Open concept layouts are ruining houses not fixing them

I'm ripping out a wall right now for a job in Portland and the homeowner begged me to keep the kitchen separated. She said they had open concept before and hated it because every smell, every sound, every mess was visible from the couch. Plus you lose so much wall space for cabinets. People act like knocking down walls is the only way to modernize but honestly I see so many clients regretting it after a year. Why does everyone think you have to blow out every interior wall to have a nice house?

2 comments

2 Comments

jackson.wesley3d ago

Yeah our whole society is obsessed with tearing stuff down instead of just living with it.

josephb353d ago

Wait, have you seen what people do with old furniture on those Facebook marketplace groups? It's wild to me how everyone's first instinct is to toss it or repurpose it into something totally different. I helped my neighbor move a solid oak table last week, and their kid was already talking about cutting it down to make a bench. Like, why can't we just have a table that's a table and be happy with it? Same thing with houses I see in my neighborhood - someone buys a perfectly fine house and immediately starts ripping out walls to make an open floor plan. Not everything needs to be torn apart and remade into something trendier.