Open-Plan vs Traditional Living: Which One Works Best For You?
Open-Plan vs Traditional Living: Which One Works Best For You?
What is an open-plan living arrangement?
An open-plan living arrangement is one in which there are no (or very few) physical barriers between the different functional areas of a house. So imagine your kitchen being visible and easily accessible from your living room and vice-versa.
Open-plan living is not a new concept by any means. It originated in the mid-twentieth century as a response to the changing needs of families.
With both parents working, there was a need for homes that were efficient and allowed for multiple tasks to be completed at once.
It also allows for homes of smaller sizes to feel bigger by allowing everyone in one space without feeling crammed together like sardines.
What are the benefits of open-plan living?
Open-concept floorplans mean that families spend more time together.
With fewer walls, it's easier to occupy the same space. Living areas are less cordoned-off so that other family members often bump into each other.
Parents can watch children while cooking or doing laundry. This part of the open concept layout allows busy parents to still keep in touch with their children while doing chores, which puts less pressure on them to do what needs to be done around the home and still get to spend time with their children.
Cooking dinner can be a lot more convivial if you can cook and then turn around to peek at the TV or contribute to a conversation.
Making the dining room and living room part of the same space makes entertaining guests easier since everyone can be together and not split off into separated rooms.
Cleaning is easier.
Fewer corners for dust bunnies to gather around make it easier to quickly clean a single simple room than a series of defined rooms that hide dust in hinges, corners behind doors, and along the side of walls.
Aesthetics
Aesthetically, open concept homes separate spaces with things like rugs or a kitchen island, making sure that a well-placed window can let a lot of light inside the home compared to traditional homes that have multiple smaller rooms in the house. Combined with high ceilings, an open floor plan can make a home feel luxurious.
Natural light
More walls break up the flow of the light but with open concepts, you can have a dining area bathed in light from the same window illuminating the open spaces of the kitchen and living 'room'. Open concept living, combined with the right windows, allows people to make the most out of natural light and its many benefits - both in terms of looks for their home and their physical health.
Easy traffic flow
Moving around an open concept home is easy since there are fewer walls blocking the way. It makes things like bringing dishes to the sink or quickly gathering a rushed breakfast before school a lot easier. A dining room table is also more easily accessible from all sides when there are no extraneous walls barring someone's path.
Are there any downsides to open-plan living?
Children competing for attention
If you have more than one child, they may end up competing for attention which can be less than ideal. Since everyone is always together this can lead to teasing, overstepping of boundaries, and just general noise as they vie for their parents or each other's attention.
Though this obviously happens in traditional homes, the effect can be worse because most of the living space beyond bedrooms is a single shared space.
Feeling cramped together
If your home is small and has no or few barriers, there's a chance that you feel cramped in your own house since it lacks the multiple rooms of a traditional home to give everyone privacy. It matter of nuance based on the shape and size of your home.
Noise and chaos
Some people find that open-plan living can be too noisy and chaotic for their taste. Constant noise and distractions can lead to less productivity, especially if you work from home.
Fewer options
Your entire space is taken up by one room. Most of your square footage fulfills a few different uses but if you want to cook without listening to someone else talking in the living room or to the TV, you can't. Open floor plans have many advantages but they use up space in a way that destroys up your house's potential for other rooms.
What is a traditional living arrangement?
A traditional living arrangement is one in which there are physical barriers between the different functional areas of a house. Imagine that your kitchen is hidden behind a closed door and inaccessible from your living room or your dining room. Walls, lots and lots of walls.
Traditional living is what most people are accustomed to, giving people more space by themselves at the cost of space for the whole family.
What are the benefits of a traditional living arrangement?
Rooms can have a designated purpose
A home office is easier to implement in a traditional floor plan. The separate rooms mean that the right kind of lighting for a task like working on a computer or cooking doesn't impede on a family room in terms of space or lighting.
Beyond that, cooking smells and dirty dishes can be forgotten the moment someone closes their kitchen door but in open-concept kitchens where there are no doors, you can't do the same. This makes things like a dinner party easier to manage so that food can be prepared and plated in one room and served in another.
Quiet spaces
Having a room for watching TV, one for reading and another for naps can be really nice. A closed concept home allows people to have different spaces for different activities without the worry that someone will walk in on them or that they'll be disrupted. For some, trading a larger space for some quiet is a worthwhile sacrifice.
Energy efficiency
Empty rooms can have their lights turned off while not creating a gloomy atmosphere. Moreover, if only one person is awake late at night while the others are sleeping then it takes less power to heat and light a small living room compared to the entire area of an open concept home.
Are there any downsides to traditional living?
Less space for the family
Since there are walls between rooms, this means that the entire family will have less space to share. This can be remedied by making sure each room doubles as a playroom or an office, but it's still possible to not have enough space no matter how large your home is.
Of course, if the house is very big there could be rooms that have enough space for everyone but it will be less comfortable to move through the house to get to that room.
Keeping things clean
With more enclosed spaces comes dust bunnies that can find nooks and crannies to hide into. Each room needs to be looked after one after the other and dragging a vacuum cleaner through multiple rooms can get tedious especially if closed doors pinch their power cables.
Isolation
With an entire house with closed-off rooms, things like making dinner or working from home can become lonely tasks. While a wide-open space would make these tasks harder to complete, a closed floor plan can make people feel lonely in their own homes.
Separated spaces and dividing walls really live up to their names in closed floor plans.
Is there a good compromise?
It may fetch a pretty penny but you can indeed have the best of both worlds when it comes to open closed concept and open concept homes. If you're building your forever home or turning a home you built into your very own custom home, nothing is stopping you from tearing down some walls. As long as they are not load-bearing walls.
You can use the advantages of a traditional layout when it comes to quiet spaces for sound control and privacy. Think of a part of the house's floor plan dedicated to things like reading and working while another part features a great room made specifically to reap the best benefits of the open concept home. You would have a sun-drenched living room and open concept kitchen and these open spaces allow the whole family to socialize. The open layout means that no one feels like they're taking up too much space.
This hybrid approach can also skyrocket your home's real estate value in the long run. It's definitely something you want to put on the listing.
It all depends on what you want.
As long as you have lots of natural light and are not afraid to make a few rooms into one large space, you can make your home feel like a whole new house. Maybe an open concept floor is just right for you and the members of your family.
On the other hand, if your family values privacy and quiet, then there's nothing wrong with taking an open space and converting it into a closed floor plan where everything has a designated space.
Eventually, what you decide to do depends on your family's tastes. Living spaces don't need to adhere to rules that don't make sense for you and your family. If you're worried about the value of your home if you intend on selling, it could be a good idea to get in touch with a real estate agent to quiet your doubts. But if you're in your forever home, and you know you're not knocking down a load-bearing wall - yes it needs to be repeated -, go for it.
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