Anyone else hate open-plan architecture?

[diznygirl]

I like the open space. It's entirely dependent upon how you live your lives - with small children it was great that the kitchen/eating/tv area was all connected and within view so I could feed/clean/interact with the children all day. My mom's way of doing it in ye olden days was just to move a play pen around the house. LOL

I would like more wall space, but that's just clutter anyway. One thing I do detest is a kitchen island in the kitchen that I would have to walk around to get to stove or sink - a friend had one and I was exhausted working in her kitchen! LOL I know some have the sink or stove in the island, but this one was just counter space.

 

[belleatdisney]

We have open plan and there are pluses and minuses. I love the high ceilings and all the light. But it is difficult to arrange furniture. The kitchen noise is an issue. That said, a closed floor plan screams old fashioned to me and I feel caged in.

 

[tvguy]

Well, our kitchen is open to the family room and we love that. We have a wall between the family room to the living room, some in our subdivision have taken out that wall to create a 32 x 32 great room. Not a fan of that. OP, I am trying to think of a house I have been that had doors to close off the kitchen, I sure can't think of any. That just doesn't sound desirable to me.

 

[disneychrista]

I am trying to think of a house I have been that had doors to close off the kitchen,

The house I grew up in had doors that closed off the kitchen from the formal living room. There was a half (maybe 3/4rds) wall with lattice at the top to the ceiling that separated the formal living room from the living room.

The house I am in now looks like there was a wall or doors at the entrance to the kitchen based on the ceiling beam / arch that is there now.

 

[kymom99]

My friend has a house with the kitchen open to the family room, but it forms sort of an L shape. It’s a big space but there is natural separation. It’s probably 20 years old. The ones I don’t like are where the kitchen island is practically in the living room/family room.

My house is old. The kitchen decor is a monstrosity. But it’s a big kitchen with counter space and room for a table. One day we may redo it but won’t change the floor plan much. One doorway has a door that closes and the other is a regular doorway with no door. The back door and basement door separate the kitchen from the dining room. It’s a sort of cape cod. My dad built it in the late 50s

I don’t get hung up on trends or any of that. It’s a house with enough room for us to be comfortable. I wish we had an extra bathroom but it is what it is. It has a huge double lot and people knock on our door asking to buy the extra lot. It’s home to us.

 

[Colleen27]

OP, I am trying to think of a house I have been that had doors to close off the kitchen, I sure can't think of any. That just doesn't sound desirable to me.

I think that is a product of pre-central heat/air design. Our house used to have one but it was finished into an archway at some point over the years. The kitchen is also the entirety of the single-story portion of the house, without any living space above, and the ceiling is a foot higher than the rest of the house. It really does help contain the heat of cooking and especially canning to the kitchen while leaving the rest of the house cool, and must have done an even better job when there was a door that could close... but for a house built with central air, there'd be no reason for designing around those factors.

 

[AustinTink]

I need walls to put pictures & shelves on, and to park furniture against

This was my Mother-in-laws biggest pet peeve when they were looking for their new home. She had a lifetime's worth of furniture and doo-dads and there was never enough wall space in the more modern homes for them. They finally ended up buying a house and adding walls.

 

[tvguy]

I think that is a product of pre-central heat/air design. Our house used to have one but it was finished into an archway at some point over the years. The kitchen is also the entirety of the single-story portion of the house, without any living space above, and the ceiling is a foot higher than the rest of the house. It really does help contain the heat of cooking and especially canning to the kitchen while leaving the rest of the house cool, and must have done an even better job when there was a door that could close... but for a house built with central air, there'd be no reason for designing around those factors.

That could be. The neighborhood I was thinking of was built starting about 1923 so those houses have probably been remodeled many times taking out original features. Although a friend just bought one and found a whole lot of remodeling did not include replacing the knob and tube wiring.

 

[slpeters]

My husband would like to do that in our home. My issue isn't really too much visibility. It's needing walls to put stuff on/against. I like bookcases and paintings and shelving in general. Most of our large walls are floor to ceiling window. If we start knocking out internal walls I just don't know where that stuff goes.

 

[Summer2018]

I think an open floor plan works with certain homes. My house was built in 1920. We have a large long front room (living room) with a doorway into the kitchen. Off of the kitchen is the dining room. When DD was younger, we thought about knocking down the wall between the living room and dining room, but it would have been a complicated job. We never did anything about it, and now we actually are happy staying true to the 1920's era layout.

I like it in modern homes, and I love to watch Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles where the majority of the homes have the open floor plan.

 

[Kitty 34]

Not a fan at all.........need my walls!

 

[Katie Dawn]

I sure do hate open plan homes when I'm trying to catch my cat to give her medicine and she literally can run all over the house and I can't trap her in a corner of one room!