People in open concept homes are realizing the walls were there for a reason (square footage, rooms)

[AnotherTouchOfWhimsy]

In my area of Florida, just about everything we looked at five years ago was open concept. I'm not a fan, but I also hate the galley-style kitchens that some of the older homes have. We were fortunate to find a relatively new home (it was 10 years old when we bought it) in our price range with a not-very-open floor plan. There is a pass-through between the large eat-in kitchen and the living room and a wall between the kitchen and the entryway. I dislike having to hear a television or a video game while I'm in the kitchen, so we converted our garage into a den. It's wonderful. Hubby can watch his loud movies or the teens can hang out with their friends in a fairly sound-insulated space and I do not have to hear any of it. Ideally, we would have had that separate space (with walls and a door!) when we bought the home, but this has worked perfectly for us and it was all within our budget, whereas buying a home with a separate den in addition to the three bedrooms and the garage would have been too expensive.

[MikeJaquish]

Originally Posted by ndcairngorm

Good thing there are all kinds of designs for all kinds of people. No need to come to blows, folks.

I think for young marrieds with children, the open concept is great. The children get looked after while Mom is in the kitchen, and everyone works together to do the meals, etc.

Later on in life we want the mess contained somewhere when we have our parties, so we can relax after dinner without having the dishes on our minds. Also we want the kids with their noisy friends out of our "relax" spaces. So a few walls are in order.

"Blueprints at ten paces."


Yep. Something for everyone.
We aren't wide open. I can walk through the common areas of the first floor without opening doors, but the garbage disposal is not in front of the fireplace, either.


I definitely wouldn't want doors closing off each interior space. Nor do I want wide open.
I do hear that there is a slight trend building, that home buyers want a little more separation.

[LieslMet]

Originally Posted by Brandon Hoffman

Nobody has told the buyers in my market yet.

They haven't been told to yet. Soon, once all the builders/craftsmen have successfully saturated the market with open-concept, they'll have to get everyone to hire them back, to open up the perimeter walls, run wire, build the interior walls again, and close it all back up. LOL

I just hope it's not with ship lap.

[sedimenjerry]

The only open concepts I don't like are the ones that are basically just a rectangle with the kitchen right next to the living space. I liked how my parents' old house was set up. Kitchen, medium size area for dinner table, and the family room were technically open, but all slightly offset. High bar separated the kitchen allowing for concealment of dirty dishes. Allowed the whole family to be able to talk to each other without being right on top of each other.

My parents' new house has separation between the kitchen/eating area and the living room, but you can't move around without tripping over someone or something. Now it's just my parents so most of the time it's fine, but if I'm visiting or my sister is, it gets cramped fast. I can't imagine having a family there trying to move in different directions at the same time. The house really isn't much smaller, but it forces you into small doorways and restricts movement.

[Ginge McFantaPants]

I don’t hate open-concept, but I would never choose to live in one again. There was no buffer zone; holing up a bedroom was the only way I had some personal space or a quiet place to read a book. Yep, I’m a dyed in the wool yankee New Englander. We like our solitude, lol. Also, I found keeping the floors clean to be tougher, because I couldn’t just mop the kitchen; unless I had the time (and empty house) to clean all of the floor, it just kept getting put off until one of the children got stuck to the floor.

Now, we’re in an 80-year-old house, so there are distinct rooms. The only thing that was done to open it up was the previous owner took out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, making it a large eat-in-kitchen. Which is fine, because we have no use for a formal dining room.

[Mikala43]

I love great rooms, and I do not have dirty dishes sitting in my sink.

We do not entertain a lot, and it's only 2 of us. But I like to cook, AND talk to my husband, or continue watching what's on TV as we clean up.

But lots of people like lots of different things.....

I can say that I have spent a year watching homes for an area we are moving to, and all the new ones have open floor plans.

[Diana Holbrook]

Our main rooms are all open, kitchen/dining/office/living is all essentially one space.

Hubby and I like it, in fact, he'd love to remove the one remaining wall that cuts halfway out into the room and interferes with his view of the TV from his side of the desk.

But we work from home, so we like having easy access to the computers/TV/kitchen, all the time.

If we had kids, it wouldn't work. We'd need walls for noise, for incompatible TV/video watching.... I like the open, but I can see why with kids, you need a media room with a door on it.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by ndcairngorm

Good thing there are all kinds of designs for all kinds of people. No need to come to blows, folks.

I think for young marrieds with children, the open concept is great. The children get looked after while Mom is in the kitchen, and everyone works together to do the meals, etc.

Later on in life we want the mess contained somewhere when we have our parties, so we can relax after dinner without having the dishes on our minds. Also we want the kids with their noisy friends out of our "relax" spaces. So a few walls are in order.

Unless you want a newer house that is not custom. Most new builds for "ordinary people" these days are open concept, which makes it harder for those who don't want all of life out in the open with everybody to find what they like, as builders tend to build for the masses, quite reasonably.


Our last house, the one in town, was built in 1959. It has a large living dining area across the front, separated from the very large kitchen by a regular door on the dining room end. There is a room adjoining the kitchen that can be a bedroom, office, or dining room, that is separated from the kitchen by a door and a wall of cabinets with a countertop that has folding windows that can close it off from or open it up to the kitchen as desired. The sleeping areas and one (yes, gasp, one!) bath are on a hall that has doors that can shut them off from the rest of the house if wanted for privacy for kids or parents from entertainment noise.


Not entirely open concept, and not closed off rooms entirely - there are options. I loved it (but the horses couldn't live on a hillside lot in the middle of town).



Current house was built in town in the early part of the last century and moved out to the ranch by a previous owner. It has a galley kitchen that you walk through to get from the back door mud room to the front door, walking into the dining/living area (now one room - a wall was clearly removed at some point). The bedrooms and bath are on the other side of the house (which has its own front door side by side with the living room one, as old houses were wont to do). Not quite as convenient, but still a good use of open and separate.



As for the people in the Northeast liking "small, dark" places, this brings to mind people from down here in Texas who said they would NEVER take their horses to shows in the Northeast because the stalls were smaller than we prefer here (10 x 10 vs. 12 x 12) with low ceilings. Then I went to the Northeast during the winter and toured some of those stalls (as well as stayed in houses). At that point, I realized that up there, your weather enemy is cold - those small, dark stalls were WARM when you put animals in them, they conserved body heat. Down here, your enemy is heat, and we build big stalls with high ceilings, usually with openings around the walls at ceiling height at least, to let the heat escape and draw the air through for cooling.

So many things are like that - wouldn't fit in where you are so you think it's bad, until you realize the real purpose not only of how it is done elsewhere but why it started being done where you are.

[UNC4Me]

Originally Posted by AZ Manager

What experts? A real estate agent isn't even close to an expert.

The wife who despises her husband for relaxing while she cooks? That's a marriage problem that a single conversation could fix, walls will only mask the issue for a moment.

The people who can't keep their homes clean? Tip, put your dishes in the dishwasher when you are done with them, empty it when it's done running. "Problem" solved.

All of this. Expecting walls to solve marital issues or sloppiness is just silly. And who really cares what anyone else thinks? Have open concept or don’t, your choice isn’t up to what some realtor thinks.

[Klassyhk]

Originally Posted by allenk893

I did a thread on this years ago and now the chickens are coming home to roast. I've always HATED open concept homes!

My favorite network is HGTV so I've seen the open-concept as the go-to trend for years now. I've never liked the open-concept floor plans personally. The main reason is because my beliefs are that one's kitchen should never be on display publicly to those entering the home. The kitchen not only has dirty dishes and pots but scents/aroma/smells which linger from earlier cooking and meals. That's not something that I'd necessarily want to greet people as they enter my home (although I'm currently in an apartment, I hope to be in a house within the next year). Glad to hear the trend is changing. Now I won't feel so alien from everyone else who seemed to love the open-concept.