Open Plan Living - the only option?

littlerock

Have been helping son and family look for a house to buy in west London. They both have specific hobbies - he has a model railway, she sings and has a piano (and an extensive wardrobe.)

Most of the houses we look at, with very few exceptions, have an open plan ground floor (if it is a 19th/early 20th century house it has been knocked through, if it is modern it has been built open plan.) In all cases the ground floor consists of a large fitted kitchen at one end and at the other end, a dining table and sofa arrangement. If slightly larger, the reception area will be at the front of the house and the kitchen and table beyond it at the other. But in all cases the whole thing is open plan. The tv is usually wall mounted.

This is all very well, but most the houses we see in their budget have three bedrooms and they need those for the parents one for their son and one for their daughter. No room for a designated study.

What if you have a hobby that involves a sewing machine (which my daughter in law has) or building lego models (which my son does.) Where do you do them? Where do you keep the pc for your home use playing games etc? What if someone wants to watch tv and someone to listen to music, or watch a film? Do you wear headphones, or retire to your bedroom?

I assume you have to retire to your bedroom which is quite small. There is little in the way of cupboard space. The bedrooms are all quite small.

I suppose it is my age. Can someone explain how you live as a family in a house with a single open plan ground floor with no separate study and limited cupboard space. Does anyone have any private space? Clearly this layout is what people want as all the old houses we see have been knocked through to the same model. I am genuinely interested.

Red-Squirrel_2

Even in houses that aren't open plan, most people don't have a separate study! The only people I know who do work from home so it's a necessity.

Where did you get the idea that this is something most people need or expect?

da_rule

Personally I hate open plan, for the reasons you list above. I also dislike properties where you have to walk through one room to get to another.

I guess the theory behind open plan is making use out of all of the space. Corridors, hallways, even the internal walls themselves, all take up space.

I guess it just comes down to compromise. You either take the property and learn to live around the issues, or you keep searching.

Depending on the exact sizes, and the cost involved, you could always investigate constructing internal walls downstairs to make additional rooms (you could then soundproof them etc as needed).

[Deleted User]

You don't tend to get a study in a 'London sized' 3 bedroom house unless another area has been converted (e.g. garage into a spare room)

There's nothing stopping people un-open planning a house by dividing rooms.

Doozergirl

These knock throughs in older houses were often two rooms. We'll be doing it to a London house again soon as with a small extension we can fit three zones into the space of two.

In London it's often about a lack of space and opening up to fit more functions.

Your problem isn't modern living, your problem is budget! Even a three bed house without walls removed isn't going to provide a separate study for anyone. In any house, it's going to be four bedrooms upstairs that afford study space downstairs.

comeandgo

To answer one of your questions, and this is from someone who does not have open plan and does have a study and a few spare bedrooms, if my husband wants to watch something on tv and I want to watch something else, I use headphones and my laptop or iPad to watch what I want. I don't believe in moving to another room.

neilio

I assume the OP, when talking about a separate study, is referring to what the modern use for a dining room or second reception room would be, rather than an extra room upstairs.

I understand where littlerock is coming from and I agree with da_rule. I wouldn't say that open plan is the only option around, though. If a wall has been knocked through, why not just brick it up again. I know more modern houses tend to be more open plan, but even so that's not the rule, and new builds selling now still have separate rooms. On the contrary, I've not seen any modern flats that aren't open plan.

Personally, I've never seen the fascination with someone choosing to knock through and make everything open plan. Kitchen and dining room, sure. Dining room and living room, sure. But all three together? I always see it as something people think is the thing to do, like getting a conservatory!

3mph

With houses it usually boils down to money. Whether too small, wrong place, can't sell, can't buy. As with this case.

Elsewhere for same money you can get a mansion, I cite the example of !!!! Strawbridge on Channel 5 buying a Chateau 45 rooms, 800+ sqm its own moat, forest, estate etc for under £300K.

Slight drawback of course that it didn't have water, electricity, heating, sanitation etc. and wrong country.

EDIT - love it - you cant use the short name for Richard it replaces it with !!!!!

ReadingTim

To a certain extent people are becoming less formal, so the idea of sitting down to eat a meal at a table (rather than a plate on your lap in front of the telly) is becoming as anachronistic as a formal sitting room, only used on Sundays and when the vicar or doctor came to visit.

Open plan can open up spaces that were previously underutilised, giving either more space, or the illusion of more space - the latter being a trick developers use to their advantage when shifting rabbit hutch homes, AKA new builds.

Furthermore, as property prices become increasingly affordable, people can't afford to move into larger family homes, so convert, extend, modify smaller houses to try and accommodate, so mimic the tricks of the developers. Plus they think that people want open plan because all they're given that's affordable is open plan - it's forced upon them not chosen willingly. There are still plenty of houses in west London which fit your ideal criteria, but they're unlikely to be within your budget, which is why all you're seeing is open plan.

I loathe open plan with a passion (it's the 21st century equivalent from a one roomed mud hut, dunno why they don't go the whole hog and get the toilet in there too so you can !!!!!! while you cook) but realise that space is an increasingly unaffordable luxury.

StumpyPumpy

I want to know how anyone cooks things like fish or curries etc. in these open plan kitchen/dining/living rooms. Are the extractor fans really that good these days? Some years ago I was on holiday in a villa laid out like that; a walk down to the harbour on the first day got us some nice, fresh mackerel which we cooked that night - delicious and a meal that stayed with us for the rest of the week! (Yes we had put the extractor on btw)

SP

nLdn

As someone who cooks food, I'm not a fan on this enforced open plan most first time homes have. It's nice to not have the smell of whatever you're cooking or cooked a few hours ago / the previous night get all over everything.

I bought recently and found it really hard to find anywhere in my budget that had a separate kitchen until I started to shop ex local authority.

My 2 bed flat is laid out over 2 floors and has a separate study that was once a very generously sized storage cupboard. I couldnt have found anything comparable for my budget in a conversion and am pretty sure I couldn't afford a new build.