Anyone else hate open-plan architecture?

[NotUrsula]

I've stayed in vacation condos that were open-plan that I thought were all right -- for a brief stay while I'm living out if a suitcase. Long-term in the workaday world? Ecch.

I need doors that I can close, particularly on a kitchen, to both isolate cooking heat from the rest of the house, & to contain clutter. I need walls to put pictures & shelves on, and to park furniture against, and to keep my teen on the other side of when she's being a pill.

Recently I saw a house not far from me that had been gut- rehabbed. Someone had turned a perfectly good 1920s foursquare house into this modernist open-plan monstrosity that has huge beams crossing all the ceilings, presumably in lieu of load-bearing walls. Doing this is a minor trend around here, and I really want it to stop.
(Foursquares in particular are nearly perfect as they are; if you need more space then just bump out the back wall!)

Sometimes I tell myself that it isn't so bad when the place was built to be open-plan, but then I recall the 80s, where nearly every wall stopped short of the ceiling, and there are almost never any 90-degree angles anywhere. Gives me nightmares.

 

[Nox]

Funny enough I read an article many years ago about people who joined in on the "gutting" renovation trend where everything was turned into an open floor plan, and then after a little while wished they hadn't and were talking about putting walls back up.

The primary reason: people being able to see into the kitchen. Too tired to do the dishes last night? You get to stare the dirty dishes piled in the sink right in the face first thing in the morning. Any guests who come over see everything on your counters.

I know I wouldn't like that. The kitchen, to me, is a utility room of the house. It is where meals are made, and therefore is not intended for show or display. It would be like having an open laundry room. But that's my own opinion.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Our first home was open plan, and the kitchen issue is exactly why we did not consider an open plan home when we moved. I very much like my separate rooms.

 

[disneyfanlincoln]

Great to find like minded people. I like the ability or shut the door on my clutter especially if visitors turn up unannounced. Open plan looks lovely as a design concept but not practical for our household for daily living.

 

[ronandannette]

Totally agree - that's why we bought and reno'd a property built in the '70's when walls were still a thing.

 

[superme80]

Me!!!!

 

[piccolopat]

Absolutely agree! I don't think some people realize that those beautiful to look at open concept rooms on HGTV are only beautiful to look at when no one lives a normal life there. In addition to containing the heat and odors from the kitchen, it also contains the noise. It's hard to watch TV in the living room with the kitchen vent going, pots and pans clanking, etc.

 

[jo-jo]

Our house built 40 years ago, has family room and kitchen with an open divider between them. Great when kids were playing I could watch over them while cooking. But living room and dining room are separate.

When the kids were young, I would clean living room and dining room and tie doors close, so the kids wouldn't mess them up before Christmas dinner came around.

40 years later, I can watch tv in family room, while DH does puzzles in dining room listening to music and we don't bother each other.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Nope we love it.

 

[design_mom]

I’m nearly 50 years old and I know I’ve never lived in a house that had an actual door that could close between the kitchen and living areas. I’m trying to think if I know anybody who lives in a house like that? I know a couple of people who live in houses that I wouldn’t consider “open floor plan” and the kitchen still doesn’t have a real door (I’m not sure what a four-square floor plan is though).

Our floor plan is kind of semi-open. The kitchen is open to the family room. The living room and dining room are open to each other. There's a wall between them and the kitchen/family room but there’s an opening (no physical door) between the dining room and the kitchen. Yeah, if your kitchen is a mess, people would be able to see it... but I guess I’ve grown up that way and have gotten used to not leaving the kitchen a mess if I’m not actively cooking. I think the benefits of some openness outweigh the downsides.

Edited to add: I looked up "four square floor plan" and I think I do know a few people whose houses would qualify. In them, the kitchen is kind of its own room, but there's still no "door." And often the kitchen is also a hallway to something else (the back yard, the basement staircase, etc.)

 

[Southernmiss]

I like open kitchens.

The kitchen is often a place people gather anyway. I'm a no clutter, clean the kitchen as I go person and like to catch the morning or evening news as I'm in the kitchen.

We have a room that was a playroom and is now dh's office with closed doors. With 4 bedrooms too, there's been plenty of places 6 of us could get away to without being in the open.

 

[Disneylover99]

I love it! My main floor is completely open and often cluttered because there are no doors for things to hide behind. What you see is what you get.

I 100% prefer it to the enclosed room houses I’ve lived in, in the past.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I thought you were talking about open concept for office space - which I hate with a passion.

As for home architechture - meh. It's okay.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Our current house is semi open but not completely. There is a large pass through between the kitchen and great room so people in the kitchen can talk to people in the great room easily but it isn't completely open and you can't just see the dirty dishes all over. It's the best of both worlds. I don't think I'd want a fully open type plan with the kitchen just out there for everyone to see.
Oh and my spouse won't let me watch those flipping and renovation shows where they open up the floor plans of an older house because I was always saying things like They're doing that wrong or that is shoddy work there.

Open plan doesn't bother me so much as the exterior trend of 3, 4, or even 5, or 6 exterior treatments that don't know each other.



Let's see we have rock, brick, vinyl siding shaker faux shingle, and brady bunch modern vertical wood all on the front of what looks like a modest sized house. There is absolutely no balance nor symmetry in this house at all. It's just a bunch of stuff all thrown together. And why for the love of Pete do you do brick columns half way up and then do Faux wood the rest of the way? What was this designer smoking? And here you thought brutalist architecture was bad. I'm in aesthetics Hades.



Oh and look at this.


Oh boy. Something new has been added. A PRINGLES CAN TURRET DOOR!!!!!!! It's like they took parts of three different buildings, cut them, and put them together. But at least it's not faux shake, stucco, siding, brick, stone, and the like.



Oh dear God I think I'm gonna......

And you just know some hot shot designer is going to read this and say hey, you know that puke would make a good stucco color.

 

[piccolopat]

I want to add my dislike for some kitchen islands and replacing upper cabinets with too many open shelves. In particular, I don't like islands that have a range top with people sitting inches away, particularly when there are kids involved. Food cooking produces hot steam and spatter on top of the danger of hot burners. I also don't like those that have a sink with no place to hide a drain board. Not everything can or should go into the dishwasher. Islands that had a raised area that hid the sink were better but on some shows they are deemed outdated. I dislike it when people try to cram a too big island into a small space just because everyone "has always wanted one". For open shelves, they may look great before people start to use them. These shelves store far less than the cabinets they are replacing. After a while, people will also realize that the dust sticks more on the open shelves and their contents when cooking oil and smoke is added into the equation. When will designers realize that they have to design for family living and not just magazine looks? When will people consider how they will use the space first before succumbing to the latest HGTV fad?

 

[Christine]

I have a quasi open floor plan (built in the 90s). My dining room is completely separate but my kitchen, eat in area and family room all opens into each other (I like that part), but the part I don't like is that my formal living room has open ceilings to the top floor. I like the open look, but it's truly a waste of good floor space that I would *never* do again. I'd rather have a ceiling and a floor above so my bedrooms were bigger.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

I find most of the closed off "foursquare" type houses to be claustrophobic. Open floor plans can sometimes have issues with noise levels between areas though.

Our current house was built in the 60s and is semi-open. It has some type of wall between most rooms but the door ways are wide and the only interior doors on the first floor are basement, bathroom, and office. I think this is a good mix and fits our lifestyle well.

 

[kymom99]

I always thought the cooking smells would permeate the furniture. My in-laws built a lovely ranch in the early 90’s. The kitchen was separate. It had a huge great room with wet bar and dining room with larger opening into the great room. To me it was perfect. Guests could mingle in the 2 main areas and the kitchen was out of sight to prepare food, etc.

 

[aprilchem]

I've stayed in vacation condos that were open-plan that I thought were all right -- for a brief stay while I'm living out if a suitcase. Long-term in the workaday world? Ecch.

I need doors that I can close, particularly on a kitchen, to both isolate cooking heat from the rest of the house, & to contain clutter. I need walls to put pictures & shelves on, and to park furniture against, and to keep my teen on the other side of when she's being a pill.

Recently I saw a house not far from me that had been gut- rehabbed. Someone had turned a perfectly good 1920s foursquare house into this modernist open-plan monstrosity that has huge beams crossing all the ceilings, presumably in lieu of load-bearing walls. Doing this is a minor trend around here, and I really want it to stop.
(Foursquares in particular are nearly perfect as they are; if you need more space then just bump out the back wall!)

Sometimes I tell myself that it isn't so bad when the place was built to be open-plan, but then I recall the 80s, where nearly every wall stopped short of the ceiling, and there are almost never any 90-degree angles anywhere. Gives me nightmares.

No - I LOVE open floor plans. Our house was built in 1939 and has everything you describe - closed in rooms, doors on every room, walls everywhere. Our vacation home has an open floor plan, with no real doors at all on the 1st floor except to our bedroom, the second floor is open to the first floor with a balcony running the entire length.

Even though our vacation house is 1/2 the size of our regular house, it feels SO much larger, open, and more spacious. I'm not a "clutter" person (no items on surfaces, no collections, limited furniture), but our regular house feels cluttered to me all the time, no matter what I do. I cook all the meals, and I feel so "closed off" when I do so - like I can't interact with whatever our family is doing. If we had money to do it, I'd knock out every wall in our house, but there are so many load-bearing walls it's cost-prohibitive.

 

[disneychrista]

Never been a fan of open floor plans. I have a fairly small house that isn't even really an open floor plan but I hate that I can see & hear the kitchen from the living room.