Interior Designer Shares Which Popular Trend Is Now ‘Lazy, Boring’

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Alice Gibbs is a Newsweek Senior Internet Trends & Culture Reporter based in the U.K. For the last two years she has specialized in viral trends and internet news, with a particular focus on animals, human interest stories, health, and lifestyle. Alice joined Newsweek in 2022 and previously wrote for The Observer, Independent, Dazed Digital and Gizmodo. Languages: English. You can get in touch with Alice by emailing [email protected].

Alice Gibbs

Senior Life and Trends Reporter

🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.

An interior designer is sparking conversations across social media after sharing which once-popular design feature she thinks is now “lazy” and “boring.”

Emily Schwan, who lives in Vancouver Island, founder of House of Daisy Design and operations manager for Local One Construction, recently posted a video expressing her growing frustration with what she sees as the cookie-cutter nature of modern home design—open plan layouts.

Contrary to the popular trend, Schwan said that it is time to “bring back walls.” In the video, she said: “Unpopular opinion: We need more walls. Because this open concept thing is not working.”

She argued that while open concept spaces may photograph well, and appeal to homebuyers at first glance, they fail to meet the needs of daily life—especially for families juggling cooking, working, parenting, and relaxing in one large, undivided space.

“Every single new build looked the same. Open concept, no character, same layout over and over again,” Schwan told Newsweek. “If you want a house with charm and detail, you have to buy old, and around here heritage homes are pricey and hard to come by. It’s like builders have just copy pasted the same plan across the country. And we’ve accepted it.”

Open-plan layouts—both in homes and offices—gained significant popularity through the 1990s, 2000s, and most of the 2010s.

Real estate professionals during the 2000s and early 2010s reported that a large majority of buyers sought open floor plans, and homes with these layouts often sold for higher prices.

But by the late 2010s, some drawbacks of open-plan designs—such as noise, lack of privacy, and distractions—led to a gradual decline in their popularity, with some homeowners and companies reconsidering more segmented spaces.

In the video, captioned: “Tbh, I think open concept is lazy, boring and we need more homes with character again,” Schwan explained that older homes offer a kind of clarity that modern layouts lack. “They always had a dedicated room for everything,” she notes. “They weren’t trying to maximize flow, they were protecting function and feeling over anything.”

The video hit a nerve, which more than 3.7 million views since being shared earlier this month, thousands of users flooded the comments—and opinions were varied. Many people were quick to hit back in favor of open plan homes.

“You’re the first person I have ever heard who dislikes open concept,” said viewer Riaz.

While TikToker I.KK wrote: “I can’t imagine cooking in a closed kitchen while everyone is watching TV or whatever! open plan for the win.”

“Being able to see your kids from your kitchen is great,” wrote viewer Meghan. “Being able to interact with people in the living room while you’re in the kitchen is great!”

While some sided by Schwan’s thoughts. “I agree. open kitchen are for people who don’t cook,’ said Daniel. While MacsMomma agreed and said: “When I cook, everything smells like onions. I want to wash my curtains everyday.”

For Schwan, the intensity of the debate has been encouraging rather than off-putting. “That’s what I care about: starting conversations that help people rethink what they actually want in a home—and not just what’s trendy.”

Though she was quick to explain that she isn’t strictly against open-plan layouts. “I’m not anti–open concept,” Schwan said. “But I am pro-boundaries. That means proper zoning, dedicated corners, bringing back spaces that are meant to hold one function and do that really well.”

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