does anyone else like a CLOSED concept layout?

[Kit]

I prefer a closed floor plan.

[stephm0188]

Our last house was an open floorplan. I hated it. If someone was in the kitchen cooking or running the dishwasher, you couldn't hear the tv. There wasn't room to place furniture or hang art. I haaaaated it.

We're in a center hall colonial style house now and I adore it.

[ECB]

May 14, 2013 14:15:06 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

May 14, 2013 14:03:12 GMT -5 @starflower22 said:

Yes!!! I hate having people over and they all end up standing in what is essentially my kitchen. I'd like to throw a plate in the sink and not feel like its visible to everyone.

Everyone always ends up in my kitchen, and I have a close concept! God forbid I am in the kitchen when people arrive, because then I will never get them out of there.

This is my experience too.  And my kitchen now is more closed off and smaller than my last kitchen, and it's STILL where people congregate. 

So... I like "kind of open" concept.  some of those pics pictured I don't like.  the second "no" picture- I looked at a house like that and I just knew that having the kitchen THAT open and THAT in the living room would annoy me. 

Having the kitchen open but tucked in it's own space - I like that so that ifyou are in the kitchen, you can still feel apart of whatever else is going on. 

[thoseareradishes]

I'm in the "kind of open" camp. I want to be able to see the tv and talk to H while I'm in the kitchen, but there still must be some sort of separation - like a half wall. I don't like kitchens that are in the living room, like stuck in a corner - like the picture Tamb posted - but I don't want it in a completely separate room either.

[Deleted]

I'm halvsies.

Ideally in a 2 floor, the bottom floor would be open concept living room / dining room / kitchen. Then a closed-space office.

Then upstairs would be closed concept bedrooms and bathrooms and what have you.

[amberlyrose]

I like "kind of open" too. I feel that my living/dining room needs to be accessible to the back and front door while slightly grazing the kitchen off to the side. I hated having to parade our guests throughthe kitchen to the back door to enjoy the deck.

The only way I like the kitchen in the living space is when it is in a loft style place, but I think that is more for natural light than anything.

[hbear]

I pretty much considered my house to be open, but now I realize it's not. It is also a center hall colonial, so definitely ROOMS, but in the back is the kitchen and family room, and while a wall separates the two, the doorway is large and there are cutouts in the wall to make the space flow.

We really wanted to be able to have people over and have "flow" from one room to the next like that. So it feels open to us, but they are definitely defined rooms.

Does that even make sense?

[Deleted]

May 14, 2013 14:59:52 GMT -5 hbear said:

I pretty much considered my house to be open, but now I realize it's not. It is also a center hall colonial, so definitely ROOMS, but in the back is the kitchen and family room, and while a wall separates the two, the doorway is large and there are cutouts in the wall to make the space flow.

We really wanted to be able to have people over and have "flow" from one room to the next like that. So it feels open to us, but they are definitely defined rooms.

Does that even make sense?

yes.  you can make a circle all around my first floor (well, except for the bedrooms).  you're just walking into and out of doorways when you do it.

[anlo]

YES. I like walls and doors. I do like the third picture Tamb posted, but the rooms still have some definition so it works for me.

I feel like I would have to buy more furniture for an open floor plan to look right (ex. a sofa table for behind the couch) and that would in turn mean more dusting. I hate dusting.

[starlily]

I'm in love with our open floor plan in our new house.

[hbear]

May 14, 2013 15:01:21 GMT -5 cville said:

May 14, 2013 14:59:52 GMT -5 hbear said:

I pretty much considered my house to be open, but now I realize it's not. It is also a center hall colonial, so definitely ROOMS, but in the back is the kitchen and family room, and while a wall separates the two, the doorway is large and there are cutouts in the wall to make the space flow.

We really wanted to be able to have people over and have "flow" from one room to the next like that. So it feels open to us, but they are definitely defined rooms.

Does that even make sense?

yes.  you can make a circle all around my first floor (well, except for the bedrooms).  you're just walking into and out of doorways when you do it.

Yes! DD loves to run in the circle. Lol.

[hbear]

May 14, 2013 15:02:32 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

May 14, 2013 14:59:52 GMT -5 hbear said:

I pretty much considered my house to be open, but now I realize it's not. It is also a center hall colonial, so definitely ROOMS, but in the back is the kitchen and family room, and while a wall separates the two, the doorway is large and there are cutouts in the wall to make the space flow.

We really wanted to be able to have people over and have "flow" from one room to the next like that. So it feels open to us, but they are definitely defined rooms.

Does that even make sense?

Your house sounds perfect to me.

It's perfect for us, thanks! And I love the pics of your house being built- I know it's been a bit of a headache, but it will be so worth it in the end! It looks awesome!

[Monica Geller]

I also do not like open concept houses.

My SIL had one and in addition to the first floor being all open, it was 2 stories and open to the 2nd floor.  All of the bedrooms and bathrooms looked down into the family-dining-kitchen space. There was nowhere to sneak away if you needed to go to the bathroom 'cause everyone knew what door you just came out of. AND when her kids were little she'd get all pissy about people being too loud and waking the kids up (which I get; don't wake the baby!) but she CHOSE the floor plan! Why have people over after the kids are asleep if we all have to be quiet so as to not wake the kids?!?!  I guess I still have some pent up feelings about that house. :^)

[aprilsails]

May 14, 2013 15:56:50 GMT -5 Monica Geller said:

I also do not like open concept houses.

My SIL had one and in addition to the first floor being all open, it was 2 stories and open to the 2nd floor.  All of the bedrooms and bathrooms looked down into the family-dining-kitchen space. There was nowhere to sneak away if you needed to go to the bathroom 'cause everyone knew what door you just came out of. AND when her kids were little she'd get all pissy about people being too loud and waking the kids up (which I get; don't wake the baby!) but she CHOSE the floor plan! Why have people over after the kids are asleep if we all have to be quiet so as to not wake the kids?!?!  I guess I still have some pent up feelings about that house. :^)

This is exactly how my house was laid out growing up.  My Dad (architecture enthusiast) took it one step further and had a huge knock-out in his bedroom wall overlooking the dining room from above.  My family was always loud so we all slept like the dead. 

No house could possibly be as open concept as the one I grew up in so I'm very comfortable with that style.  We bought a smaller house than we planned on just because we loved how well the open concept worked in it.  I  get claustrophobic in galley style kitchens or if I feel blocked off and DH and I spend a lot of time cooking so an open kitchen to the living room was a must for me.

[livinitup]

I do a lot of cooking and absolutely LOVE my open floor plan. We have a big kitchen with an island and a step-down to the family room. However, the living room is on the other side of the house and its own room and the dining room is a corner room connected by a doorway to the kitchen -converted to a playroom. So maybe I like it bc it is both?

[lolly]

I like the combo - our house has an open kitchen/family room but a separate formal dining room. We also have a breakfast room that is off the kitchen but separated by a half wall - it's now our playroom with a not too ugly gate closing it off.

We built, and had what would be the formal living room in the front of the house closed in with french doors and it's H's office. Thank god for that room because I can't imagine all his mess in the rest of the house!

[thebamker]

My marital home (lol) was closed and I hated it. Even sledge hammered a wall down at one point.

I like my open floor plan now so much better. I can cook dinner and still see all the kids. I don't feel like I'm yelling all the time b/c we're all just right there.

[Deleted]

I need a kitchen to be closed. I don't need everyone seeing my dirty dishes from the front door!

[joshlyman]

I adore open and hate formal spaces, but if I had more sf I may not mind closed spaces as much. In small spaces I feel like everything just feels cramped and smaller.

[BunnyMacDougal]

Yes, I do. I love row houses and colonial houses. With rooms and doors and walls!!

[catmt]

Yes, absolutely closed but with good flow. I hate when you can see the kitchen from the front door.

[margotmacomber]

Before this thread I thought open floor plans was like, the be all end all in house attractiveness.  I was kind of bummed that the house we chose to buy wasn't an open floor plan.  It is a quad.  So the living room and kitchen are on one level, there are two steps off of the kitchen that lead to the sunroom.  To get the bedrooms you go up a half flight, to get to the den and play room you go down a half flight.  Then the basement.  It's a weird layout, but I really like it.  

[RoxMonster]

We have a closed concept house and I don't mind it. It's an older house, which is why. I do sometimes feel like, if we are having people over and I'm prepping stuff in the kitchen, that I miss out on stuff in the living room, where most people hang out. But it's not like we entertain all the time. And this way, when my kitchen's a mess, I can go in the living room and completely forget about it

[lissaholly]

I think open floor plans can seem contrived. Like the family is always cooking together and all like to watch the same tv shows/ be engaged in the same activities at the same time etc. it reminds me of frank Lloyd wright and how he would make the family rooms so much bigger proportionally than the rest of the house to force families to gather together.

Ideally I like split plans, an area for sleeping, an area for gathering and an area for privacy. I like big open dining/kitchen/family but another area where I feel comfortable hanging out that isn't the bedroom.

[lissaholly]

I think open floor plans can seem contrived. Like the family is always cooking together and all like to watch the same tv shows/ be engaged in the same activities at the same time etc. it reminds me of frank Lloyd wright and how he would make the family rooms so much bigger proportionally than the rest of the house to force families to gather together.

Ideally I like split plans, an area for sleeping, an area for gathering and an area for privacy. I like big open dining/kitchen/family but another area where I feel comfortable hanging out that isn't the bedroom.

[juliagoulia]

I do. Our new house has a nice flow from the kitchen to the dining room and the living room, but there are at least doorways separating. So you can see the dining room from the living room but you can't see the kitchen. And you can only see a little bit of the kitchen from the dining room the way it's positioned.

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

If I don't close any doors or draw any curtains, you can see me shower in my master bathroom from the kitchen (through two glass nanawalls).

And that's the way I like it.  LOL.

[elleblue]

Me. I do like open concept plans when the houses are modern but I do not get all the insistence on everything, whether or not it fits the style of the house, being in one giant room. I can admit I like doors/arch ways in houses. I don't know, perhaps I belong in another time. *shrugs*

[donnamartingraduat]

Closed concept all the way! H and I joke that on House Hunters in 20 years, everyone will say "Why is this just one big room, is it possible to put up some walls?"

We drink every time someone on HGTV says "open concept" "we like to entertain" or "high end finishes"