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We actually built a wall between our kitchen and living room. It has openings on either side so not a completely solid wall but before it felt like a bowling alley to me. That said I've seen open concept done well and I like all kinds of houses.
We actually built a wall between our kitchen and living room. It has openings on either side so not a completely solid wall but before it felt like a bowling alley to me. That said I've seen open concept done well and I like all kinds of houses.
Me too - there are good floor plans from every era - and bad floor plans from every era. And as soon as I say "I don't like that sort of thing," I'll see one that I DO like. For instance, I've always said, "I don't like galley kitchens," and then I'll be looking at a house and realize I love it...and it has a galley kitchen.
It all boils down to personal taste and what fits for each unique family unit.
We actually built a wall between our kitchen and living room. It has openings on either side so not a completely solid wall but before it felt like a bowling alley to me. That said I've seen open concept done well and I like all kinds of houses.
It just really, really doesn't work in some houses.
I remember when we were house hunting, there was this one house built in the 1930s that we looked at. It was a 'Gingerbread' house and I've been inside others similar over the years so kind of get the gist of what the layout would/ should have been like.
The sellers (either to sell or for their own needs, I'm not sure) had completely remodeled the property and I can honestly say I hated it. As soon as you walked in, it had been turned into an open plan 'great room' kind of deal whereas I know that kind of property would have had the living room and family room at the front, and then the dining room and kitchen at the back (all separate rooms). Instead, it was one HUGE room and you were staring at the kitchen sink at the back of the house the second you walked in the door. I personally think that would be an entertaining nightmare!
Also, I think they had rented furniture to 'dress' the house, but whoever chose it lacked taste. It was stuff you'd expect to find in an early 1990s mid-grade hotel with delusions of grandeur (although that's not the point!)
We bought our house that had the kitchen and dining open to each other and I love it. There is a wall that closes off the living room and it is a little frustrating. In the dining room, we have a wood burning stove and because the living room is closed off, when the stove is on, the kitchen and dining area get nice and toasty, but the living room is still cold.
We have a relatively smaller house, so I think an entirely open floor plan will make it look much bigger. Or even just creating a pass through from the kitchen and living room would work.
Personally, I love open concept. My fiance's cousin has an open concept house (it was a cape, but she added an extension and has a nice size kitchen in the back part of the house) and I always love visiting. I actually get a little sad if we don't go there for holidays lol. It's a very inviting plan, especially for entertaining.
If I wanted to live in closed off little rooms I'd stay at work in cubicle hell.
In fact, the custom home I'm designing now has the living room/kitchen/diningroom conected as one long room at the front of the house with the kitchen centrally located for entertaining. Most gatherings I've been to over the last 30 years tend to have people gathering in the kitchen anyhow. Might as well embrace it.
I know there are plenty of threads about open floor plans... but judging from the various responses it seems many folks don't care for them, which suggests idea is already loosing ground.
Do you think "closed" floorplans will ever return in new construction and/or that current open plan homes will sprout new walls at some point in the future? Why or why not?
Open plans seemed great with little/young children. With teens, I like dens and living rooms to be separate so that they can play music (or more honestly just noise that they consider music) watch tv shows that I do not want to listen to as I read a book, or do something else. Walls then are nice.
Also as I visit with my elderly mom, she does much better with smaller rooms that she can close off and heat up or cool down to temperatures she likes than to heat or cool a whole house. And no, she would not move as all her friends live nearby and they too all retreat to the smaller non-open areas of their homes.
So, maybe open areas are more functional at various stages of your life.
We just moved into our remodeled house. We turned a very traditional split-level into a very open floor plan.
I now understand both sides of the story
In the new house we:
1) Kitchen and dining room wall removed making one large space. Gave us room for an island. It then also blends into the formal living room. All mostly open on this sqare region except for one wall. (think... like a square pacman figure with the mouth being one wall).
This area is also hardwood floors.
2) lower level we opened up all the walls. it was a living room up front and an office/BR in back. its now basically one big 20x20 room, with a batrhoom cut out of corner.
Pros
For space and entertaining, we love it.
Cons
My daughter (20) immediately recognized as others commented, that other than her room there is no seperate entertaining area. in the old house the basement was finished. Someone could go down there and watch TV and not bother anyone. We also had an extra bedroom that had a computer in it. Another quiet area to tuck (hide) away from everyone
Now when I am in the lower level room watching the big screen, the open entry to that upper open kitchen area is behind me... and I can hear everything going on pumped into the back of my head. the hardwood floors amplify the sound. Once we start putting on the TV for movies and sports i am sure it will have an effect in the kitchen
actually.. since the Kitchen level feeds to both the upperupper level and the lower level, what goes on in the kitchen affects the whole house.
Its just the 3 of us. And my daughter has a few years at home and then moving out... So the entertaining aspects of the open floor plan are well worth it to us. We can accommodate many more friends and family now... we want our house to be the holiday gathering spot..
BUT, I fully understand why many don't like the open floor plan.
We just closed on a house and we're going from an open floor plan to one that's more separate. I think I am going to like it a lot more.
There is good flow to the house (I always look for that "circular flow" for entertainment, where people can walk from the living room to the dining room through the kitchen and into the den and then back around again - able to refresh drinks/plates while circulating between groups of people - hope that makes sense). I like that people can congregate in smaller groups in more separate areas, rather than having everyone (and everyone's conversations and TV or music all in one spot). But I wouldn't like that if there wasn't one LARGE living area that can accommodate a group (not a big party) all together.
I don't like a lot of small, choppy rooms, but after living in both, I do prefer that the kitchen be a bit separate.
Our first house was closed layout. You had to walk through the dining room to get to the kitchen. Not a big deal since it was a small house, but we hated that when you were in the kitchen you had NO IDEA what was going on in the front room.
So when we bought our current house, we loved that the kitchen was open to the family room. This way the person in the kitchen felt like they weren't missing anything.
Having said that, my one gripe is that when someone is doing the dishes in the kitchen it was impossible to hear the TV with all the noise going on between the running water, the dishes banging around and loading the dishwasher.
As a result, when we did our kitchen remodel in 2012, I insisted that we provide even just a tiny bit of noise buffer. We ended up building a very large wraparound bar that was raised 6-8" above the main countertop - even with that small amount of buffer it has drastically reduced the noise carrying from the kitchen to the family room.
We now have the perfect setup in our house.
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