Open plan do you regret it.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

We have bought a house in a lovely location with planning permission for extension. The layout of the extension despite only being drawn up last year is quite dated- lots of poky rooms. It has been suggested we go for one big open plan room, it would be huge (approx 75sq m).

For those of you with totally open plan spaces are there things you wish were different? We do plan lots of storage.
One of the reasons is that the room would then be East:West and for the SE we have amazing views and skies. The one below was 2 nights ago and this what we would like to capitalise on.
I am home alone a lot with my dogs as DH travels very regularly so I really do only live in one room. DC is 18 and off to Uni. We do host my family a fair amount so regularly have 7-9 people around the table.

I loved it when the children were small but now there just aren't enough doors/spaces to separate into. Lockdown was especially tricky when we were all working from home and couldnt easily separate. We lose a lot of heat in the winter too which is a huge concern with rising energy prices.

another thing to consider with small kids is that you cant just leave them playing to eg go put washing away or pop to the loo as they have access to the kitchen etc at all times. if the rooms are seperate you can shut the kitchen and its knives and the hot pan simmering on the stove away.
Otherwiae you have to have some sort of awkard child gate system, or everything childlocked to an inch of its life or take the child with you everytime you leave the room!

I hd a child gate between the wall and the "breakfast bar" and it worked great 🤷🏻‍♀️ they could play well in the living area and I could still interact with them

Actually it worked better than the one we had to put at the door or the kitchen and the kids would just sit on the hallway screaming to come in 🤦🏻‍♀️ also needed all the locks and whatnot because, well, it's still a kitchen and the children still live in the house 😉

Oh! Btw the "breakfast bar" I was mentioningn was really just a tall partition but slightly wider than just a wall (get it?....). It was great because it was open plan but it hid the kitchen almost completely 🙂 you wouldn't be able to see the sink/stove/most of the counters from the living or dining area.

I was also in a house that had a hole in the wall, like a big window. However that made the kitchen very dark (no windows) and always needed to have all the lights on. But it's a good alternative if you're on the fence about it

I love our open plan area (kitchen/dining/living with separate walk in larder and utility) as the views are amazing and it helps us stay connected when there's just the two of us. We designed this so it can easily be divided into separate rooms in the future and it's a very warm and energy efficient home so there is no issue with heating etc. We have lounge areas on each floor so there's plenty of space for privacy and peace and quiet, if required.

I would love this space for entertaining. But day to day, especially on a cold night on my own, I'd want a snug cosy room to go to. Gives me the creeps if I'm honest. Luxury problem to have mind.

We had it in our old house as it was very small, now we have a lounge - diner with separate kitchen and I really like it. The mess, noise and smells of the kitchen stay in there and then we eat and socialise separately. I don't spend hours slaving away in the kitchen, we also don't have a utility room so useful to close the door when the washer is spinning loudly.

I certainly like a kitchen I can shut the door on. We have an open plan L shaped dining room / living room, with a kitchen in a room of its own. It works really nicely.

i also remember my own house growing up - it had lots of separate rooms which was good when my Dad wanted to practice playing piano, I needed to do my homework, my sister was playing with a friend, my mum wanted peace and quiet and my brother was listening to music. Teenage life with open plan would have been very difficult!

@Lonecatwithkitten and @LadyCampanulaTottington would either of you mind PMing the details of your yacht turned kitchen designers?!

I don't think I would like the distraction of up to seven people talking to me whilst cooking, the food would turn take ages and turn out rubbish! My mum used to handle it without a problem though.

We have a massive L shaped open plan in our rental - 20 X 30 X 20, with a separate utility room.

I like that we have to do washing up straight away because I hate coming down to muck in the morning so it gets done straight away and the OH can't really get away with 'forgetting' when it's in his face.

I dislike that the vast number and sizes of windows in the room turns the whole area into a sauna for all of summer.

It's big enough for cooking smells not to hang around, even without using an extractor.

There's a separate utility room, so no WM noises.

We put the DW on just before bed.

I find it really useful to be able to easily get my OH's attention for heavy things whilst cooking as I am somewhat disabled.

I hate with a passion that the underfloor heating under sandstone floors takes five hours to heat up. Some of the zones have overlapping pipework too, so several foot across the room becomes unbearably hot (of course, underneath a sofa!).

It works for two of us with no kids. I can see how it would be a nightmare for folks who never get a quiet moment to themselves.

Great in summer. Crap in winter.

Open plan is the way to go. You can’t beat it.

We love our open plan, so sociable and great for having people over.
only thing is we have a separate small lounge which we’d be lost without. Nice to be able to retire into there and have a separate to elsewhere.
id recommend being able to close one area off if you are able with partition doors or similar

Yes, yes to open plan on the proviso that there is a separate laundry, a second lounge and a door separating the room from the hallway. Lovely and sociable to be in the kitchen and watch tv with family or host others without being in kitchen away from everyone.

Totally love our kitchen/diner/family room but also have separate living room and utility room. Not got teenagers yet so not sure if view will change then.

No way would I buy a house that had an open plan living room with stairs upstairs. All the heat and warmth is just sucked away upstairs.

I really like our open plan kitchen/ diner/ lounge. The only downside is that it has bene hard to heat over the winter and also noisy when we ds2 decides to cook at 9pm when we are trying to watch TV !

OP, maybe build it as open plan (because as an extension youve probably also got a seperate living room).
We've mived our kitchen into a bigger brighwr room
Then youre free to add glass doors, partition walls etc if it doesnt work (as will future buyers). Makes it more flexible.