Savills Portugal

Traditionally, houses were built and designed to ensure that each room was dedicated to a specific purpose and kept separate from each other.

However, these days open-plan living is often preferred by those who want their home to reflect a modern lifestyle, whether that means being able to keep an eye on children playing during mealtime preparation or simply being able to move seamlessly from one area to the next. Another advantage of an open-plan arrangement is that what were previously several small rooms can be brought together to create one large area or a more sociable environment.

So what makes good open-plan design?

The single most important consideration is that it's clear which part of an open space is for which purpose – dining, relaxing, working or cooking, for example – and it should be obvious where one space ends and another starts. This can be done through the placement of dining tables and chairs, sofas, coffee tables, wall art and joinery. One step further is to mix flooring, with, say, a hard floor in the kitchen and dining areas and inlays of carpet around the sofa and coffee table/TV chill out areas. This helps to create a physical divide.

It's also important to remember that if walls that have previously housed cupboards have been removed, there will need to be functional storage to prevent table tops and other surfaces ending up as dumping grounds. Equally, with more of us now working from home, it’s desirable to have an area for shutting away work equipment and paperwork after working hours.

Bear in mind, too, that the main reason some people still like a separate kitchen is so they can hide cooking mess and smells from other spaces in the home. In an open-plan space, the layout of the kitchen is key: effortless movement between the food prep surfaces, bin, fridge/freezer, sink and dishwasher will make it easier to be tidying and cooking at the same time, so no one has to look at a pile-up of dirty pots and dishes while they're eating. The same goes for lingering food smells while you're relaxing: good quality extraction from the cooking area will help here.

Whether a new-build, re-configuration of a period property or clever home zoning, here are six of the best properties for open-plan living.