Renovation workbook | Open-plan Renovation workbook: Part 2 Ceilings and lighting can Questions to ask help define spaces. • What type of sitting areas do you need and what is their focus? Will you be watching TV? Talking? Do you need Open-plan living kid-friendly spaces that Modern life is no longer lived in small rooms. are good for playing? Sharon Newey looks at removing walls and • Do you need two opening up spaces. sitting areas and how separate should they be? Good audio separation is important ecture if you have kids rchit a watching TV in one cully space and adults trying s to talk in another. mith & s • How long will you be in the house and Open-plan living. it’s a catch-cry used in real estate ads, and the expected nOrm does it need future- in today’s houses. It wasn’t long ago, however, that the phrase didn’t even exist. Not until a few decades ago did we start designing houses with more open living spaces that incorporated the proofing? More open kitchen, dining and living spaces in one extended area. spaces tend to suit But of course, a lot of our housing stock pre-dates those eras, especially those in inner-city younger families, while areas. Villas and bungalows used to completely separate the living areas — the kitchen was at the distinct living spaces back of the house, while the parlour or best living room was at the front. There might have been suit teens and child- a dining room, but usually the family ate at a table in the kitchen. free couples. Today, it’s de rigueur to rip the back off old houses and rebuild a large open-plan living space that opens easily to the outside with a deck or courtyard for outdoor living. • What style of dining do you need? Will Tech talk you use island bench barstools? A casual Consider a tech Now that we have access to mobile devices using desk by the kitchen. wireless internet connections such as laptops and dining table? Outdoor smartphones, we’re more likely to park ourselves in dining? Formal dining? the living area to check emails, shop online or do • Do you want the our banking. ts It’s a good idea to include handy set-down spaces close kitchen on full view or to power outlets for charging, but keep them away from slightly hidden? Some abine c ra harm, for example, not in the middle of the wet kitchen of us prefer kitchen bench or on a low table the two-year-old can reach. eixei mess to be hidden, t Many designers are including compact computer others can be minimal lvin spaces behind a cupboard door complete with multiple and mess-free. lite Kitchen and hot-points for charging. e hoto Ke p How about a drawer for each member of the family • What flow do you hoto p with an integrated hot-point in each and space to keep want to the garden? various devices? What will you use to Having a laptop set-down space in the living area also promotes cyber safety because kids’ screens are get it — a big deck, or visible to parents. intimate courtyard? The new Resene Whites & Neutrals collection with hundreds of whites and neutrals to choose from is available now in a fandeck 74 | June/July 12 | homestyle Get the right white with Resene homestyle | June/July 12 | 75 NEW! or free individual palettes. Available only from Resene. 0800 RESENE (737 363) www.resene.co.nz Renovation workbook | Open-plan Renovation workbook: Part 2 Ceilings and lighting can Questions to ask help define spaces. • What type of sitting areas do you need and what is their focus? Will you be watching TV? Talking? Do you need Open-plan living kid-friendly spaces that Modern life is no longer lived in small rooms. are good for playing? Sharon Newey looks at removing walls and • Do you need two opening up spaces. sitting areas and how separate should they be? Good audio separation is important ecture if you have kids rchit a watching TV in one cully space and adults trying s to talk in another. mith & s • How long will you be in the house and Open-plan living. it’s a catch-cry used in real estate ads, and the expected nOrm does it need future- in today’s houses. It wasn’t long ago, however, that the phrase didn’t even exist. Not until a few decades ago did we start designing houses with more open living spaces that incorporated the proofing? More open kitchen, dining and living spaces in one extended area. spaces tend to suit But of course, a lot of our housing stock pre-dates those eras, especially those in inner-city younger families, while areas. Villas and bungalows used to completely separate the living areas — the kitchen was at the distinct living spaces back of the house, while the parlour or best living room was at the front. There might have been suit teens and child- a dining room, but usually the family ate at a table in the kitchen. free couples. Today, it’s de rigueur to rip the back off old houses and rebuild a large open-plan living space that opens easily to the outside with a deck or courtyard for outdoor living. • What style of dining do you need? Will Tech talk you use island bench barstools? A casual Consider a tech Now that we have access to mobile devices using desk by the kitchen. wireless internet connections such as laptops and dining table? Outdoor smartphones, we’re more likely to park ourselves in dining? Formal dining? the living area to check emails, shop online or do • Do you want the our banking. ts It’s a good idea to include handy set-down spaces close kitchen on full view or to power outlets for charging, but keep them away from slightly hidden? Some abine c ra harm, for example, not in the middle of the wet kitchen of us prefer kitchen bench or on a low table the two-year-old can reach. eixei mess to be hidden, t Many designers are including compact computer others can be minimal lvin spaces behind a cupboard door complete with multiple and mess-free. lite Kitchen and hot-points for charging. e hoto Ke p How about a drawer for each member of the family • What flow do you hoto p with an integrated hot-point in each and space to keep want to the garden? various devices? What will you use to Having a laptop set-down space in the living area also promotes cyber safety because kids’ screens are get it — a big deck, or visible to parents. intimate courtyard? The new Resene Whites & Neutrals collection with hundreds of whites and neutrals to choose from is available now in a fandeck 74 | June/July 12 | homestyle Get the right white with Resene homestyle | June/July 12 | 75 NEW! or free individual palettes. Available only from Resene. 0800 RESENE (737 363) www.resene.co.nz | Renovation workbook Open-plan Opening up Ask the experts Will our love affair A galley kitchen is a practical If you have an older house with small rooms that with open-plan living continue? What The see-all kitchen needs opening up, the first thing to check is the layout offering lots of easily are the downsides of this type of layout? We have long had a love affair with open- accessible storage. structure. Find out which walls in the house are plan kitchens — those on full view to structural, in other words, holding up the roof. Patrick McCarthy Nadia Sakey the living area with a wide island bench In older homes, the structural walls are usually the Real-estate The House tech and often configured in galley style. u ones that run down the centre of the house forming agent, Custom Doctor Residential Open plan spaces igit the hallway, and of course the exterior walls (that Most people love them because you get Open-plan living are not for everyone includes the main back wall of a villa, not just the to chat to the kids or guests while you’re is one of the boxes —my father-in- hoto Br one holding up any lean-to additions). But never, ever preparing food, while others hate them p most family buyers law was quite , for the fact that your cooking clutter is demolish any wall without expert advice. Ending up check when they bothered by the esign with roof tiles in your dinner isn’t a good look. come through open homes. large lack of a separate lounge in our newly on show. d Parts of structural walls can be removed and the living spaces suit growing families; renovated home. A galley kitchen is a very practical however, as families grow up their the best plans have a seamless flow load-bearing role replaced by a steel beam specified by layout and provides lots of easily requirements for this space lessen. from the kitchen, overlooking dining accessible storage. an engineer. This gives good flexibility for opening up two vastly different groups often and living spaces, and face an outdoor According to Wellington-based rooms, but also for creating big openings for sliding prefer separated spaces. the family room or deck, which is perfect for kitchen designer Rochelle Jackson, we’ll doors and windows opening to the garden. with teenagers finds open-plan areas entertaining. increased light, flow become redundant and needs a and space make desirable living areas.