Here at Home Tales, we mainly work with properties that were built in the Victorian and Edwardian architecture era. Nowadays, home renovation projects in these properties often include making the space more open plan. When these houses were designed and built, individual rooms were designated for one purpose. There were often servant quarters within homes. The kitchen was seen as very a busy, functional area which should be separated from the other areas of the house. Whereas the dining room was a luxurious, relaxing space. This is very different to what we see today.  Open plan living is becoming a phrase we hear more and more. In new-build properties, we frequently see open plan living incorporated into the design. For the older, period properties, homeowners are modifying their layout, to modernise them and make them more efficient to use. 

If you are new to the phrase, or simply want to learn a little more about what it’s all about, we thought we would run through the basics for you.  

What is open plan living?

In basic terms, open plan living means that you have multiple dedicated zones within one area. For example, having both a kitchen, dining and living area in one room. This style of living has become increasingly popular over the past decade as homeowners want to utilise every inch of space within their home. This doesn’t necessarily have to be refined to one room, and it can take place over different levels or over an entire floor. It simply means there are no doors or walls interrupting the flow of space. 

What are the benefits of open plan living? 

Nowadays, homeowners are knocking down internal walls and extending their homes to create larger, more practical rooms. There are a huge array of benefits when it comes to open plan living. The space feels much larger as your line of sight isn’t being blocked by walls. The lack of walls also means that the natural light flow throughout the property increases significantly, which also makes the room feel more spacious. Family life is chaotic, particularly when you have kids running around the house. Open plan living helps you to oversee everything. Imagine this – you can be cooking dinner, while overseeing your teenager doing their homework at the kitchen table, while keeping an eye on the toddler watching TV in the living room. Sound like a dream?

What are my design options?

Good question. Well what you can incorporate into your room ultimately comes down to how much space you have. If you have a total room size of 30 SQM, then that’s the perfect size for a decent size kitchen (perhaps with a kitchen island) and a 6-seater dining area. If you have 50 SQM, you might want to add a living area within this space too. It all depends on what your priorities are. 

Lots of our clients opt for rear or side extensions which opens up their back room – the one that leads onto the garden. For a typical Victorian terrace, this creates a room of around 30 SQM to 40 SQM. If you want more space, you can remove the wall which separates middle of the property. This would create one large open plan room which encompasses the entire ground floor of the property. 

How do I arrange my design? 

The secret to a good open plan design is all in the zoning properly. You need to create defined zones within the room, so it doesn’t look like one huge jumbled mess. Archways, floor level changes, floor materials, rugs, bookshelves and lighting are all good options when it comes to helping to define zones. Pendant lighting is a fantastic way to zone an area. Check out these pendants lights that we installed in our Clapham project. Visually, they make the dining area look defined. The downside is that it’s more of a commitment. The lights are harder to remove if you want to reshuffle the area or re-purpose the zone for another. 

A well-positioned rug is another way to help identify a zone. Homeowners often use rugs to zone a living area or a seating area. This not only helps to identify where the zone begins and ends, but it adds a cosy ambience to the area.

Furniture will naturally help to define a zone. L-shaped sofas are popular as they help to enclose the space. Check out how our client used this technique in our North London project. 

We include basic details on our floorplans, so you can begin to plan your zones from the get-go. You have unlimited amendments so you can play around with dining tables, chairs, armchairs, rugs and kitchen layouts until you are totally happy with the finished design. Call us on 0207 043 2378 or email us at hello@hometales.co.uk to learn more.