Terraced house - 2 separate reception rooms vs open plan

[Gingka]

Hello everyone,

Could I pick your brains on this? For those who have lived in a house with two separate reception rooms vs open plan - which one is your favourite? Would you choose differently in hindsight?

Example floor plans for reference, terraced Victorian houses.

Thank you!

Second one. Can't stand open plan. Expensive to heat.

Agreed.

Open plan is just about bearable when there are just two of you, but when there are children people need to be able to close doors so they can watch TV, play games, listen to music, read quietly etc. Open plan doesn't allow that.

Separate.
Open plan is awful. Cooking smells ingrained into the sofa and other furnishings, can’t hear the tv for the dishwasher or extractor fan.
Where is someone supposed to sit whilst someone is banging about cooking a full on roast? They won’t be able to do anything in private unless they sit in the bedrooms.

We had an open plan kitchen dining room with a separate living room at the front. It worked really well for us.
Edit to add - when I say open plan, there was just no door between the two - nothing fancy!

Who is going to be living in the house?

Aside from the heating issue, if more than one person, you need more than one room, so people can do different things.

Also, if you're going to be WFH, ideally you want a separate room with a door you can shut so you're not looking at work stuff when not at work. (Could be spare bedroom, of course.)

Same goes for any hobby, whether it's art or sewing or stamp collecting.

Also I would never have kitchen and reception room in one, due to noise from washing machine, having to look at the washing up waiting, etc.

Separate rooms. Your plan B is exactly my house. Only difference is we've knocked through to the kitchen. We live in the dining/kitchen in the day and then have a snug to go to in the evenings - TV, woodburner, cosy and crucially a door to close between the sofa and noisy washing machine.

I find the knocked through lay out gives you one long room like a bowling alley and it's difficult to know where to put furniture. Often the chairs end up all lined up looking at the TV.

Its really interesting, we have a small victorian semi nearly everyone we know in similar houses in london has combined the living and dining room to make an open plan (ish) space, because these are not large rooms, however we have the traditional lay out, the dining room is our "snug" for books, and games and the like. Our kitchen is just large enough for a table.

We have two living rooms that are next to each other with the wall removed BUT with doors. Day to day we tend to keep the doors shut: heating cost, privacy etc. We tend to have the doors open more in summer or parties/people round. Not sure if I have helped.

Two rooms! It’s a faff having people drop by if there’s washing or ironing out. You can’t just move it to different room if you only have the one space.
Also people can see right through. That’s annoying too.

Oh and also to add now we have one child who needs to study while the other needs to play the doors are a god send.

Also people can see right through. That’s annoying too.

When I was looking to buy a house, something I definitely wanted was a separate hallway, so people who came to the front door couldn't see straight into the living room. Some people had knocked the front room and hallway into one (and other houses the front door had always opened directly into the front room).

I have lived in 2 different Victorian terraced houses. The first was bigger, we had a hallway with stairs from near the front door up the side wall. The 2 main rooms we had knocked together but had internal French doors fitted meaning we could have one big open room with them open or 2 smaller ones with them closed. The kitchen was seperate. The second where we now live is smaller with an extension which housed the kitchen as in the photo. We swapped the kitchen back into the middle space and what was the kitchen area is now the dining area.
Both houses worked for us as the whole ground floor wasn’t open plan.

Separate every time for me. Can't abide open plan.

Thank you all! Sounds like we have a strong winner 🎉

I would say I prefer what I have is back room knocked into kitchen to make large kitchen diner and a small separate living room

Separate reception rooms boost the house value too, by up to £10,000 according to my estate agent.

I think this is best option. It's what I have too double doors which I can choose to open or shut.

Separate living room come what may!

With all other things being equal? Or does separate reception rooms generally mean it's a bigger house overall/has a more usable layout eg hallway.
Otherwise that's a lot of money for a stud wall with a door in it!

Depends on family set up I think. More than one or two then separate spaces are necessary. I live alone in a similar house and it's all open plan. Of course I love it to bits and what cooking smells? Window open, cooker hood on, maybe for a little while alright, but it soon dissipates. Walls and under floor insulated and new double glazing. I have a big hall separately.

My builder converted it and I can easily re install stud walls if I want. But I don't want. So easy to keep clean, all modern and new. I do have separate areas within the open plan like a sitting/reading area, TV zone, work station that I can cover up when not in use, dining area, kitchen with peninsula.

Definitely separate, especially if there is no room in the kitchen to eat.

Cheaper to heat, more wall space for pictures (I love pictures) or furniture, separate space to watch telly/listen to music/do homework/read a book/chat to a friend/have a sofabed for people to stay/anything really!

I used to live in a very similar Victorian house and was always glad to close off doors in winter. It’s nice to join up the kitchen with dining as much as possible, even if just taking off doors. But then have a lovely snug lounge.

I have b.
Perfect now that I have a lodger,I'm in the room at the front in the evenings and he has a sofa and tv in the dining room.
I walk through past him to get to the kitchen so we can chat but then I have my cosy space to myself. It really works.

I know 3 families who changed to be open plan and all regret it! Citing not having anywhere they can just be away from kids noise/toys/tv noise etc.

2 rooms is so much more flexible and more wall space for art and furniture.. plus easier to heat effectively.

I also like a designated “crap room”

Separate but you might want to open up the dining room/kitchen.

Or get your side return done, so you have a living room, a family room (current dining room), and a bigger eat-in kitchen.