Open plans more desirable or not?

[estebancolberto]

We are buying a 1930s 3-bed house. We are considering whether we can remove the 3 internal walls downstairs to connect the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Is this a good idea? Are open plan houses desirable or not for buyers as we would like to sell this house after 5 or 10 years.

Do all washing overnight

The Fire Brugade advise against this.

*Brigade!

Fully open plan spaces look like a home where the buffalo roam if there is a single thing out of place anywhere.

I would even advise keeping the kitchen closed off.

Depends on what you enjoy as a family.
We are open plan at the back - with kitchen, dining and living area. As the main person who cooks and in a family who enjoy watching films and sports together, I don’t want to be away from the action.
However, we do have a separate living room, separate utility/laundry and study.

We live in a 30s semi. The kitchen wall was already knocked out through to the dining room which makes it much better as the kitchens are quite small. But we’ve a separate lounge. We prefer it this way, can close the door and feel cosy etc.

Agreed. Open plan has been all the rage for 15 years, but those of us that lived with it now recognise the down sides also...

• not cosy in winter
• more noise travels / echo space if hardfloors
• kitchen cooking smells go everywhere
• more expensive to heat

For me an open kitchen diner is nice, but then separate living room / study etc I'd ideal.

Having lived in an open plan house I wouldn’t want to do it again! Noise, smells, cosy-ness, privacy, heating, having to see any mess - all the time!

Agreed. Open plan has been all the rage for 15 years, but those of us that lived with it now recognise the down sides also...

ive lived in the 1930s traditional semi and an open plan modern home.

I find the open plan far more appealing, it’s cheaper to heat as modern build with extra lagging etc rather than a 1930s build without the insulation aspect.

have engineered oak in both homes but noise doesn’t travel in either

extractor fan takes food smells away, don’t have issues there

find the open plan much more socialable, even though it’s open plan the lighting and how the furniture is arranged makes the place feel comfortable.

each to their own and I’d struggle to go back to separate enclosed rooms as it’d feel like being shut off

I don't like open plan but we have no children

Where do people put plug sockets when a whole downstairs is open plan, Ive got lamps everywhere in the living room, along the side of each wall so I have 5 lamps on the side tables, the wires and plugs are all behind each sofa so nicely hidden away

We had to have a pillar in the middle of the room so we had sockets put in there it's right beside the table, and on the Island we have both sockets at the ends and a socket in the middle you can pull up when needed, it works quite well. We have a few lamps - but the lights in the room are zoned so they tend to create quite nice lighting even without the lamps.

From a different perspective - we prefer open-plan, however if pushed we could live with a large kitchen diner, but we wouldn't buy a house with no option to eat at the kitchen table - would not want or value a separate dining room. And would not want a living room with a dining area. For us a kitchen needs to be a social place, the person cooking (and that is everyone in our house) needs to feel part of life beyond the stove. The most important thing is being able to have a table in the kitchen.

5 lamps is a bit ott in one room, unless its fully open plan ?

I have sockets on the walls, Ive just counted up 10 sockets and 4 lamps

Dh loves open plan. I hate it. I prefer rooms. Don’t mind kitchen - diner, but that’s about it.

We have a tiny (for the 70s) 3 bed house, there are 10 identical (outside) in our cul-de-sac, and every single one has been made different indoors.

We kept ours in the original layout... through lounge-diner, kitchen. Looking at others, the one I prefer is the one where they put up a wall that goes half way across, with a sliding door that goes inside the wall when open... to make it a separate dining room when needed.

I don't like fully open plan, and I absolutely 100% hate having stairs in the open plan space as noise/smells travel upstairs.

We’re looking to move at the moment but I’m afraid we wouldn’t even go to view any property with a massive open plan downstairs. It’s instantly off-putting to me.

Open plan has walks! A pillar? Not sure why anyone would have a pillar? My kitchen island has sockets. The walls have sockets. I have a large Arco lamp over the table and lots of options built into ceiling lighting. Also if you have built in furniture as a room divider, you put sockets into that.

Also, since when did a door keep children out of an office room? They can open them!

I wouldn’t view a house fully open plan as I wouldn’t want to reinstate missing walls. 1930’s will be nice brick walls and a stud replacement would be a massive downgrade. Even if it had a though lounge I would only be interested if it had or I could put in doors between.

Is it?

No, its just a living room, 10x14. We have lamps at either end of the sofa in the bay window, a lamp next to an arm chair, a lamp behind the other sofa and another lamp at the end of that sofa

It depends on the ages of your DC and how you live in your house. Our open plan kitchen/dining/lounge works amazing for us with little DC. But we also have a separate lounge, utility, study, playroom (which will eventually become another lounge for the DC as they get older). My little DC always want to be around me so open plan works fabulously when I’m cooking and tidying. It’s fab for hosting lots of people and we can open the bifolds along the back of the whole open plan in the summer which is stunning and use the garden as an extension of the house.
As DC grow up, I would consider putting in a partial wall between the kitchen diner and lounge so we have the option to close it as that may work better as the family grows, but also allows us to open it up when we are hosting.

I dont like ceiling lighting.

We have a lighting system which incorporates ceiling, mini recessed lights, spots, table lamps and the arco lamp. So overhead, task and lamps create ambient lighting. It layers light according to what you are doing. You don’t need walls everywhere. Just imagination.

Kitchen diner yes, separate living room to keep cooking smells and fat out!

"Also, since when did a door keep children out of an office room? They can open them!"

We wouldn't allow this in our house. The office is where work takes place and also where children's presents are kept. And it wasn't baby-proofed, although we're long past that stage now. So children have never been allowed in there, and they know it isn't acceptable behaviour to open a shut office or bedroom door. It's a lot easier to consistently enforce an actual boundary (a closed door) than an imaginary line between two open plan spaces!

This does seem to be a shock to visiting children when DD tells them they're not allowed in the office room!