Rant: Why I Stopped Listening to Architects About Open Floor Plans

We built our place in Franklin, Tennessee about 4 years ago and everyone kept telling us to go full open concept. Kitchen, dining, living room all one big space. Sounded great on paper but after year two I realized how much I hated it. You can hear every single noise from every corner of the house. Someone watching TV in the living room while I'm trying to make dinner and it's just chaos. The smell of whatever you cook gets into every piece of furniture. We ended up putting up a partial wall with a pass-through window between the kitchen and living room. Cost us about $3,500 and my contractor thought I was crazy. But now I actually enjoy cooking and my wife can read in the living room without hearing the blender. Has anyone else regretted going too open and had to retrofit walls back in?

2 comments

2 Comments

david376d ago

Jumped right into that trap myself with our 90s ranch house, but the worst part nobody talks about is how open plans mess with your sense of smell long term. We had the kitchen right off the living room and after three years of bacon and curry, the couch cushions and curtains just absorbed everything permanently. Had to toss our living room rug because it started smelling like old cooking grease no matter how much I cleaned it. Installing a pocket door between the spaces cost us less than your wall did and solved the smell problem completely. Also lets me blast my podcasts while searing steaks without my wife giving me the death stare from the couch.

william_henderson6d ago

Gotta say I used to be in the open plan camp all the way until I read this. @david37 you make a really good point about the smell thing that I never even thought about. I always figured more open space was better for resale and hanging out, but now I'm thinking about my buddy's place where his living room curtains smell like last week's fish fry. That pocket door idea is smart too, I bet it helps with noise and temperature control besides just the smells. I'm actually looking at houses now and this is gonna change how I think about floor plans going forward. Sometimes the trendy stuff isn't worth the long term headaches.