We LOVE our Great Rooms!
It seems that we LOVE our great rooms!! The trend in the last 10-15 years has been shifting away from our small compartmental rooms to our large, open and spacious GREAT ROOMS. Growing up in a family that moved often, I remember quite a few of those homes. We lived in 2 bungalows that had very small sized rooms that were all separated by walls, sometimes French doors or regular solid doors. My parents built what was very popular at the time, a Tri-level home.
This style of home allowed you to move the bedrooms on an upper level, our case on top of the garage. I remember our home had a formal living room and dining room, separated from the rest of the home. This was where my parents only allowed family dinners to happen for special occasions, Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and I am proud to say that the plastic on the sofa and dining chairs never came off once!! Not making fun but we were and still are VERY Italian!! Both rooms were large but they still created havoc with a large family. We usually had to extend our tables from dining room into the living room area in order for all of us to sit and eat together ( t.v. trays were taboo in our home)!!
I understand now why today’s trends have shifted to large open concept areas that we call great rooms. Whether you live in a condo, a bungalow, or a multi level home, today’s consumers are still demanding large great rooms. It would be wise for you to consider having a large open concept area, when purchasing your next home or renovating your existing home, upon selling you would ensure to receive the best return on your money.
Gone are the days where the cook is stuck in the kitchen leaving everyone else to enjoy themselves in another part of the home. In today’s life style the main hub of the home is the kitchen. Most great rooms having shed their walls for separation, usually offer very high ceilings creating a large open bright space. Great rooms are a great way of consolidating the kitchen, living room and dining room.
They might offer an island for seating, a living area with love seat, sofa and or chairs, and sometimes if you are lucky enough to have a fairly large home they boast all of these areas.
It can be tricky to place furniture in a great room that has no walls to separate the areas, here are some tips;
- Place the correct number and scale of stools at your island. Small island no more than 2, large island 3-5 or more
- Stools need enough space behind and on either side of them to allow comfort and to be able to slide back and forward
- If an island is not possible, having a peninsula is a great way to separate the kitchen from other areas still leaving it fairly open
- Using your furniture(not your walls) to create groupings of seating areas, area rugs are a great way of separating space in a large room
- When using a love seat or sofa to separate your area, use a sofa table behind the furniture to help define the transition
- The function of the area you are creating should be clear and do not place to much furniture, the idea is to have an open concept. Over crowding the room will make the space appear smaller