated over completely over plan actually.

Light! I love the light in open plan. We don’t have enough of it in the U.K.. Also not being stuck in a tiny kitchen for hours with no involvement with the family. That said, I wouldn’t want to only have one living space.

I think the ideal compromise for a normal house is a kitchen-diner and a front room.

I like open plan because it’s more flexible. If it was all separate rooms, I’d want the dining room to seat about 20 if needed, and a play room big enough for the kids to build giant forts/ships/rockets/restaurants or whatever their current plan is. I can’t afford that kind of house, so one big room where most of the furniture can be easily moved according to what we need makes more sense to us.
I also really like that I can be on the sofa and chat to my husband while he’s cooking dinner. Again, it could be done with a kitchen big enough to have a sofa, but that was out of our price range.
We do have a separate garden room for working at home or if anyone needs a bit of quiet time.

We knocked down a wall to have a kitchen diner. We rarely use the diner part, but it makes it feel more open and more as though we would use it. As a result of it having been two separate rooms there are separate switches for the kitchen and diner parts so when we have guests we just switch off the kitchen lights so the pots and pans are less intrusive. If we hadn't, the diner would have just been used as a corridor.

I wasn't keen, but my husband only agreed to this house on the basis that the wall was knocked down. He was right.

I would not be keen on full open plan. We are not at home that much, but when we are we spend the vast majority of our time in the sitting room.

Our neighbours are taking down the walls between the lounge, hall and kitchen and making one big space with supporting brick pillars, it's going to a massive space and probably freezing as ours houses are old with high ceilings

Depends on your set-up. It's just me and DH at home now, so we prefer open-plan so that whoever is making tea can still chat and watch TV etc. We do have a separate office so have some separate space. I have a silent piano in the living room, so I can put on headphones but it still feels less antisocial than going into a different room.

We live in an old farmhouse that’s all open plan, I love it. Pregnant at the minute so good smells can be a little much but I love having my living area right next to my kitchen.
We do have another living area that’s not been sat in once since we moved here!

*but in normal times, we have precious little family time with work/school/activities - why would you all want to be in separate rooms for most of it?

ask your DCs that question when they're teenagers!*

@Cloudesley They're already teenagers!

I used to live in an open plan living/dining/kitchen flat. It was very spacious, if it was separate each room would feel small. In London this was perfect.
We are now buying a large Victorian house in the north west with 2 reception rooms. we are planning to knock down the wall between the 2nd reception room and the kitchen so the kids can sit in the dining room and i am cooking whilst still having a front living room.
I think it depends on your situation. I think if you have a smaller property its better to go open plan for the more spacious feel, if you have a larger property you can afford to have separate rooms

Yes I find myself going off the open plan look.
Our previous property was completely open on the ground floor. So a large space incorporating living room, study nook, dining area and kitchen. I remember feeling it was very trendy when we moved in in our early 20s.
Now 9 years later and I have just moved into a house with a separate kitchen and it makes life easier. I far prefer having the kitchen mess / smells/ noise contained. And the living room being a relaxing space. Wouldn't go back now.

I'm with you. I can see the appeal of a kitchen / dining room but I prefer a living room to be its own distinct space. Often in smaller flats it's all squeezed into one room to save space and always seems a bit of a con to me. I'm not a fan even in bigger houses though. I think the classic kitchen / dining room / family room / bifold doors into garden extension will be dated quite soon. I guess it comes down to personal habits and preferences though - I don't entertain that much and like cosy spaces.

We have a large open plan kitchen/dining and living room. It's a lovely space and overlooks the garden and pool and can open out onto the alfresco. It's perfect for our family, kids doing homework, working from home. We entertain quite frequently and often have extra kids over. We also have a seperate downstairs office, laundry, reading room and another upstairs living room. Not UK.

We have an open plan kitchen, seating and dining area at the back of the house overlooking the garden. It's a lovely space where we spend most of the day/early evening. I like the smell of cooking so don't see why that would be a problem.

But I wouldn't want open plan if we didn't have a hallway and separate living room.