For the past several years, the open floor plan has been all the rage. Most modern homes have a large open space kitchen that extends into a dining area and even living room space. Just about everyone admires the open floor plan. It offers spacious seating, a good feeling of flow and plenty of room to mix and mingle.

However, for some homeowners, an open floor plan is not working as well as they thought or would like it to. They desire a bit more privacy or a feeling of separation between rooms. Sometimes when one room flows into another, it’s hard to tell where one room ends and another begins.

Some homeowners also prefer different themes for different rooms. A kitchen might be ultra-modern while a family room celebrates all that is antique and original. For this reason, an open floor plan may not work for everyone or every home.

What is a Broken Living Plan?

A broken living plan is a subtler way to create the space in your home to show up differently. There are quite a few ways to create this subtle way of breaking up rooms or at least giving them a little autonomy of their own.

Making good use of any corner will be a great place to start. If you have a corner of a room you’d like to set off from the rest of the open floor plan, you can create a mini-nook. By creating some shelving, installing benches and putting up a half wall, you can give the illusion that this is a sitting room all by itself.

Another great way to create the illusion of separation is to create a half wall in between rooms. If you want your dining room area to feel and look separate and apart from your kitchen space, a half wall is the perfect trick. You can also utilize the half wall to serve as an open window area to pass dishes and food from the kitchen to the dining room, thereby creating the illusion of another room.

A window in your living room with window seats underneath will also give the impression of a separate seating area. Interior windows are a fabulous way to create space for an office. By incorporating interior windows, you separate the space but still allow plenty of light to beam through the rest of the space.

Columns and, if you have the space, steps going up to another level, will also give you the look and feel of a broken floor plan. The steps leading up to or down into another level gives off the impression of another space entirely.

So, if living in an open floor plan is not your style any longer, why not consider those columns, steps, half-walls, built-in shelves or window seats? You never know, a broken floor plan might be the right fit for you. Talk to your home remodeler about it!

Photo credit: Peter Alfred Hess via Visualhunt / CC BY