ᐅ Open Plan Kitchen: Regretted Choice or the Ultimate Solution?

We deliberately chose to have a closed kitchen back then. One reason was our cat, which we preferred to keep out of the kitchen, and despite the door usually being open, the cat mostly respects that. This is partly due to our consistent approach from the beginning and probably also because we hardly leave anything around that would interest the cat. With an open kitchen, it would probably be much harder to enforce this.

By now, despite having a cat, I would probably plan an open kitchen to reduce walking distances.

However, I also believe that in small houses, there can be a lack of storage or counter space if the kitchen is open to the living room. An open kitchen needs to offer a certain sense of spaciousness; otherwise, it doesn’t work well.

There are so many solutions. Our now adult but by no means fully mature children each have their own open kitchen, which is quite helpful for maintaining order and household harmony. With appropriate planning and movable walls, a kitchen can be open or closed at different times – this has been a design trend before. Some kitchens are divided into a show kitchen and a separate closed work kitchen behind it. There are far more possibilities than the common "either-or thinking" often found in our country.

I never get tired of writing this: Always start with the end goal in mind. Restrictions you are told about do not have to be accepted immediately. Effective goal-setting is the real intellectual effort. Unfortunately, we are increasingly forgetting what this means and how to do it. One method is to keep asking "why" like children do, until the parents get frustrated and lose patience. The real enjoyment and seriousness of a topic only begins with the first "why" question that cannot be quickly answered. Or as Hannibal Lecter asks in "The Silence of the Lambs": "What does it mean in itself?" How to do this is nicely explained in a first approximation in the large online reference under the 5 Whys method.

I am also in favor of an open kitchen... ours is currently being installed at this very moment. It is open again and allows for conversation while cooking/baking, etc., making it possible to do these activities together instead of being separated, each in their own room.

That’s why we have an open-plan kitchen and living area. The dining table can accommodate up to 8 people if needed.

Myrna_Loy schrieb:

I really dislike open kitchens. Like, seriously. I want to be able to work in a kitchen but not have to look at fruit bowls, kettles, toasters, etc. from the sofa. The trend of hiding all these things for a fortune just so the kitchen matches the beige, gray, black painted TV wall and sofa combo bores me to death.
We have a 22 m² (237 sq ft) kitchen-living area and a separate room next to it as a living room. That way, you don’t have to wipe cooking smells off the piano. Also, the dog’s bowl is far enough away and doesn’t have to fit into a design concept.

Nothing more to add! I’ve cursed every open kitchen so far. The kitchen is for cooking and working and frying smells, and the living room is for living—clean and not smelling like a fast-food joint... And I’ve never seen a ventilation system that actually removes 100% of cooking odors (and grease particles) when frying.

Georgian2019 schrieb:

and I have yet to see a ventilation system that completely removes 100% of cooking odors (and grease particles).

But if you are honest with yourself, you will spread odors throughout your home even with a closed kitchen. Eventually, you will have to open the door between the kitchen and the living room. A house or apartment with doors constantly kept closed always feels like a prison and is uncomfortable.