Don't like Open Floor Plans. Anyone else like me? (paintings, color, photos)
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I love, love, love my mostly open floor plan (except for the lack of a utility closet). It's basically open with one strategically placed wall with a cut-out and a wall on the backside of kitchen cabinets. The areas are defined yet open, but you cannot see the kitchen from the living room. It is so bright and open. It's great for entertaining and it's great for the family. As a family where both parents work, we are not looking for time away from one another, quite the contrary, we want to spend time together when we can, so being able to share our day while preparing dinner/playing on the wii/checking the mail/feeding the dog/relaxing is important to us.
While I understand it, I also think that there should be rooms in a house where a family member can escape the common area for quiet time with a book, or be able to watch a different TV channel, or do some paperwork. Kids need a quiet space to do their homework ( its little hard to write a paper or prepare for a test in the same room where others are having fun watching football game or entertaining friends ). Teens should have a room where they can visit with friends and play - they do not need to be in the common areas with other adults.
I think the need of privacy and personal space is maybe not so important here in the US as is in Europe, where private retreats are wanted and appreciated by family members, who after a long and stressful day at work or school look for a some time for themselves to relax and maintain mental health.
My house is shotgun style, built in 1930. The bedrooms are off the main rooms with no hallways. There is a big kitchen and a large main room.
My decorating for the two rooms is going to be very different, dark royal blues/cranberry/black trim in the living room. Its formal looking without the nice clean lines and lots of built in shelves. The kitchen is going to be bright yellow and white, with as a highlight color the darker of the blues. Currently the holdup on all of it is a few maintaince issures which have to be finished first.
But I like the idea of a door between. It will be more like a garden gate, but when I am cooking I like a door to keep the furries out and just feel cozy. Its going to open into the kitchen behind a shelf which leads into the kitchen.
I like rooms, over a bunch of space. They feel cozy. To much flow just feels like a lobby you walk through. And I also like privacy and without some rooms you can just shut the door I'd just spend a lot of time in my room.
Wow. How often do we have 10 consecutive one sided likes. All are not for open floor plans so far. I'm really surprised. Very interesting.........................
Count me as a vote for LOVING open concept. At a minimum I like the dining/eating area, kitchen, and main living area open to each other.
I think that the open floor plans are "in" long enough, so the younger generation has no idea what closed floor plan is about, therefore they go with the flow ( or the Jones ) and opt for what is available on market.
Maybe most younger people have no way to know what to appreciate in closed floors plans ...?
Exactly the opposite!
I'm 28 and my wife and I bought our first house 3 years ago. We, *like most of our friends in our mid 20s and 30s*, grew up our entire lives in fairly-closed floor plans since that is what our parents preferred. So we are all too familiar with them. Also, open floor plans are still not "going with the flow" (or the Jones) because when we looked at existing homes in our area, the huge majority of them were more closed concept than open and we hated them.
Between growing up our whole lives in closed floor plans, and looking at TONS of houses with mostly closed floor plans, I know exactly what to appreciate in them: nothing :P (Of course this is all from my perspective. I am NOT trying to say that no one else is allowed to like closed floor plans). To me and what I enjoy in architecture and owning a home, most of them are a terrible waste of space and they are often hampered by poor layouts.
We weren't able to find one that met our criteria for price, location, and open floor plan unfortunately because the whole open concept still hasn't even caught on much in our area or it was in houses outside of our price range. Also, we weren't looking to take on a huge reno in our first home (ie buying one of the closed homes and opening it up) so we settled for a semi-open floor plan, but now I still wish it was more open! (This coming from my own personal experience living in the home, not from whatever HGTV or anyone else may say)
Nearly all of our friends in our 20s and 30s have also built or bought homes with open concept or done renos to open up older houses. It has less to do with HGTV or any other commercial entity and more to do with the fact that we WERE exposed to closed floor plans and don't like them. To me personally, I find an open floor plan much more inviting and relaxing.
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I think a big thing people are missing is that open concept doesn't mean the entire house is one big room! Yes I appreciate privacy. Why do people think that open concept means you have nowhere to go to get time to yourself? Or for kids to do homework? Or for kids to have friends over? Open concept often really just means the main living areas very open. It doesn't have to mean that the study, or rec room, or bed rooms are open to each other or in any way not private.
I think that the open floor plans are "in" long enough, so the younger generation has no idea what closed floor plan is about, therefore they go with the flow ( or the Jones ) and opt for what is available on market.
Maybe most younger people have no way to know what to appreciate in closed floors plans ...?
Open floor plans aren't on trend everywhere. There are many closed floor plans in the eastern part of the country. Kids are growing up in them.
Open floor plans aren't on trend everywhere. There are many closed floor plans in the eastern part of the country. Kids are growing up in them.
This is true.
My good friend has a gorgeous home where the first floor is mostly open to the 2nd story landing. It is difficult to heat and keep cool, to decorate and to separate paint colors. It is noisy when the family congregates in the large open area. Mostly what I don't like about open floor plans is that they often don't feel cozy or intimate. It takes someone who is an extrmely talented decorator to pull off the cozy/intimate feeling in a large open, soaring space. I prefer semi-open, good-flow floor plans with 9 foot ceilings - floorplans that offer some separation. My husband can watch football in the family room while I am in the kitchen with friends making cookies - without noise interfering with our different tasks.
When I see a toilet without walls then it's gone too far.
I like a nice combination, open but you need some separation. For example we have a very large arch about 8 foot across leading from the kitchen into the dining room.<br><br>It's not exactly ideal but the choices were limited. This first picture is from the kitchen looking into the dining room. The dining was a bedroom, there was no dining room in this house but it did have huge living room. There is another 5 foot off to the right. The window to the right is now door leading outside that will have a deck at some point.
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