Key Takeaways
- Open-concept layouts connect kitchen, dining, and living spaces into one area, which improves natural light and sightlines but reduces noise and privacy control.
- Hjellming Construction drafts every custom floor plan in-house, designing each layout around a family’s actual daily routines rather than current design trends.
- Hjellming Construction is a family-owned Sioux Falls home builder with over 60 years of experience and twenty Sioux Empire Home Builders Association Parade of Homes awards for home design.
One of the first and most important decisions in designing a new custom home has nothing to do with finishes, fixtures, or square footage — it’s how the rooms relate to each other.
Open-concept layouts have dominated new construction for years, but more homeowners are asking a different question: not “what’s trending,” but “what will actually work for how my family lives?”
At Hjellming Construction, that question sits at the center of every custom floor plan we design, informed by more than 60 years of building homes across Sioux Falls and three generations of family experience in doing it well.
The Case for Open-Concept Living
Open floor plans remove walls between kitchens, dining areas, and living rooms, creating one continuous space. For many families, this layout works because it keeps everyone connected — a parent cooking dinner can still see kids doing homework at the table or watch a movie playing in the next room over.
Open concepts also tend to make a home feel larger and brighter, since natural light and sightlines aren’t interrupted by walls, and they’re often easier to entertain in, since guests can move freely between spaces instead of being confined to one room.
The tradeoff is privacy and noise control. Without walls, sound travels — a TV in the living room competes with a conversation in the kitchen, and there’s no separation when someone wants quiet while the rest of the house is active.
The Case for Defined, Zoned Spaces
Defined spaces — separate rooms with distinct purposes — offer what open concepts sacrifice: privacy, noise control, and the ability for multiple things to happen in a home at once without interfering with each other.
A closed-off home office means video calls don’t compete with kitchen noise. A separated living room means a movie night doesn’t disrupt someone working at the dining table. For families with kids at different ages, multiple generations under one roof, or anyone who regularly works from home, defined spaces can make daily life significantly less stressful.
The tradeoff here is connection. Defined spaces can make a home feel more segmented, and it’s easier for family members to end up isolated in separate rooms rather than sharing the same space, even when everyone’s home.
The Rise of the Hybrid Layout
Increasingly, the right answer isn’t fully open or fully defined. It’s a thoughtful mix of both.
This is where custom home design earns its name. A hybrid layout might keep the kitchen, dining, and living area open to one another for everyday connection, while adding a defined home office, a separated mudroom, or a pocket-door playroom just off the main living space — open when you want it to be, closed off when you don’t.
Sliding barn doors, pocket doors, and half-walls with sightlines are all tools we use to give homeowners flexibility rather than locking them into one extreme or the other.
Designing for How You Actually Live
There’s no universally “right” layout, only the right layout for your family. That’s why we don’t start with a template. The Hjellming team works directly with homeowners to understand their daily routines before a single wall goes on paper.
Do you work from home and need a door that closes?
Do you host large family gatherings every holiday?
Do your kids need a space to be loud while you need one to be quiet?
Every custom floor plan we draft in-house is built around the answers to questions like these, not around whatever layout happens to be trending that year.
Some of the layout questions worth thinking through before you build:
- How many people are typically in the home at once, and what are they usually doing?
- Do you need a dedicated, closed-off workspace for remote work or video calls?
- How do you want to host guests? One continuous space, or separate rooms for different activities?
- Are there multiple generations or age groups in the home with different noise and privacy needs?
- How do you want your home to feel day-to-day: expansive and connected, or private and quiet?
A Family-Owned Approach to a Very Personal Decision
Designing a floor plan is one of the most personal decisions in the entire building process, and it’s one we take seriously as a family-owned company building for other families.
Scott Hjellming, who purchased the business from his father Orlie in 1988, leads Hjellming Construction as President, carrying forward a tradition that started with Orlie’s original focus on remodeling, additions, and new home construction back in 1962. His sons Cory and Bryan Hjellming now lead alongside him as Vice President and Treasurer/HR — the third generation to help shape how homes are designed and built across Sioux Falls.
That family perspective shapes how we approach floor plan design. We’ve spent over 60 years watching how families actually live in the homes we build, and we bring that experience into every conversation about open space versus defined space, because ultimately, the layout should fit your life, not the other way around.
Recognized for Design Excellence
Hjellming Construction has been honored with twenty Sioux Empire Home Builders Association Parade of Homes awards for our home designs. Cory was named the 2019 Builder of the Year by the Home Builders Association of the Sioux Empire and went on to serve as the association’s president in 2025 — recognition that reflects our ongoing commitment to designing homes that are both beautiful and genuinely livable.
If you’d like to see how these layout principles come to life, browse our project portfolio for examples of open, defined, and hybrid floor plans we’ve designed for Sioux Falls families, or visit our FAQ page for answers to common questions about the custom home design process. You can also see how these same layout principles apply to existing homes in our earlier post on kitchen layouts for modern families.
Let’s Talk
Trying to decide between open-concept and defined spaces for your new home?
Contact Hjellming Construction to schedule a consultation and start planning your custom layout today! We’re excited to hear your vision.