Open Floor Plans

I love open floor plans!  I like how the spaces all flow together and I really like the airy, not-closed-in feeling (no, no claustrophobia here).  And I really like open floor plans with lots of windows.

There is, however, a drawback to open floor plans that I never thought of while I was in college and poring enviously over pictures in interior design classes...

We had the opportunity a few years ago to upgrade our old, falling apart single-wide mobile home (we bought the property for the view--not the house) to a slightly newer less falling apart double-wide.  It was not perfect, but it would work better.  The newer home has essentially an open floor plan.  The living room and dining room and kitchen are pretty much all open to each other and a large opening in the entry opens the living room to the family room.  Or as we use it--computer room.  And here is where the drawback comes in.  Our master bedroom opens off the living room.

I don't like to have my doors closed, if at all possible, so my bedroom either has to be spotless (insert hysterical laughter) or everyone can see that we pretty much live like pigs.  And where did that pile of dog hair come from?  I JUST swept!

The major drawback however, is that there is no place one can go to be undisturbed or to not disturb someone else.  So if I can't sleep and would like to go read a good book, I have nowhere to go where light won't bother my husband.  I haven't tried to go into the studio and close the door.  The bedroom where the dogs sleep has huge holes in the door (thanks to my curious sons--yes, you really can punch a hole in the door with your fist) and they can see out, so I would have to be really sneaky in order to get in the studio and close the door.  I can't close the bedroom door because then we have dogs on either side of the door that really want to be somewhere else.

I used to sneak out when my studio was off the garage, but even that wasn't ideal because the dogs would sit on the bed and look through the window and cry.  Yeah, the dogs pretty much rule the house...

I am going to give some thought to providing a space to go since not sleeping seems to be becoming more frequent.