For most of the last two decades, the open plan kitchen was the default. Knock down the wall, open up the living space, connect the kitchen to the dining and lounge areas, and enjoy the sense of flow and light that came with it. It became so standard that a closed kitchen started to feel dated.
But something has shifted. More Sydney homeowners are pushing back on the open plan ideal – and more are actively choosing to partially or fully separate their kitchen from the rest of the home. Here is what is actually driving that shift, and how to think through which approach works best for your household.
Why Open Plan Became the Default
The appeal of the open plan kitchen is real and well-founded. Removing walls between the kitchen, dining area, and living room creates a sense of space that feels generous even in a smaller home. It allows natural light to travel further into the floor plan. It lets parents keep an eye on children while cooking. It makes entertaining feel natural – hosts are no longer separated from guests.
In the Sydney market, open plan layouts also became associated with modern renovation aesthetics, and buyers and renters responded positively. For years, opening up the kitchen was considered an almost-guaranteed way to add value.
What Has Changed
A few things have converged to make homeowners reassess. Working from home became normal for many Sydney households after 2020, and with it came a new awareness of noise, smell, and visual clutter. An open plan kitchen that looks beautiful in a magazine photograph can be a challenging environment when someone is on a video call in the living room while another household member is cooking.
There is also a growing recognition that open plan kitchens require constant tidiness. In a closed kitchen, the mess of cooking is contained and out of sight. In an open plan home, a pile of dishes visible from the couch – or the smell of last night’s dinner still drifting through the lounge – can make the space feel less comfortable than it looks.
Energy efficiency has become a consideration too. Open plan spaces are harder to heat and cool efficiently, which matters as energy costs have risen.
What Sydney Homeowners Are Actually Choosing in 2026
The short answer: neither extreme. The most popular approach in current Sydney renovations is a hybrid – a kitchen that feels connected to the main living areas but retains some level of separation.
This takes several forms. Partial walls with a servery opening or a pass-through window give the best of both worlds. Sliding or folding cavity doors allow the kitchen to be fully opened during entertaining but closed off during everyday use. Elevated benchtops that act as a visual screen without fully separating the spaces are a common design choice.
Kitchen sculleries – a secondary prep and storage space behind the main kitchen – have also surged in popularity precisely because they allow the main kitchen to be kept presentable while the actual work happens out of sight.
When a Fully Open Plan Works Well
Open plan kitchens continue to make strong sense in specific circumstances. If your home is compact and the floor area makes a closed kitchen feel cramped, open plan creates necessary breathing room. If you have young children and supervision during cooking is genuinely important to you, the visibility an open plan provides has real practical value. And if your lifestyle genuinely centres on entertaining, the connection between kitchen and living areas is hard to replicate with doors and walls.
When a Closed or Semi-Closed Kitchen Works Better
A more separated kitchen suits households where at least one person works from home regularly, where cooking styles produce strong smells or smoke, where household members keep different schedules, or where the priority is that living spaces feel calm and uncluttered regardless of what is happening in the kitchen.
It is also worth considering resale. The market for closed kitchens is narrower than it was five years ago, but it is not non-existent – and a well-executed hybrid design is broadly appealing.
The Renovation Implication
If you are renovating an existing home with a closed kitchen and want to open it up, the key questions are whether the dividing wall is structural and what services (plumbing, electrical) run through it. A structural wall can still be opened with the right engineering, but it adds cost and complexity.
Equally, if you want to create separation in an existing open plan home, there are solutions ranging from full wall construction to cavity sliding doors to kitchen joinery designed to act as a partial screen.
Let Novalé Help You Get the Layout Right
The kitchen layout decision is one of the most consequential choices in any renovation – and it is one where getting an experienced perspective early can save you from costly changes later. Novalé works with Sydney homeowners to design kitchens that suit the way their households actually live.
Get in touch with the Novalé team on 1800 NOVALÉ to start planning your dream renovation with confidence.
