Am I the Bly one who is over the open floor plan?

[Anonymous]

I usually like "open floor plans" in buildings whose overall style and period is consistent with this arrangement. But I'm absolutely against altering space in fine older (90 year+) homes and buildings to make this happen. People who do this lose beautiful doors, floors, and trim, and destroy everything that once made their homes special.

[Anonymous]

We had a small house with an open first floor, which made it easy to keep an eye on our small children. However, for a larger house, I much prefer traditional rooms; I like the coziness of them, especially at night.

[Anonymous]

I think I want a mix of the two. I like the idea of having a kitchen that opens to a living room becuase on holidays I hate being sequestered for hours in the kitchen and feeling left out of family fun. But I like the idea of being able to shut the doors to the kitchen and have a separate dining area as well. So really, I need a hybrid.

[Anonymous]

open floor plans are fine in a house that is designed for them and is not obsene in size. The problem is the idiotic builder's houses that are everywhere that try to be traditional/colonial, but all open, and of course need to be 3000+ sq. ft. for no reason whatsoever.

[Anonymous]

I don't like two story designs.

I like an open kitchen/living room but you also need another living room or two for privacy or quieter hobbies than watching tv.

I don't like viewing the kitchen/living room from the front door and I don't like kitchen mess visible (I like two level islands or counters that hide the kitchen prep. I like a separate formal dining room).

[Anonymous]

I like my semi-open kitchen with a bar area that is open towards the living room for socializing and entertaining and just to eat there while watching TV. I also like not seeing the mess of the kitchen from my living room, so I like having a wall separating the stove and most of the countertop from the rest of the living room. To me, this plan is ideal, not a closed-off kitchen, but not too open.

[Anonymous]

We have a modernized rambler with a pretty open floorplan. No dining or living area, it's all one large room and the kitchen is open to it. It makes the place look more spacious and I like being able to see TV from the kitchen and see what kids are doing. If they want to watch TV or when DH wants to watch sports, I send them to the walk-out basement (it's like a second floor for us) and close the door, our two floors are separate and I hear nothing. I like having family room downstairs, this way I rule the entire first floor

[Anonymous]

We have a center hall colonial with formal living and dining room in front and an open plan in the back with kitchen, breakfast room, and family room all open to each other. I love the family togetherness this allows, especially as the kids get older and are around less often. The one thing I don't like is the cooking smells wafting throughout the rear of the house, but that's a tradeoff I'm willing to make. Need to upgrade the exhaust in the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's my opinion: I have a toddler and a galley kitchen that is not open to ANYTHING. It is really stressful cooking dinner and trying to find things to entertain my DS while I'm in there. He likes to be around me which is wonderful, but the kitchen is super small, so the best thing is for him to play with the cans of cat food, grocery bags, etc. And that's when he lets me put him down. Prior to having kids I was really ambivalent about open floor plans, but now that I have a child I really see why people like them. It would be wonderful to cook dinner while he plays with his toys within my line of vision, and his line of vision to me.

This. Like being able to watch my kids while cooking. Not being able to do this would really complicate our life.

[Anonymous]

Agree that open plans can be useful with very small children who need supervision constantly however I never cared for open plans because of the way noise and cooking smells would travel and I wanted separate spaces. Another interesting thing I read about open plans was that they are suspected as a culprit in weight gain. With a view into the kitchen food is often visible on countertops and you never get the (subconscious) idea that the kitchen is closed, it's time to stop eating since the kitchen is never literally closed. Open kitchens to me seem an unspoken invitation to eat.

[Anonymous]

Many Europeans have open floor plans. They are great for making smaller homes more functional. I miss my open floor condo but am having trouble finding open floor plan here. Weirdly, I don't think this area caught on to open floor plans. Seems behind the times to me, but who knows, maybe fashion will cycle back to compartmentalized and dark.

[Anonymous]

p.s. I do agree granite will go out, as will all the fancy backsplashes. I personally like the 60s formica kitchens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:p.s. I do agree granite will go out, as will all the fancy backsplashes. I personally like the 60s formica kitchens.

yuck

Granite is beautiful, I don't see why it should go out, it's a natural stone with unique patterns created by nature. If you don't like this, there are alternatives like Quarz, and this won't look that much different than other uniformly colored surfaces, but at least would be practical. I don't get the idea of plastic or wooden countertops, not practical and some colors are downright ugly.

[Anonymous]

Hmm...I always thought I'd like the traditional colonials, until we started looking for a house. I found the rooms really claustrophobic, not cozy. We found a smaller mid-century home that has a relatively open kitchen/dining/family layout, and decent-sized bedrooms, and really like it. I think I'd go nuts if I had to spend time in a closed-off kitchen. But we also make a point of cleaning up the kitchen space immediately after use, so we're not seeing dirty dishes, etc.

[Anonymous]

The closed off small kitchen will never be desirable again. If you can get a closed floor plan with a nice-sized kitchen, fine, but no one wants the small servant kitchens anymore. We have a traditional colonial but knocked down the dining room to combine it with the kitchen so we could have an eat-in kitchen. It's more space, lighter and brighter, and I can cook dinner while kids are doing homework etc. The living room is still separate.