The benefits of open plan living
Acreage living is fantastic enough, but it gets even better when you work with builders who understand great open plan house designs. Here are a few of the benefits.
Make use of natural light
Another great reason to choose open plan acreage house plans is to make use of the glorious natural light on offer. Obviously, you’ll need to consult your builder about ensuring you have large north-facing windows to take advantage of the morning sun. Sliding glass doors leading to an outdoor area is another way to get plenty of natural light.
By building your home with the main living areas facing north, you’ll get more sun that can warm your entire house. You can even consider skylights in the hallway or other parts of the home. Not only is natural light much better for those who work from home, but it also helps to keep energy bills down, as you’ll use your lights and heater less often.
Potential for energy savings
There is a misconception that because open plan home designs provide larger living areas, that they must be more expensive to heat and cool. Well, like anything, it depends on how you approach it. If you build an acreage home, you’re likely going to consider solar energy, which can save you a fortune in energy bills. But even if not, open plan living can actually make it cheaper to heat and cool your home.
Firstly, as mentioned above, the abundance of natural light helps to keep your home warm, even in summer. Windows can be opened at the right time of day to let a cool breeze through the house, and because you’ve gone for an open plan home, the breeze and natural light have more effect.
Secondly, by opening up the main living areas of the home, you can essentially close off the rest of the house and only cool the places you spend most of your time. Therefore, your air conditioner doesn’t need to work as hard to cool your home.
More spacious
Perhaps the most obvious benefit to open plan acreage house plans is the fact that your living areas will be more spacious. For example, you may choose to combine the kitchen, dining and living rooms with no walls separating them. This means you’ve got so much space to decorate how you want. Plus, if you have a young family, the kids will love having more room to play and you can even keep an eye on them more easily.
Indoor to outdoor flow
Many people talk about the general ‘flow’ of a house, which essentially means how easily you can move through it. A huge benefit to open plan living becomes clear if you also have a beautiful alfresco dining area.
If your house plans feature access to the outdoor dining area from your internal dining room, kitchen and lounge area, people can move easily to and from. It even feels like the indoor and outdoor spaces are all combined.
