Does open-plan living really work?

Knocking down walls to create a flexible layout is more popular than ever, but does it really work when you have kids? Two homeowners reveal all

YES

‘You get used to the noise, and the benefits far outweigh any problems’

Julie and Tim Wood and their son, Lucas, have renovated their 1980s bungalow in Stallington, Staffordshire

‘Our open-plan kitchen-diner-living room is awesome for parties. My son plays rugby and we have get-togethers for the team and all the kids pile in here. When there’s an international game on TV, all the men are on the big sofa, the women are sitting at the dining table with a drink and the kids are bombing round the huge kitchen island.

‘Lucas likes to hang out with us oldies here rather than in his room, especially doing his homework while I’m making dinner. Or we can all sit down together in the morning for breakfast.

‘The best thing about the room is the feeling of space it allows, but at the same time the sense of cosiness when we are all together in front of the log burner watching a movie – it’s so warm that Lucas and Tim have been known to sit there in just their shorts, even in the middle of winter!

‘What was there before was awful, a dismal dining room, a conservatory we knew would either be too hot or cold to use, and a kitchen where we couldn’t have breakfast together. By removing walls and using the conservatory footprint, we knew we’d gain this huge communal party room.

‘When I’m using the laptop at the island and the TV is on, at times it can feel like you’re fighting for a bit of peace and quiet, but you get used to it. And the benefits far outweigh any problems.’

NO

‘We couldn’t boil a kettle without the kids yelling they couldn’t hear the TV’

Jayne and Dan Sullivan, and children Amelie and Raphael, regretted turning three rooms into one in their 1930s semi in Macclesfield, Cheshire

‘Putting in internal doors to separate off the sitting area in the open-plan space was the best thing we ever did! When we originally created the one large room we realised pretty quickly there was just too much noise, and it could cause quite a bit of tension. We couldn’t boil a kettle without the kids yelling at me that they couldn’t hear the TV, which doesn’t make for a happy family life. If one of the kids was trying to do homework while someone wanted to watch

TV, that caused distractions, and when we had guests over, it wasn’t easy to accommodate what the kids wanted to do versus the adults, say if they asked to watch a movie but we wanted to chat at the dinner table.

‘When we moved in, the house had a typical layout with a dining room, sitting room and kitchen. We felt disconnected from each other, so we thought: “Let’s knock it all through”. I admit we probably had been caught up in the trend for open-plan living, which does look really nice in all the magazines. At first we were pleased with the results, but after we’d lived with it for a little while, it became obvious that we did miss having a separate living room.

‘We chose to fit some internal bi-fold glass doors from Vufold so we could close off part of the space. It means I can still see the kids from the kitchen but gives us that flexibility when the family want to do their own thing in different rooms. A bit of privacy really can be a good thing.’

I admit we’d probably been caught up in the trend for open-plan living, which does look really nice. But we did miss a separate living room