open kitchen: yes or no?

[Scuba]

I love our open kitchen. In our experience when we have parties or entertain guests, people like to congregate around the kitchen. An open kitchen makes it easier to interact with guests, and no one cares about dirty pots. We also live on the beach so if we didn’t have an open kitchen, we couldn’t enjoy the ocean view while preparing food.

We have required an open kitchen in all of the 5 homes we’ve purchased in the last 20 years, and if we buy a home in the future, we will likely want an open plan.

 

[pb4uski]

I never thought of the wall as the problem. It’s the relocation of any/all the utilities in the wall that I assumed were expensive and troublesome to deal with. Especially if you have a two story house and utilities are running from a basement to the second floor.

We ran into that too. luckily we're on the top floor so had access to the attic overhead so rerunning the wires was pretty easy. Plumbing didn't change since we kept the existing wall.... we just made a counter height rather than full wall height.

 

[ERD50]

We have a large, high end kitchen. But it is entirely separate from the dining room, and we like it that way. We don't want to see the all messy pots and pans and such while we eat.

Agreed. At a minimum, I'd want to be able to pull a screen or something to block the view. Our daily eating area (but not the dining room) is semi-open to the kitchen, I sit with my back to the kitchen. DW doesn't seem to care that much.

-ERD50

 

[Gumby]

I think the open kitchen concept is concurrent with the elimination of formal dining rooms. We have an historic 19th Century home, so we do have a formal dining room. The only furniture in it is a table and chairs and a sideboard, and we don't do anything there but eat dinner every night (unless we go out to a restaurant). It is not an office, worktable or project room; we have other dedicated rooms for those things.

 

[Midpack]

I think the open kitchen concept is concurrent with the elimination of formal dining rooms. We have an historic 19th Century home, so we do have a formal dining room. The only furniture in it is a table and chairs and a sideboard, and we don't do anything there but eat dinner every night (unless we go out to a restaurant). It is not an office, worktable or project room; we have other dedicated rooms for those things.

And formal living rooms? We have a formal living room and formal dining room, and literally have not used either for 20 years. We sold our dining room set years ago and it was my 'sail locker' until I quit boat ownership. And the living room is where DW keeps here herbs and others plants over the winter.

 

[Gumby]

When it was built in 1857, our house had a formal front parlor, just off the entry hall, where guests were entertained, and a back parlor where the family gathered. They were apparently separated by a wall with pocket doors. At some point in the past 162 years, a former owner took out the wall, so now we have one large living room with two separate seating groupings. We use it every day.

 

[Bestwifeever]

When it was built in 1857, our house had a formal front parlor, just off the entry hall, where guests were entertained, and a back parlor where the family gathered. They were apparently separated by a wall with pocket doors. At some point in the past 162 years, a former owner took out the wall, so now we have one large living room with two separate seating groupings. We use it every day.

Our little house is a young’un compared to yours (built in 1887) and we use every room in it except the guest bedroom every day—coffee and online newspaper in the east-facing living room, meals in the dining room, creative cooking in the kitchen and evenings in the west-facing 35-year-old family room. One extravbedroom is now a combo studio/office/sitting room, another a guest bedroom as mentioned, and our bedroom is right over the kitchen.

I think an open kitchen in a newer house is a great way to enjoy more of a house on a daily basis, but we love our setup and routine.

 

[wmc1000]

For us we prefer an open kitchen especially when the kids/grandkids are visiting. If we move we would have a home with an open area to a larger eat-in area and no dining room. We do like having only a great room area with no separate living room too!

 

[Bamaman]

Go for the open kitchen. I too am a Bosch dishwasher and all granite guy. They trend today is to have drawer bottom cabinets everywhere (except in the sink unit) and to stash everything in drawers.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We have had both. I don’t mind a open kitchen to the family or dining room but not to the living room. We bought a 1950 ranch that had a dining room and master bedroom addition in 1970. The dining room was huge with a wall separating that from the master bedroom. We made the dining room smaller and added a bathroom to the master. We partially opened up the galley kitchen to the dining room.

 

[davebarnes]

trend today is to have drawer bottom cabinets everywhere (except in the sink unit) and to stash everything in drawers.

And, these are the drawers to buy -- https://www.blum.com/us/en/products/boxsystems/legrabox/overview/

We have them.
They are incredible.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

And, these are the drawers to buy -- https://www.blum.com/us/en/products/boxsystems/legrabox/overview/

We have them.
They are incredible.

That looks awesome! I was just bending over yesterday trying to retrieve some little-used item from the far corner of a lower cabinet, cussing every minute and thinking there had to be a better way.

 

[TrvlBug]

That looks awesome! I was just bending over yesterday trying to retrieve some little-used item from the far corner of a lower cabinet, cussing every minute and thinking there had to be a better way.

Pull out shelves. When we gutted the kitchen, I put in all drawers except for 3 areas which got the 'traditional' lower cabinets for various reasons, but with height adjustable pull outs. That way, a huge stock pot will fit as well as an oversized tray that is too deep for a drawer.

Old cabinets can be easily retrofitted. Check out options at the Container Store and elsewhere.

 

[pb4uski]

We did that with our reno. All drawers except for two base cabinets for larger items... probably could have made do with one.

We have traditional cabinets at our other house with Rev-a-shelf units in each one, but you hae to open the door and then pull out the shelf... much easier to just open a drawer.

 

[6miths]

Yes definitely must have for us. Kitchen/great room/family room whatever you want to call it.

 

[davebarnes]

We have traditional cabinets at our other house with Rev-a-shelf units in each one, but you have to open the door and then pull out the shelf... much easier to just open a drawer.

Exactly.
Our house was built in 2011 and the lower cabinets just had static shelves.
We added wire shelves and it was a big improvement.
But, for the gut/reno in 2017, we went with drawers. Huge improvement.

 

[Hermit]

When you step into the house at the front door you have a magnificent mountain view framed in the window above the sink at the back of the house. For this mountain cabin/small ranch the open concept including cathedral ceiling works nicely. It is also important that wood stove can heat the entire combined area.

In our last house the kitchen opened to the family room which included a dining table and home theater. The late DW loved the layout. She could stand at her favorite spot at the stove and see and talk with the kids and their friends or other guests.

Obviously, the open floor plan gets my vote.

 

[bbbamI]

If I didn't cook, I wouldn't mind an open kitchen. But I cook quite a bit and am messy. An open concept is definitely not a must have for our next house. I prefer designated areas.

 

[iloveyoga]

I enjoyed looking at the kitchen pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[Katsmeow]

You'd be surprised at how inexpensive it is to remove a wall, compared to the total cost of a kitchen remodel. A non-load-bearing wall could be done for a few hundred dollars, but even removing a load bearing wall would probably be less than 10% of the total remodel cost.

Knocking down the wall isn't the issue for most people. I considered it for my current house. There is a small pass through between the kitchen and what was the family room (since converted to be my office leaving the living room as the single living space which is fine). Anyway, it is having to rearrange everything in the kitchen to make this work that is the problem. I would lose upper cabinet space. I would need to make a wider counter at that area (probably a peninsula with eating space on one side. There would likely be stuff in the walls that would have to be relocated. There is just a lot of expense involved because you are changing the kitchen layout. It would have looked nice, but I just didn't want to spend the money to do it (well, not now anyway). And, since I converted the family room to my office it doesn't make sense. And, opening to the living area that we are using would be a major undertaking (that is a load bearing wall) and again would require major reorganization of the kitchen.

 

[Teacher Terry]

When we took half a wall we did lose one top cupboard. But we gained space by moving the washer/dryer from the kitchen to the garage.

 

[pb4uski]

Same here... lost one wall cabinet when taking down the wall but picked up both base and wall cabinets elsewhere... net gain for sure.

 

[timo2]

Same here... lost one wall cabinet when taking down the wall but picked up both base and wall cabinets elsewhere... net gain for sure.

The kitchen in my house is going to need a total redo at some point: new cabinets, countertops, sink, and appliances. The question is whether I should consider going further and converting from an L-shaped galley kitchen to an open kitchen (probably big bucks involved - removing walls, etc.) There are lots of interesting articles on this topic on the web, and opinions are mixed.

The current kitchen isn't totally closed: it opens to a dining area via a window and to a living area via a doorway. However, like most '70s homes a completely open kitchen wasn't on the original agenda. The house is in a solidly middle-class area and really doesn't need any upper-class touches.

Does anyone love their open kitchen and consider it a must-have for any new home they might purchase?

P.S. The cute 900 sq. ft. Sears home I owned in the Chicago area back in the '90s had a straight galley kitchen. Trying to convert that kitchen to an open plan would have been difficult/impossible. Hopefully no one would ever even try.

The primary item that would improve improve our open kitchen is an exterior venting hood fan over the stove. Any odors or smoke now go throughout the house.

 

[hopefullyoneday]

+ 1

Open kitchens can be nice because they allow people working in the kitchen to interact with people outside the kitchen. But they also allow people outside the kitchen to interact with the dirty pots, which are often best kept out of sight. If you are considering the open kitchen concept, consider having some type of low counter or area for barstools between the kitchen and the other living spaces. This way, those dirty pots can be sitting on the counter next to the sink, and dirty dishes can be piled high until being moved into the dishwasher, yet still be out of sight from the guests.

Also, completely agree with the previous poster who mentioned getting quiet appliances. They will make a huge difference. Our current dishwasher is so quiet that the water flowing down the drainpipes is louder than the machine itself.

But if your guests see the dirty dishes they may offer to clean up for you

And if you turn the dishwasher on when you go to bed you wont hear it.

 

[Moemg]

I like and dislike the open kitchen . I dislike it when the first thing you see when you enter the house is the kitchen . I like it when the kitchen is a little back from the front door so you have to walk through a living space until you see the kitchen.