Do you think lockdown will make open plan less fashionable?

[PawPatrolOnARoll]

Just curious, personally I'm not really keen on the all open plan thing anyway. I wonder if being locked down in our houses for a year will make people move away from it. I personally have been very thankful for separate spaces in the house so I can get away from others

I have a terraced house with separate living room, dining room and kitchen. It's been fine for working at home. I've been in the dining room, DH in the living room and dds in their bedrooms (both have desks in their bedrooms, whether they are sitting at the desk or on their bed is up to them). If we'd had open plan space then dh and I would have had to share the space as there isn't room in our bedroom for either of us to have a desk up there. We also wouldn't have been able to put the washing machine or dishwasher on while either of us were working. I've never really wanted open plan living space anyway, but lockdown has really cemented in my head that the separate rooms we've got now are the best way for our family to live.

I love open plan and won’t stop, but I’m not British. In my experience many Brits don’t like it anyway whereas in the Netherlands where I’m from everything is open plan.

Think the trend (thankfully) is on its way out, there was a stage when everyone was doing the same thing with islands and bifold door but with all fads it’s on its way out. Lived in an open plan house with a small living room two years ago much nicer now with a proper sized lounge, kitchen, office, dining room and play room. As for bifolds half of them don’t work properly may suit Florida but not rainy Manchester where I’m from.

Open plan is great until your kids become teenagers, then having a separate space for them to hang out, play music etc is invaluable.
Open plan kitchen/diner makes sense, but a separate livingroom is invaluable, lockdown or not.

No.

@Awmum42 when we were house hunting recently we saw lots coming up with the bifold doors and I would wonder how often they actually got to have them open!

My old flat had the best of both worlds, big double doors that opened up from the kitchen to the living space.

I love a kitchen diner, having a whole separate room that you only use for mealtimes seems odd these days. However I think a separate lounge is so important, it means you can have some peace and quiet downstairs and not have to retreat to bedrooms.

I love open plan but yes, glad we have a separate office space. That's all you need though. The rest of the house works well as open plan if you all respect each other.

How can it though, when one child needs to do their trumpet practice and another needs to do their piano practice and one of the family is trying to do homework/ study / paid work from home. Whilst one family member is settling down to watch something on TV and another wants to read something they need to concentrate on. The washing machine is going when someone wants a peaceful 1/2 hour listening to some quiet music. The extractor fan being on when someone is trying to concentrate on something they are listening to, which isn't on too loud as they are aware there is someone else in the space who doesn't need it. When I need to be discussing something confidential on a work call. When dh is on an international conference call. When dd is listening to a streamed lecture.
etc
etc
etc.
It's got nothing to do with lack of respect and everything to do with more than one person sharing not enough spaces.

We put an extension on which is 80% kitchen / dining / living and 20% study. We also have a separate living room, shower room & large utility downstairs.
Works perfectly as toddler only goes in the kitchen area where all toys & a play table are but the rest is left tidy. Also with a hard floor she can paint / cause mess and it’s easy to clear up.
The space is open plan to the large hall which is handy for riding her trike but I have a dog / child gate to pull across when I want to contain either dogs or child!

^ ...does nobody retreat to their bedroom to do study or work?

Think it depends on the size of room and also which areas have been combined. We live in a new build which has a very small kitchen (7sqm) and a larger room which is our dining and living room (so the only living space in the whole house). It was a bit of a niggle to me pre-covid but being on lockdown with a 2.5 year old spending every waking moment in one room, apart from when I've been to the loo or escaped to the kitchen, has been horrible. My child gets bored after an hour or two and asks to go to my bedroom just for a change of environment and to be honest I feel just as desperate! I tell my husband when he gets home I feel like a hamster trapped in a 25sqm cage! We've recently sold here and are hopefully completing on a house soon where there's a living room, separate kitchen/dining rooms (that we will combine), utility room, basement room and space for an extension to add an extra playroom/snug. I'm craving separate rooms and whilst I see how a kitchen diner works well, combining other spaces doesn't for me!!

We had entirely open plan with small children and it was fine but I’m glad we moved as they hit teen years so now have separate sitting room, snug and study plus a big kitchen diner. Lockdown with one room downstairs and no study for dh wfh would have been very stressful.

@whyhell0there

^ ...does nobody retreat to their bedroom to do study or work?

No-one who has unlimited funds chooses to live in a house with a single open plan space plus bedrooms that are multifunctional spaces, people with money have large houses with lots of living spaces for different functions and only use bedrooms as bedrooms. Since most of us don't unlimited funds then the options are either smaller separate rooms or an open plan space. Magazines and architects prefer the later because it photographs well but smaller spaces allow privacy and are easier to heat. Either is a compromise that those with more money don't have to make.

We have a toddler and I've found having separate rooms means it's much easier to babyproof and keep an eye on babies and toddlers, can contain them to one room with the door closed before they can figure out how to open them etc. We are looking to buy our first home which will be a standard 3 bed terrace or if we get lucky a semi, and completely open plan downstairs is a red line for me. I wouldn't mind an open plan kitchen/diner as long as there is a separate living room, however from the houses we've been seeing, the kitchen space tends to be smaller and less units in the open plan set ups than the little separate kitchens like what we have. I don't really understand wanting to sacrifice kitchen unit space just for the aesthetic of having an open plan cooking and eating area. But then I like cooking, and I like cooking ALONE, I find it calming after a day looking after a baby or toddler .

Not sure how much lockdown has changed people's views on this, but I think the trend for having everything open plan is on the way out. Having a large kitchen diner and separate living room is ideal. Cannot see the need for a dining room that hardly ever gets used. Much better to have a large sociable kitchen

We have 2 separate living spaces, plus a separate kitchen. When we went into the first lockdown, DC were 2.5 and 3.5 (DD2.5 also has an autism diagnosis), plus DH and I were both working from home and attend lots of meetings.

We set up 2 office spaces with deck, chair, monitors etc in a corner of each of the living spaces.

Thank goodness we had those completely separate rooms! The person who was working was able to properly work, while the person looking after the DC was able to look after them fully. There's no way we could have done that if we were open plan.

P.S. I hate open plan anyway!

*with desk

@LittleOverwhelmed I would love an extra room like yours, it would be used as a kids den. I had dreams of the sitting room being a nice slightly more formal room however it's been overtaken by the PlayStation and dinosaur worlds that have been created and mustn't be touched

I would never want a fully open plan house and I doubt many do.
Our old house had a huge family room/kitchen but then we had a separate utility, lounge and snug. We're creating similar at our current house but never just open it fully up.

We have non open plan house. Lots of smaller rooms - has been brilliant in lockdown. Also worked before - 1 person can have visitor and rest can still watch tv or be in kitchen. Have kitchen diner for the social space

DH is an architect and says that lockdown has made people start adding back previously knocked down walls.

I’ve personally loved it, when school was closed being able to work and know what my five year old was up to was a huge bonus. If we weren’t open plan I either wouldn’t be able to see him, or he would have been limited to one room.

Depends. Open plan with no other areas, difficult. We have a mix with a new extension, big k/d/l open plan, then an office, a utility for loud machines and the existing living room is separate.