In our latest live Interior Design Clinic, we spoke about the benefits of open-plan living spaces for family-friendly BTL properties (and the potential down-sides too).

It should come as no surprise that Jade (home of The Dark Barn) is all-for beautiful open spaces, but it's perhaps not something that other property developers see as an 'achievable' or practical option when it comes to designing BTL projects for renting tenants – but we think it should be!

Open-plan living has SO many benefits for families, with children of all ages, who are looking to maximise their living space and avoid the standard boxy rooms of a new-build property.

Made oh-so popular by the likes of Pinterest and Instagram, and now a common staple of almost every town-house property renovation, open-plan living is an interior and architecture trend that is definitely here to stay!

Whether it be the full ground-floor, open-plan space, or a large kitchen-come-diner area, families are gravitating towards these more airy and multi-functional rooms now more than ever before – and as property developers who create homes for growing families, we think it would be a wise idea to jump aboard the interior band-wagon with this one as well!

The Benefits of Open-Plan Living

1. Keep an eye on the children

For those who have young children (looking at your parents of toddlers), you'll know how stressful it is to cook a family meal whilst simultaneously keeping check on your mischievous little ones causing havoc in the room next-door – ten minutes with your eye off-the-ball and who knows what mysterious liquids you'll have strewn about your walls, carpets, and sofas!

Being able to combine play, living, and dining rooms in order to create one large safe space for parents to overlook what their kids are up to, is surely every parents dream?

2. A sought-after style

Homes with open-plan layouts are in high-demand in the property market, let alone in the rental market where modern and family-friendly properties like these are few-and-far between.

If you want to attract a large volume of high-quality tenants that will respect your property and be happy to pay those higher rates, there is no doubt that designing your space in this way will help you achieve that.

Investing in your property and thinking carefully about; how the room will be used, how to maximise space, who it will be used by, and how you can stand out in a saturated rental market of small, dark, and lifeless BTLs, will help you in attracting potential tenants now and in securing your properties value and sell-ability in the future.

3. Promotes a family-friendly lifestyle

Going back to the first point, open-plan living allows the family to live and be in the same space, doing many different things all at the same time – catching up on emails, doing homework, relaxing with a book, cooking, playing with friends, chatting on the sofa, you name it! If your space is designed intentionally, you can ensure that the room is zoned perfectly for those busy families who want to spend time together.

Not only does this multi-functional space help on a day-to-day basis, but it also works well on those special occasions where hosting and parenting need to be carefully balanced.

4. Hosting made easy

Life should be enjoyed, and a home should be designed to entertain guests! Although it may not be their own home, your tenants should feel proud of the property they rent and they should want to show it off – it's your job to create a space that allows them to do that.

Even with just an open-plan kitchen-diner layout, you would create so much more room and space for your tenants to host friends and family, extending and merging those dining and living spaces.

5. Potential to explore indoor-outdoor living

Dependant on your projects budget, open-plan spaces have the biggest impact when connected to a garden or outdoor area, expanding outside to really maximise on space, light, and liveability.

Bi-folds or wide opening doors that open onto a patio area or balcony will most definitely give your property the wow-factor and make any family feel extremely lucky to reside in your house – where they are able to overlook their children playing outside whilst relaxing on the sofa or cooking a meal.

5. Maximising light and space

Internal walls and boxy rooms just work to darken and sadden a home, making decorating and dressing more of a challenge too. Opening up a space, removing those light-blocking internal walls, and adding things like skylights will all work to flood the space with light and make it feel so much more airy and inviting – giving you free reign to install show-stopping fittings and furniture like kitchen islands, feature lighting, comfortable dining tables, larger corner sofas and so much more!

The Downsides of Open-Plan Living

1. Visible mess

Whilst there's no arguing that open-plan living is great for families, one thing that might not be enjoyable for those with kids (toddlers or teenagers) is the mess that might come with it.

Where you might be able to close the door and quietly back away from the sky-high pile of dishes in the sink to enjoy a relaxing night in front of the TV, you won't be able to avoid it if your living room IS your kitchen. This might really put off those tenants who can't relax in a messy room, and who get overwhelmed easily with tidying.

2. Living in each others space

Some families like being in each others space, but understandably some just don't! If you want to use your living space as a home-working office, or you have teenagers who like to play video games whilst you're trying to do homework with your youngest, an open-plan space may be an impractical and chaotic option.

With no internal walls to act as sound-barriers, and with everything at visible eye-level, it may be hard for some families to see past the disruption it will have on their lives. As property developers, it's our job to think about these types of scenarios and how we can offer alternative practical solutions to balance a tenants needs (such as a dedicated office space out of the way, clever zoning of entertaining/relaxing areas, noise reduction techniques like rugs and fabrics, and so on)

3. Smells from the kitchen

One of the main things people with open-plan layouts tend to say when speaking about the downsides of open-plan living is surprisingly the lingering of smells from the kitchen - fats, grease, bins, all the fun things! There's no barriers to protect those stinky smells getting onto the furniture and fabrics in the room, so it's definitely something to think about and try and future-proof if possible – like moving living spaces furthest away from kitchen appliances etc.

4. Larger space to heat

When you make a room bigger, it is of course going to cost a little more to heat it and take a little longer to warm it up. With rising bills, it's worth looking at; what impact this will have compared to heating traditionally smaller rooms, what you can put in place to protect you when winter rolls around, and how you can work with your tenants to reduce those big bills.

What do you think? Have you gone open-plan with your buy-to-lets? ✌🏻⚡️

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