open kitchen: yes or no?

[rodi]

There are very good arguments for both styles. Our current house has an L shaped galley that opens on one side to the breakfast area/family room (and the garage access), the other side opens to a hall with a bath room on one side, pantry on the other, then opens to the dining room. If people want to hang out with the cool kids cooking... the family room provides this... and yes - it's where people hang out when we're in prep stages of a dinner party. When dinner is served in the dining room there is no worry about the chaos/dirty pots in the kitchen... and after dinner, we can retire to the living room that is open to the dining room. This totally works for us.

We've been looking at various condos for ideas of what we could have when the kids get launched (5 years or more from now, realistically). Most have open concept kitchen. Since most we are looking at have nice views of either the city, the bay/harbor, etc... it's nice to have that line of sight to the view from the kitchen. A few have closed off kitchens - which are fine as long as they also have a view and some space to work. But we haven't lived anywhere with open concept.... so we may end up hating it.

 

[socca]

Not to get off-topic, but IMO the kitchen in my Dad’s FL condo is ideal. It is a 12’ x 12’ separate room with a window that opens to the great room and a doorway off to the side. There is enough space inside the kitchen for a small table for snacks or light meals. The window and doorway can both be closed off. This gives the cook maximum flexibility - the kitchen can be either opened or closed to other rooms depending on the situation. His condo is 2,200 sq. ft. and was built in 1986. The builders knew what they were doing back then. My house is too small for such a kitchen - too bad.

FWIW I like my house’s lot, neighborhood, and location, and thus hope to be here a long time. If I’m going to drop a small fortune on a new kitchen I’d like to do it right, which is why I asked about opening it up. If I take out the cabinets above the sink, the kitchen will be more open to the dining area, but those cabinets are the most useful and it’s still a galley kitchen, so I question whether this is really a good idea. We’ll see.

 

[davebarnes]

Open or closed, enjoy your kitchen

The primary item that would improve improve our open kitchen is an exterior venting hood fan over the stove.

We had a microwave over the range that “vented” to the outside. It was also too close vertically to the range and got very hot.
We had a 36-inch Whirlpool counter-depth refrigerator that I hated.
The hottest burner on our 30-inch Bosch range was only 16K BTUs. Not enough for serious woking.

$51K later, we are very happy.
Blow that dough (or use the HELOC).

We find ourselves doing more cooking. Better appliances can make you a better cook.

 

[pb4uski]

Not to get off-topic, but IMO the kitchen in my Dad’s FL condo is ideal. It is a 12’ x 12’ separate room with a window that opens to the great room and a doorway off to the side. There is enough space inside the kitchen for a small table for snacks or light meals. The window and doorway can both be closed off. This gives the cook maximum flexibility - the kitchen can be either opened or closed to other rooms depending on the situation. ....

What you describe above sounds like what we had... there was a good sized pass through over the sink to the dining area part of the great room and a pocket door from the hallway... except we didn't have a door for the passthrough... just for the doorway. We opened it up and love it. See post #22 for before and after pictures.

It doesn't bother us a bit if guests can see cookpots or whatever... its a practical space for cooking and entertaining... not a cathedral.

 

[samcat]

We've been thinking about this very thing. Open floor plans are in style. We have a traditional 1952 house. Interesting to read all the comments.

 

[brucethebroker]

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.

If you have a breakfast bar and that counter is higher than the kitchen sink side, (usually 4-6 in.) it greatly reduces views of the prep area from the great room. Plus, the "staggered" look is pleasant.

 

[brucethebroker]

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?

On some 70's kitchens with a "window" between rooms, the kitchen cabinets flank both sides of that window. Removing that wall to open the kitchen will take out a number of upper cabinets. Will you be able to live without that cabinet space or will you need to find room for more cabinets in other areas?

We are in the process of a re-do on a galley kitchen from 1970's. Not really any room to replace lost cabinets-and not many to begin with. So, we decided to just keep that wall.

 

[H2ODude]

Haven't read all the posts but I'll say this. Love our house, open kitchen that I remodeled 10 years ago. Only thing I DON'T like is that It was not possible to put an actual vent fan in. Have one of those ridiculous over the stove microwave/vent combinations that do nothing but recirculate the odors and smoke if you try to sear or broil. Do bacon in oven? Smoke alarm goes off. Only solution is to lose the dining room and expand kitchen to get to an outside wall. Not worth the effort. Anyone who enjoys actual cooking should never have a kitchen without a real vent fan, one that actually, VENTS!

 

[Bestwifeever]

Haven't read all the posts but I'll say this. Love our house, open kitchen that I remodeled 10 years ago. Only thing I DON'T like is that It was not possible to put an actual vent fan in. Have one of those ridiculous over the stove microwave/vent combinations that do nothing but recirculate the odors and smoke if you try to sear or broil. Do bacon in oven? Smoke alarm goes off. Only solution is to lose the dining room and expand kitchen to get to an outside wall. Not worth the effort. Anyone who enjoys actual cooking should never have a kitchen without a real vent fan, one that actually, VENTS!

DS has a popup downdraft vent installed with his island cooktop—the exhaust goes under the kitchen to the outside. It’s very efficient. If you have a basement you coukd consider this.

Here is a model that costs about the same as the over the stove hood we installed, same brand: https://www.abt.com/product/62516/Broan-36-Stainless-Steel-Downdraft-RMDD3604EX.html

 

[Music Lover]

On some 70's kitchens with a "window" between rooms, the kitchen cabinets flank both sides of that window. Removing that wall to open the kitchen will take out a number of upper cabinets. Will you be able to live without that cabinet space or will you need to find room for more cabinets in other areas?

We are in the process of a re-do on a galley kitchen from 1970's. Not really any room to replace lost cabinets-and not many to begin with. So, we decided to just keep that wall.

Each to their own, but if the choice for me was less cabinets or an open floor plan I'd choose the open plan and get rid of a few things.

My kitchen has limited cabinets so I turned the closet in a spare bedroom into pantry/storage area.

 

[davebarnes]

We are in the process of a re-do on a galley kitchen from 1970's. Not really any room to replace lost cabinets-and not many to begin with. So, we decided to just keep that wall.

If the process is not far along, that is, still in the planning stage, then get your kitchen designer (you did hire a a kitchen designer?) to help.
For example:
1. replacing lower cabinet cupboards with drawers. Using high-tech German drawers to get the most room.
2. using frameless cabinets instead of framed.
3. making some upper cabinets a few inches deeper than the normal 12inches.

In our pantry we went from 30 inches in width down to 17.5 inches. But, with more optimal shelving spacing we only lost 5% of the capacity. If we had used the latest Blum shelf design instead of keeping the older shelves, we could increased the capacity.

 

[Ronstar]

DS has a popup downdraft vent installed with his island cooktop—the exhaust goes under the kitchen to the outside. It’s very efficient. If you have a basement you coukd consider this.



Here is a model that costs about the same as the over the stove hood we installed, same brand: https://www.abt.com/product/62516/Broan-36-Stainless-Steel-Downdraft-RMDD3604EX.html

We had a downdraft in our original kitchen and it worked just fine. Ducted through the base cabinet below the cooktop, through the joist space between basement and first floor, and through the outside wall in the walkout basement area. It had a motorized sheet vent that rose up from behind the cooktop when it was turned on.

But as part of our remodel, DW, the cabinet designer and appliance guy chose a separate built in cooktop over a built in oven. This arrangement didn’t lend itself to use the existing downdraft ductwork. So I had to put in a standard above cooktop vent, and duct it through the upper cabinet, attic, and through the roof. It’s these types of relocation redo’s that adds to the time and cost of a remodel.

 

[Chuckanut]

I love the open kitchen design.

There's nothing so nice as listening to the dishwasher running after dinner while chatting with friends or watching TV. I revel in the sounds of timers, food processors and cappuccino machines mixed in with music I am listening to. Don't get me started on the sounds of the blender echoing throughout the house. Heaven!

 

[Teacher Terry]

My husband is a engineer and very handy so he designed our kitchen and did all the work. Luckily the house had new cabinets. After he had the new design we needed more cabinets but luckily we could still match them. Unfortunately the bathrooms were still 1950)

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Obviously, there are a LOT of posts here, so I'm sure I am repeating what has been said 10x over. Nonetheless, we moved from a house in Texas that had an open concept to one that did not. Our latest house now has an open concept and we much prefer that. We don't entertain too much, but when we do, the kitchen tends to be the defacto meeting space. Someone mentioned that pots/pans aspect of the messiness and I will say that having a very large sink is nice...we haven't had one until the latest house and it's great for "hiding" the dirty dishes.

Also, a delineation between spaces is nice, too. Our current home has a very large island that has a long stool that folks can sit at, or if they want to be a little further removed, there is another island area they can stand at (in the living room) but still be part of the kitchen group. In out last house, the kitchen was large and could accommodate a good number of people, but it would get hot and stuffy pretty quick. In the new house, since it's basically "one space", this shouldn't be an issue.

As far as tastes are concerned, we have kept resale in mind, but generally go with what we like. In the latest house (which we plan on keeping for a very long time), we don't give a crap about resale or what others would like. So, when we repainted before moving in, yeah...NO GRAY. NO WAY, NO HOW. And brass fixtures (that are all the rage again...blah!!!)...NOPE. Not gonna happen.

The two top pics are of our last house with a not-so-open concept and the bottom two are our current home which is very open.

 

[MarieIG]

I love the open kitchen design.

There's nothing so nice as listening to the dishwasher running after dinner while chatting with friends or watching TV. I revel in the sounds of timers, food processors and cappuccino machines mixed in with music I am listening to. Don't get me started on the sounds of the blender echoing throughout the house. Heaven!

Oh my goodness, my oldest son brought home a blender that (should) come with a warning for those with heart conditions. It's like being directly next to the landing strip in an airport when that thing goes off.

It may be involved in an accident. That would, of course, be tragic.

 

[mountainsoft]

If you have a breakfast bar and that counter is higher than the kitchen sink side, (usually 4-6 in.) it greatly reduces views of the prep area from the great room. Plus, the "staggered" look is pleasant.

We don't have a breakfast bar, but I designed our kitchen with a half wall on the peninsula. This tends to block the view of dirty dishes in the kitchen, as well as providing a place to mount electrical outlets on the kitchen side. Otherwise we have an open design that makes our tiny 10'x12' kitchen feel much larger.

I also built drawers in all of our lower base cabinets except for under the sink and in the peninsula (where we store our appliances and pans).

 

[eytonxav]

I do not think kitchens need to be completely open, but I do like a kitchen that has an eating area or breakfast bar as an option to eating only in a dinning room.

 

[pb4uski]

I like the pantry framing in the refrigerator... great space for staples.

 

[Scuba]

If you have a breakfast bar and that counter is higher than the kitchen sink side, (usually 4-6 in.) it greatly reduces views of the prep area from the great room. Plus, the "staggered" look is pleasant.

We eliminated the staggered look when we did our remodel and we much prefer the flat, extended countertop. The pony wall we had before greatly reduced the flexibility of using the space. We had less counter space for working, and visually the pony wall had the effect of closing off the kitchen even though there was an open pass through.

I suppose for people who don’t like a totally open look, the pony wall is a compromise, but we hated it. A deep large sink and a flat, large open space serves our needs much better. Of course, YMMV.

 

[Music Lover]

I like the pantry framing in the refrigerator... great space for staples.

Yes, good idea. I also like corner pantries...they make great use of a normally dead space and provide a lot of storage

 

[imoldernu]

open kitchen yes or no... ?? Well maybe.
The villa homes in our CCRC all have vaulted ceilings, so I suppose our kitchen is open.

Am not selling anything, but for anyone who hasn't seen what you get for about $180K, this might be interesting. It's a home like mine (not the same furniture or color scheme, but basically the same space and layout... (including fireplace, which with the current below zero temperatures, makes winter perfect.)

 

[socca]

On some 70's kitchens with a "window" between rooms, the kitchen cabinets flank both sides of that window. Removing that wall to open the kitchen will take out a number of upper cabinets. Will you be able to live without that cabinet space or will you need to find room for more cabinets in other areas?

In my case the cabinets above the sink form the top part of the "window". The kitchen has plenty of other cabinet space, but not as convenient. I will leave it up to the designers who drop by to make recommendations.

BTW: my Aunt recently completely renovated her FL condo (same size & floorplan as my Dad's) and left her open/closed hybrid kitchen design as-is. So, not everyone climbs aboard the open kitchen bandwagon / drinks the open kitchen kool-aid (choose the phrase which best matches your opinion on this topic ).

 

[Hermit]

open kitchen yes or no... ?? Well maybe.
The villa homes in our CCRC all have vaulted ceilings, so I suppose our kitchen is open.

Am not selling anything, but for anyone who hasn't seen what you get for about $180K, this might be interesting. It's a home like mine (not the same furniture or color scheme, but basically the same space and layout... (including fireplace, which with the current below zero temperatures, makes winter perfect.)

I think that would be closer to $350k in Denver which is where I will likely wind up when I get drug out of the mountains (kicking and screaming all the way). I do like the open floor plan.

 

[Teacher Terry]

IM, yes it’s a great house for the price. I have lived in the Midwest. We have gotten so spoiled with so much going on all the time in our town that no way I would sacrifice my quality of life to live in a nicer house. There’s a reason housing is cheaper in some parts of the country.