Open-plan living has shaped London kitchens for the best part of two decades. Knock through, extend into the side return, put in bifolds, and the kitchen becomes the room everything else happens in. It works, and for many households it works very well.
Broken-plan is the quieter alternative that has gained ground in recent years. The space is still connected, but it is divided by something: a half wall, a change in floor level, a run of joinery, a wide opening rather than no opening at all. Deciding between the two is less about style than most people expect. It usually comes down to extraction, noise, heating and what the structure will allow.
What Broken-Plan Actually Means
The term covers any arrangement where the kitchen, dining and living areas share a space but remain partly separated.
That separation can be structural, such as a retained section of wall, a wide cased opening or a step between levels. It can be built in, such as a tall run of cabinetry, a double-sided unit or a glazed internal screen. It can be as simple as a peninsula that marks where the kitchen ends.
The intention is to keep the light and the sociability of an open-plan room while giving the cooking area a boundary. You can see from one space into the other, but the kitchen is not sitting in the middle of the sitting room.
Extraction Matters More Than People Expect
This is the single most common regret we hear about open-plan kitchens.
In a separate kitchen, a modest extractor and a closed door deal with most cooking smells. In an open-plan room, there is nothing to contain them. Fry fish on a Tuesday and the sofa still knows about it on Wednesday. Soft furnishings hold the smell, and in a room with a high ceiling or a glazed roof the air volume is considerably larger than people assume.
The answer is to specify extraction properly at design stage rather than treating it as an appliance chosen at the end. That usually means a higher extraction rate than a comparable closed kitchen would need, ducting to the outside by the shortest sensible route rather than recirculating, and positioning the hob so the ducting run is short. Recirculating units have their place where ducting genuinely cannot be run, but they filter rather than remove, and in an open-plan room the difference is noticeable.
Broken-plan is more forgiving here, because even a partial division slows the spread of cooking smells considerably.
Noise Travels Further Than You Think
Large open rooms tend to have hard surfaces. Tiled or timber floors, glazed walls, plaster ceilings and stone worktops all reflect sound rather than absorb it.
The result is that ordinary kitchen noise becomes intrusive. A dishwasher on its cycle is perfectly tolerable behind a door and surprisingly loud when the family is watching television fifteen feet away. The same applies to extractors, which are often run at a higher setting in open-plan rooms, and to the general clatter of cooking while somebody is trying to work or read.
There are design answers. Quieter appliances are worth paying for, particularly dishwashers rated at around 40dB or below. Soft furnishings, rugs and acoustic plaster all help. But a partial division helps most, which is one of the reasons broken-plan suits households where several people use the space for different things at the same time.
The Washing Up Is Always in Shot
An open-plan kitchen is visible from everywhere in the room. That is the point of it, and it is also its main drawback.
Whatever is on the worktop stays in your sightline while you are sitting down. For some households that is no problem at all. For others it might undermine the room, because the kitchen never gets to look finished.
Designing around it is straightforward if it is considered early. A raised section of worktop on an island screens the working side from the seating side. Positioning the sink and hob on a wall run rather than on the island keeps the mess away from the sightline. Generous, well-planned storage means less sits out permanently. In broken-plan layouts, the division does much of this work on its own.
Structure, Regulations and Cost
Full open-plan usually means removing a load-bearing wall, and that is where the cost and programme difference between the two approaches shows up.
Removing a structural wall typically requires a steel beam sized by a structural engineer, building control approval, and in a terraced or semi-detached property sometimes a party wall agreement with your neighbours. None of this is unusual and none of it should put you off, but it adds weeks to a programme and a meaningful sum to a budget, and it has to be planned well in advance of any kitchen being ordered.
Broken-plan frequently achieves most of the benefit for less. Retaining a section of wall as a structural pier, or forming a wide opening rather than removing the wall entirely, can reduce the steelwork required. It is worth asking the question before assuming the whole wall has to go.
Heating a Large Connected Space
A kitchen that has been opened into a dining and living area, often with a large area of glazing, behaves differently to the rooms it replaced.
Heat rises and disperses, bifold and sliding doors lose more heat than a solid wall, and radiators become difficult to position when most of the wall space is occupied by units or glass. Underfloor heating is frequently the right answer, because it heats the whole floor area evenly and takes up no wall space, but it needs to be decided at design stage. Retrofitting it later means lifting a finished floor.
In a broken-plan layout the zones can be heated separately, which gives more control and is usually cheaper to run.
Which One Suits Your Home
Open-plan tends to suit households with young children, where being able to see the whole space matters, and homes where the garden is a major feature and the connection to it is the point of the project.
Broken-plan tends to suit households where people use the space for different things at the same time, anyone who cooks often or cooks strongly flavoured food, and period properties where removing every wall would strip out the character that made the house appealing.
Neither is more fashionable than the other at this point. The useful question is not which looks better in photographs but how your household actually uses the room on an ordinary evening.
If you are at the earlier stage of working out what your kitchen needs to do, our article on the questions to ask before beginning a kitchen renovation is a good place to start.
Plan It Properly From the Start
Extraction, acoustics, heating and structure all need resolving before a single unit is ordered, and all four are considerably harder to change afterwards. Our designers work through them alongside the layout, our surveyor notes any structural and access restrictions before design begins, and our in-house team carries out the installation as part of a fully project managed service with a fully inclusive quotation.
If you are weighing up open-plan against broken-plan, book a free design consultation at one of our London showrooms in St John’s Wood, Chiswick or Blackheath and we will talk through what will work in your home.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a broken-plan kitchen?
A broken-plan kitchen shares a space with dining and living areas but keeps some separation, using a half wall, a change in level, a glazed screen or a run of joinery. It retains the light and sociability of open-plan while giving the cooking area a boundary.
Is open-plan going out of fashion?
Not exactly, though broken-plan has become considerably more popular as people have lived with fully open spaces and found the noise and cooking smells harder to manage than expected. Both approaches remain common and the right choice depends on the household rather than on trend.
How do I stop cooking smells spreading in an open-plan kitchen?
Specify extraction properly at design stage rather than choosing an appliance at the end. Allow a higher extraction rate than a closed kitchen would need, duct to the outside rather than recirculating where possible, and keep the ducting run short by positioning the hob carefully.
Do I need building regulations approval to knock through to make an open-plan kitchen?
If the wall is load bearing, yes. A structural engineer will size the beam and building control approval is required. In a terraced or semi-detached property you may also need a party wall agreement with your neighbours, so it is worth establishing this early.
How do you zone an open-plan kitchen without building walls?
Islands and peninsulas mark boundaries effectively, as do changes in flooring, a raised worktop section, pendant lighting over specific zones and tall runs of cabinetry. Broken-plan simply formalises what good zoning already does.
Is a broken-plan kitchen cheaper than open-plan?
Often, though it depends on the property. Retaining a section of wall or forming a wide opening rather than removing the wall entirely can reduce the steelwork required, which affects both cost and programme. It is worth asking before assuming the whole wall needs to come out.
