I go back and forth about the open kitchen. When D was little it was a must have. Our last house opened to a huge family room and was very conducive to informal entertaining.
Current century home is more compartmentalized and lends itself more to formal entertaining. Many neighbors have put family room additions on the back of their houses to allow for open concept. IMO it feels weird and takes away from the character of the old houses.
We may feel differently some day when we have grandchildren but for now Iām liking the more dedicated spaces. The previous owners used the dining room, which is right off the kitchen, as a family room and had their dining table in the living room ( which is amply sized to accommodate both). We could always do that at some point.
We have most of our original leaded glass windows - diamond paned soldered muntins. :).
We recently had to put down both our 13.5 year old dog and 18 year old cat. The last months were very heartbreaking, and quite frankly, very challenging for both pets and us. One day after losing the last one, I mentioned to DH that I could smell pee every time I sat on the sofa (we had two sofas, perpendicular to each other). The very next day, I got home from doing errands and both sofas were gone! I call DH āMr. Cleanā-he just wasnāt having it.
We were about to list our house for sale, so I had to rush out and find something new before we had photos taken. We selected a pretty sectional-looked fine in the big furniture store. But when they delivered it, the scale was so big that it was comical. We have a big house and probably 10 foot ceilings in that room, but it was so huge that after a few minutes of horror, we just started laughing hysterically.
Long story short, we had to send them back, rent some sofas for the photo shoot, and wait a month for new more appropriately sized furniture, which looks quite nice in the space. Yeah, couches can be very large!
Modern sofas are currently āinā here, so Iām surprised at the difficulty of finding smaller ones. The modern ones tend to be low seats, and low backs, though. Not nearly as comfortable IMHO.
Love our kitchen location. 1950ās home, and separate from the living room. However it has a large cased opening to a small dining area of the living room. The opening has double swinging louvered doors. We keep them open 95% of the time, and allows guests to flow in and out of the kitchen. But if I serve a meal, and want to hide the mess, I simply close the doors. Best of both worlds.
I had to google āMuntinsā too! I like open kitchens and stainless steel appliances. My appliances donāt seem to smudge, although we are empty-nesters, so the āsmudgersā are gone. My husband is the cook and keeps the kitchen very clean, so that isnāt a problem here.
My SS appliances do show smudges and fingerprints, but I am not offended by them, instead I try to remind myself that even if I could not see all that on a white or black frig, there would still be as much gunk there, lurking, dirty and icky, and invisible. Ewwww
Itās been interesting to read about folkās connections to their current thoughts.
I was raised with a Hoarder - both mom and dad when they were together and living with Dad after their divorce when I was 11 (I lived with him). My mom was ātypicalā family neither super clean nor super dirty post divorce.
MIL was an extreme cleaner, so H was raised that way. Now that sheās gone FIL is far more typical.
H did home inspections for a few years in his early self-employed days and assures me my mom/his dad are typical, though of course, my dad and his mom werenāt the only ones in their categories.
Now I canāt stand Hoarder houses, but I also canāt stand super clean places. Both have me wanting to leave as soon as possible. The Hoarder place makes me feel like I want to get a dumpster and start pitching things. The super clean places make me afraid to touch or set down anything.
I like my places with a lived in feel. Fortunately my kidsā friends have said the same (to my guys) when Iāve been worried that our house isnāt āclean enough for company.ā There are messes in places, dust bunnies in corners, and crumbs here and there, but you certainly donāt need to stay on the path to navigate semi-safely nor clean things off chairs to sit down in them.
I guess itās a happy medium. For me and my family itās happy anyway. MIL never thought it was clean enough and if my dad had visited Iām sure heād have started sending us more stuff to fill in all the gaps.
I definitely donāt like stainless - it makes me think of restaurants and institutions - but Iām not fond of white either. Black is so-so. Thatās probably why I loved almond, but since those are impossible to find anymore - even on special order - Iām likely in the minority there. We currently have almond, black, and stainless in my kitchen. The almond is what I bought back in the day (fridge). The black is what Iāve had to buy recently (dishwasher, stovetop) and a microwave that only had black/white choices when we got it. The stainless (just the oven) goes back to when the house was built I think. Itās definitely old, but it still works so hasnāt been replaced. Our washer and dryer are white, but both were bought used and they live in our basement so who cares?
I suppose not having anything match makes us weird? Thatās ok. Normal is overrated.
We really love our open kitchen, We built the house i 1993, picked the floorplan. But it is open to the family room (which is 2 story, open to upstairs hall), not the living room. The kitchen does have an open doorway to dining room / living room combo, which has worked well for us.
So we do have a high tolerance for seeing messy things. We have a laundry closet, which I love, on 2nd floor big open hallway. Sometimes weāll hang almost dry items on the railing. After reading above posts, Iām afraid to measure size of our 30 year old W/D vs current offerings.
Co Mom, I couldnāt resist and measured. Mine are 36h, so could cover some of window, but W is 29ā. There Are a few inches to spare, where I keep a step stool, but It would be tight if possible
Cannot warm up to enclosed rooms other than bedrooms. Love the open concept. H cooks dinner and likes to watch the monitor in the living room or socialize with family or guests. And the dining room which opens to the kitchen, we use everyday because it is close and has a great view.
Did just replace the washer/ dryer in the hall closet. I found LGās that fit from Home Depot. I am quite short. I did not get the bottom drawer options or stand.
Iām not really liking my C-19 quarantine house. Family room is now Hās office. Living room has a spin bike where the lovely transition from DR to LR used to be. But weāre not entertaining inside these days and Iām happy weāre not tripping over each other. I just donāt want it to be permanent.
Almost all our kitchen appliances have panel fronts that match our walnut cabinetry. I like the look, but when well meaning guests (back when we had guests) tried to help clean up Iād hear, āI give up. Whereās your dishwasher? Whereās the trash?ā
Weāre fond of the light colors - light brown, blue, and green mostly. There have been pink and grey in the past so a few still exist, but rarely get used. Our towels donāt really go with our bathroom that is pink and black (was that way when we bought the place), but Iāve already admitted weāre ok with mismatched things.
I have light grey bathroom walls so I can have a variety of towel colors! I always buy towels in pairs. Right now I have pairs of blue printed, green geometric, white with a small ribbon of multi colored trim.
My towels are white which is fine, but I cannot seem to keep white washcloths white. Kitchen towels are red, powder room towels are black. I have a huge collection of colorful beach towels, which my mother used everywhere for the guest bathroom and/or the beach. (One powder room has original gray and black tiles with a maroon sink, the other bathroom has black and white tiles.)
@aMacMom - LOLā¦ our garbage can is out in the open (at the end of the cabinets, near kitchen table), and guests sometimes rummage through my cabinets asking where the garbage can is.
I actually sometimes like to use beach towels for regular towels. I do not like big thick fluffy bathroom towels - I prefer a thinner ācoarseā absorbent towel. Plus I love some of the fun colors/prints of beach towels! (not using a beach towel with giant flamingos or palm trees on it or anything in the bathroom!!)
Our master bath has white bead board wainscoting (probably āoutā now but I like it) and white walls so any color towel will go. RIght now we have a light blue.
Our powder room has sage green towels to go with the khaki walls and kind of British tropical decor.
My aunt is pretty short, and she actually has tongs to reach into her washing machine.
We have stainless appliances, except our ridiculously expensive built in counter depth fridge which has off white/ivory panels to make it match the cabinets. I would love to replace the fridge, but to get something similar is between 8 - 10K. I donāt hate it that much. BUT, when it goes I will get a stainless fridge and then paint the cabinets a different color - probably white.
Our towels are mostly shades of blue and white, but I have some dark gray ones also. I did a towel redo a couple years ago and got rid of many/most of our old towel. I wound up with a fair number of Hotel Collection from Macyās. They seem pretty absorbent to us, and they are medium thickness.
We have a colonial house with a brick front, and our windows had fake muntins (sp?) in them. Several had broken over the years, and when we had our entire house painted this spring I took them all out. Trouble is, the house looks better with them in. Once I can go shopping I have to try and find some better ones than what we had.
Are these fake muntins you all speak about something on the glass surface of the window? We have newer windows with muntins but the glass is smooth - the muntins are inside the glass.
Mutins that are inside the glass or painted on make no sense. Real muntins are a structural framing element to hold individual panes of window glass. Without individual panes of glass to support/frame, they make no sense and become simply a fake decorative element.
