open plan living room and kitchen vs separate

Jhoney_2

Mrs_Imp wrote: »

I hate open plan. We rented a 2 bed open plan flat for a while. The living/dining/kitchen area was about 18ft by 10ft and it was a squeeze to get things in. It felt cramped. I'm glad it was just the two of us living there, or we would've had to have the dining table away from the wall, and there was only a 2 seater sofa so we would've needed another. At which point there wouldn't be much room left at all.

And the extractor fan was rubbish as it just vented in to the kitchen, so the smells were never removed.

If we'd been staying longer we may have turned the second bedroom in to a living room.

I may consider making our kitchen/dining room here a bit more open, but there's something quite nice about having the in-laws over for Christmas dinner and being able to hide [IN]the kitchen full of pans and pots from them.

My amendment...:T

fairy_lights

Suggesting opening windows to get rid of cooking smells is all well and good but some cooking smells can take ages to air out and in winter you don't want to have to open the window for ages and lose all the heat.

elsien

Separate kitchen for me. I don't like people watching me cooking (they might see me rinsing off stuff I've dropped, or other bad habits), and there's generally dirty dishes lurking around waiting to be washed. I don't want to sit looking at them and I certainly don't want to be leaping up to do the washing up as soon as I've finished eating.

chucknorris

fairy_lights wrote: »

18' by 10' might be a decent size for a lounge but is tiny for a kitchen-lounge, especially for a three bedroom property. Presumably you would be marketing it at families and with three bedrooms people would surely want more living space - there wouldn't even be space for a dinner table in a room that size.

I viewed an identical flat for sale where they had done it, it looked great, it was on at £500k. I'm still pondering on it though, I haven't made my mind up.

Mrs_Imp

Jhoney wrote: »

My amendment...:T

Much better plan

PlutoinCapricorn

I live in a studio flat with a tiny kitchen area. It is very convenient but the cooking smells do linger. They probably permeate fabric too, so my sofa and rugs are being affected.

Jhoney_2

PlutoinCapricorn wrote: »

I live in a studio flat with a tiny kitchen area. It is very convenient but the cooking smells do linger. They probably permeate fabric too, so my sofa and rugs are being affected.

All the more reason to ventilate as much as possible as there is less space for air to circulate. If you open windows/vent before or during the cooking process, it builds up less in the property and thus lingers much less.

Standard products can deal with carpets/rugs and sofas pretty well.

katejo

An open plan kitchen/living area is an absolute no no for me. If buying I would not even agree to view it. I wouldn't want to relax in the living area with kitchen smells and a pile of washing up waiting to be done. A large kitchen/breakfast room with separate living room is fine.
I particularly don't like properties where the seller (or landlord if i were renting) has moved the kitchen into the living room to create a 2nd bedroom where the kitchen originally was. It is just property greed.
My 1st flat had a good size living room and a kitchen !!! breakfast room. Some sellers tried to get extra money by turning the living room into a bedroom. I saw one where a sofa had been planted on lino floor in the kitchen. It looked awful.

ethank

Open plan. Hate it hate it hate it!

Out,_Vile_Jelly

In flats it means cheap, shoddy and pokey, based on one I rented. Superficially it looked modern and exciting, but turned out to be massively impractical. Noisy, smelly, and limited storage (nowhere even to store a mop and bucket).

The open plan barn conversions you see on Escape To The Country (a guilty viewing pleasure of mine) always look drafty and uninviting.