Are you choosing between an open floor plan or a closed one? Consider how each will impact natural lighting, the overall feel of the space, your daily lifestyle, and your home’s value.
An open-concept floor plan combines two or more established rooms (like the kitchen and living area) to create a larger open space. The lack of walls separating the combined areas gives you an extended space in both rooms with overlapping purposes.
An open floor plan fosters more communication and bonding within a family. Read on to discover why an open-concept design is so popular.
Benefits of an Open-Concept Floor Plan
1. Allow more natural light to come streaming into your home.
Walls stop natural light from traveling from room to room. When you tear down the walls, you welcome natural light into the grand combined space shared in the open-concept floor plan. Increased illumination makes the space feel bigger.
2. Create a more spacious feel for your interior.
When walls separate rooms inside your home, it can make you feel boxed in. By removing the barriers between your kitchen and living area, you open up both rooms, giving an expansive feel to them.
3. Produce a sense of togetherness.
Your kitchen is the heart of your home, and creating an expanded one by tearing down any walls between it and your living space will invite your busy family members to do more together each day. The lack of walls between rooms makes you feel connected even if you’re doing different tasks. When making dinner, your kids can be in proximity helping you, doing homework, playing, feeding the dog, or more.
4. Entertain with ease.
When friends and family join you for a meal or game night, they have plenty of space to walk around, socialize, and relax while you prepare the meal or snacks. You can even converse with others while hosting, which is a great asset of the open-concept floor plan. You won’t miss out on the fun with an open floor plan because you’ll be in the middle of it all, even as you host!
5. Enjoy a better flow to your daily routine.
Busy mornings need all the streamlining they can get, and an open-concept living area delivers. With various family members going in different directions in a hurry, you’re less likely to collide and more likely to converse as you bustle about. You’ve got a greater visual field with no walls, so you can keep an eye on your family and ensure everyone is running on time.
6. Gain flexibility in your layout.
With an open-concept floor plan, you can reconfigure your furniture and décor to create a fresh new layout. When your needs change, you can accommodate them easier with the flexibility an open floor plan provides.
7. Increase your home’s value.
Open floor plans add functional square footage to your home, which is appealing to homebuyers. They are considered part of modern home design, so investing in a home with an open layout will pay off when you sell your home.
8. Let your kitchen be the functional focal point of your house.
Your kitchen will be most functional if its layout includes the “kitchen triangle,” which includes your refrigerator, stove, and sink. When these three items form a triangle with the appropriate distance between them, you’ll have a well-designed flow to your kitchen space—the focal point of your grand room.
9. Connect to the outdoors seamlessly.
Open up an extending living area by adding sliding glass doors that connect you to your deck or backyard. This is an ideal feature if you enjoy summer dinners on the back patio. Moving from the kitchen through your living space and onto the patio is priceless. It enhances your lifestyle and can be a great asset when you’re entertaining.
10. Keep a closer eye on your small children for their safety.
Curiosity comes naturally for children, and sometimes they can endanger themselves as a result. With an open-concept floor plan, there’s greater visibility, so you can more readily see your kids as they play—creating a safer environment for them.
Changes that Occur When You Create an Open-Concept Kitchen and Living Space
Your utilities may increase.
When walls separate rooms, you can regulate the temperature in each room, using less energy in the areas you use the least. When planning ahead for your open-concept floor plan, realize that your home may require more heating and cooling due to the larger space—particularly if you have a vaulted ceiling.
Your daily routine will become tidier.
With an open-concept kitchen and living space, you’ll be more conscious of the need for the daily upkeep of your home. If dishes pile up in the kitchen, they are visible from other parts of the grand space. If toys are left out in the living area, they are seen from the dining area, so you’ll need to be more diligent about tidying up. That’s a discipline we all need, so it may turn out to be a positive aspect of changing to the open concept.
Remodeling Inspiration to Ignite Your Dreams
If your current St. Louis area home doesn’t have an open-concept floor plan and you’re considering taking the step of creating it, you’ve come to the right place. At Lakeside Renovation & Design, we’re here to transform your property into a stunning space that enhances your lifestyle.
Homeowners who choose our company get our own in-house team (no third-party crews!). We are founded on the principle that if we invest and care for our team, they will invest and care for our customers—and they do!
Take a moment to look at the inspiring gallery of our featured remodeling projects.
