does anyone else hate open floorplans?

[Anonymous]

I like it--live in one from the 70s!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate open floorplans but I do like having extra-wide doorways to connect each area and help with flow.
I also strongly dislike very chopped up old houses with a tiny doorway to the kitchen.

I guess I prefer semi-open floorplans? (I don't know what else to call it.)

Me, too. Our 1923 four square has a semi-open main floor. The foyer, living, and dining are connected by large open arches, columns, and French doors. It's really a nice mix of being open but not too much. The kitchen is in in the back with a smaller open doorway. I like it, though there are times I'd like a bar, peninsula, or maybe just a pocket door into the dining room. We had a 35-person party this summer, and the separate-ish spaces were great for conversation groups to form and mingle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate open floorplans but I do like having extra-wide doorways to connect each area and help with flow.
I also strongly dislike very chopped up old houses with a tiny doorway to the kitchen.

I guess I prefer semi-open floorplans? (I don't know what else to call it.)

Me, too. Our 1923 four square has a semi-open main floor. The foyer, living, and dining are connected by large open arches, columns, and French doors. It's really a nice mix of being open but not too much. The kitchen is in in the back with a smaller open doorway. I like it, though there are times I'd like a bar, peninsula, or maybe just a pocket door into the dining room. We had a 35-person party this summer, and the separate-ish spaces were great for conversation groups to form and mingle.

Yes this is what I like. Semi-open. I need some walls but I don't need ALL the walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate open floor plans. I hate most floor plans that are not original to the style of the house. That being said, we are buying a house with an l-shaped living/dining room, but the kitchen is an entirely separate room. We're that not the case, we would not buy it.

I also predict the death of open floor plans again. Soon.

I think they will die too, but because time will show that many open floor plans have massive structural issues will need to be remedied after a decade or two of use.
Most of the open floorplans we see in this area are in older homes and flippers are not reinforcing the upper floors/ceilings. All those original walls were built to hold up the structure. People are gonna be f#cked when their floors start sagging.

How do you know this? You seem to be the one poster who is always making these claims.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate open floor plans. I hate most floor plans that are not original to the style of the house. That being said, we are buying a house with an l-shaped living/dining room, but the kitchen is an entirely separate room. We're that not the case, we would not buy it.

I also predict the death of open floor plans again. Soon.

I think they will die too, but because time will show that many open floor plans have massive structural issues will need to be remedied after a decade or two of use.
Most of the open floorplans we see in this area are in older homes and flippers are not reinforcing the upper floors/ceilings. All those original walls were built to hold up the structure. People are gonna be f#cked when their floors start sagging.

How do you know this? You seem to be the one poster who is always making these claims.

+1

Didn't you know? Anything PP doesn't have is "bad". LOL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is there someone in this thread who is so invested in open floor plans that she keeps calling everyone else an idiot? Why does it matter what other people's preferences are?

Right? Who cares if someone likes or doesn't like an open floorplan? You're certainly not going to change someone's preference by calling them an idiot!

The person who keeps posting those screeds against people who don't like open floor plan comes across as mentally ill. There can't be any other reason for someone to get so worked up by the fact that some people have a different personal preference in how their house is laid out.

+1

There is a slew of ramifications for having a new house; and/or an open floor plan; and/or any number of things PP doesn't have, dontchaknow? Mentally ill is accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love having separate spaces for different things. When we have parties, it is nice for different groups to congregate in different areas. And I can set up the dining room in advance because it isn't in the main gathering area. That said, we have a semi-open floorplan - large walkways between most rooms. I can see the family room from the kitchen, but we also have a pocket door that can close the kitchen off. The kitchen itself is big enough for 6 or so people to gather. This arrangement has really worked for our family.
That said, I probably have a dinner party or other party where I'm cooking about 5 times a year. It always cracks me up on house hunters and other HGTV shows when people look at open kitchens and say "ooh, i love that I"ll be able to cook and still interact with my guests at parties." Unless you have a party every week, that seems like a really silly reason to choose a floorplan!

I guess I don't understand the preference to have your party guests separate from one another. I'd hate having to host and running from one room to another to talk to all of my guests. We only feel comfortable inviting a limited number of people to our (closed floorplan) house at once specifically for that reason. I wish we had a larger open space to invite more of our friends and family over.

Not the pp, but I guess for me it's like the the difference between being at a big wedding in a convention hall or ball room, and being at a wedding held at a historic mansion or tavern where you can move from one room to the next, each time enjoying a slightly different ambiance. It's about intimacy even if you have a large crowd. It's a different feeling and surely there's nothing wrong with either.

And some people don't like crowds at all and prefer to hang out in a smaller room with fewer people. I know people who won't go to big parties because they don't want to be stuck in a large space with tons of people. But they will go to a party at a house where they know they can hang out in the study or the kitchen.

But I think whether or not you like an open floor plan is more about how you live day to day, rather than about just how you entertain, and obviously there are just different feelings about that. Nothing wrong with either. Vive la difference!

+1

One would think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is there someone in this thread who is so invested in open floor plans that she keeps calling everyone else an idiot? Why does it matter what other people's preferences are?

+1

A favorite topic is pretty much anything a new house has - subterfuge reigns!

[Anonymous]

I always thought I'll put a bug barn door between the kitchen and the living space and close it if i need to.

[Anonymous]

We have a closed floor plan. Not saying I love it, but when I am cooking, people are still in my kitchen, even though it is small. They are sitting at the kitchen table or standing around the counters. If you have an open plan, and people are hanging out in your family room while you cook, they are still not talking to you. I think the key is to just have a big kitchen!

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in a house built in 1836 in Arlington. It's about 3500 sq feet. We do not have an open floor but can still entertain about 75 people on our first floor. I know this because we've done it twice. The second time there were 90 people and that was a bit tight.

We have a large foyer which is like a room (also has a fireplace) and all the other rooms are off of that. Our dining room has a huge opening to the library, but there are mahogany sliding doors to close it off if we want to.

We are about to re-do the kitchen (it's from 1980) and are going to open the doorway into the dining room but are going to use barn doors (can't find the mahogany ones anywhere) if we want to have it closed off.

I love the layout of the house. You can hide away in different places, but it's also a great place to entertain.

You must be joking with the barn doors

[Anonymous]

These are nice open floor plans that still maintain defined spaces.

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/4614-Kansas-Ave-NW-20011/home/10051350

https://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/807-Buchanan-St-NW-20011/home/10041268

[Anonymous]

No. Our house was built in originally 1918. At one point I had ambitions to knock down the wall between the dining room and kitchen and turn it into a big open space but after we had kids, I was so glad we never got around to that! LOVE the closed floor plan. The kitchen is my favorite room in the house and where I spend most of my time and I basically hide in there when I want a little space from their noise and mayhem, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We have a closed floor plan. Not saying I love it, but when I am cooking, people are still in my kitchen, even though it is small. They are sitting at the kitchen table or standing around the counters. If you have an open plan, and people are hanging out in your family room while you cook, they are still not talking to you. I think the key is to just have a big kitchen!

This.

+2

This is probably an UO but I also like having a formal dining room for when we have guests over. We all hang out in our (pretty big) kitchen while we finish prepping the food and then it's nice to be able to go into another, pretty room to eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. Our house was built in originally 1918. At one point I had ambitions to knock down the wall between the dining room and kitchen and turn it into a big open space but after we had kids, I was so glad we never got around to that! LOVE the closed floor plan. The kitchen is my favorite room in the house and where I spend most of my time and I basically hide in there when I want a little space from their noise and mayhem, lol.

are strange or suffer mental illnesses