Innovative home designs cater to those who want their living space to function faultlessly and be a stunning standout at the same time. In recent years, open concept home designs in particular have gained increasingly popularity with homeowners who love a more uncluttered, serene approach to the overall look and feel of their house.

Open concept means that an entire floor of a house can have a minimal number of distinct rooms to none at all, so that one living area simply extends into the next with a graceful, continuous flow. For most home designs in this category, well-placed furniture and area rugs can serve as the delineators that gently suggest sections with distinct purposes without the intrusion of solid construction.

Incorporating a very moderate split level effect into the open concept design is also a possibility, where a particular area is defined or set off by being several steps higher than the surrounding space, while avoiding abrupt obstructions.

Advantages of Open Concept Home Designs

• Open concept designs are advantageous for those who may want more space in the house, with greater expanses of uninterrupted floor space that would normally be eaten up by walls, doors and other architectural barriers.

• Having fewer rooms also allows homeowners to make great use of the space for parties and other events where a number of guests would normally be crowded into a tighter area. Guests can mingle throughout the dining, living room and kitchen areas, for example, which flow gracefully into one another without restrictive hallways and other narrow routes.

• Both interior sightlines and attractive vistas through large windows or floor to ceiling glass doors aren’t broken up unnecessarily, allowing an attractively landscaped garden or ocean view to essentially become part of the indoor experience.

• There is greater opportunity to let natural light enter the living space as a whole in the daytime, as well as to create warm yet dramatic effects after dark with strategically placed sunken pot lights, spots and floor lamps.

Do Open Concept Home Designs Have a Downside?

• This design concept isn’t ideal for everyone. With fewer wall surfaces, for example, those who want to adorn their walls with paintings and other two-dimensional artwork may have a harder time finding display space. Similarly, if you feel that furniture items such as couches and armchairs must be backed against a wall to look appropriate, it will be harder to see the opposite, when the furnishings themselves create soft boundaries.

• Those who like to incorporate several design themes into a house by decorating individual rooms with unique motifs will find open concept designs frustrating as the best décor approach is one that embraces a more unified style throughout.

• Others may feel an almost agoraphobic sensation in a home that doesn’t offer enclosed rooms for the comforting, cocoon-like effect they are used to. Sounds traveling from one area to another may also be a consideration.

Open Home Designs Let Space and Energy Flow

In skillfully conceived open concept home designs, one feels a sense of unity throughout the entire space, where openness is used to its full potential. Superfluous lines and clutter is banished and the architectural features of the house itself become more of a highlight than a background element.

Remember that an open concept design works best when all elements within it serve to underscore its benefits and not make it feel disjointed. Be open-minded, and go with the flow.

Doug Kerr is the owner of Kerr Construction in Vancouver. With over 25 years of experience in the renovation and new home construction business, he has developed the Kerr System for designing and building. With this Design/Build system he has helped hundreds of clients achieve their dream homes while also winning multiple national and provincial building and renovations awards. Being a former world-class athlete on the Canadian National Ski Team, he has the determination and work-ethic to achieve any goals set. He subscribes to core values which include helping people, honesty, growth and excellence. Using these values throughout Kerr Construction, he is able to deliver top-quality completed projects for the clients.

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