Open kitchen: regret or the ultimate experience?

We have already visited several famous castles and apartments, Schönbrunn, Sanssouci, Hofburg, Sigmund Freud's apartment in Berggasse in Vienna, and many more…. never was there an open kitchen anywhere. But every caravan has one….

According to this, closed kitchens would only be for people who don't want to see their kitchen staff (or, according to the role model from more than 50 years ago, their wife). ;)

I am very happy that I can work in the kitchen however I want, without disturbing others. And I am glad that I can enjoy my food afterwards without having to look at my chaos (unfortunately happens :oops:) in the kitchen.

I hate open kitchens. Really. I want to be able to work in a kitchen but please not have to look at fruit bowls, kettles, toasters, etc. from the sofa. The trend of hiding all these things for a hell of a lot of money until the kitchen matches the beige gray black lacquered TV wall sofa lounge combo—I'm dying of boredom over that. We have a 22 sqm eat-in kitchen and next to it a separate room as a living room. That way you don’t have to wipe kitchen fumes off the piano. And the dog bowl is far enough away and doesn’t have to fit into a design concept.

But have you ever had the experience with an open kitchen to the point that you hate it?

I totally agree, a dishwasher with a party program (20-30 min. per wash cycle) as well as two large sinks should solve the problem here. We do not regret it and cooking vapors and odors also quickly disappear through a 5-meter-wide patio door.

Can you explain why two large sinks? Or rather, where are they positioned? I have already wondered on Pinterest and similar platforms why two sinks are now frequently installed.

Have you ever had the experience with an open kitchen that made you hate it?

Yes, I have. In the last two apartments and the last two houses of my parents. The worst was the layout of the second to last apartment, where the open kitchen started immediately behind the short hallway, so you always looked into the kitchen first. At that time, our first child was still a baby, and everything was filled with baby stuff. You could always hear the dishwasher or the refrigerator. Right next to it was the dining table, and directly behind that was the couch area. It was loud and always looked chaotic. The kitchen-living situation afterwards was an L-shape, which was somewhat better; the kitchen was really cramped with a strange counter that was always just used as a storage space and, at that time with two small children, always loud and chaotic. And we were constantly searching for the magnetic opener for the child safety locks on the cabinet doors. My parents have a huge cooking-living floor in their current house (in Sweden) with a kitchen island you can dance around. That’s okay, especially when the whole family is there and about 20 people are crammed in. With just the two old folks and the dog, it’s a bit too spacious.

Because I sometimes do the dishes alongside cooking. Then there is washing up in one sink and, for example, vegetables are cleaned or pasta water is poured off in the other. Pure luxury. We simply tried to eliminate everything that bothered us about the old kitchen back then. I do not find the open kitchen noisy. The refrigerator is not audible at all, the dishwasher is surprisingly quiet, usually runs at night. Consider what bothers you about your kitchen. What would you like to have different. You and not someone here on the forum or Instagram. What are your living habits? Do the gentlemen often sit in front of the TV watching football while the ladies chat in the kitchen? Do you read a book in the living room while the other cooks? Have you never missed a second sink, do you not need one? Does your closed kitchen not bother you or do you find it so good, then leave it and plan a closed one again.