Open Concept Floorplan - Loathe
 

The old lady and I watch several shows on HGTV. I think its because we've lived all over and owned a bunch of houses.

Just wanted to get the temperature of you all on whether you like or loathe open concept floorplans.

I literally can't stand them. I want separation and don't want my kitchen in my living room. Partly because my wife has an issue with the kitchen sink faucet and generally being noisy in there without ceasing.

I also don't get the need for the kitchen to be twice the size of the living room and ditto having gigantic master bathroom. (oops, saying master bedroom or bath is grounds for getting kicked off HGTV)

I get a kick out of hearing the homeowners on HGTV saying stuff like, "we want to open the kitchen up so we can see the kids in the living room" or "we like to entertain and don't want to be cut off from our guests".
A. what are your kids doing in the living room? Crack?
B. no way you entertain soooo often that you need to put your kitchen in your LR and if that is a problem have a menu that isn't so overwhelming that you need to stay in the kitchen 24/7.

Rant over but I'd love to hear what others think. If my wife hears me say it one more time I may get a black eye

I like open plan. I like a bit of elbow room. To me nothing worse than walking around through doorways. visual barriers everywhere.

I like open plan going out through big French doors to a deck and a view.

Whenever I do a property makeover I put in bigger windows and French doors.

As one in the field, I can tell you, at least in our market, open shows nicer and sells faster. As do white shaker cabinets, white and grey tile and paint.

Having said that, what we do for sales may not agree with what we do for ourselves....

Not a fan. Not what you need if you’re serious in the kitchen. Everybody that I know that has a kitchen like that can’t cook to save their lives. All for show.

Also not a fan of most of the ideas you see on those shows. Probably why you couldn’t get me to watch them.

I don't want a house to be completely divided into tiny rooms. I also don't like a house that's built like a warehouse. I'm about some balance. Bigger rooms (but I don't want/need giant rooms either), bigger doors or openings, maybe French style and/or large pocket doors or in same cases, just a larger opening with no door. I would like a good sized bathroom. It does suck if the master bath is so small that you've got to move to shut the door, or the door just barely clears the toilet. It also sucks if you're bouncing your elbows off of the walls/door/curtain in the shower.

It would be nice to have a master bath with a large tub (for the missus) a largish shower (no bumping into the door or walls) and enough space for 2 adults to be moving around without bumping into each other (dual vanities included).

I was talking to a plumber yesterday that is building his home in the country. His wife kept telling him "the house isn't big enough" and he kept telling her "then you've got a problem, because I'm not making it any bigger than 40'x100'." On top of the 4000sqft footprint, it's got a loft that I think he said is half of the size of the main floor (I think he said 40'x50'). Apparently, once he got the floor poured and laid out, his wife went and realized that she had more than enough room, and maybe actually a bit too much.

kitchen is the most important room in the house, it should be big IMO. i also both enjoy cooking, and cook a fair amount.

yes to the master bed/bath comment. not sure why folks want them so large. its not functional space. would rather it be community space, or storage, or something functional. once you can fit a big bed ... why go farther?

i like community areas to be open, private areas to be closed. living room/kitchen are community areas. bed/bath/offices are private areas.

Half agree with Cocker. I like a big kitchen. I like mostly open, but also want a formal dining room (current house doesn't have formal dining room--my living room is enormous.

Master bedroom is where we disagree. The entire 2nd floor of my house is the master bed/bath. I've fallen in love with that. Any other house we look at, the master feels tiny.

We're mid-remodel now. Removing wall between kitchen and dining, adding a bar/counter top instead to keep a bit of separation. Already open from dining room to living room.

For the record, I *hate* open floor plan offices. If you wanna go on a rant about those, I'm ready.

Space. I can't stand the (over) use of that word on HGTV.

That being said, I like the open floorplan concept. I get how it's nice to have different, separate rooms, especially if you have different kids/people on different Zoom meetings and classes. My two older kids think the youngest is too loud on the XBox. But I still prefer the airiness of the open floorplan, as opposed to lots of small boxes.

Agreed with above, community areas should be open so they can be easily shared with everyone and reduced barriers.

I don’t care for massive bedrooms and bathrooms but I don’t want them small either. I shouldn’t be bumping into walls or objects in these spaces or shower walls, make them big enough to easily use.

The one thing that irks me more than anything is the formal dining room. It hardly ever gets used because everyone congregates into the kitchen area which is why the kitchen does need to be large. IMHO having no dining room, a large kitchen with a big island with seating/space for larger groups and a nice sized family room is all you need. No formal living room either, give me an office space instead.

There was a time I didn’t understand lofts either but then my kids became teenagers and having that extra space is nice when the kids friends are over.

Good call on the kitchen to dining being like a partial open. We did the same thing in a previous house, put a large "window in the wall between kitchen and dining with a bar and storage under the bar on the kitchen side. It made everything more comfortable. Granted, it was an older home (1967) with fairly small rooms.

Most of these shows delete the formal dining and enlarge the kitchen to take over that space. So when you look at the LR and Kit the kitchen is now about 2/3 or 3/4 of the total.

When our kids were in HS we had a 2 story that was sort of split level. Upstairs and downstairs both had living rooms. It was the best thing ever for that age kids.

I'm a big fan of 2 living rooms. But again, most shows nix one and its usually to enlarge the kitchen.

I've seen some (Fixer Upper in Waco) that have basically torn down all walls in LR, Kitch, and dining. One big open space and when you enter front door you are literally standing next to the dining table. It looks fine at first, but I can't imagine living in it. I'd imagine after some period of time you would want to get away to a calm/quiet space and realize that there isn't one.

I'm also good with dining and kitchen being open to each other. Makes sense.

I have never seen one of those shows, but an open floor plan done well is fine.

Before we built this house, we owned a small bungalow with an open kitchen, dining area and an archway to the living room. We liked it enough to modify the plans of this build to reflect the same principles. The house is small and the open spaces with cathedral ceilings work for us.

Best
Les

It totally depends on the size of the house. If the kitchen is large enough to be walled off but still have interesting sightlines, and room for lots of people, then, by all means; but if a small home was designed poorly with a galley kitchen with small windows, cramped spaces and no sightlines, then blowing out walls and lid out can be a good choice to allow everyone to engage in the social aspects of meal prep.

Herr oberst is absolutely correct. Out here, our avg side home is about 1500-2500sq' so an open plan will make the space feel huge but larger homes, I have called for it to be closed off from dinning room for privacy or more formal dinning. I normal do the spacing planning and kitchen design before it gets to the architect unless there's a designer involved then I am just the dummy contractor with hand off mouth shut on that.

On older homes, say 1500sq', out here (can't speak for other parts of the country) kitchens are normally really small, and cut up with walls dividing up laundry and breakfast areas especially some of the Spanish influenced homes built in the 20s. total counter space sometimes have only 15-18 lin'. That includes the sink and stove. With an open concept, an island can be had with sink or stove in the middle and it makes gathering, chit chating a bit easier or more comfortable.

Personally, I like them in smaller homes but larger homes, I like the ability to section off kitchen and dinning room.

Came across an article on this subject and HGTV. Apparently we men are simpletons and wouldn't watch unless someone busted something. I do believe the second quote in bold, the first one, MEH.

"The network brought in shows like 'Fixer Upper' so the men wouldn't run out of the room the minute the channel turned to HGTV," she said, as executives from the network previously told her.

"It's all for TV. It's not for what's in the best interest of the house, necessarily," she also said

https://www.insider.com/hgtv-open-floor-plans-on-its-shows-to-attract-male-viewers-2020-1

To start, I am not a home improvement show watcher. My family's current home is a typical 3 bed 1 bath rambler "starter home." We've been here for a long time and as the kids grow up it's become far too small.

It has as expected a small galley kitchen which is mostly walled off, small dining room and small living room. Our plan is to build a 20x22ft rec room off the back of the garage and push the back of the house out ten feet. That will give us a much larger master BR and a second bath. It will also double the size of the kitchen and dining room, which seems a bit too large in proportion to the living room. We plan to go more "open concept" and take the wall between LR and kitchen down to bar height. We also plan to have a good sized island in the middle of the kitchen with the sink, a cooktop and other bits. After living in a small box, I'm looking forward to having the room.

I know it's not to everyone's taste, but since we are effectively creating a huge living room/rec room I look forward to having an open area in the common spaces. The extra bath will be awesome with my wife and girls in teen years. We will also have space for an office area in the new enlarged master bedroom.

Everyone is different I suppose, so if you don't like the concept don't do it. For me/us we are looking forward to having the open space in our house after living in 1000 sf for 15 years!

Micah

I am with you on this unless my house is 3000Sq'+ then open, big family room to hang out with kids doing their school project on a large table is a huge plus.

Here are some open concepts we have done over the past couple years. All of them have had their structure walls remove to create a large kitchen. All are two stories 1800-2000 sq' homes. http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654537.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654537.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654569.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654569.JPG

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654569.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654569.jpg

We even like open concept baths. The stone wall with a bench of the master bath in one of my rental. The checker floor bath is for an WW2 vet who's wheel chair bound and needs in home care so we created a curbless shower with controls that are easy to get at with enough room for helper to get around without being too tight. I always remove the big-O-wall between toilet and shower. I can never understand a wall is needed there?

The blue tile kitchen was half the size Spanish built in 1923. This was one of my flips, taken about 8 years ago. Noticed my new 993 TT bumper cover off to the side. The other, with the Milwaukee box on the counter is for a client. structural wall was removed to create the large ktichen for his young family (two ref. There are two huge Parallam, 18' holding up the second floor. If not for that, kitchen would have been half the size.

Corner of living room looking at front door. Did I say we were mid-reno? Everything to the left is a hallway with bathroom, AC/water heater closet, 2 more closets, and 3 bedrooms (en-suite in master)
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654911.jpg

Turned 90 right, office on right (used to be porch), kitchen on left. Ikea entertainment center goes where the paint doesn't match, it is in the Pod atm.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654911.jpg

Standing near that door to the kitchen you can see in the above looking thru dining room to front door.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654911.jpg

Just inside front door, looking thru dining room (there is a big double doorway opening we look thru in above pic) to kitchen and in back right corner is short hall to laundry room w/ garage door on left and back door on right.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659654911.jpg


Generated image of what the kitchen should look like when done -

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659655297.jpg

We have a fairly open floor area where the LR DR and kitchen are, with a vaulted ceiling. Which is good, since my speakers need this. My sound system is.....pretty good. ;)

One thing I said the guy doing electrical work really liked - "I want to be able to perform surgery or run a sensory deprivation tank" when it came to lighting. Prior living room lighting were two half-azzed 4' flourescent bulbs up above on that shelf above the opening to dining room. And, when we moved in, that nice big hole to the dining room didn't exist. Lighting in the kitchen was equally bad - 3 sets of 4' flourescent bulbs on two switches. Was kinda OK as far as just having light, but due to placement when you were actually cooking your body would block most of it.

Different sound system in the garage, and different geometry. The garage has the acoustics of a cannon barrel. My neighbors enjoy very good low frequency response, though they are across the street. :)

Lighting is VERY important. More so as we age, but it also is part of the "art" of a room. Combination of flood and spot and other kinds. Lighting is VERY important.

Open layout is the "flavor of the month". Cherry cabinets used to be the hot ticket. Then when white came into favor everyone painted their solid wood cabinets. Guess what? Cherry will be back. There was a while when open cabinets or glass doors were in vogue. Gone. Carpet came and went. Wood paneling came and went.

The design and decorating industry picked up on the trick the fashion industry uses. You HAVE TO DO SOMETHING NEW to keep people spending money. Everything comes back around (but hopefully not shag carpet, swag lamps, and avocado appliances).

I like a somewhat open floor plan but obviously you need places for privacy.

Speaking of privacy, does your owners bathroom have a water closet or is it a one room with the toilet in plain view?

For some reason, we’ve always had a water closet. I like to put window in, so I can look out while I do my business.😂

Our en-suite is kinda split. Double sink in front of the walk-in closet and then a very small room w/ "regular" door w/ toilet and shower stall.

Lighting is my thing. It part science and part art. If you like or still need help, get me a floor plan and I'll mark out the location for ya. Recess lights? Get undercounter lights. Notice the toe kick light under the vanity cabinet in the bath with the black and white floor tile? We often install that in out kitchen remodel. We use a very, very mall LED hooked up to a regular switch on the way out of the kitchen so when you go to bed, flip on switch and leave that on all night. No fun stubbing the big toe on the way to get a drink of water in pitch darkness. Sure beats the heck out of the $.99 plug in the socket night lights.

Oh, we're also replacing the tile we put down in some areas when we moved in (2000) and the original carpet from the mid 80s in the living room and hallway down to bedroom. We'll do kids bedrooms as they move out (18 and 11... first is already out) and then finally our bedroom probably at same time as last kids room.

And joy of joys... I paid $114k for the house in 2000.... the construction work is costing not quite 90, but close to 95k by the time extra power, the new stove, new microwave, light fixtures, etc. are all accounted for.

But hey when I refinanced in February the bank said it was worth $350k... so I'll still be OK.. just depressing to be starting over on paying for it. Only 15 years though!

To a certain extend, we refuse to follow that fashion. If I am involved from the beginning, I try to use timeless, clean and straight line designs. You have no idea how many times I talked owners out of flip up alum doors on upper cabinets with glass inserts. Thankfully, I have not done one yet. On flips, like the one in the photo with the blue backsplash, I use the different colors and wood top to attract the fashion conscience buyers who has been bombarded by the thousands of magazines and photos of the latest trends over the net. They have been conditioned so when they walked in, they already expected it. BTW, those are custom, wood cabinets. No fillers used. Some savvy buyers notice it and my agents advertises it.

second bath, no, but my master has a water closet and the closet is actually inside the bath.

^^^ yes, the water closet is always inside the owners bath. I suppose one reason I like it is, somebody could be in there with the door closed and the other person can use the bathroom.

Ha. You just described the house I just bought. I went from a 1300 sq. ft. 100 yr. old house with a small kitchen/living/dining room to a 2900 sq. ft house.
I really like the open concept and huge bathrooms.
I was also able to get an 83 inch tv with surround sound for the basement
I forgot to mention there's only two of us here

I probably should have prefaced this entire thread with the following. Since 2006, we have lived in 3 houses all over 100 years. So I'm pretty jaded I guess and really prefer the older style.

Watertown NY, 1890s build. Two large LR connected by double sliding pocket doors. 15ft ceilings. Kitchen and DR relatively connected and pretty large.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659720299.jpg

Schofield Barracks Hawaii around 1900. Our house can be seen in From Here to Eternity behind Burt Lancaster. House is actually U shaped with a lanai in the middle. LR/DR/ and second LR at the base and 3 beds on one side. Kitchen and more rooms on other leg of U

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659720386.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1659720386.jpg


Then another craftsman bungalow on Fort Bliss (can't find an image). Circa 1900

I live in a "Eichler" mid century modern .
14' tall glass windows around an Atrium
I have a black plaster swimming pool too

Eichler | The House | Floor Plan

My bachelor pad house I bought was a 1948 house, 950 sq feet, two bedroom and a single car garage. It had shag carpeting, and pink and green bathroom fixtures. A pink toilet, and pink bathtub and I got it at a mortgage rate of only 12.5% which was a bargain at the time as my bank wanted 18%.

I replaced the carpet, and just lived with the pink and green bathroom until I was ready to sell the place. I redid the bathroom with modern appliances and sold the place after a couple years of fun as a landlord. Never again will I be a landlord.

that's the thing, that's completely possible. You can buck the current fashion trend and still have something very nice that most folks will think is beautiful. Fashion trends are often horrible (think hair, make-up, and clothes from the mid 80s) even if everyone thought they were great at the time.

Like most things in life, it's all about moderation. I don't want a big giant open space, but I do not want lots of tiny rooms. Strike a nice balance and everyone seems to be happy. The thing I will not abide, is multi-level flooring for the sake of just having step-ups and step-downs. Recipes for disaster. I have always owned 1 level homes and that is the way I like it. Fewer trip hazards and easier on the Dachshunds.

Same here.

As a kid we lived in two different houses that were multi story. No big deal, and kinda fun to run upstairs or downstairs as a kid. No fun as a geezer. We have one step up from the garage or front and back door. Everything else is flat.

Our house in San Marcos, TX was a full two story house and an attic that was the full size of the bottom floors. It also had two basements. One was just storage, and the other was originally for coal storage. It was a blast to hide from our baby sitters. They must have hated us. They spent the entire time looking for us.

That's sort of what I was thinking from the beginning but forgot to mention. Some of these homeowners / buyers just automatically switch on to the open concept without even thinking about it. Simply because it is what is 'in' right now.

I'd love to see a follow up in a few years when they get tired of watching TV on the sofa that is in their kitchen.