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I know the trend in home for the past 20-ish years has been toward "open floor plans" and greatrooms.
People evidently want to be in the kitchen but be able to see the family room and dining room, and vice-versa. They don't want walls or doorways between rooms. Some even see archways and large openings between rooms as too confining.
I personally can't stand the open-plan concept, but I feel like I'm all alone.
I like separate rooms, with doorways or even doors in between. If I have people over to eat, I'd rather have them not see in the kitchen. If I'm in one room, and the boyfriend is in the other, I don't want to hear what he's watching on TV. We don't have kids, but I hear from people with kids that they want to be able to see into the other rooms to see what everyone is doing. I think if I had kids, if they were super-young, they wouldn't be off in another room without me anyway. And if they were bigger kids, I'd be glad to NOT see them once in a while. I grew up in a family of 4 in a small house, but with all separate rooms. I think the separation was the only thing that kept us sane and not wanting to kill each other
I watch HGTV house-hunter type shows all the time, and I'm surprised at how everyone is demanding an open floor plan. I can't see wanting one big huge greatroom with no division in between. I would think that even couples in the throes of love wouldn't always want to be looking at each other, and might need time apart in different rooms.
Then on top of the "open plan" they usually have these soaring ceilings. So now you are heating or cooling a big huge room with a high ceiling. Seems inefficient. My central air cools all my rooms just fine, and if it's a guest room that I don't need so cool, I can shut the vent and the door. Ditto for heating. My bills are nice & manageable. Plus, I'm not heating or cooling empty spaces 10+ feet over my head.
Then I have a dog who I'd sometimes like to keep out of certain rooms, or away from a project I might be working on, so I put up very nice wooden gates in the doorways. What do people with no doorways do?
Does anyone else out there actually agree with me? Do you like separate rooms?
Well this has been debated to death, and will continue to be debated to death, until the end of time. Personally I like separate rooms. I see the appeal of open floor plans when it comes to entertaining guests in your home, but for day-to-day living I think that separate rooms are more practical. Just my $0.02
We purposely built a home with separate rooms...to each his/her own I guess. I admit to being a bit old-skool...as I prefer a Cadillac over European style vehicles.
I don't like the open plan either. It is like living in one big open space, thus reminding me of a large studio apartment.
I hate the echo factor. Besides, how many people are really neat cookers, I don't want the people sitting on my couch seeing my messy kitchen when things are being prepared. (Not that we 'entertain" as much as the people in HGTV land....)
I prefer the seperate rooms. This is only the fad nowadays.
The high rise buildings use the open Kitchen plan as a way to incorporate a window into the room. So if you have Living Room windows you can shove the kitchen in the corner, open it up a bit and legally there is a window.......
I hate being able to see the kitchen from the entrance-way of the house. And I prefer that the kitchen be separate and not seen from the living room. I don't often use a formal dining room, but if I were to design my perfect floor plan I would include a dining room that is adjacent to both the kitchen and the living room, but in a separate room. I also prefer that the dining room not be the first room that you seen when entering the house.
However, I do like the idea of having a family room or den in view of a large, eat-in kitchen.
I'm very happy not to have a home with the soaring ceilings and open floor plan. I prefer separate rooms as well but I do like a house with good flow and good sized doorways, pocket doors,etc. I agree about not wanting to see the kitchen when I walk into a house. I like 9 to 10 foot ceilings because I love lovely deep moldings. I like the coziness of separate rooms and I think that houses with soaring ceilings and open floor plans are difficult to decorate so that they feel cozy. I don't like how sounds and smells seem to be magnified in those types of homes either.
Me too. I'm an old house nut and I LOVE seperate rooms, including a kitchen inhabiting it's own room.
You really can't rely on HGTV to determine what people like/dislike. They have an agenda to sell home improvement stuff and are more about trying to manufacture needs/wants in the market than trying to address real needs/wants on the ground.
I prefer the seperate rooms. This is only the fad nowadays.
I don't agree it's a fad at all. With families traveling more and scattered across the country, I think it depends on your lifestyle and what fits for you. I grew up in homes with separate rooms, and also love that cozy feel. OTOH, it doesn't work for me now. Living in sunny Arizona, we have frequent out of town visitors and entertain a lot (including family staying over most weekends). I love having the open floor plan with plenty of room for adults to mingle and the kids to play. I do wish that the mess while I'm cooking in the kitchen could be hidden away, but even when I did have a separate (tiny) kitchen in my previous home, everybody would squeeze in there while I was cooking, so that didn't work either. The dining room being open to the family room also works out perfectly as I frequently use it for buffets if we have a big group. We also have a separate, closed off living room at the front of the house in addition to the open plan of the main areas.
I am not a fan, however, of those soaring cathedral ceilings for the same reasons - heating/cooling, echo, lack of "warmth", wasted space. I do think those are a fad. For our home, we chose a single-story with 10 foot ceilings, which I love. I also agree that I don't like when the front door opens straight into the main room or to a view of the kitchen. One of the reasons we chose ours was because it has a circular foyer so your first view straight ahead is a large picture window looking out into the backyard instead of the kitchen/dining room. I was able to find the open floor plan with the flow I want, but to me the rooms still feel somewhat defined. (pic of walk-through when it was being built):
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs021.snc4/33401_1214043811083_1828466403_426496_5359598_n.jp g (broken link)
Last edited by Rubee; 12-28-2010 at 02:11 PM..
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Don't like Open Floor Plans. Anyone else like me?
