ᐅ Living/Dining/Kitchen: How do you live or plan to live in these spaces?
Created on: 25 Aug 2014 15:01
W
WildThing
Hello Forum,
I’m interested in how you currently live or how you have planned it in your new house. Are you following the trend of combining all three areas into one large space? Have you kept the rooms separate? (For example, with a sliding door.) Or have you only separated the living room from the rest?
I’m looking forward to your responses!
I’m interested in how you currently live or how you have planned it in your new house. Are you following the trend of combining all three areas into one large space? Have you kept the rooms separate? (For example, with a sliding door.) Or have you only separated the living room from the rest?
I’m looking forward to your responses!
We don’t have a living room or a dining room. Everyone eats individually at their computer or in front of the TV — sitting alone at the table is rather boring, and shared meals are rare because our sleep and wake times differ so much.
The new kitchen will have an island with seating (2 stools or similar). Since we don’t have guests for meals, this is absolutely sufficient.
Instead of a living room that no one would use anyway, we have a game room with PCs, consoles, a TV, and some exercise equipment. Upstairs, there is also a TV room with a console and television for gaming and video-on-demand viewing. However, it is only 11 square meters (118 square feet), so I wouldn’t call it a living room.
The kitchen is located on the upper floor, which essentially consists of one open space since the rooms have no doors and in some cases no interior walls. So you could say it is an “open kitchen” with passages leading to the hallway, sunroom, and other unused areas.
I find this departure from rigid room allocations in a typical apartment-style layout very refreshing. Here, a sofa might stand in one place and a shelf in another, independent of room boundaries and strictly aligned with the daily habits and needs of the residents. It goes so far that we don’t even have a designated bedroom; instead, a bed is placed somewhere, and wardrobes are located elsewhere (to accommodate my need to sleep through the night undisturbed, without being woken by banging cabinet doors or light at three in the morning). Anything potentially disruptive is moved toward the bathroom zone — again, not a room but more like a “wash tunnel” with stations arranged in a string and doors or barriers in between, so noise at night is kept to a minimum.
Certain “essential furniture” like a couch or corner seating, dining table, or wardrobe are not found in our house, as they don’t meet the residents’ needs. Fortunately, the layout of our old building was so open that we can realize all our ideas. This is usually not the case with buildings from the 1970s. Most of the houses we looked at had small rooms, cramped layouts, and fixed arrangements — for example, where the kitchen or bathroom had to be. In this respect, we have found our dream home for modern, open living far from any standard expectations, with more than enough space for everything we have always wanted.
The new kitchen will have an island with seating (2 stools or similar). Since we don’t have guests for meals, this is absolutely sufficient.
Instead of a living room that no one would use anyway, we have a game room with PCs, consoles, a TV, and some exercise equipment. Upstairs, there is also a TV room with a console and television for gaming and video-on-demand viewing. However, it is only 11 square meters (118 square feet), so I wouldn’t call it a living room.
The kitchen is located on the upper floor, which essentially consists of one open space since the rooms have no doors and in some cases no interior walls. So you could say it is an “open kitchen” with passages leading to the hallway, sunroom, and other unused areas.
I find this departure from rigid room allocations in a typical apartment-style layout very refreshing. Here, a sofa might stand in one place and a shelf in another, independent of room boundaries and strictly aligned with the daily habits and needs of the residents. It goes so far that we don’t even have a designated bedroom; instead, a bed is placed somewhere, and wardrobes are located elsewhere (to accommodate my need to sleep through the night undisturbed, without being woken by banging cabinet doors or light at three in the morning). Anything potentially disruptive is moved toward the bathroom zone — again, not a room but more like a “wash tunnel” with stations arranged in a string and doors or barriers in between, so noise at night is kept to a minimum.
Certain “essential furniture” like a couch or corner seating, dining table, or wardrobe are not found in our house, as they don’t meet the residents’ needs. Fortunately, the layout of our old building was so open that we can realize all our ideas. This is usually not the case with buildings from the 1970s. Most of the houses we looked at had small rooms, cramped layouts, and fixed arrangements — for example, where the kitchen or bathroom had to be. In this respect, we have found our dream home for modern, open living far from any standard expectations, with more than enough space for everything we have always wanted.
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nordanney25 Aug 2014 15:54Elina schrieb:
We don’t have a living room or a dining room. Everyone eats individually at their computer or in front of the TV – sitting alone at the table is kind of boring, and shared meals are rare because our sleep and wake times are too different.
The new kitchen will have an island with seating (2 stools or similar). We don’t host guests for meals, so that works perfectly for us.
Instead of a living room, which nobody would really use, we have a game room with PCs, consoles, a TV, and some exercise equipment. Upstairs, there is another TV room, also with a console and television, for gaming and streaming video on demand. However, it’s only 11 sq m (118 sq ft), so I wouldn’t really call it a living room.
The kitchen is on the upper floor, which is basically one large room since there are no doors and sometimes no interior walls. You could say it’s an “open kitchen” with access points to the hallway, conservatory, and other unused spaces. That sounds interesting!
Are you some kind of consumer electronics commune?
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Bauherren201425 Aug 2014 15:58@nordanney: Could be.
@Elina: Please don’t take this the wrong way, it’s not meant to offend, but I wonder if you have anything like a family life at all? From what you write, it feels more like you’re a shared flat or housemates rather than a family. -> But to each their own!
@Elina: Please don’t take this the wrong way, it’s not meant to offend, but I wonder if you have anything like a family life at all? From what you write, it feels more like you’re a shared flat or housemates rather than a family. -> But to each their own!
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Bauherren201425 Aug 2014 16:02But back to the original question: Why does this interest you? You will probably find supporters for each of your options since everyone has different tastes. We absolutely do not like open kitchens; we had one in our apartment and found it awful. I don’t want everyone watching me while I cook, and when roasting meat, you can still smell it despite the extractor hood. Therefore, definitely a separate kitchen with a dining area. When guests come, we use the large family dining table in the living room. Having to walk around two corners more than with an open layout doesn’t bother me personally.
Bauherren2014 schrieb:
@Elina: Please don’t take this the wrong way, and no offense is meant, but I wonder if you even have something like family life? From what you write, it feels more like you are flatmates rather than a family. -> But, to each their own!No, we are not a family, just a couple. That will remain the case; otherwise, we would have needed to separate proper rooms for possible children.
The different sleeping and waking times unfortunately cannot be changed due to shift work. You have to be able to live with that.
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