Second conversation I had today with a senior about the issues with housing was about the open concept. This idea grew on me for about 10 years from watching too much HGTV where designer' first go to option was to knock down walls. I started doing the same thing when I was on a tour with a buyer suggesting ‘You take down this wall, not weight bearing’. Client was like “Mike, we are not knocking down any walls”. I realized back than that I need to see things through buyer’s prospective and not follow the ‘so called trends.
So, this article is about why NOT to have open kitchen-dining-living concepts. It does not mean I am against it just a different prospective to consider if making a renovation or looking to move to a new home.
- Open Concept might look good when empty but, not easy to furnish
- Maybe the open kitchen concept brought the idea to have second kitchen known as the Chinese kitchen to hide all the dirty dishes in the sink and keep away all the smell from cooking
- Not sure about you but, I could not relax to watch a movie looking over at my kitchen sink full of dishes (dishwasher is not emptied yet)
- Open concept is not that energy efficient especially if you have 9 ft ceilings
- If you have remodeled any home you know the engineering challenges to have an open kitchen concept. Therefore, some walls are not bad for privacy
- Different spaces are meant for different functions.
- Back to HDTV most common used words “Open Concept” and “Entertaining” I mean c’mon how much entertaining these people are doing? Do people want to have separate conversation which are impossible in the Open Concept? Having guys over for a game; if you do not have man cave, forget about having fun
The conclusion is that everyone has their own style in decorating but, functionality need to be considered for your family needs. Back to the seniors finding suitable accommodations, people like things the way they used to be and change is not always a good thing. The search continues finding suitable accommodation for this client to help them downsize or rightsize.
I welcome comments or a discussion on the topic. Feel free to contact me michael@michaeltudorie.com
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