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I think it's a problem of people being lazy bums watching TV too much. These TV addicts need to get a life.
And start cleaning up dirty dishes too, if looking at them bothers people so much.
My wife probably watches an hour of TV a week. And I don't want to hear about Colton's love interests on the Bachelor. Someone else's noises are just that, their noises. Could be the football game or classical music. Makes no difference.
Its about the level of privacy and solitude desired by many individuals.
So, prepare the dinner, and either serve it hot to your guests while you stay in the kitchen washing the dishes (but you can see them eating and talk to them while they do and you can always eat your dinner cold!) or leave the mess of creation for all the dinner guests to see while they eat?
So, prepare the dinner, and either serve it hot to your guests while you stay in the kitchen washing the dishes (but you can see them eating and talk to them while they do and you can always eat your dinner cold!) or leave the mess of creation for all the dinner guests to see while they eat?
Exactly! Old school: Prepare and cook dinner and have most of it finishing up while mingling with your guests in the living room by the fire, excuse yourself for a few minutes while plating and serving, close the butler’s door to the kitchen and sit, relax and enjoy your comfortable and cozy dining room and home cooked dinner (that made a bit of a mess in the kitchen) with your guests and clean up later watching tv in the kitchen with the last glass of wine with your partner regaling in another successful dinner party.
That’s how we roll! Worked for 92 years in our house, I’m sure it’ll still work for quite a few more unless some idiot in the future (please keep The Property Brothers far away from this beautiful historic house!) starts ripping out the plaster walls and arches.
Exactly! Old school: Prepare and cook dinner and have most of it finishing up while mingling with your guests in the living room by the fire, excuse yourself for a few minutes while plating and serving, close the butler’s door to the kitchen and sit, relax and enjoy your comfortable and cozy dining room and home cooked dinner (that made a bit of a mess in the kitchen) with your guests and clean up later watching tv in the kitchen with the last glass of wine with your partner regaling in another successful dinner party.
That’s how we roll! Worked for 92 years in our house, I’m sure it’ll still work for quite a few more unless some idiot in the future (please keep The Property Brothers far away from this beautiful historic house!) starts ripping out the plaster walls and arches.
Nothing against historic houses but again, reflective of a time when people had "The Help" to assist in their entertaining; the house would be amongst her guests, not laboring like a chambermaid. Because she had a chambermaid to labor for her.
Which isn't to say that I'd want an Open Concept as envisioned on many pinterest boards. But modern houses are often better designed for modern needs and social convention.
"Closed" rooms are just as flexible. I've used my sunroom as a bedroom. My dining room is a shop for my business, though I'm ready to put a table back in it. I wouldn't have been able to run a business in a room with windows in an open concept house, I would have been stuffed in the basement.
There is no rule that says just because the real estate listing says xyz room is a living room, that you need to use it as such.
Someone else mentioned echoes, and they're right. Even the houses I'm in with a decent amount of furniture echo too much. The vaulted ceilings don't help at all.
This is exactly what we have done. The downstairs bedroom has gone from a playroom to an office back to a guest bedroom. The formal living room is now an office with French doors for peace and quiet.
My kitchen is relatively large with an eat-in area and is separate from the family room but is attached and I can see the fireplace. I have my own TV there while cooking and prefer my own program choices as opposed to constant sports. The dining room is used occasionally but is great for spreading out hobby stuff.
After teaching in an Open Classroom school design (now all closed up) in the 1970s and having a booming headache everyday, I realize what works for my family. We like big but separate rooms and no cavernous ceilings. Luckily we found a house like that before the open concept was everywhere.
Don’t like clatter and echoing but everyone has the right to make their own choices. I do think smaller homes can work well with an open design.
I'm not a fan of the two sink bathroom, but that's because I live alone and it's hard enough to kick my own butt and clean one sink, let alone two of them.
The rest of what I like and don't like is personal preference. I'd hate having a toilet in a stall because for one, I'm the one who has to fit in there and clean it and two, I don't want to feel like I'm going to the bathroom in a ladies' room in my own place. Same with subway tile. Subway tile makes me feel like I'm in...a subway. Yech.
But I just did something the other day which has me rethinking kitchen space.
I've always been in the the habit of putting food in high cabinets because I owned a dog who ate anything and everything if he could get at it (otherwise, he was a pretty good dog and no, I didn't starve him). Anyway, I moved into my current room and there's really only one double cabinet above the sink that fits all my food storage.
About three years ago, I bought a small hutch, only about 18" wide with one shelf on the top and a couple drawers on the bottom. The top of the hutch is about as high as I am (5' 3") and so the shelf inside are a little lower than eye level. This is where I used to keep my dishes.
For some reason I decided to switch it up a little. I took the top shelf of dishes and put them in the cabinet over the sink and moved all the food to the hutch. Wow, what a difference!
I'm looking down now on my food instead of up at it and I can see all of it without standing on my tippytoes. It's much easier to see what I've got and what I need to replace. And it was a difference of lowering the food only about 18". I love it.
So if I get any say in the kitchen design of my house, it's going to have at least one wall with nothing there, so I can put a hutch or something else against it. I already have a chopping block and it annoys me that most houses have no spare wall space to put that against. Yes, I know, most walls in kitchens are taken up with counter space, but I think I'd spare about 2 ft of counter space to be able to place a hutch where I can store my food. Because I think that's my go to for a food cabinet from now on.
I like to drag my husband to open houses for new homes. Too much he says. The best open floor plan that I actually liked quite well is this: The main area was a big square. Come in the front door and the living area was to the left. Just the right size. Not too big, not too small. Separating the area from the living to dining was a half wall. This was the same side as the living room. Across from the dining area, on the opposite side was the kitchen with another half wall up separating it from a den. A door to the back yard was between the dining and kitchen. The door from the garage brings you into the kitchen. Then 2-3 bedrooms in the back. The yard was not huge, not small, just right. Unfortunately, those homes sold faster than I could say "Nice floor plan!" So, see, I don't hate all open concept, it just has to be in a shape I like.
Nothing against historic houses but again, reflective of a time when people had "The Help" to assist in their entertaining; the house would be amongst her guests, not laboring like a chambermaid. Because she had a chambermaid to labor for her.
Which isn't to say that I'd want an Open Concept as envisioned on many pinterest boards. But modern houses are often better designed for modern needs and social convention.
I agree the layout was reflective of its time and not as much towards our less formal and more relaxed lifestyles. Still, I seriously doubt there were any chambermaids, much less butlers or cooks in our not quite 1600 sf house. The butler's door is just a dual swinging mahogany door (ours happens to have a cool little beveled glass window to check on the service) into the dining room and I bet it was always just the owner/cook in residence like me ever peeking through it haha. It is almost always propped open anyway. Just because we are entertaining "Old School" in more separate areas doesn't preclude folks from always comfortably ending up in the kitchen during the evening as they always do adding to the areas of entertaining and conversing.
I'm fine with well designed houses of nearly all eras, including very contemporary and with completely open loft style interiors, probably more so than most - Love our dramatic California Contemporary Beach Houses! I'm not a fan of forcing an open concept into a vintage house not designed for it.
Exactly! Old school: Prepare and cook dinner and have most of it finishing up while mingling with your guests in the living room by the fire, excuse yourself for a few minutes while plating and serving, close the butler’s door to the kitchen and sit, relax and enjoy your comfortable and cozy dining room and home cooked dinner (that made a bit of a mess in the kitchen) with your guests and clean up later watching tv in the kitchen with the last glass of wine with your partner regaling in another successful dinner party.
That’s how we roll! Worked for 92 years in our house, I’m sure it’ll still work for quite a few more unless some idiot in the future (please keep The Property Brothers far away from this beautiful historic house!) starts ripping out the plaster walls and arches.
Sometimes when you entertain you need s place to politely excuse yourself to without drawing attention to the fact that you are leaving your guests. The closed kitchen is perfect for this. We do sometimes have catering staff or even friends who bring dishes they need to prepare or wine to decant. No reason to do that in front of the happily chatting guests. When you host you somertimes need a getaway spot to keep things moving.
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