Viewing 33 posts - 1 through 33 (of 33 total)
  • Combined kitchen and living room? Stinky?
  • mnbv
    Free Member

    Hello,

    What’s with all the new build apartments having combined kitchens and living rooms? Doesn’t it make your living room reek of yesterday’s dinner?

    Imabigkidnow
    Free Member

    all that clatter from cooking/washing/espresso machine(darling) while you’re trying to watch telly:

    I don’t get it either.

    Our house is open plan staircase/dining/living but actually the kitchen is in a room all of it’s own

    EDIT I think in apartments it’s a bit of mind trickery; It makes it look like you have lots of space, when you don’t really, because even one slightly larger room, takes less space then two medium sized seperate rooms?

    2nd EDIT Why new build? .. look around for mid 60’s apartments if you can .. larger room formats, less fashionable i.e. no ‘period’ features .. marginally better value for money at least around where I live

    househusband
    Free Member

    A decent vented extractor makes a world of difference.

    oldnick
    Full Member

    As a handyman I get to see bits of people’s houses that most people don’t, and the thought of all that greasy steam making its way out of the kitchen – eeuw!

    So yes to the vented extractor but please people, change the bloomin’ filter so the thing can breathe.

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Rented a new flat for 6 months a while back which was open plan. Worst thing was the combo washer dryer that made a c##t of a racket.

    AD
    Full Member

    The house we built is open plan – no problem whatsoever with a decent extractor fan. But we did put the washing machine in the utility room.

    Open plan lay-outs are great for parties…

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Rented a house with this set up

    Never again.

    You cant escape the noise or the smell.

    AD
    Full Member

    Luckily my wife is a good cook (I’m not!) so the smell is lovely… 🙂

    alexpalacefan
    Full Member

    +1 for when you have guests, Means the cook doesn’t have to spend half the evening alone in another room.

    APF

    grantway
    Free Member

    Good use of quality air extraction, and all will be fine

    scottyjohn
    Free Member

    Our flat was like this, but it had a constant air extraction system which constantly ran silently in the background. It had a boost button which ramped it up for 10 minutes when needed. That and the dishwasher meant no smells really

    project
    Free Member

    What’s with all the new build apartments having combined kitchens and living rooms?

    Just imagine youre a builder of flats/houses, by incorporating the kitchen and living room in one room, youve saved a whole wall and door plus frame,per flat, you also opened up the interior space and possibly done away with a window,all cost savings for the builder.

    Problem is cooking smells travel, unless you use the vented to outside extractor of hood, and in case of a fire, its not going to be as easily contained, and will do more damage .

    noteeth
    Free Member

    My hypothetical open-plan flat will have a combined kitchen and living room and bike workshop.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    Not to mention that even with the best will in the world….you wont stop stinky sofa from cooking smells.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    I do find it very odd that most new builds i see come with diner living rooms…..

    Surely a diner kitchen makes much more sense,,,,,,

    chewkw
    Free Member

    mnbv – Member

    Hello,

    What’s with all the new build apartments having combined kitchens and living rooms? Doesn’t it make your living room reek of yesterday’s dinner?

    Yes, your living room will smell like kitchen.

    Open plan only work with kitchen and dinning room.

    Never kitchen with living room even in the far east where most houses are “open plan”. i.e. cheaper to build and cooler to let in breeze. No matter how poor those people are they will try to separate kitchen from the living unless they are really poor.

    😀

    Kahurangi
    Full Member

    Our current house has open plan kitchen-diner-living room.

    Our next house will too (with an upgrade to an internal access double garage).

    It’s 100% more sociable than having the kitchen in the opposite end of the house. When the GF and I are in the house together we might actually (shock horror) want to talk to spend time together, even when we are cooking, internetting, skyping or all 3 simultaneously.

    Cooking smells? Windows, extractor fans and air fresheners are all available to help remove you from the nasal horror that is your own cooking 🙂

    thecaptain
    Free Member

    Open plan means the cook isn’t hidden slaving away all day but can also enjoy the best bit of the house. We’ve lived in one for many years and are looking fur another when we move shortly.

    bob_summers
    Full Member

    If your cooking smells so bad you can’t live with its stench, maybe consider cookery classes. Open plan works for me, only objection has been to boiling wort for brewing (I like it though)

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    Door – glass (60s house, natch) – between our kitchen and sitting room, so we can open up or close to minimise noise/smells.

    Conservatory (off back of sitting room and kitchen) is going to be replaced with proper structure to create open kitchen/diner. Sitting room will remain separated by a door.

    ourmaninthenorth
    Full Member

    Of course, the alternative to cooking smells is either to eat out every night, or eat salad for every meal….

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    Sort of. But do you want your dinner guests to be faced with the evidence of your culinary disasters?

    chewkw
    Free Member

    Or not to fry dry salted fish or dry prawns or cook fermented fish or eat one of this … 😆

    p/s: the King of fruits will ‘kill’ you with it’s pungent smell alone … but the fruit is so so so delicious … hmmm … you have been warned.

    brakes
    Free Member

    the only issue is cooking sausages on max power in the frying pan.
    otherwise it really isn’t a problem for smells.
    plus I live in a long narrow ground floor flat so open plan makes it a lot lighter compared to having closed off rooms.

    piemonster
    Full Member

    If your cooking smells so bad you can’t live with its stench, maybe consider cookery classes. Open plan works for me, only objection has been to boiling wort for brewing (I like it though)

    Plus one, what on earth are you cooking that doesn’t smell good. Dog turd a la’orange?

    And FFS, do you dishes after eating you slobs.

    HTH

    tinybits
    Free Member

    No objection to it really, I like smell of cooking (as it’s always me that’s doing it! So I get to talk to the family while is happening.
    The new house has a separate living room, so I still get the kitchen diner, and I’ll be extending quite quickly after moving in as I want to have the very large (as per the rest of home improvement shows) living space centered around the kitchen, so that we can have fun in it as a family. If anyone objects to the cooking smells, well then they have to cook instead of me!

    dirtycrewdom
    Free Member

    +1 for integrated kitchen and lounge.

    The flat I have just moved out of had this, the kitchen had been knocked through so it was an open plan kitchen and lounge. It was a really nice kitchen, loads of space. I think it would have have been rather small, hot, and boxey otherwise. Also it was a lot more sociable for me and the wife. Whoever was cooking could still chat/watch tv/listen to music.

    My new house has a kitchen/diner. This is also really good, but it’s just not as sociable. I don’t really look forward to cooking any more as I’ll be in a separate room.

    [Edit – Didn’t find smells or grease a problem]

    Stoner
    Free Member

    Im going to disagree with all the grumpy-guts in here 🙂

    I love open plan. Yes you need decent ventilation and a little sympathy with how you are using space. It’s also probably necessary to have some quiet space elsewhere.

    Our kitchen/dining/TV area is one big 75′ x 15′ space – that’s the joy of building your own place from a barn.
    over-hob extraction for when frying, but also MHVR that gives us 1.5x air changes an hour throughout the house, replacing dirty warm air with clean warm air using a heat exchanger.


    Admittedly for us, TV isnt the centre of our evening routines and since I’m cooking for the boys it’s usually done for 6pm. Then the kitchen is all quiet.

    There is another 15′ x 15′ room at the end of the barn that the boys use to play in and Im planning on walling that off with a stud wall and some large glass doors so that they have a place to raise a riot without disturbing either me in the kitchen, or Mrs S in the office (again linked open plan)

    stever
    Free Member

    You could always combine dining room and bedroom like this place: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41719309.html

    thetallpaul
    Free Member

    ^ Jesus!!!! WTF were they thinking!

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Never was a problem for me when I had it. In fact when I had the opposite, kitchen downstairs through several doors and living room upstairs, I was forever burning the crap out of food because I’d forget I’d started it.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    its not the cooking thats the issue….

    its the aftermath thats the issue – smelling yesterdays curry the next day is never good.

    MVHR would work i guess but how many houses come with that

    qwerty
    Free Member

    HOW MUCH PURPLE!!!!!!! 😯

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