Open-plan living has seen a significant rise in popularity. When such trends appear, the question on everyone’s mind is always the same: Is it here to stay?
All things considering, open-plan living has been with us since the beginning of civilization. From prehistoric times, all through the middle ages and up until modern times, “four walls and a roof” was a natural mode of living for lower classes.
However, it has become chic to live like this over the last decade. Middle and upper classes are opting for this mode of living very often, but is it a viable solution? How to make it work in the long run?
We live in a postmodern world. The mission of postmodernism is to tear down barriers of convention and offer transparency in every sense. Naturally, we can see this reflected on the architectural trends.
Interior design embraced the postulates of postmodernism and adapted them to interior design – all walls are coming down and everything becomes visible. If there’s a time when open-plan living can work, both as a stylistic choice and mode of living, it’s now.
What makes an open-plan living so appealing is the airiness. As far as cleaning is concerned, it saves a lot of time. The household looks significantly loftier and there is a lot of leeways to modify the layout of your furniture. It’s up to you to find the perfect focal point for each grouping of furniture. Make sure to have a single object as a focus of the grouping for an organized appearance of your household.
Even though open-plan living “brings the family together,” it’s advisable to buy a few room dividers and give at least some semblance of privacy to the children. However, even room dividers can provide an opportunity to enrich the aesthetic signature of your household, which brings us to the next item.
Variety is your enemy. Different types of furniture will add up to a chaotic and overbearing appearance. If you opt for an open-plan living, you need to decide on the tone and prevalent color scheme of your furniture.
To keep the spacious feeling, stick to lighter colors and woodwork that has brighter texture, like birch or maple. However, it’s advisable to do a bit of general research on types of wood flooring before making a final decision. For the sake of consistency, focus on, at most, three colors.
The lavatory is usually the only room in the open-plan household that ends up having its own walls. This is where the issue of kitchen smells comes into the spotlight. The best choice to deal with this is to set up your kitchen beside the largest window on the opposite end of what is meant to be the living area.
Invest into a strong exhaust hood. It will not only air out all the smells, it’s meditative buzzing can cover the sound of clinking dishes. As far as indoor sound-proofing is concerned – soft flooring in the kitchen area will help muffle most of the sounds. For reducing outside noise, which is even more important for the open-space than the conventional type of living, you should definitely look into the sound-proofing quality of the contemporary double glazed windows.
Choosing the right furniture can be a daunting family project, but it all begins with the layout of the household itself. Unless you are an architect or designer by vocation, it’s prudent to involve trusting professionals into your endeavor. Thankfully, in the era of the internet, finding them is a breeze. Reliable as they are, seasoned new home builders can make sure you fall in love with your home all over again.
Open-plan living is the perfect solution for people who enjoy loftiness. More than any other type of household, it’s akin to a blank canvas you can use to express your aesthetic preferences. Just make sure to stay stylistically consistent, and you are well on your way to create a home that looks both spectacular and cozy.
