Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
1. Everyone can be doing something different but still be together. 2. Parents can do kitchen chores while keeping an eye on their kids
3. It makes the home seem bigger. When we were house buying, we could walk into a house that was supposedly 5000 square feet...but if it was chopped up into little rooms, it felt much smaller. Plus, what the heck was I gonna do with all those little rooms? Waste of space.
4. It makes much better use of natural light (I am a natural light junkie).
5. Bigger rooms tend to be more versatile - I remember seeing homes with many rooms and a lot of square feet, but not a single one of them could comfortably house a pool table...all the square footage in the world doesn't help if not a single room can serve a purpose you have in mind.
so all these years when people did not have open concept, they still did somehow manage to take care of the kids.
I just don't like watching TV and hearing kitchen stuff, it is annoying.
I remember when we first moved in to my 1928 Spanish Revival home with a crappy 1960s kitchen, one of the renovation designs I came up with (I'm an architect) would have opened up the small kitchen to the small adjacent dining room- what a mistake that would have been! First off, loosing a wall of potential cabinets/appliances in a small kitchen is very problematic, but also the charm of each room in these architecturally detailed old houses, ie. coved tray ceilings and arched openings and a mahogany windowed butler's door- is easily lost when you stray to far from the original design intent.
Although it seems like having separated rooms can make a house feel smaller than an open concept plan, a well designed plan can actually make a house feel larger as you move through these distinct spaces designed with clear circulation and sightlines to anchoring architectural elements like focal windows and fireplaces. By separating the rooms with larger arched openings or pocket doors these rooms can borrow light and space from adjoining ones without completely spilling into one another. My living room and dining room could be larger if I didn't have the small barrel vaulted foyer in between, but trust me, the axial arched openings to one another to triple windows in the dining room and then to the massive tiled fireplace in the living room makes my little house feel like a mini mansion.
Still, it is definitely a benefit to have one fairly large space to gather together, but equally important, a space that can be closed off from others to define the activities within and not affect every other space in the house, whether that is a TV/Playroom or a quiet Library/Study. And I'm with the others, who cooks so tidily that you don't kinda muck up your kitchen for a bit- and for everyone to see, hear and smell that all the time...? Not me.
I grew up in a house that was built in the mid 1800's and we had a formal dining room in that house, as well as an eat in kitchen (informal dining area). It isn't new.
I'm not talking about the existence of dining rooms but the trend of calling them "formal" dining rooms which strikes me as real estatese. I like plain speaking not commercial speak.
I'm not talking about the existence of dining rooms but the trend of calling them "formal" dining rooms which strikes me as real estatese. I like plain speaking not commercial speak.
I think "formal dining room" is a legitimate term. It means a room devoted solely to dining that can be essentially closed off. It may not have closable doors but will not be open to any other room. Only a hallway. It will have a dining room table and chairs, a china cabinet and a sideboard or buffet. It will not have a TV, Lazy Boy or be open to the kitchen or the living room.
I think "formal dining room" is a legitimate term. It means a room devoted solely to dining that can be essentially closed off. It may not have closable doors but will not be open to any other room. Only a hallway. It will have a dining room table and chairs, a china cabinet and a sideboard or buffet. It will not have a TV, Lazy Boy or be open to the kitchen or the living room.
If you are open to other opinions, you will learn something. You probably have never been in a house with a formal dining room. Many midwestern low priced houses have dinettes or eat in kitchens. I described a "formal dining room" above. Here is what passes for a "dining room" among real estate persons:
Last edited by Wilson513; 06-18-2012 at 10:03 AM..
They are hard to decorate. I had a very open plan once, we liked it at first but my hubby said he had to go to the basement to find a quiet place to read, you can hear everything. Plus I don't like people to see into my kitchen much. It's a mess at times and I feel like it needs to be clean all the time if it is part of the big room. You are right on the energy bills but having the sun warm things in the winter with large windows helps.
I agree with the OP and others who are not huge fans of open floor pan homes - especially those with soaring ceilings.
I just sold a "Victorian" circa 1995 with those features and traded it in for a REAL Victorian (circa 1895)
My vintage home does have high ceilings - they are 10 feet tall. The floor plan is semi open for a house of this era - it does not have that closed in small room quality that some true Victorian homes have.
I love the warmth and intimacy of my new home! I love having and USING a formal dining room.
I also have dogs and I do like to be able to contain then.
I also agree with the poster who wrote that she can't stand people looking into her kitchen at all times. I had that in my old house.
This house has been so much less expensive to heat than our old open floor plan house. And it is NOt just the square footage.
Those really open floor plans are a relic of the McMansion excesses of the mid 90s through the early part of the new century. I think that people seeing your kitchen at all times was great for the contracting and Kitchen industries, because your guests can just wander about, so people wanted to spend mega bucks on kitchens - I have known people who rarely eat at home having lavish kitchens installed just as a status symbol.
My floor plan is open enough, and is fine for entertaining. I do like to cook and I enjoy having a pantry - prep room where I can getaway from my guests for a while.
In an open floor plan there is always that guest who follows you around into the kitchen.
I think really open floor plans are going the way of the McMansion.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
