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First anyone that does not realize that HGTV runs shows for the same reason that any remodeling magazine runs stories really needs to realize that without giving the audience a reason remodel / renovate none of the advertisers would be willing to pay for these things. The shows exists for the advertisers!
You make a good case for living in a little dumpy house with a closed off kitchen. How dare those HGTV people make us aspire for living better! And all because of the selfish needs of their greedy advertisers!
Remind me to have my kitchen ceilings lowered to 8 feet, wall off the family room, and put flat ceilings to replace my cathedral ceilings. I mean, cathedral ceilings? What a waste? Can you walk on them? Do they increase the square footage of your house?
How dare those people live in large, spacious houses with huge volume and open spaces? Those impudent, insolent people!
Anybody who wants anything but 8 foot ceilings and walled in kitchens obviously has a superiority complex.
I love my open concept first floor. I'm single but cook a lot (and eat out a lot too). But my house has become the go-to house for gatherings since it is such a great entertaining space.
This is my first home with an open concept kitchen and it has been a joy. I cook and bake a lot, so having room to do so, and still being able to interact with other people in the house, is great. We actually entertain a lot more than we used to because we have more time and the layout of this house makes it so easy for me. I think kitchens are very personal work spaces and each individual has to decide what works best for them and go with it.
I think the people who go on those HGTV shows want to appear hip or trendy. They want to create the appearance they are at the center of they and their friends' social universe, so all group functions will take place in/around their flashy new open concept kitchen. And for those nights when their friends are all living their own lives, they need to be close to "all the activity" so further increase the image of a hip and trendy couple.
Have you also noticed the families that go on these shows tend to be impossibly high maintenance? I'm not sure how much of that is production editing and how much is a reflection of them in real life.
Incidentally, I have a "semi-open" concept kitchen. It has a lot of counter space and cabinets, but it's not as large as it looks once you start trying to get one person doing dishes while another is making dinner. The house is a colonial, so when you walk in the rooms in the front of the house are small. These are an office and formal dining room. The back of the house opens up to the living room and the kitchen. As you enter the kitchen area there is a large sun room to the left, and this we use as an informal dining area. Our kids destroy this room on a daily basis. The sun room is separated from the kitchen by a chest-level counter and sink. This part of the house is great for entertaining. We've had over 30 people here and everyone has a place to sit. But that's not the norm for us, nor did we pick this house based on its potential for entertaining. We picked it because it was the best value for our money at the time we were searching.
When I was a personal chef, I had the opportunity to cook in a lot of different kitchens. One things I learned pretty quickly - no matter what size the kitchen itself, and whether it was open concept or closed off, it was very important that the "triangle" (kitchen-sink-stove area) require that I take no more than two or three steps from one corner of the triangle to another. A small actual working area works best unless your goal is to wear out the cook!
I'm not personally crazy about open concept because the kitchen is my studio, where I create my "art", and sometimes I like to be able to focus. It's really nice, though, if it's big enough that someone can help by washing some dishes, or my husband cook at the same time (we have very different styles of cooking) and if it has enough separate counter space to make that workable.
When showing houses, I can walk into a kitchen and know if the designer has ever even boiled water in their lives. A great example of this, in high end homes, is a gorgeous kitchen with all the bells and whistles and a huge eight or ten-foot long island in the middle - with the sink on one wall placed about in the middle of the island's length, and the stove on the other wall, placed likewise. I look at one of those and all I can think is "spaghetti water" - carrying a full pan of boiling hot spaghetti all the way around the island from the stove to the sink to drain it.
Open concept or closed, the work area is the important thing.
We love our open concept house. It is why we bought it. The only downside for us was that we late in the construction cycle and therefore have stainless appliances.
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That is a good thing...
