LIVING ROOM WITH OPEN KITCHEN

LIVING ROOM WITH OPEN KITCHEN: INTRODUCTION

The new trend of contemporary living is the constant search for more space and light, demolishing as many walls as possible in the house, even in the furnishings of the living rooms. There are more and more homes that have a shared living area, or the living room with an open kitchen.

Instead of walls and doors, which served to divide the rooms in the old way, now more and more furniture is used, to separate the areas, but to have them combined at the same time. The open kitchen is also liked because it promotes interaction between people, as well as easier sharing of family moments. Therefore, the kitchen and living area, lounge and dining room, acquire great value, grow, increase their functions.

Open-plan kitchenette or separate kitchen? Here is a classic dilemma whose buys a house and needs to renovate. Often you have to choose whether to combine or separate the living room from the kitchen. Separate rooms offer positive sides, such as odor isolation, but they can also be less bright and sometimes narrow. Combining the living area and kitchen creates a wider and brighter environment. It’s however necessary to delimit the areas, diversifying them according to function

Let’s first define what is meant by a living room with an open kitchen:

“It is a space without partitions or with a few separating partitions between the kitchen, living room and dining room.”

This is equivalent to an open layout with few internal walls, fewer independent rooms in favor of a single environment.
As for studios and bedrooms, smaller and separate rooms are still preferred.

So, in case you decide to separate the two rooms, sliding glass walls, counter or island, bearing pillars, the project to connect the kitchen to the living room leaves ample room for the imagination of each of you.

CURRENT TRENDS

Needs change continuously and faster. What’s good today is no longer practical next year because your life is always running faster. The trend is to make the environment increasingly multifunctional and modifiable according to needs.

The need to make use of every square inch is becoming increasingly pressing and being able to find bespoke solutions, such as sliding or rotating walls for example, can increase the value of a property.

The future of furniture is in fact overwhelmingly personalized, based on the moment and lifestyle. Separating the rooms with a piece of furniture allows you to meet a need for privacy between the kitchen and living room that in 1, 2 or 3 years’ time you may no longer have. The furniture remains, with another function, in another part of the house, the spaces are changed.

The key is to find the experienced professional who can interpret your needs and create the right spaces with you.

TIPS ON HOW TO DIVIDE THE ENVIRONMENTS

Often, however, it becomes necessary to delimit areas, to diversify them according to their function. In fact, there are many more or less visible solutions to visually divide the spaces in a living room with open kitchen and delimit the space:

• Sliding walls: allow you to divide or unite the rooms according to the occurrence: just a gesture is needed to reduce or enlarge the spaces.
• Counter or island to delimit the kitchen area: an excellent solution to obtain even a larger work surface;
• Glazed walls to separate without dividing: this is one of the most popular trends of the moment Industrial-inspired, the glass walls separate the rooms, leaving them united: the transparency of the glass exploits the positive factors of the unique environment while giving the possibility of owning distinct areas;
• Columns or load-bearing structures to mark the space by dividing the areas;;
• Ceiling: also the lowerings and the ceiling decorations help to divide the rooms and to perceive the spaces as divided.
• Plasterboard: it is possible to build small walls or walls that give the idea of dividing the space without totally closing it. Equipping the wall with shelves or niches will be a decorative and functional solution;
• Divide the space with color. Delimits areas with contrasting or nuanced colors;
• Finally, in small spaces where the open kitchen is mandatory, solve with a wall that hides the most operational area from the rest of the living.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

The decision to create a living room with open kitchen entails a series of advantages but, at the same time, also disadvantages that should not be underestimated. Let’s go see what they are:

ADVANTAGES

1. The open space manages to save space, since by now every inch more is a luxury.
If the surfaces are very small rather than creating a skimpy kitchenette better to opt for a unique environment with a beautiful open kitchen.

2.It is an ideal choice for small apartments: tearing down the walls increases the feeling of space in the small homes.

3. The living room with open kitchen allows you to socialize even while cooking. In a connected society, but increasingly alone, the home is still the refuge in which to spend moments of intimacy with the family. By connecting the living room and kitchen, we can also take advantage of the moments of preparation for dinner to chat, tell our day, check the children or do homework with the kids.

4. If you want to monitor your children that are palying, do their homework or watch TV while cooking, definitely better scegliere l’open space.

5. An open plan space is brighter because you can enjoy natural light more. In a small apartment it is perfect for giving an airy and spacious feeling. Using light colors or a total white furniture, even the narrowest spaces will seem bigger.

DISADVANTAGES

1. Kitchen smells can be a problem, because they spread throughout the house and in winter it is really difficult to get rid of them. It is a problem that can be partially solved with a good hood, perhaps with a particular design, that furnishings. A kitchen designed with many containers and a few open elements will allow you to make accessories, dishes and preparations in progress disappear with prying eyes.

2.Kitchens are also often a source of noise due to the use of blenders, mixers and other appliances that could disturb those who are chatting in the living room.

3. If you don’t want to be disturbed while cooking, it’s better opt for the separate kitchen. One solution is to provide sliding doors, preferably in glass that allow the closure of the kitchen when it is necessary. This way you will be able to cook in peace first and enjoy the open space at dinner time.

4. Con un open space non puoi lasciare la cucina in disordine. Piatti sporchi, briciole, padelle da riporre, con una cucina a vista non te lo puoi permettere altrimenti tutta la stanza apparirà disorganizzata e caotica. E non è il massimo per la stanza dove accogliete i vostri ospiti e che racconta così tanto di te.

5. With a living room with open kitchen you may have less storage space for your things. Having one less partition wall where you can place wardrobes or a refrigerator, you may have to organize everything in a more spacious environment, but paradoxically with less usable space.

TIPS FOR FURNISHING THE LIVING ROOM WITH OPEN KITCHEN

The living room with open kitchen must be practical but with an eye about aesthetics: to project an open space kitchen is therefore a job that can hide many pitfalls. The great challenge is to obtain a large but not dispersive environment, comfortable but not too full of elements.

Here are 4 practical tips to follow to furnish a living room with an open kitchen:

1. first of all, use neutral colors: the choice of colors is fundamental to create a feeling of harmony. The ideal is to decide them based on personal taste and the environment to be furnished, with elegant nuances that characterize all the furnishings in a homogeneous way. In general, focusing on neutral colors you can’t go wrong, because they make the environment visually wider and brighter;
2. matter of style: the environment must be harmonious, otherwise you would have the perception of an unpleasant confusion; it is important that the style chosen is clear and evident in every detail and that all areas of the environment belong to it in order to obtain a global stylistic coherence;
3. floor: also using two different types of flooring can be useful for dividing spaces in an open plan kitchen with living room despite continuity. Taking advantage of the use of different materials can be an excellent solution;
4. customize with accessories: in any case, never forget to give our open space kitchen a personal and original touch. For an environment to be truly pleasant and homogeneous, the choice of the right accessories must not be overlooked. Once the main furnishings have been positioned, adding a few touches of style will be simple, with details that make it personalized and refined.

LEAVE A COMMENT

If you think the article was interesting, would like to offer some advice or resolve any doubts, just leave a comment and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible! Also, if you need guidance on decorating your living room with an open kitchen, email valeriadesign@casaomnia.it!