interior design


“YOU CAN USE GLAZED PARTITIONS


PROVIDING A VISUAL LINK TO OTHER ROOMS - OR CURTAINS.”


that fold back, or sliding doors that you can have open during the day or when you have people round. You can use glazed partitions - providing a visual link to other rooms - or curtains that you can pull across to create more intimate spaces.” You’re looking to create three distinct spaces which are separate without being disconnected - retaining a sense of fluid flexibility without messily merging them into one. Consider the potential of waist or shoulder-high partitions, or doorway-like arches that clearly demarcate your space. Link rooms together with design aspects like colour and material. “Different colours can look nicely contemporary, but can also look quite


stark,” says Bettes. “You can’t have one red room, one blue room.” Sharing wall colour avoids any undesired clashes, while laying down universal flooring links rooms together with one foundational surface. For most people, open plan is a choice - new builds, redevelopments, moving homes etc - but be aware that it may not be so simple if you live in, for example, a Victorian town house. You can start knocking down the walls, but, even with the right planning permissions, it gets very pricey, very fast.


THE NEW NORMAL OR A PASSING TREND? Some architects have argued that open plan living might have already peaked, and that in the coming years more conventional floor plans will once again prevail. “Five years ago, everyone wanted to be open plan,” says Bettes, “but there’s just a feeling it might go back the other way. “A key driver is iPads and other devices - traditionally families gather around TV screens, but now people are finding smaller pockets of space to watch things individually.” Whether or not these predictions pan out, the open plan revolution has changed the new generation - at least in urban areas. A recent survey on home preferences by L&Q development Te Gateway, found that only 14% of London’s millennials would consider a separate dining room a priority. We may yet head back to separate rooms, but who’s to say they’ll be the same ones.


PROPERTYMAIL / 7


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