How working from home killed off open-plan living

Sledgehammers were once the weapon of choice for feng shui-chasing home renovators. Open-plan interiors were deemed Zen and walls perceived as the enemy of serenity. 

But the pandemic appears to have shifted the goalposts on what homeowners desire. Interior designers and architects say the open-plan doctrine is rapidly being abandoned, with owners reinstating walls, adding partitions and building extensions to create “single function” spaces sheltered from the distractions of daily life. 

What’s more, dividing up your property can give your house price a lift, research has suggested. Having a dedicated home office adds 4pc to the value of your home, according to insurer Direct Line’s analysis of UK property listings.

Hannah Bruce, an interior designer living in Manchester, has renovated her home to cater for the new-found demands of working from home.

A mother of two, Bruce says she struggled to concentrate while working in communal areas during Covid: “When you notice the dishwasher needs loading, or the washing needs folding, or the toys need tidying away, my husband and I found it hard to ignore those things and just focus on work.”

It was a need to section off spaces for relaxation, work and her children that convinced Hannah to include a separate living room, home office and playroom in her renovation plans. 

She says: “I enjoy a separate living room and especially a playroom to hide away those toys so they’re not all on show. Having a separate living room was really important to us. We spend time in this room in the evenings to relax, unwind and not think about everything I need to do. 

“I think if we were sitting within the kitchen and dining area, my mind would constantly be thinking of jobs to do, such as food shops, sweeping under the dining table, or laundry.”

Ben Lee, architectural director at Vita Architecture, believes that Covid-enforced cohabitation and the long-term adoption of working from home has driven a demand for private spaces.

Lee says: “Where we previously saw open plan as the go-to style, we’re now seeing a switch back to traditional room layouts, giving more privacy to home offices and separate living spaces.”

At the back of her Victorian house, Bruce has renovated the kitchen into an open-plan living space complete with dining area and snug. 

She says she values the multitasking afforded by an open-plan kitchen, where parents can carry out chores such as preparing food while keeping an eye on the children. 

Made possible by a steady stream of construction improvements in the 20th century, architects adopted open-plan layouts to deliver natural light and airy interiors. It fast became the norm to combine kitchen and dining rooms, designed for entertaining.

The downfall of a fully open-plan layout, according to Maia Lemlij, of XUL Architecture, is in the sensory overload caused by a lack of defined spaces, which can be exacerbated by family life. 

Lemlij says: “Having separate spaces means people can use the space that matches their needs at that time and the level of sensory stimulus.”

She says her own house suffered from this problem.

“We made the error ourselves of designing our house fully open plan 10 years ago when our daughter was two,” she says.

“Now we are having to build an outbuilding in the garden to create that separate quiet space.”

A need to focus and concentrate on work amid the chaos of family life also persuaded Bruce to create an upstairs home office.

She says: “You don’t have the children running in and out of the rooms, disturbing you. It also helps to organise your day. You go downstairs for a coffee and lunch, so it’s separate from your working environment, like being in a commercial office.”

Paula Higgins, chief executive of the Homeowners Association, believes the evolving needs of a family can inform floorplans. 

Higgins says: “An open-plan kitchen and living room can really work with a young family in order to keep a close eye on the kids, but when the kids start hitting their teens and want their own hangout space then separate rooms work well.”

With its clear separation of private and shared spaces, the traditional Victorian terraced house offers the antithesis to open-plan living. 

Millions were built to cope with a booming population driven by the Industrial Revolution, which fuelled migration to cities, and the classic terraced house was rolled out with practicality in mind. 

Christian Lock-Necrews, head of sales in Knight Frank’s Knightsbridge office, described the original proportions of Victorian terraces as a “solution-based design rather than one of huge creativity”.

He adds: “Victorian houses tend to be popular as they offer well-proportioned houses that were originally designed for families and still remain suited to modern families due to their layout, availability, affordability, and typical provision of a dedicated garden.”

Eamonn Agha, director at architecture and interior design services firm Huntsmore, has helped many families retain or return to more traditional floor plans. 

“In a lot of projects we find ourselves reinstating walls that have been previously removed to return these rooms back to their original proportions,” he says.

Agha is an advocate of building extensions on Victorian properties as a means of producing an open-plan area while keeping the traditional house layout intact. 

He says: “Designers can be sympathetic to the original house in terms of period features, proportion of rooms and flow, but complement this with a striking and modern extension.”

For a quicker and more affordable fix, designers recommend using room dividers, widely available from blind and shutter retailers, to create private spaces within the home. 

Yvonne Keal, of Hillarys, which sells dividers, is not surprised to see a move towards bespoke private spaces after the pandemic.

Keal said: “Along with adding visual interest to a modern room, window dressings make the perfect solution for dividing spaces into separate areas. 

“They have the added versatility of being great for privacy but can also be folded back neatly to reveal one larger room if needed.”