Open plan living.

[Hedge]

Lots of houses on our street knock through the wall seperating the Living and Dining rooms. We personally had an extension put on the back of ours but still maintained seperation from the front living room.

Everyone seems to love open plan but since having a child I am glad we didn't go the whole hog.

The living room has my surround sound system and my large TV which gives me somewhere to retreat.

I guess we went semi open with an orangery extension that opens into the snug (a new term to me) but I'm still thinking ill end up reinstating a divider of sorts in future.

How are your homes planned? Open plan or seperated?

We built a nice space for dining and entertaining yet we probably only have guests a few times a year .

Modern homes look quite open plan but I imagine energy efficiency will maybe force houses to keep rooms closed off in future.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

Have whatever you please because you own the house, not anyone else .

I live in a 2018 new build, which has a large dining kitchen and a separate lounge. I prefer it that way, but I do understand why people do it if their house is on the smaller side.

 

[HungryHippos]

I quite like open plan, walls restrict space a bit, and more walls mean that you need to think about things like positions of rads, clearance for tables, furniture, door openings etc.

For a home cinema experience, I think having walls is important. You can't tune 5.1 speakers well in a large open area, the walls help with acoustics.

Just me on my own though, so I don't have to live in a large open space with more people about. My thoughts might change if I did.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

How are your homes planned? Open plan or seperated?

I live in a tent with 5G connectivity an outdoor toilet and a mega 5 foot open plan room with an extension on for storage. Plenty open space with a 55" tv mounted on a tree and power coming from a local power line. I never eat inside my tent I always go to 5* restaurants. Perfect!

 

[tom_nieto]

We had a decent sized extension to achieve an open plan kitchen/diner. We have retained a separate living room which is a much more adult space and nice to retreat to in the evenings once the child has gone to bed. The open plan kitchen/diner is great for kids and entertaining and allows everyone to be in one place and interact. It makes cooking a much more social experience too. Completely open plan is cool, but it really depends on how you use your house - if you work from home and have kids it's difficult to focus without a place to escape to.

 

[jpaul]

The newish BBC series https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00095py/your-home-made-perfect-series-1-episode-6
is quite good to develop ideas on whether open plan living would work for you ... the few I have seen they have proposed sliding panels to divide up when you want.
Personally wouldn't want to loose segregation of living room and kitchen ... if one person wants to cook(from scratch), with all the associated noises/smells and listen to the radio/music say, whilst another doing something else in the living room.

 

[PardonTheWait]

The house we’ve just moved out of had a smallish kitchen and a fairly big living/dining room. I quite liked the layout but felt it was difficult to get really cosy in the large room.

we’ve just moved into a place which is divided by the stairs so there’s no real way to make it open plan, the house is fairly wide but small front to back. I quite like it. There’s a large kitchen and a quite large living room and the ‘dining room’ is a weird conservatory/extension off the kitchen.

I think my ideal layout is kitchen/diner and separate living room.

I lived in a small flat for a bit with the kitchen and living room in one, and it was fine for space saving and so on but really I would never choose it, not in a proper house. It was ok because I lived on my own.

 

[SimonR]

We just opened our 4m x 3m kitchen up into a 6m x 9m extension as a kitchen diner and sitting space. We still have a large lounge and formal dining room. We entertain a lot in our new kitchen diner and it’s now the hub of the house. I guess that I am lucky as I have a dedicated cinema room on the second floor.

 

[Peerzy]

One of the biggest problems with an open plan downstairs is not being able to 'close off / shut the door' on the other area.

Kitchen with a washing machine going isn't ideal if it opens up into your living room where your trying to watch TV. Cooking smelly food can also intrude on a comfortable living area.

I think the 'perfect' ideal is;

A separate utility area for washing and drying of clothes, storage of cleaning products etc....
A large open plan kitchen / diner (with table and chairs) for preparing food, cooking, eating and entertaining
A shut off living room complete with sofa, TV, fireplace etc....

I'll add an additional study / play room / kids room so that living room can remain a fairly 'adult' space but that's for a separate thread / discussion.

 

[krooton]

Have whatever you please because you own the house, not anyone else .

I live in a 2018 new build, which has a large dining kitchen and a separate lounge. I prefer it that way, but I do understand why people do it if their house is on the smaller side.

Same, my parents knocked through to make the kitchen and dining rooms open plan in my childhood home, and I wouldn't have it any other way now. It also means socialising whilst cooking is doable.

 

[Saytan]

i like rooms. I actually blocked off a double door between my living room and dining area - but that was at least partly because the living room didnt really work the way i wanted.

An open plan kitchen diner makes absolute sense though - a dining room feels like yesterday's news.

 

[Ninco!]

One of the biggest problems with an open plan downstairs is not being able to 'close off / shut the door' on the other area.

Kitchen with a washing machine going isn't ideal if it opens up into your living room where your trying to watch TV. Cooking smelly food can also intrude on a comfortable living area.

I think the 'perfect' ideal is;

A separate utility area for washing and drying of clothes, storage of cleaning products etc....
A large open plan kitchen / diner (with table and chairs) for preparing food, cooking, eating and entertaining
A shut off living room complete with sofa, TV, fireplace etc....

I'll add an additional study / play room / kids room so that living room can remain a fairly 'adult' space but that's for a separate thread / discussion.

Agree with the above. A couple of flats I lived in had open plan living, whilst they were very nice; the smell of cooking got everywhere!

Definitely prefer closing off the kitchen to avoid the noise of a washing machine or limit the smell of cooking permeating the rest of the living space.

 

[psd99]

We had a decent sized extension to achieve an open plan kitchen/diner. We have retained a separate living room which is a much more adult space and nice to retreat to in the evenings once the child has gone to bed. The open plan kitchen/diner is great for kids and entertaining and allows everyone to be in one place and interact. It makes cooking a much more social experience too. Completely open plan is cool, but it really depends on how you use your house - if you work from home and have kids it's difficult to focus without a place to escape to.

I got the exact same setup, it's also quite good when you got guests over to segregate each area if required. Also no hassle to keep bringing food from the kitchen to the dining room especially when you got a lot of people over.

the open diner/kitchen is the hub of the home and the biggest area out of the whole home.

 

[Drumroll]

Personally I don't like. Even less so if I appreciated curry or other strong smell spices.
I don't mind as much living+dinning room, but open plan kitchen is a big no-no for me.

 

[PurplePhoenix]

My parents took down a wall to open up the house . Apart from adding in a breakfast bar the walkway is blocked off to keep the dogs in the kitchen area.

While it looks good , they didn't think about what you to do when you have 3 muddy dogs.

 

[tom_nieto]

the open diner/kitchen is the hub of the home and the biggest area out of the whole home.

Absolutely. We’ve found ourselves using the space more and more since we had the work done.

It won’t suit everyone’s living style but we’ve found our setup really works well.

 

[dan958]

My parents did the opposite in my childhood home when it was first bought. It was already open planned from the living room to thw dining room (open arch), and it was bricked up.

Due to how it was before, you lost a wall that would have been decent for a sofa.

 

[the-evaluator]

Have whatever you please because you own the house, not anyone else .

Agreed entirely.

Our place is exactly how we want it - open plan kitchen diner with a seperate lounge. I don't want cooking smells and the sound of the washing machine in the lounge so the layout we have is perfect for us.

 

[Puzzled]

Like the idea of a open dining area / kitchen especially if south facing with plenty of sunlight but wouldn't work in the current place as you'd lose so much wall space for cabinets / counters. It would also force me to be very tidy when cooking as you can't just close the door on the kitchen when eating

Living room needs to be separate though, being able to close out external sound when watching tv is a must plus it gives you somewhere to retreat.

 

[ThereIs0nly0ne]

I have a large, open plan space in our new home. Our kids are older now (17 and 20) so there's less need for an adult place to be away from them. There's a kitchen, dining, and 2 lounge/seating 'areas'. There are definitely upsides and downsides. The positive (and this is huge) is that it's a lot more social and I find I'm spending far more time with my wife/family as a consequence. The downsides would be noise and smells - we made sure the appliances in the kitchen area were as quiet as possible - we also have a separate utility room for the washer, dryer and second fridge-freezer etc. We do have a separate study so that helps as well if we need to retire somewhere for what ever reason.

On balance, I absolutely love it. If my family was younger and/or I didn't have a utility room/study then I'm sure I would feel differently.