Question of the Day, Wednesday, July 26, 2023

[neely]

Good morning and Happy Whiskers Wednesday! I confess I like to watch HGTV especially the show House Hunters and House Hunters International. It seems like every decade there is a new trend in housing and design, e.g. white cabinets, quartz countertops, hardwood floors, etc. I'd love to move and downsize but not necessarily bow to the popular or what I call in-trends. One of them is open concept which is a big airy room where you can see everything from the kitchen to the dining and living room space. Personally I like designated rooms especially if I'm cooking and having company. How about you?

DO YOU LIKE OPEN CONCEPT SPACES OR DESIGNATED ROOMS?

 

[Winchester]

No. I've never been a fan. I don't like the idea of sitting in the living room and seeing the kitchen sink and counters. I don't know why it bothers me because, when people visit us, they usually end up out in the kitchen with me while I'm cooking anyway. But no.

I was inside a house in town one time and it was living room and kitchen, completely open. I didn't like it at all.

 

[maggiedemi]

I think I like designated rooms best.

 

[Lari]

I think it probably depends on the size of the house. In a pretty small house, a more open concept would make it seem less claustrophobic and airier, but if you had a larger house, it might be nice for rooms to be more designated.

I don't know that I would have a super preference one way or the other. Except baby gates are easier with designated rooms, so let's go with that for this point in my life.

 

[KittyFriday]

I like designated rooms.

My current house is open concept and I'm okay with it, since it's a small house and the only way to give the kitchen more space was to make it open concept. But I would definitely prefer the rooms.

 

[strider rose]

im going with designated rooms too , although i may have to google it so that i know what it is

 

[denice]

I am going to be different. I like the open concept with a lot of windows, preferably floor to ceiling windows.

 

[Kat0121]

No. I've never been a fan. I don't like the idea of sitting in the living room and seeing the kitchen sink and counters. I don't know why it bothers me because, when people visit us, they usually end up out in the kitchen with me while I'm cooking anyway. But no.

I was inside a house in town one time and it was living room and kitchen, completely open. I didn't like it at all.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I like semi-open; which is what my house is. It's not a huge house; but not tiny. My kitchen/dining/school room is one L shaped space. If we had walls between those it would be a lot darker in here and feel cramped. It also gives the kitchen a view of our backyard; which I love.

The living room is separated by the laundry room and a wall with a 5' opening into the area where I have school shelves and DS's desk set up. DH and I talked about closing that wall in so I could have more wall and furniture space. For years we've had that opening blocked by a baby gate and furniture in front of it. Since the floors were done we've removed that gate and are enjoying being able to walk through. When DD was little she loved running laps around there to entertain company. It's also nice to be able to see in the living room; yet not feel like every angle has a view of the tv. I think I'd be ok with it if the house came with that wall enclosed; but I'm ok keeping it. At Christmas the tree goes in front of that doorway so I do have a view of it from both rooms and I love that. When the kids were little it took 3 gates; but we were able to contain them in the living room while I cooked and things; yet see what they were up to. That also gave the cats a safe space to hang out.

I wouldn't want a truly open-concept house unless it was like a log cabin with a view or something. I like the chance to have different décor. Things blend here. For example I have chair rail throughout the living room, dining, kitchen, etc. The top half of the walls are the same color; but the kitchen side has a deep deep purple on the bottom that I absolutely love. The bottom in the living room and laundry/pantry hall has a new deep blue that I'm also super happy with. I'm able to have different curtains on each side and soon hopefully I'll have area and entry rugs.

DH was trying to get me to look at a house a co-worker is selling because its bigger than our house. It was a big nope from the real estate listing. The kitchen was open; leaving it TINY compared to what we have now. It looked dark tucked in the middle of everything too. Nope nope nope. I didn't even think open could be dark like that.

 

[neely]

It also gives the kitchen a view of our backyard; which I love.

You brought up a good point. A lot depends on the number of windows in a room and which way they face. Our kitchen also faces the backyard which I love since I could see the kids play in our yard when they were young. Now I look out and see my flowers or the bunnies, birds and squirrels play.

 

[iPappy]

I like an open concept with some rooms easy to shut off. My house is small but has large rooms, and it's partially open but a few rooms are easily shut off from the rest of the house.

 

[Gunther4ever]

I like open concept for me it's easier to clean and it reminds me to clean. But we do have areas that we can close off.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

It depends on the house and space. My aunt and uncle made their upstairs open concept and it was the most echo-y room ever. I got overstimulated super fast and had to leave because of it. So unless acoustics are taken into consideration, it might not work for most places. In general though, I do prefer designated spaces.

 

[susanm9006]

My house is sort of a mix of both and one of the things that attracted me to it. There is an extra wide doorway in the kitchen eating area that opens to the dining area, and the dining area is an alcove off of the living room. So you get a feeling of openness while still having separate rooms.

 

[lizzie]

I much prefer the designated rooms.I love an older house with lots of rooms and doors...lots of woodwork!

 

[neely]

I love an older house with lots of rooms and doors...lots of woodwork!

My favorite kind of house.

 

[allmykitties]

I prefer designated rooms--or at least most of my life I've lived in houses with designated rooms (even if there aren't always doors between one room and the next, there's still clear separations and walls).

Although I will admit that my parents have turned their house into a quasi-open concept from the ranch style house it was when I was growing up--they've done some bump-outs to enlarge spaces, and now their bedroom is more of a suite with an open-to-rest-of-bedroom bathtub and a shower in that area, and the original half bath is still there and that part has a door, but the bedroom is large enough to include space for an exercise bike, there's a whole added room like space attached to the now informal dining room (which is separated by a counter from the kitchen, but not a wall, and the upper cabinets have had the doors changed from solid wood to glass), and that space is more like a family room, I guess. The old attached garage was converted first to an apartment for my grandmother and then to a formal dining room, so they've added a lot of square footage to the house and it's a lot more open, but there's still a few designated rooms, like the living room is a completely separate space.

 

[catloverfromwayback]

I wish I could have a house with designated rooms, but everywhere I've lived as an adult has only had doors for the bedrooms, bathroom and laundry. My current tiny unit's kitchen is a corridor.

 

[Mia6]

open

 

[game misconduct]

probably designated rooms if it was all open a good chance room would get dominated by the multiple and biggest cat trees i could buy graycie