Will open-plan fall out of fashion?

[dollyolly]

Just moved into a 1930s 3-bed (ok, 2.5 bed) – it's one of very few in the area that hasn't been structurally changed in any way. No extensions, no walls knocked through. Small-ish kitchen with two downstairs reception rooms.

Everyone assumes we'll knock walls through to create an open-plan space, but it suits my husband and I as it is, as it's just us here.

I know open-plan has pros – for example, I guess it's very useful to be able to keep small kids in view, and a lot of people hate small kitchens. Plus, spaces can be more multi-functional.

But I wonder if there'll be a move back to privacy, separateness, each room having a very defined purpose. Open-plan is relatively recent, and there were good reasons for designing these homes as they originally were.

Interested to hear thoughts on this. Why do you love open-plan (or not)? Has anyone regretted knocking walls through? Do you agree it could fall out of fashion and folks will start putting walls back in?

I think it is more a convenient way of getting food from the kitchen to the dining area myself.

Kitchens are normally untidy more practically orientated areas especially when a lot of cooking is going on whereas dining rooms are normally more relaxing where the meal is eaten in comfort. So the separation helps partition the relative mess of the practical cooking area from the luxury of the dining room.

In my fantasy lottery win home I would have a large open plan living, cooking and dining room which could be separated into different rooms according to how we wanted the space.

I like separate rooms. I don't mind the kitchen being small and separate as long as there is enough worktop space and cupboard space to be practical.
When my DC were small we had an open plan living and dining room with a large hatch to the kitchen. This meant DH watching TV in the front end of the room with DC at the back with games system and me having to listen to clashing noise from both sides.
Modern open plan with kitchen and living room as one means you have to keep the kitchen tidy all the time to feel relaxed as the kitchen is always in view. It's even worse with visitors. I don't want guests watching me when cooking.
The other issue with knocking through is that teens/young adults still at home want a space away from adults.

@dollyolly I grew up with open plan, as I lived in Australia and it was very warm so it made sense. Over here though I'm not a big fan and would much prefer separate rooms. My in laws moved into somewhere with open plan areas and they are talking about adding walls and doors as it costs a fortune to heat and even when heated it isn't very warm. Unless the house is ultra modern and super heat efficient I don't think open plan is a good idea. In a 1930s house like you have I'd keep the walls, I bet it's nice and cosy.

We have a 1930s semi, which was originally as you described. We extended into the loft so we now have 4 good sized bedrooms plus an office space in the box room plus family bathrooms on the two first and second floors. Downstairs we kept the original layout, but extended at the side to create a large eat in kitchen, a utility room and a downstairs loo. We're really happy with this layout. We retained the separate dining room and the separate living room. Only the original kitchen was incorporated into the extended kitchen.

The standard 1930's kitchens do need something doing to them to make the suitable for today's lifestyle. Knocking out the wall between kitchen and dining room is the cheapest solution, but I much prefer the extended layout that we went for retaining two decent sized reception rooms in addition to the extended kitchen. I actively dislike when the living room and the dining room have been knocked into one large narrow room.

It's easy to stick up a stud wall or a single/double door in an open plan. It is far more difficult to knock a wall down and reconfigure everything! I Know This.....

Living spaces totally depend on lifestyle. Families want open kitchen/diner and separate TV/reading/study/playroom area, I'd say that reflects most family lifestyles.

Those without children or OH (me) love big open plan areas. I have no one to escape from, I don't need separate areas blocked off and so on. Similar to Loft style but in a two storey house.

For many years I had a kitchen with room for a small table, and a separate through room with double doors so in fact had three potential rooms downstairs. I only needed one so I got the walls taken down and now have a similar set up to the Dutch house shown in the link above. Not quite as IKEA like, but all open but with kitchen at the back.

It works brilliantly for me as I constantly just used the old kitchen for everything out of pure laziness. Cook, eat, browse, read, so the other two rooms were dead space. My siblings called them "the museum" lol.

I'm delighted with the result now. I do have a stand alone folding screen that I can put up to block off the TV area if anyone is over and wants to watch TV, or who might want to escape to if there is a crowd around. That works very well. The screen is folded up against the wall, same colour as the paintwork so it fits in ok.

Just saying that it all boils down to your lifestyle.

I don’t like open plan. I like to shut the door on the mess. Large kitchen/diners seem to be what everyone wants at the moment. I can’t believe the number of my friends who have designed their downstairs to get a large kitchen/diner at the expense of previously lovely lounges. When I get asked over for coffee they want to sit in their kitchen/ diner instead of the lounge. WHY?

I think sitting around a table is much more convivial and sociable than sitting on a sofa. The sitting area is for sitting/reading/studying/TV to me anyway!

Open plan is already falling out of fashion. It suits some houses, obviously, but energy costs and more nuanced design choices mean people are starting to move back towards separate spaces.

@dollyolly an interesting thing to note in the Dutch House @edgeware linked to is that washing machine & tumble dryer are on the top floor of the house, no ground floor utility room.

Our Dutch house was the same. We put it down to the house being concrete with a brick facing.

This building style is typical in the Netherlands as a lot of houses are built on drained ground so the pilings go down miles!

Personally, I love our open plan. It's a large room with kitchen, dining and sofa area. However, we do have another room for anybody to escape to if the want to get away from the communal area. If I could only have one room, I wouldn't open it up.

I hate fully open plan. But a kitchen diner and a separate lounge downstairs I think is the ideal. I can’t see kitchen diners falling out of fashion. But can definitely see the whole open plan thing.

Having lived in open plan before I've become very anti-open plan. It was fine when it was just DH and I. When the DCs arrived and became mobile it was a nightmare. The noise of an extractor fan whilst cooking, kids playing, someone trying to watch TV, baby trying to nap... all got a bit much. It was sensory overload. And if that wasn't enough, our staircase was a 'feature' right in the middle of this big open plan space so you couldn't even escape the noise by going upstairs. Lockdown with everyone homework and homeschooling was

Other negative thing about big open plan, kitchen/diner and lounge is cooking smells and everything becoming sticky. Also the house never feels tidy.

We're very open plan but do have a small, separate snug/nook so we can get away if we need to. I like open plan but it sometimes does feel impersonal.

Your house sounds like ours, though we have put a utility room on the back. Most of the houses in our road have one or more of the downstairs walls (between the two reception rooms and/orthe wall between the kitchen and the back reception room) knocked through, but we never have because we wanted to have the facility of two separate rooms for various purposes. When it came to lockdown, we were very glad indeed because I would have been stuffed without being able to take over the back room partially as my office, and it really wouldn't have worked if it had all been open plan.

We have a pretty small kitchen and, ideally, I would like something bigger, if only because if there is more than any one person in there at any one time you are constantly getting in each other's way, but it's not the end of the world.

When I see big open plan areas in houses on property shows, I always think I would reject them because I really, really want the ability to go off and hide myself in a separate room sometimes without making for my bedroom. Also I don't want to have to heat a vast area when it isn't necessary, for example when I'm the only person who is in at home.

If you were to do anything structural, I would open outwards and make your kitchen larger and keep the separate dining and living rooms.

I have a big kitchen diner that opens out onto the patio for (supposed) summer dining (it never happens!) but I wouldn’t be without my separate living room/dining room/games room. Especially in the winter months for coziness.

I can remember people knocking through front rooms and dining rooms when I was a child in the 70s to make one big lounge but open plan which includes the kitchen is relatively new.
Fashions come and go but I wouldn't want just one downstairs space, I think having a cosy lounge where you can shut the door is important.
Open plan can be really noisy particularly if there's no utility room and sharing the space with a family, you need a quiet space to escape to or rooms where two different activities can be done like homework / wfh or watching tv/ playing music.
So I wouldn't be knocking down walls in your 30s semi either but it's personal choice.

Ah I did not that spot that!

Also love the idea of the serving hatch as a subtle pretence of servants. That's the sort of thing, small detail, I find absolutely fascinating.

I have these books, attached, which do have some snippets. But I'm looking out for more.

I think it is going to go back to smaller rooms as the price of heating them gets more expensive. Plus things go in phases and cycles.

I really dislike open plan. I just cannot understand how it became popular.

I would like a proper kitchen you can eat in too though. But a separate living space. And, ideally, a proper separate dining room too.

But I can dream on for that!

@Flamme envious of your utility room! I think that's the only change we'd consider making. Would be amazing to come in with muddy shoes and not worry. That's a long way off for us though – cost, availability of tradies and also the simple fact of living here long enough to truly get to know and live in the house.

We cook a lot but we're coping ok. Luckily my husband works in catering so he's used to manoeuvring safely in a small kitchen. Behind!

I think open plan is already out of fashion. I saw a home Reno tv show, which aren’t exactly known for being cutting edge, talking about putting room dividers between spaces and the value of separate zones. My house is open plan (not done by us) and I wouldn’t choose it again, or would be looking to put walls back. It’s not energy efficient and noise carries.

Personally i dont like open plan. My parents house is all free flowing and all i feel like it does is noise pollute. Can hear the washing machine while you eat, people cooking when you're watching tv and no privacy bar the bedrooms.

I don't like open plan as it is harder to heat and if I haven't done the dishes, it is nice not to have a messy in full view

Had an open plan before and hated hearing everything on when trying to relax on an evening. In a different house and have a kitchen/diner. Very nice and practical. Got a living room to retreat too.