Open-plan living has dominated interior design for years, but the completely open kitchen-dining-living space is beginning to feel less universally desirable. A more nuanced approach is emerging: the broken-plan room.
Rather than closing rooms off entirely, broken-plan interiors use partial walls, glazed screens, changes in floor level, joinery, curtains and furniture placement to create subtle divisions. The result is a home that feels connected without making every activity visible from every corner.
This is particularly useful in period properties, where completely removing walls can strip away some of the architectural character that made the building interesting in the first place.
A half-height wall, for example, can separate a kitchen from a dining area while still allowing light to travel between the two. Fluted or reeded glass can create visual privacy without blocking daylight, while built-in shelving can provide a physical boundary and useful storage at the same time.
There is also a practical reason for the shift. Open-plan rooms can be surprisingly demanding to live with. Cooking smells travel further, noise carries easily and the inevitable clutter of everyday life is always on display. A broken-plan arrangement offers a little more visual calm without returning to a house made up of completely separate rooms.
For interior designers, the interesting challenge is not simply deciding where to put a wall. It is about creating degrees of separation. A space might feel connected when viewed from one direction and distinctly separate when occupied from another.
This approach also allows different materials and colours to work within the same overall scheme. A kitchen might use harder, more practical finishes while a neighbouring reading area introduces softer textures, warmer timber and upholstered furniture.
The broken-plan room therefore sits somewhere between traditional compartmentalised interiors and the vast open spaces that became fashionable over the last couple of decades. It is less about following a trend and more about recognising that homes need different levels of privacy, activity and atmosphere throughout the day.
Featured image: AI generated.
