Open Plan Living

With kitchens becoming the most popular room in the house, opening up the dining room and even an informal living area means that the whole family can gather in the same multi-functional space. When done right, open plan layouts can add value to your home. It can be helpful when designing your space to imagine where walls might divide it into rooms, which makes you think about circulation, storage and placement of lighting and furniture.

Here we show you some exciting ideas for an open plan space:

Make the space work for you

Here, the kitchen is right next to the living room (to the front) and dining area with views over the rear garden making it great for socialising whilst preparing meals, with a handy bar area next to the dining table!

Source: BetterPad

Zonal Lighting

Treat each area to its own lighting scheme to differentiate the spaces.

Source: Adrian James Architects

Broken plan

Clever use of hidden sliding doors allows the space to be split into smaller zones if needed.

Source: Michaelis Boyd / Sarah Delaney

Feature Staircases

An open staircase can make a great 'room' divider if space (and headroom!) permits.

Source: Elizabeth Roberts

Add a mezzanine or split floor levels

Introducing different levels, or even a mezzanine if you have the space, can break up space and create multi functional 'rooms' or quiet zones whilst still being open plan.

Source: Amos Goldreich Architecture