Introduction
When we first bought the house I knocked down all of the interior walls. Now I was single back then and now that I have two kids I feel like the minute they become teenagers I’m going to want all of those interior walls back up again. Hello everyone I’m Julie and in today’s video we are going to be talking about two different layouts: open concept versus closed concept designs. Whether you’re considering a renovation or you’re just curious about these two different design styles, I’ll be answering important questions for each design—Which is the best fit for your lifestyle and your family? So watch this video to see which might be the best for you.
Understanding Open vs. Closed Concept
Open concept versus closed concept designs—what exactly is open concept versus closed concept layouts? Open concept is exactly what it sounds like—it’s completely open. There’s no interior walls that separate the living room from the dining room from the kitchen. Open concept layouts create a very spacious and fluid environment. You can see from one room into the next. If I’m standing in the dining room
I can see my living room and the kitchen. There are no interior walls that separate these common spaces. Now on the flip side, closed concept layouts are really just segmented rooms. You have a kitchen that is enclosed within walls, you have a formal dining room that is separated from a formal living room. Now a traditional closed layout doesn’t have to be formal at all—it really just depends on your style. The differences between the two layouts is that open concept has no interior walls that separate the common areas whereas closed concept layouts do. Now what they have in common is that all of the interior rooms and the bathrooms have walls.
Open Concept Benefits and Historical Context
Open concept layouts have a more modern and contemporary feel to the home. There’s a lot of light that flows in through the spaces. Since there’s no interior walls, all of that natural daylight that filters through the space is going to be cast into every single room. So you get a lot of natural light.
You get open communication between all of the family members. So when I am in my kitchen I can kind of scream out to my kids in the living room and they can hear me. You also have a lot of flexibility in furniture arrangements. Since there’s no interior walls there’s no walls for you to back the furniture up into, therefore you’re able to move your furniture around.
Open concept layouts are really great for modular furniture living. If you’re someone who loves to move furniture around, you want to play with different design ideas, open concept is a really great and flexible layout for you. I feel like open concept living is very casual. You can still plop in very formal furniture even if your style is traditional or classic, but the nature of having an open environment lends a very informal casual feel to the layout.
The open concept design was further popularized by architects like Frank Lloyd Wright who emphasized the importance of connecting indoor and outdoor spaces. This creates fluid, multi-functional living areas. The trend gained even more traction in the following decades, especially in the 80s and ’90s, as homeowners sought more casual and versatile living environments. Today, open concept living remains a popular choice, particularly in new construction and home renovations.
Closed Concept Advantages and Historical Significance
Closed concept layouts are traditional living features, designs where the rooms are separated by walls and doors. This layout creates distinct and private areas for every single function of the home. Closed concept living has been the dominant architectural feature for centuries, dating back to the earliest forms of residential architecture. This design approach became particularly prominent during the Victorian era and continued well into the early 20th century.
This layout enhances privacy and organization, allowing each room to serve a specific purpose and contain activities and items effectively. It also aids in sound control, reducing noise between rooms and allows individualized temperature control. This also improves energy efficiency and comfort. Additionally, each room can have its own unique décor, offering diverse interior design themes within one home. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century that open concept living began to gain popularity, challenging the traditional closed concept design.
Lifestyle Fit: Open vs. Closed
What kind of lifestyle would you lead to decide on either or option? Personally for me, I have young children. As I said, I want to be able to watch them from everywhere in my home. When I first bought this home and I knocked down the walls, I had that intent in mind. We entertain a whole lot. I wasn’t even having children yet—I wasn’t even thinking about children yet. But I also wanted to be able to see my guests.
I want to be able to host my guests from the living room, see what they’re doing in the dining room—maybe someone needs like a refill of a beverage or something—I can quickly grab that in my kitchen and then kind of haul ass to the dining room. So I love open concept design, not only coming from a mother of young children but also from an entertaining standpoint.
Who Should Choose Closed Concept Layouts
Now what kind of lifestyle would you lead if you favor closed concept designs? I feel like if you have a really large family, there’s a lot of noise in the house, you might favor a closed concept design because you want to be able to close off doors and then not hear all of the sound that’s kind of echoing throughout the space. If you are someone who wants each room to serve a specific function, you would love closed concept designs. There are a lot of home cooks who like to be isolated in the kitchen. They don’t want that smell kind of wafting through the air.
They don’t want their living room to smell like yesterday’s dinner. They don’t want their guests to see the mess that they’ve made in the kitchen. That’s why people want to close the doors and have all of these walls erected—you know, you don’t want to see what’s happening in other rooms.
If you have a household that’s full of teenagers, they kind of like their own separate spaces—they might be on their headphones, they’re kind of glued onto their tablets—they want privacy but they also want to be engaged in the family environment, so that’s when a traditional closed design could benefit the family and the users of the space. You might be a single who’s living in an apartment full of roommates—in that case, if you have an apartment, you might not even have a choice. All studio apartments have an open concept layout—you know, you kind of walk into the space: here’s the dining area, here’s the living area, here’s a small little kitchen.
You are forced to use the common areas together and then you kind of retreat to your own private spaces. But when you are ready for your first home or a home that you’re looking to rent, you always want to keep the functions of each space in mind. Like I said back in the day, you know, traditional design all had walls, they all had doors.
Now there’s new developments—I mean, they’re a dime a dozen. I have probably like 10 different apartment buildings that are kind of being built up right around my neighborhood. So nowadays it’s cheaper to build open concept layouts so that contractors don’t have to pay for all of these walls and doors.
Design and Renovation Flexibility
Now from the homeowner perspective, I feel like open concept layout gives you more flexibility. With an open concept layout you would generally have the same wall paint color that’s in all of the common areas—that’s just one single color. So imagine if you have a closed layout—each room would have either a different theme or different color. If you want a cohesive effect of course you can paint all of the walls all the same color. So it’s really just a personal preference depending on your design aesthetic.
Designer Preference and Maintenance
As a designer, I actually favor closed concept layouts and here’s why: I love it when I walk into a space and it has its own mood, its own vibe, it can have its own colors, its own theme. I could splurge on different finishes in one room and maybe skimp on another room. Whereas with open concept layouts, you have to have the same vibe or else it’s going to feel completely disjointed. Now if we’re talking about maintenance
I feel like open concept layouts are definitely more high maintenance than closed concept layouts. In an open concept layout you see everything, so you almost have to keep the home tidy, neat, clean, organized or else the whole space is going to look completely disheveled. I actually like that because for me—I’m OCD, I’m a germaphobe,
I’m highly, highly organized—so an open concept layout almost keeps me in check. You know, like there’s no hiding my kids’ junk. You walk in the door, you see the playroom and the living room right away. But I’m also not embarrassed about that—this is just the lifestyle that I’m in right now. Everyone knows I have kids. All of my guests have young kids too—they love it, all of the kids play together, and the open concept layout, we can see them from the kitchen and the dining room. That’s why I favor open concept layout.
Formal Entertaining and Aesthetic Options
In a closed concept layout—let’s say you’re entertaining, you know, you’re cooking your kitchen, I mean you’re making a meal—it gets really messy. You can close off the door, none of your guests see it. They can enjoy this beautiful meal arranged on this gorgeous tablescape in the formal dining room. So that formality—I kind of really love that, but with young children it just doesn’t make sense for my lifestyle right now.
If you’re living in an apartment or a studio, you definitely have an open concept layout that’s happening. There are smaller spaces that are defined for the dining, living and kitchen. When you have guests over, everyone’s kind of mingling together which is what I love. So you want to key into those design details, especially when you’re ready for your first starter home.
Do you like the idea of having all your guests mix and mingle? Do you like the idea of seeing your kids play while you’re, you know, prepping for a meal in the kitchen? If you like that lifestyle and you want to adopt that, you definitely want to remember all of those characteristics of the design layout so that you can look for that exact type of lifestyle in your next home.
Trends and Longevity
Do I think that open concept layouts are a trendy thing—like is it going to go out of style? Absolutely not. Design always reflects the users. Users’ tastes change. I feel like interior design always follows lifestyles, needs and changes. There will always be a need for both open concept layouts and closed concept layouts. It’s up to the homeowner—or you—to determine which is the right fit for you, and you can seek out these properties with these layouts in mind or be prepared for a renovation.
Safe Design Choices and Budgeting
Which of these options is a safer choice? That really just depends on how creative you are. I think the safer choice is probably closed concept design because a closed concept design, you can actually design one room at a time. Right—let’s say you only want to focus on the kitchen, you’re doing a kitchen renovation, but your dining room and your living room are still a little dated—and that’s okay because your kitchen is the star of the show.
Now on the flip side, if you had an open concept layout design and you wanted to renovate the kitchen—I mean you can’t have this like lackluster old dining table and your living room looks like it was plucked out of like a 70s catalog, right? You want everything to feel modern and updated at the same time. So you might be spending a little bit more money to update an open concept design versus a closed one where you can just do one room individually at a time.
Mood, Style, and Final Thoughts
I love it when I walk into a space and it feels different—you know it has a different color, I like to be transported with moods from like space to space. Maybe your living room is like casual, it’s fun, it’s quirky, and then you go to the dining room—it’s a little bit more formal, it’s sexy, it’s moody. So it really just depends on your lifestyle and your design intent. If you have an open concept layout, it’s almost as if you have to like pick these keywords or a mood so that all of the common areas in the space feel the same.
You want bright, airy, vibrant, alive—then you’re probably going to go with like a brighter color palette versus if you wanted like a moodier space. But remember that you could elicit those feelings of excitement in a common area and then reserve the moodier areas for the bathrooms or the private bedrooms.
Wrap-Up and Audience Engagement
I’ll be showing you a series of images and I almost want you to give me like your gut reaction—like your visceral reaction—the minute you land on this image. Like do you like it? What do you like about it? Do you not like it? Is this not for you? Okay let’s start with our first slide… [section continues with image reactions and concludes the video content.]