Is open concept out?

[Anonymous]

Not out, or "in". I prefer our layout which is mostly open with the kitchen being off to one side of the house, separated by our fireplace wall. I would call it semi-open concept.

[Anonymous]

What a sweet home. I would have scooped it for sure. Open concept isn’t easy to live in. That space seems bright without having it be one long weird room.

[Anonymous]

Open concept is very out. People are in some way working from home now forever - whether hybrid or full time. Add in kids and that creates a loud messy house with open concept.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t want that house either, every room would feel like living in a box

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Open concept is very out. People are in some way working from home now forever - whether hybrid or full time. Add in kids and that creates a loud messy house with open concept.

Open concept doesn't mean that literally every part of the house is open. They still have bedrooms and home offices!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Open concept is very out. People are in some way working from home now forever - whether hybrid or full time. Add in kids and that creates a loud messy house with open concept.

oh be careful with the use of that word and concept. "Forever" is a long time. And times they are a changin'!

[Anonymous]

The layout is similar to my rowhouse and I love it. I agree with the pp that individual rooms can work better in homes with less square footage.

[Anonymous]

My preference is a hybrid - an open concept eat-in kitchen/family room space with separate "formal" living and dining rooms. That takes a lot of square footage, though.

What I actually have is similar to the OP's home (that got away).

[Anonymous]

I am starting to think they open concept is less of a trend and more just a question of personal preference. As you can see from this thread, people have strong views! I’m on team “rooms should have walls” but can certainly see the appeal of open concept. Just preference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It works for small homes due to limited space but not so much for bigger homes. If you have square footage then having defined spaces gives you individual privacy, which is now more important than ever for work/study from home needs.

This is backwards. In smaller homes with an open floorplan it's more difficult for each resident to have a degree of privacy, whether visual or auditory. That can be good for togetherness, not so good for work-from-home, for homework, or just for some time apart. In a larger home, with more individual rooms with doors on an upper level, an open concept on the main level works very well both for entertaining and for family togetherness, while the home still provides separate and more private spaces when individuals need/want that.

It's not a passing fad or trend, but works for some people and not for others, and provides more flexibility in large homes than in smaller homes.

[Anonymous]

Smaller home look very choppy and dated without open concept.

[Anonymous]

We bought a colonial row home in that neighborhood with a plan to fully gut. Initially I thought of open concept but the pandemic hit and we modified our plans because we liked having additional privacy so we only removed one wall separating dining and kitchen. We kept the foyer, living room and dining/kitchen areas separate. I’ve seen more renovations with a semi-open concept but of course space and layout influence those decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think it's out - most new builds have it to some degree, and if you go on instagram, houzz, etc. it's most of what you see. That said, there has always been a sizable contingent of people who prefer defined spaces. I am an open concept fan but I know many aren't.

For me, the Petworth house would be ok because it's still semi-open - you can see the living room from the kitchen, and talk to people sitting at the dining table. What I really dislike is when the kitchen is totally cut off from the rest of the house so that someone cooking and prepping food can't see/talk to anyone elsewhere in the house.

Interesting. When I'm in the kitchen cooking/ prepping, the last thing I want to do is see or talk to anyone elsewhere in the house. I like that my kitchen is a little cut off.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Smaller home look very choppy and dated without open concept.

+1 I had a small house in CA (1700 sqft), and the kitchens are so tiny. Everyone I know in CA who lives in a small SFH opened up their kitchen into the dining room. Most of the older small homes don't have an eatin kitchen space, so they blow out the walls between the dining room and kitchen.

If you have a large house, more than likely, you have office space in your room. When the kids were doing VL, and both spouse and I were also WFH, we all had our own spaces because we have a large house.

If we had to wfh/vl in our smaller CA house, privacy would've been harder, definitely.

[Anonymous]

What a great house. My kids go to Latin; they’d get an hour more of sleep every day if we lived in that house!