In the quest for a more spacious feel, modern open floor plans have become all the rage. Removing walls between kitchens, dining rooms, and living rooms can increase convenience, optimize light, and expand entertainment options. However, open floor plans can have drawbacks, including a lack of privacy and louder noises throughout the house. Some families have opted out of the open space concept and gone back to more conventional separated spaces.
To consider which layout is really right for your family, let’s look at the pros and cons.
JAY WILDE
The Illusion of More Space
- Pros: If you want to increase your sense of space but don’t have the money to add an extension, doing away with walls and doors can give the illusion of bigger rooms. This openness can create design continuity from one room to the other, and let in a lot more natural light. In creating multi-functional rooms with little separations, you can do away with spaces like formal dining rooms that were only rarely used.
- Cons: While adding square footage seems like a good idea, the biggest downside is the cost of heating and cooling a wide-open space. Regulating temperatures in a large space means upgrading insulation, window treatments, and floor coverings. To gain the illusion of more space, the bill can be unexpectedly sizeable. Those initial maintenance costs can be pricey. And the recurring bills are significantly higher for open floor plans than costs associated with heating or cooling a smaller room enclosed with a door.
Increased Lighting
- Pros: If your existing home has a shot gun layout with interior rooms not getting much natural light, removing a few walls between the front of the house and the rear can make the space feel more inviting. Open floor plans allow natural light to flow through a larger space, making rooms feel brighter and more welcoming. Clear sight lines with unobstructed views from windows and glass doors also create a seamless connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.
- Cons: With fewer walls, direct sunlight may be overpowering in parts of the room that might normally be darker. Certain areas might be prone to excessive glare, an imbalance of light, and sun damage. This means wooden floors may show the wear of light exposure—shrinkage, cracking, and fading—faster than if they were not constantly exposed to light and heat sources. Expect to move around mirrors, TVs, art, and wooden or colored upholstered furniture to protect them for the long run.
Lack of Privacy
- Pros: Open floor plans foster a sense of togetherness and make it easier for family members to engage in activities within a comfortable distance. Kids can feel independent to do their own thing but be well-supervised from other areas of the house. Taking phone calls and having private conversations can be tricky in open floor plans, but the increased visibility is unmatched. For people who like entertaining, it can also be comforting to see all the guests from one central point in the room, rather than having to lock doors or catch people wandering off.
- Cons: Personal space and privacy become a thing of the past. If family members or guests require solitude or silence, they may have to go to a bedroom or bathroom to get it. High concentration activities can be hard to complete and discrete conversations will have to move to a different area of the house. Overall, keeping things hidden is a challenge. Long-term projects like puzzles and LEGOs may be compromised by passersby. Similarly, clutter is on full display. To minimize the fall out, adequate storage space in the open floor plan can help keep important and private items out of plain sight. Otherwise, having private rooms in the sleeping quarters or outdoor spaces can compensate for the lack of privacy in living rooms.
Ease of Entertaining
- Pros: No more cramming the tight kitchen full of guests who want to chat and munch at the same time. Guests are free to mingle effortlessly between different areas, such as the kitchen, living room, and dining area. Also, the conversation doesn’t have to end when you go grab drinks or while prepping the next batch of guac. Hosts and guests can interact seamlessly while preparing meals or mixers, ensuring no conversation ends abruptly. Strategic seating can help maximize uninterrupted socializing in any area of an open floor plan.
- Cons: Strong odors and unsightly kitchen countertops can’t be kept under wraps. In informal entertainment situations, this is not a deal-breaker. But, if you want a more formal dinner party, an open floor plan can feel counter-productive. In a traditional floor plan, the discretion of a private dining area means you don’t have to clean the whole ground floor before guests arrive. The home office can stay cluttered and the kids’ toy room can stay junky, without disturbing the sophisticated look of the formal cocktail or dinner party. With an open concept, nothing is left to the imagination.
Noise Travels
- Pros: With a more lively home atmosphere comes more sound. Louder conversations, music, and play blend throughout the house. With no physical barriers, it is easier to communicate across a larger space. Conversations continue while doing different activities in different zones, especially while entertaining friends and family. And it’s not hard to listen to what’s on the TV in the living room, while cooking in the kitchen. For big families, open floor plans can break the habit of shouting from one room to another in the hopes of passing directions to different family members.
- Cons: Noise travels easily from one area to another in an open space. So, this makes sleeping, resting, doing homework, reading, and even meditating in a living space virtually impossible. People complain about blaring TVs, screaming kids, and spouse’s virtual meetings causing unwanted disturbances. Rugs, carpets, and heavy furniture can act as sound barriers, but if you fill the space with too many they can defeat the purpose of the open concept floor plan. Good furniture arrangements can keep the flow, and strike the right balance between openness and privacy.