Should You Switch Over To An Open Plan Kitchen?

It’s now a common decision that many homeowners have to make when looking for kitchen remodeling contractors to take on their projects. Older homes, especially those built before the 1980s, often had smaller, dedicated kitchen spaces. These kitchens were constructed not for form but function, assuming that one person wanted a complete run of the kitchen with no distractions.

Today, however, the perception and working methodology of kitchens have changed for many people. Kitchens can be social or family spaces, a common room that many people spend time in, from preparing food to eating it to doing homework. This modern trend in kitchens collides straight into the smaller, dedicated spaces of older kitchens, giving some new homeowners pause for thought, considering whether kitchen remodeling contractors should tear down the walls to make an open plan kitchen.

The Pros

More Social

An open-plan kitchen is a better idea for people who believe that a kitchen should be a social experience with friends and family. This gives people the ability to see and interact with those in the kitchen and makes it easier to socialize.

If you’re the type of kitchen user that doesn’t like isolated activities and prefers to interact with others in the same space, an open kitchen is a great way to go.

More Light

Another advantage to an open kitchen is the allowance of more light regardless of the time of day. During daylight hours, more windows admitting in sunlight make for a brighter room. In the same way, at night, with multiple light sources from different rooms, this often means that kitchens can be brighter places in the evening.

From a work perspective, this also makes for a safer experience.

The Cons

Less Privacy

While some people are more social, others prefer to do their work on their own. For every person who loves open-plan offices where coworkers can easily interact, others would like their own office to concentrate on the task at hand.

If you’re the type that works better without distractions, keeping the kitchen as an isolated, dedicated space gives you a workspace in which you have more control.

More Leakage

Working in a kitchen is pretty busy, and between blenders, microwave ovens, stoves sizzling or frying, and knives or food processors chopping or dicing, there’s also a lot of noise generated as well as smells and heat. In more traditional kitchens that are walled off, these byproducts of the work are kept to a minimum from the rest of the household.

However, once the walls come down, this spreads throughout the house. Noise and heat from the kitchen will escape to the rest of the floor, and the same goes for smells and possibly oils and grease in vapor form. If you have any people that need to work without distractions on the same floor as the kitchen, this can often be an unpleasant surprise as smells, noise and heat permeate everywhere.

So before getting those kitchen remodeling contractors to tea down those kitchen walls, try to figure out what kind of kitchen experience you want to have. Build according to your needs.