The Most Overrated Trend in Modern Home Design

Imagine a large, clean, and spacious open-concept kitchen, dining, and living that function as one, and you can feel the term spacious when you look at it. Open-concept homes in Toronto are still at their peak, and many people are still pursuing this trend when renovating or building a new home. But the question is, is it this trend good enough that we apply it to every project in Toronto?

We, at TADesigns Studios, have designed many residential projects in the past and would like to dive deeper into this most common trend.

What Is An Open Concept Home in Toronto?

An open concept floor plan can be described as an interior space with in wall partitions to separate rooms which have different functional purposes. The most common example we see can be kitchen, dining and living rooms. Additionally, this could be translated onto bedroom, office and closets, etc.

Open concept spaces meant:

• to function as one large unity

• to be air-filled and open

• each room should flaw seamlessly into the others

It has become very popular among Toronto projects and is still considered the reigning king of trends among the latest projects.

When Open Concept Plans Are Considered a Good Choice ?

1. It is a great solution for small, tight spaces where we want to maximize the available room without emphasizing loosing precious square footage and make it feel larger. It boosts natural light and improves the versatility of the room, meaning it can be used and repurposed down the road.

Like in our Trinity Bellwood's project, we had to work with very small square footage for the new house and make the best use of it for our dining, kitchen and living spaces loated on the second floor.

2. It is also a great design decision if you want to connect your interior with the outdooors and install panoramic sliding doors that can fully be removed, converting into one big space connected to the backyard. Furthermore,it is idealfor hosting and most of the time adds value to the propery.

   
   

Sounds perfect, doesn't it? With one little detail - it is not.

One Big Messy Space

open concept in a large home is a tricky decision, especially if homeoweners are busy people with chaotic schdule and no main. it would look like a big cluttered space throught and you can see it from every corner, and because it is open, the scale of clutter will make you feel twice as much.

An open concept does not equal good flow.

An open concept can become a massive space with unintentional furniture put here and there espeiclaly if not done by a proffesional. Not to mention the smell that comes from the kitchen and fills the whole floor.

Lack of Character

Because it is so overused, the house becomes blunt and cookie-cutter designed. It is also a more of a unique thing to see modern custom home with archways or portals or interesting materials applied to the walls that separate some rooms.

Some separation is required for privacy or feeling of grandness. A good example is the renovatons that was done to the famous Home Alone house -a belowed one and utterly famous. Yes,it was overly decorated to the modern standards, but had a soul, a uniques recognisable features. Now, after the reno, it is a home that you cannot recognize - plain and blank that you will forget it in a heartbeat.

The Staged Space is Not The Living Space.

In pictures, staged open space interiors look ideal but real life is different. It includes rushed mornings, real-life clutter and perfectness unless you are a perfectionist, thorough and thorough. It is hard to keep up with the staged pictures.

So, can we say that the open space concept is the most overrated trend? Yes and no. We should not chase the trends, and as we think of old interiors with separation and partitions as old design, and enclosures aren’t outdated. We need to build around people's real life and their habits, not just how the space would look on the listing.

So, understand it and consult with a designer in your specific case.