Extra space. Seamless traffic flow. Gatherings made easy. An open-concept kitchen opens up additional ways for you to utilize your main living room. While open concept kitchens aren’t for everybody, they are for a lot of homeowners. A popular poll indicated that the majority of people around the world prefer an open floor plan, suggesting this way of living is more than a passing trend.
Open-Concept Kitchen: The Definition
An open-concept kitchen refers to a lack of walls or barriers in the kitchen and surrounding dining and living room areas. Generally, this includes the dining room and living room, and is often collectively called “the great room”. In comparison, a traditional house plan or layout separates each room distinctly with walls and barriers. The open-concept kitchen has been popular since the 2000s and continues to gain steam in popularity in home building and remodeling.
What Are the Benefits?
Why is the open-concept kitchen been embraced universally? For beginners, it creates a space to look larger. Without walls blocking your eyes view, your kitchen space starts to feel bigger and more accessible. Open-concept kitchens are elegant solutions for small quarters that seem too cramped. In addition, traffic flow is opened up and enhanced. No more bumping into or against walls or counter space as more than one party moves from room to room. Open-concept kitchens make family gatherings, parties a breeze in a barrier-free room, there’s more space to enjoy food preparation for meals, homework, video games, movies and talking all at the same time. Your guests are included right to the epicenter of where everything happens the kitchen and that makes for a cozier family feel. Whether you throw a party or like to keep your family and friends at close hand, the open-concept kitchen is great at promoting human connection. Without walls blocking light from windows in other rooms, open-concept kitchens can also create a dazzling space with more natural light. And it’s important to point out that because open-concept kitchens are so popular, they add significant property value to your home.
Pros and Cons?
As awesome as open-concept kitchens or floor plans are, they come with a few setbacks as well. Noise is often a problem or variable with enhancements in open space, as there are no barriers to break up the sound. Also, there are often multiple people doing several different activities at once. Plus, the mess of your kitchen will also always be on display. But if you run a tight ship and keep a clean kitchen, this is a non-issue, but most of us deal with kitchen clutter at least a couple times during the day. Some people don’t mind the display of kitchen mess, but others do. You also may sacrifice a little bit of storage space in an open-concept kitchen. That’s because you’ll be down at least one wall or two and that one could have held cabinets. A kitchen island with under-counter storage is a great solution to this problem. As open kitchens continue to mature and contractors work to improve upon the drawbacks, there are endless solutions to create. Sliding walls or doors can close off a section for those times when you need a bit more privacy. Some people are choosing to keep the living room more separate, but including the dining room in the open space of the kitchen. Furniture groupings can also create more natural barriers while keeping the space open. If you’re looking into remodeling your closed kitchen into an open-concept kitchen, contact Mitchell Construction today at (951) 226-6201
