Metro News Service
The way a home is designed can say a lot of things about it. In fact, many real estate professionals and contractors can determine when a home was built based on the design of its interior. For example, homes with sunken living rooms were likely built sometime in the 1960s and 1970s.
Open concept living rooms are one trend that might one day make people nostalgic for the early 21st century. Many of today’s home buyers want homes with open concept floor plans, which can give homes a more spacious feel, perhaps even creating the illusion that a home is bigger than it really is.
Home buyers who have never before enjoyed open concept floor plans can consider these benefits to these wildly popular layouts.
Many people who live in homes with open concept floor plans cite their convenience when entertaining as one of their biggest assets. In an open concept home, guests don’t have to be corralled into a single room in the home.
Instead, hosts and their guests can roam freely from room to room because there are no walls dividing common areas. This can make gatherings feel less cramped than in homes with more traditional floor plans.
The safety of open concept floor plans may be most applicable to parents of young children. Open concept floor plans allow parents to keep an eye on their children while cooking dinner, working from home or tending to other chores around the house.
Since there are no walls to divide rooms in open concept homes, parents don’t have to wonder what their curious kids are up to because they can see them at all times.
Open concept floor plans give homeowners more flexibility. For example, homes with more traditional floor plans may have designated spaces for dining areas.
These spaces don’t leave much room to work with and may not be valued by homeowners who don’t often host dinners at home.
As a result, such rooms may just be wasted square footage. With an open concept floor plan, homeowners have the flexibility to make dining areas as big or small as they see fit and can even adjust the rooms on the fly on those occasions when people are coming over.