We live in a two storey Terrace house (UK) so we have one at the top of the stairs so DS can freerange over all the first floor. Downstairs we have a sort of open plan arrangement with the kitchen and lounge (nowhere near as open plan as you get in Aus. I guess it is just an open doorway into the kitchen from the lounge. Pretty open plan for the UK!) So we have a gate in the doorway to the kitchen. We often leave it open so DS still gets access but when the oven is hot or what we are doing is unsafe etc, we can shut it.