Open floor plans are a popular architectural choice that combines the kitchen, living room, and dining room into one large space. They provide an abundance of natural light, create the illusion of more space, and offer convenience for entertaining. To create a beautiful open concept home, follow these decorating tips for your open kitchen, living room, and beyond.
To create a harmonious open floor plan, stick to a neutral color scheme, use area rugs to define different zones, incorporate plenty of storage, utilize different furniture pieces to define areas, incorporate plenty of lighting, accent wall focal points, invite the outdoors in, and think vertically.
To create a division of space with your sofa placement, use a sofa to create a division of space. Consider the space’s desired purpose and focus on a few staple items, such as a bold pattern and pops of color.
To create a sense of lightness and airiness, leave open space around the perimeter and try angling furniture in a small space. Zone areas are crucial for creating a balanced and cohesive space.
Incorporating vertical elements, such as incorporating outdoor elements, can also enhance the open floor plan. By following these tips, you can transform your open concept space into a breathtaking masterpiece. Remember, open floor plans don’t have to be an interior designer to create a beautiful open concept home.
📹 Open Concept Layout vs. Traditional Closed Floor Plan: Pros & Cons (Watch this before you renovate!)
Open Concept Layout vs. Traditional Closed Floor Plan: Pros & Cons (Watch this before you renovate!) Today, we’re diving into …
How do you arrange furniture in an open-concept floor plan?
To create a well-designed open-concept floor plan, it’s essential to place large furniture opposite focal points, such as a sofa or fireplace. If your room doesn’t have a focal point, create one by placing a bookshelf or an art piece around it. This will create different zones, making it clear which areas are for relaxation and which are more formal.
Furthermore, choose practical and flexible furnishings that reflect your desired style or feel. Remember that over time, tastes and needs may change, so it’s crucial to adapt your furniture to suit your needs.
How to make an open concept feel cozy?
To make an open floor plan feel more cozy, use color to tie spaces together, define “rooms” with area rugs, continue materials throughout the space, add light fixtures, use furniture to define traffic patterns, and add a focal point. Open floor plans are ideal for entertaining and keeping an eye on children, but they should also feel cohesive and cozy. Senior designer Jessica Parker Wachtel offers tips on how to design an open space that feels welcoming, regardless of the number of people in it. By following these tips, you can create a comfortable and inviting space that caters to the needs of your family.
How do you divide an open-concept house?
To establish visual delineations between distinct areas, it is recommended to utilize patterns, colors, and furniture. The use of area rugs, curtains, shelving, or closed storage is recommended for the separation of spaces. Furthermore, the implementation of area rugs, curtains, or furniture is advised for the separation of rooms.
Is Open Concept House still in style?
Closed floor plans are making a comeback, but open floor plans are also gaining popularity due to their benefits such as freedom of movement, maximizing small spaces, natural light, and allowing creative furniture layouts. Interior designers are promoting separate rooms as a hot design trend for 2024, with formal dining and separate living rooms being considered outdated. HGTV predicts the rise of compartmented spaces like children’s homework spaces and meditation rooms that emphasize quiet concentration and solitude.
Architectural Digest highlights the ongoing need for “hybrid spaces” that offer multiple functions for the same space, allowing different household members to use parts of the home for specific purposes. While closed floor plans have their strengths, open concept areas can also benefit from these changes.
How do you decorate an open-concept home?
To create a visually appealing room, arrange furniture away from walls for conversation, reading, or dining, leaving open space around the perimeter. Angle furniture in small spaces to make the room appear larger. Use related colors in large furnishings like sofas, area rugs, and window treatments to keep the eye moving. Create zones by placing a console table behind a couch, which can function as a second kitchen island or homework station. Keep window treatments close to the walls and use fabric treatments to repeat accent colors in a pattern.
How do you layout an open plan?
To make a room feel larger, move furniture into the middle of the room, leaving space between the wall and furniture. Group furniture within a zone with a sofa, armchairs, coffee table, and rug, but avoid overfilling the space. Start with the basics, add the necessary furniture, and then assess the remaining space for any extras. Avoid thinking the space is bigger than it really is by focusing on the basics and avoiding the mistake of thinking it is bigger than it is.
Where to put a TV in an open-concept?
To create an open concept layout, consider the focal point of the room and choose a wall next to it. Arrange the TV on a piece of furniture that is comparable height to the TV’s mantle, using an 8:1 ratio. If there is no focal point, choose a wall opposite the dining room or kitchen area and mount the TV. Select the right mounting tools based on the wall’s material and install the TV accordingly. Once you know the location, materials, and furniture placement, choose the right wall mount. Wall mounts have become more sophisticated and modernized, making it easier to choose the right TV mount for your open concept layout.
How to make an open-concept feel cozy?
To make an open floor plan feel more cozy, use color to tie spaces together, define “rooms” with area rugs, continue materials throughout the space, add light fixtures, use furniture to define traffic patterns, and add a focal point. Open floor plans are ideal for entertaining and keeping an eye on children, but they should also feel cohesive and cozy. Senior designer Jessica Parker Wachtel offers tips on how to design an open space that feels welcoming, regardless of the number of people in it. By following these tips, you can create a comfortable and inviting space that caters to the needs of your family.
Which way do you lay flooring in open-concept?
Vinyl planks are premade at uniform widths and lengths, so they need to be cut to fit the room perfectly. To save costs and time, lay planks in the direction that follows the longer dimension of the room, ensuring only shorter-length walls are cut. This will make the room feel more open and connected, especially if adjoining rooms have open doorways or halls. For smaller rooms, the vinyl should line up perfectly with the next room’s floor, while larger rooms can benefit from directing the vinyl along the shorter wall.
To create a clear separation between rooms, make the planks flow perpendicular to doorways, avoiding the need to change flooring materials between rooms. When transitioning floors, place floor planks in the same direction as the previous room, such as the master bedroom to a master bathroom, for a seamless transition and eye-pleasing appearance. It is recommended to use the continuous grain of flooring if possible.
Do people prefer open concept?
Open floor plans are increasingly popular among homeowners when buying a new home. These plans combine traditional spaces like the living room and dining room to create a larger, grand space. These plans aim to connect all three common areas in a home: the living room, dining room, and kitchen, creating a communal living area. Open floor plans create a clear, smooth flow from room to room, making entertaining enjoyable and easy.
One of the main reasons homeowners love open floor plans is the ability to host multiple events at once, eliminating the need for walls between the spaces. This makes hosting a dinner party or holiday gathering a breeze.
Another reason is the improved real estate value. Building a home with an open floor plan increases the home’s value due to the functional square footage, which is appealing to many homebuyers. Open floor plans are also considered part of modern home design, making them a desirable choice for those looking to sell their home.
In summary, open floor plans are a popular choice for homeowners looking to create a spacious, communal living area. They offer numerous benefits, including making entertaining enjoyable, improving real estate value, and enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of the home.
📹 3 Interior Design Ideas for Open Floor Plan Homes
In 2020 and into 2021, there were a rash of obituaries written for the open floor plan, probably due to the frustration of many who …
My first home was open concept and my now home is traditional closed/sorta open but not completely open. I would have to say I like the traditional layout much more than the open concept. To me I think the traditional layout gives you that warm and inviting feeling once you enter the home and it hides your unwashed dishes/ or messing kitchen. 😅
I have always felt like Open Concept kitchen/living room design was like a throwback to living in a cave. I don’t enjoy cooking in the living room and in front of guests. And as far as perusal kids like a hawk—-it works out. They come in the kitchen with you and want to help and learn, or hopefully!
I love that you gave examples of how a living room and kitchen and dining can be different styles and colors. I have closed concept, pre-war apartment in NYC and always felt like the tips of keeping cohesive color palettes for your whole space were difficult to follow, and feel much better about not carrying through a central theme throughout now.
Good comparison article! I grew up in an open concept home and didn’t enjoy it. It felt like there weren’t enough private areas and didn’t have good sound isolation. Going forward into purchasing my own home I’m looking for older closed concept homes. I also like the benefit of being able to decorate different rooms in varied manners.
I have lived in both styles over the years and do prefer closed concept. I like walls to put art up and provide privacy. My current home has a combo living/dining room and I am ok with it even though I would have liked a wall. I have my grandson so it is nice being able to see what he is doing. I get it. If I have him when he gets older, I will invest/diy in a nice screen for separation.
This article is gold. In my case, I like closed concept. I have two toddlers I want them to be confined in their own space where they could mess around and play. It’s comfortable for me to clean or cook in the kitchen without them running around and the reduce the tendency for them to slip. Since we don’t have anyone visiting us often, our living room would be their play area if I’m in the kitchen/dining. It’s more effective this way for me to not have a whole floor area to clean. We might have an open floor plan on their preteens or teens era. They could help me with daily chores then.
Open concept is what we are doing, our Lacanche range in Armor will be the show stopper, we have some outstanding French style lighting to tie the living room and dining to the kitchen. We are planning a cool accent dining wall and have a gorgeous stone floor to ceiling fireplace in the living room. There is a walk in pantry, which is normally where you would have a coat closet which we are planning to wood and stone the outer sides for texture. Our mudroom off the kitchen will serve as the coat area, laundry and large dog shower. The master bedroom, 1/2 bath, and home office will be our fun color areas as well as the fun gameroom, bar, weightroom and 2 additional lower level bedrooms, It’s been 3 years in the planning and I got word today our jewelry of the kitchen is ready to ship! ❤❤❤ So excited!
❤️Great article🔆 8 years ago we moved from a small, traditional Cape Cod (closed) to a Ranch, 1-level Open plan. We love this layout, but noise is the only concern. My husband and I both work from home, in opposite corners, and we can hear each other. Luckily we have doors in both offices, and we use them. It is just us now, but in the Cape we had 2 boys at home😉
When we were looking for a home to buy, we were living in an open concept rental and I didn’t like that the dogs could come into the kitchen easily (we have one very big one that can just lick the whole counter without effort). So I hated that we had to keep an eye on the kitchen all the time, couldn’t have anything laying around and when we went out, everything had to be put away because otherwise the dogs could get into it. So when we started looking for our first home to buy, I really wanted a door between our living space and the kitchen. Now that we’ve lived ve in a closed concept for about 5 years, I prefer closed. It feels more cozy to me to have smaller spaces, it’s lovely when you want some alone time (my husband and I are both introverts) and you can just go sit in another room of the house. And your point about renovating has saved us as well. We just renovated one room at a time. That way, we could also just close a door to the mess and the rest of the house was still nice and tidy and clean. I hate visual clutter, so I love that there is no mess I have to look at while eating. Having a messy kitchen while having dinner used to bother me so much in our previous open concept home. I visit a lot of homes for work, and open concept is just the norm here (the Netherlands). Most older homes have been renovated to have open concept. But with the pandemic, lots of people found that they now needed an extra bedroom as an office. In our home we have living and dining together, a seperate office space/future children’s play room(again, I won’t see the mess when I am just relaxing in my home), laundry room, half bath, 2 hallways and a seperate kitchen.
Loved this article. Our home is partially open and I’d like it more open to help fix an “awkward L” living/dining + closed breakfast room situation to make an open living room plus dining out of the breakfast room and better define those spaces. All the homes in my area have both a formal and an informal dining ‘room’ right next to each other, which isn’t how anyone lives anymore. I also have an opening in the wall, like a window, from my interior galley kitchen, into the living room, that I’d like to include in opening up this space. I’m not sure what walls are load-bearing, so that will come into play. $$
Although I am very drawn to an open layout aesthetically and live in an open concept basement apartment, it is not a good choice for me personally. As storage is very limited, and I have accumulated decades of “stuff”, my clutter is very evident, making my home visually chaotic. I am working with the Swedish Death Cleaning concept, (Seriously, give this a new name!), and find it is not as easy as it appears. I always have things laid out so I can ask what relatives may want and give the rest away. This is not easy for me with ADHD. I pull out one cupboards stuff, then randomly think of something else, and then have the closet dismantled as well! Flat surfaces are always covered. Sigh
I have a closed-concept traditional tri-level home built in 1962 The problem is that at 1,625 sq. ft. there is not enough space to entertain people. My husband has to move the sofa and chair from the living room into the garage to accommodate guests in the upstairs living room. This is a hassle and creates a lot of stress. Expanding the living room would cost at least $56,000. We have been in the house for seven years. What is the solution? Is it worth expanding the living room or should we move to another house? If we move to another house, what should we look for regarding a floorplan that would allow for entertaining?
I have a semi-closed concept and I really love it. You can see and talk to family and friends in the dining room and the living room from the kitchen, but a wall separates the dining room and living room so people in the living room can’t see into the dining room, and vise versa. We also have a foyer that is not super formal or grand. It has 3 walls that separate it from the living room and the “back if the house,” which I love. One of the things that sold me on my house was when you walk in the front door, you’re not immediately in the living room shuffling in next to the couch.
I think most people do not try to appreciate the choice of open or closed interior are more relevant to the type and structure of the property themselves than the home owners preferences. Most period, or existing, properties did not built or designed to be completely open. It is because when your home is too small, you need the walls as you need to utilize all the spaces up till the ceiling. All other things designers or “experienced” relatives will not matter as they are not the one who will face the very limited amount of space of a condo. In one of my project, I specifically picked a full open plan rental condo instead of terraces / houses because these houses do cannot let enough natural lights inside as more than one of the occupants study / work with really paper and books all day. This is not to say the owners or occupants should not design their house as they wish. I am just saying the structural / intrinsic value of a property also call for serious considerations. To be honest, this is actually one of the top advise I gave to my clients – keep an open mind to buy / move more than one property in the life cycle of your family if you want the best for them. Most of the time, you can simply buy / move to the next property as a much simpler and superior solution.
I don’t know why new homes are not designed with moveable flexible walls on tracks that, when totally open, would be recessed into an existing wall and, when closed, would be pulled out of that existing wall. It seems to be an easy solution that addresses BOTH the preferences of different home owners but also the changing preferences of an individual home owner who may sometimes want it open and sometimes want it closed.
My house is closed but feels open. This is achieved by having slightly-larger than normal rooms with wide doorways. Best of both worlds. The one thing I did was remove the wall between our small kitchen and small dining room, creating a larger kitchen with a sitting area. I then turned the living room into the dining room. Everyone was skeptical until it was done. Even those who saw it before now think it was always meant to be that way. (The living room was extraneous since it also has a family room. Now the 1st floor only has 3 main rooms, each separate but spacious.)
“When I’m in my kitchen I can scream out to my kids in the living room and they can hear me”… You, as a preschool aged kids’ mother (with a sweet voice): “Dinner’s ready kiddies!” You, as a teenagers mother (with a very irritated voice): “Hey! For the Xth time! I told you to come eat!” Yeah. I can totally see that.
Never been a fan of open concept. Having a closed concept helped my kids learn independence as youngsters. Of courses as babes they were with me. I love to cook and entertain. I do not want to be able to see the stack of pots and pans while I am enjoying time with my guests. In addition I am an introvert and like my privacy.
I live in a 70s ranch style house that was built all over the South. I took down the wall between the living room/dining room/den to create one large open concept room. But I kept the dividing wall between that and the kitchen. There is a pass way between the two rooms, but I really prefer a more closed off kitchen as I get more storage room and I am not sharing my cooking messes with visitors. I just redid the kitchen with new colors, appliances and countertops and I love walking in there to cook.
I prefer semi open or closed. I’m going from closed to open and I want to keep my quality furniture but every wasn’t the same style and my artwork is super modern and bright. I’m still struggling. I refinished my dining set but just haven’t found the right rugs to define each room and I’m not allowed to buy the same rug in different colors. Finding peices that speak to each other but are not the same is hard. I it took 3 months for me to pick coordinating chandeliers for the kitchen, hallway, living and dining room and I still have to find a fixture for the den😢
If kitchen used for cooking, smell of food is everywhere regardless of how good/expensive range hood is. So is noise. As someone who cooks, I consider kitchen a work place. When I relax, I don’t want to see work place. I guess open concept was ‘invented’ by developers/builders to cut cost of building and has been successfully sold to quite a number of population.
Open concept for me but i would put the kitchen half hidden or on angular view from the entryway or living area which I made on myhouse. But as Asian though, I have 2 kitchens, one is formal the other is an auxiliary or wet kitchen where I do my everyday cooking. This auxillary kitchen is totally hidden from the living area.
My downstairs is mostly open concept, with the kitchen, eat-in area, and living room open to each other. It works well for gatherings. But there is an office that’s separated visually and a guest suite that’s separated by a short hallway. Upstairs, I have a wide hallway with the master suite, bonus room, hall bathroom, and two bedrooms, all traditionally separated. This arrangement is ideal for me.
A combination of the two works best. Closed concept for formal living and dining rooms. Open concept for kitchen and family room. Having the formal areas closed, you will be able to have people of all types over at any time. Open concept with the kitchen and family room can allow for a more I casual design and more casual living.
I had an old house with separate rooms and moved to a house that has a semi-open concept. It has walls separating each room, but the openings between the rooms are either wide archways or wide double doors with French paned glass. Even the kitchen is separated from the dining area by a high counter that’s perfect for passing dishes back and forth, but still gives the kitchen it’s own space. I also have soaring ceilings with skylights and plenty of large windows and sliding doors to bring in lots of light. The house is well-insulated with double-paned windows and is nice and warm in winter. I don’t want a living area that looks like a restaurant/bar/lounge and I’m not interested in shifting my furniture around. But I would never want to move back into an old house with small windows, since they can be quite dark on even the sunniest summer day.
I live in an apartment and all the walls are pure white. I’m redoing a bedroom that has a wall behind the bedroom door, a wall that’s shorter in width it’s between the closet and en suite. I also, have a wall that is broken up by a window at the end of the wall. My bed placement can only go on the wall with the window on the end of the wall. Only one nightstand would fit because the way the room is made. Ima. There isnt any furniture in the room except the bed (charcoal gray). I want the room to be relaxing and calm. I have OCD and too much throws my brain in overload. I have pink solid curtains with light gray sheers. Again, I am revamping this room and I want the gray/pink. Help me with where to take this especially with the entire wall spaces being white. The TV is going onto the shorter wall with a 3 tier bookcase underneath (also white). Help I’m lost. I can’t figure where to take this. Any and all ideas are excepted. Thanks and continue bringing awesome knowledgeable content.
I feel open space really puts invisible walls around you. It forces you to keep furniture in the same place, whether you like it or not. Open space needs 1970s style build-to-space furniture in order to keep space functional and tidy. Also the colouring is difficult. Just maybe you want your former dining room to be a bit more stylish as the rest of the house. It is usually meant for special days such as Christmas and inviting people over. But maybe you just don’t like to live like that all the time. It also requires a lot more room, because you can’t place furniture against the wall at all, so all furniture needs a lot of space around them. Also you should have a maid, to keep the room tidy all the time. You don’t have a moment of silence in your home if someone else lives with you. I don’t wonder why people these days are so nervous and stressed.
I have an open concept but have a formal Livingroom and dining room. I chose my favorite white shoji white for my open space. I like calming colors and can use browns tans and can change that pop of color. My hardest decision right now is changing out the front door which is a French door. Do I get a solid door or does I go with a 3/4 liter upgrade with iron? It’s Mediterranean.
I have an open concept downstairs where the living room/dining room looks it a family room separated by a half-wall. Luckily the kitchen is around the corner and only looks into the family room so I’m able to use the family room as a neutral anchor to speak to both the living room/dining room and kitchen through neutral complimentary colors and a mix of furniture styles.
I can see a “new concept” coming to be. There will be some more closed off layouts but I think most people are still going to continue to want open concepts. I don’t think anyone wants completely closed off spaces. We will see layouts where rooms flow together but have some kind of minimal dividers AND we’ll see some separate rooms with designated uses. Think of a separate tv room that loud teenagers can be sequestered to.
I love my home. It is open kitchen and family room but living room is sectioned off but open to family room if that makes sense. Kind of a L shape. So I have the open concept and walls with some sections. Is there a way that you can tell me how to paint ?? I also have board and batten in living room but only on 1 wall and Dow the hall. Really struggling
I thought I wanted a total open concept but I’m enjoying a partial open concept instead. Our kitchen is open to the den/fam room. And it’s nice because I can cook in the kitchen etc and still enjoy the company of the fam while they chill in the den. And I like that the other rooms are closed/have walls.
We have both. An open kitchen, dining, living room with a separate games room, and a study. The games room is off the living room and has double doors, so can be opened when entertaining or as required. The study is adjacent to the living room close but quite separate. My husband listens to a lot of music in there. I can hear it in the background, but it doesn’t take over the whole open area.
As someone who’s lived in apartments all her life, I want open concept living area (kitchen/dining/ living room all as one) because it feels more airy and inviting to me. I also have a toddler that I’d like to keep an eye on from the kitchen. So the house we’re building will have exactly this concept, but with rooms on both ends of the house and master suite separated by a pocket door.
We raised our family in a traditional, custom built two story house (nothing fancy, but solid construction and comfortable). Recently sold that home and moved into an apartment created from an attic over our son’s workshop. It is 1100 sq ft, open concept. Four well-lit dormers were added: one for kitchen, one for bathroom and laundry room, two for bedrooms. I love our new home, which suits this stage of our lives but the issues I had to address were: the lack of walls to hang pictures, place bookshelves, etc.; having to be conscious of how one sweep of the eye takes in decor, living & dining furniture, desk, sewing/craft area, kitchen, etc. and making sure that it all flowed pleasingly together; and the lack of privacy with everything but bed and bath being visible and audible from anywhere in a relatively small space. The first two issues were an interesting challenge that I feel we resolved well (although always a work in progress), especially after getting rid of a LOT of our stuff! As for the privacy issue, it’s not too big a deal since it’s only me and my husband, but definitely something to consider for anyone thinking of an open floor plan. It could be particularly problematic for anyone working from home unless a bedroom is big enough to accommodate an office area.
Hi Julie, I really like open concept but my husband hates 😂 He says that the smell of food, noise when one of us is cooking is not for him We live in a closed concept house, as you mentioned our living room is one style and kitchen completely different style as we have completely different styles 😂😂😂 Thanks for your input 😘😘😘😘
Hello Julie! We currently live in a European row house from the 50s. We have all the disadvantages (small rooms and a staircase that is not encased and has brilliant acoustic) without the advantage of having enough light, since it anyway only comes from two sides. As much as I enjoy its original features, if the house was mine and not rented, I would tear out so many walls…. my neighbours all have the same house as us, and all of them made at least part of the rooms bigger by moving or knocking down walls. We lived in an open concept apartment before and I really miss it – the noise is just as bad now as it was then. Nonetheless, this house has charm and since we have a pretty unique style anyway, there’s no big difference between rooms, except for the kitchen that came with the house. From the 70s! 😂 It’s a look… Greetings from Luxembourg 🇱🇺
I love kitchen and family room together…since everyone loves haging in the kitchen.., you get a big Tv..everyone can watch a game..Play board games etc…and the kitchen is right there, and usually the back yard /pool area, so for me is a must!……BUT I love the rest of my home close layout….Great article.
For me, the feeling of spaceousness is the most important whether I get to live in a big house or in a shoe-box of a small apartment. In a big and bright house I can live with traditional concept, in a smaller/small or not very bright I will always prioritize open concept. It has been my fantasy to live in a loft (haven’t so far) where I get to arrange the space according to my needs with furniture and furnishings and, if necessary be for privacy, a couple of walls/half walls
Hi Julie! I have always had walls and doors. When my children were little, I had to peek around walls to see what they were up to, but the room that they were in to watch television and play with their toys was closed off with baby gates. it worked, but I can see young parents wanting to have the children in vision while they are in the kitchen or cleaning or even doing work at home. I think that the open concept home is safer for a young family because the parents can see the children. I prefer walls and doors because I like to hang things on my walls. Plus electrical sockets are easier to access. I like to have different colors in the rooms and I like to hang wallpaper. I do try to keep cohesive from room to room, but sometimes I want a room to look different and having walls, let me do that easily. For me, I think living in an open concept would be easier because I would have less furniture and other household decor. But life with children means that you’re going to have things you’re going to need storage and you’re going to need to put those things out of sight at times and let’s face it walls and doors let us do that .🥰❤nice work!
Hi Julie we renovated our home in 2018 and have an open concept kitchen/ dining room at the back of the house with doors out to the garden. It’s perfect for entertaining as there’s so much space. Our living room is next to this area and we installed pocket doors either side of the wall so you can do a big loop between both areas. Easy for flow of traffic and no bottlenecks. For best of both worlds we have a cosy snug at the front of the house which is great for perusal TV in the evenings. Love your vlogs ❤
My previous home was a large L shaped living – dining – kitchen. We had that when our teenagers were with us and we had people coming and going out of our home on a daily basis. I wasn’t fond of the fact that someone could be sitting on the couch and could see me cooking pasta sauce at the stove. But entertaining was easy. I am now alone and bought a different house in a different / retirement state near my adult daughter and her family. I don’t need a big open concept area to remind me that I’m alone. I have a closed concept now in that there is an arched doorway between the living and dining rooms. The kitchen opens to the dining area with a counter in between. It is really nice for me because it fits who I am and where I am in my life now.
I prefer broken plan, not full wide open plan – it’s too loud and impersonal. I do not like closed off traditional spaces like in the UK housing. I also don’t like rooms that are shockingly different rooms though a regular house – too much difference from room to room is too stressful to see. I like an overall restful calm feeling from a residence, whether they have kids or not – child clutter can be contained, or at least purchased in agreeable coordinating colors to not destroy the aesthetic of a space. It just takes planning and thought.
So right about your attitude toward cooking. If you are a social cook, open concept works great. If you hate having people underfoot, closed concept is better. I have a semi-open concept and threaten to put up a rope to keep people out of the kitchen all the time! I also struggle with furniture placement in open concept in a way that I never do with more traditional layouts. We’ve lived in at least 10 houses, and I always prefer the more traditional closed concept.
I’ve been perusal a lot of HGTV and home reno shows. The clients/ homeowners usually want open concept and the renovators knock down walls. I prefer closed concept – like the older homes/ cottages that I see that are in the UK. Each room can have its own personality. Some of the UK cottages are really small compared to American houses. Some don’t have a separate dining room – the dining table is in the kitchen. I don’t have kids, so I prefer my private, compartmentalized spaces. However, if a person has young kids then I understand why they want the open concept. Btw Julie, you look great in that green outfit! 💚👍
There is always some mess in the actively working kitchen ( specially with kids and pets) its rare that kitchen is clean most of the time .visiting lot of house( high class luxury homes with maids working full time) i always note this kind of permanent disorder in the kitchen! Plus all kind of smells! So for me its a big NO, No,No
I grew up with ‘closed’ concept built in 1906 – living room with double doors leading to dinning and a separate kitchen – however, each room was huge 23′ x 15′ (or so) with 11′ or 12′ ceilings. Mom’s dining table seats 8 comfortably with a desk at one end and built-in book shelves at the other with a sideboard in front of two huge windows. I think they used to call it a Texas style house. I have lived in living room/ dining room open with kitchen separate and prior to that living room with an ‘eat in’ kitchen (liked it least) . I purchased a 1950s house with living room/ dining room open and a closed kitchen – which is big enough to eat it (at one time the washer/dryer was in the kitchen – the previous owner did a huge re-muddle and they are located elsewhere now) … when I get it decorated I think the ‘dining’ area which has my piano in it, will be made into a reading area … as what was once the back door now leads into a ‘den’ with a fire place – so it essentially became a walk-through area. I’m single and child is grown so it suits me; I would like to have a smaller open concept with 2 bedrooms (dream home) … some day ….