I was having a conversation last night with an interior designer. We talked about how the flow of the room was great, the placement of the furniture and the decorations really helped to “open things up.” My mind began to wonder. They went on to say how this was the perfect set up and not much else could have been done to the home to maximize it’s layout.
“Open concept” or floor plan is something we hear a lot in the real estate world – but is it here to last? Working with many house flippers/clients-who-just-want-their-touch on renovating homes, I wondered if this fad would fade and someday not play out in our favor. After all, the taste of the public in general tends to be cycling trends that come as they go.
Before World War II the open concept was but a lost concept. Rooms were segmented into distinctly different areas, including cutting off the kitchen from the rest of the house.
It wasn’t until the traditional ranch of the 60’s and 70’s that we started to see an abundance of open floor plans. This had more to do with structural advances that landed way to more options.
Today, we see this frequently and it is highly coveted among older construction houses.
Change of the American family, lifestyle, and household show us that the home life has a lot more social interaction among not only the families that dwell in the house themselves, but also friends that like to be entertained. A house is no longer a place to just eat and sleep, but a thoughtfully built box that houses life.
Knowing this and the direction we are going with our culture, it is safe to say that the open concept layout is here to stay.