Our Historic Coastal Homes May Yet Beat Those Trendy Open Layouts

Our Historic Coastal Homes May Yet Beat Those Trendy Open Layouts

Quilted with historic grace, our Southern California coastal homes may again be preferred to the trendy open concepts. Knocking down walls has become the stylish way to create a first impression. Walk in and see straight through the home. Not sure if the Feng Shui works, though. Energy tends to go right out the back. Lofts and other urban dwellings tend to multiply the square footage of a completely open span with high ceilings, another way to create the sense of space and volume.

Sparked by a century of designs beginning in early 1900s with these types of inspirations, “open” is advertised as “great for entertaining.” But is it great? What impression does the creative messy kitchen have on dinner guests? Most of the open concept designs as seen on HGTV have only a big kitchen island separating the kitchen and dining table. Do you really want your guests sitting down to dinner on the other side of the kitchen island that is loaded with dirty pots and pans?

Charming Elegance of Coastal Homes

For the purposes of this article, we will not be comparing charming assets of bygone days with the clean lines of today. Rather, we seek to sing the praises of interior architecture in century-old homes – Manhattan Beach to Venice real estate and style to La Jolla. These unique Southern California properties have a smaller blueprint and smaller rooms.

Popular through the mid-1900s, historic homes have not usually been about big expanses. They usually have separate sitting rooms, formal living rooms, formal dining rooms, and separate kitchens. This open concept idea made its way into suburban homes. Open floor plans so a mother can see her children. Open so the cook can still be a part of the party. Today, many of those separation walls are being removed to “modernize” the layout. Younger generations may only know of the separate rooms through seeing older homes on movies and television.

But is “open concept” better? As we talked about exposing the cooking mess, we can also bring up the problem of sound. Noise levels can be annoying even with a couple of families with children an open area. The same is true with adults. Gone are the quieter, more intimate conversations.

Gone are the cozy nooks and crannies of yesteryear. Instead we have finished basements, extra family rooms, game rooms, and play rooms. That means more space, higher heating and air conditioning bills, too. Is that preferable to the smaller separate rooms for everyday living?

Open Concept Designs

A recent article (The Atlantic 05/17/18) entitled “The Curse of an Open Floor Plan,” Ian Bogost examines the topic at length. He starts by underscoring the kitchen folly. Some people solve the messy kitchen problem by saying they need two kitchens! One for messes. He explains the original open concept of Frank Lloyd Wright as portrayed in Ladies Home Journal magazine (circa 1901). Wright’s Prairie design was advertised to promote connectedness. But it also had a second kitchen upstairs for hired help.

Those modernist designs did spread through suburban California. Nonetheless, we still have many older homes in Malibu, Santa Monica, and Hermosa Beach that have kept their winsome ways. And buyers are willing to pay a pretty penny to own them.

Southern California Coastal Homes for Sale

For more information about elegant coastal homes in Southern California, please contact Bob Cumming, Keystone Group Properties, at (310) 496-8122.