Maybe because i come from Eastern Europe, where we have separate rooms for kitchens but I really don't understand why open kitchens are so popular? Are they practical in any sense?
My assumptions are that the furniture from the living room will be affected by all the smoke, vapors and smells from the kitchen.
Can you tell me why I don't understand the open kitchen concept and why is it practical?
Thank you so much.
In the US the kitchen is a central focal point in a home. An open floor plan lets folks congregate in the kitchen and also socialize/communicate easily with others in the home.
In older homes with closed in kitchens those in the kitchen feel isolated from anyone else in the house.
Proper ventilation (perhaps not common in Eastern Europe; at least in older buildings) deals with the "smoke, smells, and vapors" by capturing them and blowing them out of the house.
When many people had servants, including a cook, the kitchen was isolated from the living space more. With the decline of servants, a kitchen where the person cooking was not isolated from the rest of the household and/or guests became more popular.
In the opposite direction, many people normally congregated, socialized and ate in the kitchen in many older houses, while the "dining room" and "living room" were only used for formal occasions. As people began to question why they had two rooms they rarely used, some of them bashed out the walls and made one large room that served two or three different functions.
There are two main reasons why the open floor plan is so so popular:
It is great for entertaining. People always end up in the kitchen anyway, right? This allows the cook to be in the kitchen puttering around and interact with guests.
It is great for parents of young children. It allows the parent to be in the kitchen and still keep an eye on the little ones in the family room. No more baby in a playpen or high chair in the kitchen while you make dinner. [...]
But there is a third reason: knocking out walls creates space, or at least an illusion of space within the same square footage. –An Argument Against the Open Floor Plan justmewith.com
I found the above at, 11 Reasons Against an Open Kitchen Floor Plan (oldhouseguy.com), none of which with I agree.
