What's your dining room used for?

Interesting topic - this just crossed my mind last week when I saw photos of a friend's new house in NC. The "dining" room had been used as a kids playroom. For some reason I am oddly fascinated/shocked (not horrifically) by this concept of not putting a dining table there (there is only a dinky cafe table in the kitchen) for dinners. I guess it is just a matter of priorities. I prefer dining rooms to dine in at home :)
 
My dining area is in the living room. I do ocassionally, like tonight (cooking for a date), use my Koa wood (thank you craigslist) dining room table for eating but generally use the coffee table in front of the tube. Or graze while reading this board lol.
 
The only furniture is a table w/6 chairs (rarely used for eating), and an old grandfather clock. The table is used for school projects for teen; painting, crafts etc for toddler; any other task that requires a large table. We used to use it for cards and board games, but now we have a nice large coffee table in the living room for that.

If the room was a couple feet longer and wider, we would replace the dining table with a pool table.
 
Interesting. More people responded with actual dining rooms than I was considering.

We've got an eat-in kitchen, but the room configuration (4 doors plus big sliding glass door) makes for a fairly small work area. In a way it'd be cool to knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room, and make a much bigger kitchen. Of course, the argument comes back that it'd hurt resale value to not have a dining room. And we'd still need a place for the piano...
 
Kronk said:
Interesting. More people responded with actual dining rooms than I was considering.

We've got an eat-in kitchen, but the room configuration (4 doors plus big sliding glass door) makes for a fairly small work area. In a way it'd be cool to knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room, and make a much bigger kitchen. Of course, the argument comes back that it'd hurt resale value to not have a dining room. And we'd still need a place for the piano...
Click to expand...

Interesting observation.

People don't want/use formal dining rooms but insist the house have one because the next person buying the house doesn't want one either but thinks the next person down the line will want one...
 
Yes, it always seems like people are buying houses for the next person, not themselves. Like having both a living room and a family room. A waste in my mind.
 
We have both a family room and a living room. Since we took our dining room back in this house, the separate formal living room is Gabes playroom with all his toys, his tivo and his tv.
 
Martha said:
Like having both a living room and a family room. A waste in my mind.
Click to expand...
Spouse watches her TV in the living room, our kid watches her TV (and we use the computer) in the family room. The separation is pretty critical to family harmony.

When our kid moves out, though, we can already see that a study and two guest bedrooms is too much. Spouse claims to have plans for a bedroom makeover in one of them and it'll be good to have "extra" space to work around that disruption. When our bunny goes to his great reward, too, we're going to gut the familyroom and start over...
 
My house has a formal dining room. I use it to showcase my glass and china collection. Initially I used to host regular dinner parties, but I've become much less formal especially since landscaping the yard (at least in summer). Over time the dining table has assumed the role of secondary office. My next home will have a great room instead. Much more compatible with my lifestyle.
 
Dining room? Is that the room with a sofa and big-screen tv? :p

I have a "dining room", which is used maybe twice a year. Should probably convert it to a home gym...
 
I use the dining room walls to hang my paintings as they dry.
I have two ikea kitchen chairs where the cats sit to watch the birds in the morning.
I have a shredder in the corner and a little kitchen table in the middle.
I use the floor space to throw little balls and mice so the cats and go run after it and bring them back to me.
 
We reorganized the floor plan of the house when it was remodeled to eliminate the family room/living room waste...so now there is a "great room" kitchen/family room and a formal dining room. we don't eat there much, maybe 2 times per year, and it was holding our mail until we can find somewhere else for the mail to go.
 
We have a traditional dining room that we eat at every week night

We also have a living room and a family room. The family room is connected to the kitchen and belongs to our golden retriever.

The living room functions as our main socializing and TV room.
 
Formal living and dining rooms

I can eat in the dining room, kitchen, or at the bar. For myself, the bar is handiest. The dining room is for holidays and completely decked out, table and chairs, china cabinet, side table, chandelier, silver, china, linens. I used to entertain more than I do anymore. The living room is also decked out, but other than a desk for checkwriting, also is used only for company. The reason I prefer it is to keep the mess in family room. The formal rooms are always ready. I don't really consider any space wasted since there isn't anything else I would use it for. I like space; it is real luxury to me. Dining rooms really only became permanent in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Prior to that they were temporarily set up as needed.
 
My wife maintains 5 aquariums and a "wall of plants" in ours. It's more her hobby room than anything, we rarely eat in there but it is nice when we do. I was just thinking about this the other day and our formal living room is the most unused room in the house. We have our home theater set up in the family room and I have all my music equipment in an unused bedroom so we hardly ever spend any time in the living room. I was recently thinking how we could better use the space there, we currently have a light up palm tree and light up Pink Flamingo in there (quite tasteful and a fine use of space). The requesite sofa / chair ottoman / coffee table / stereo / and a desk which we keep relatively neat but we never seem to sit in the room even though my favorite leather chair is in there. Suggestions?
 
Maybe I have lived a deprived life, but what exactly is a family room, and how does it differ from a living room?

Well, I guess we have an LDK, the D part of which gets used regularly for dining, and the L part of which has the dog's couch in it (not for human use). We use the tatami room for hanging out, TV watching, and sometimes eating, so I guess that might correspond to what people are calling the family room?
 
bpp.. yes. As a pair of jeans is to wool slacks, the family room is to the dining room. Both seem 'necessary' in most modern family houses. When I was growing up (60s-70s) there was more likely to be a 'rec' room, usually in the basement where messiness and roughhousing ("etc.") was allowed. In our house we had an extra sm. BR that our parents turned into a playroom for our toys/junk and a small TV.

I would love to have a tatami room! It would be a place where the floor, for once, could be clean, smooth and warm. I would keep the dog out. Right now we have COLD terracotta tiles with hard edges and a lot of dog hair/dirt since it is dusty/muddy outside depending on the season and we have 4 different french doors that lead right outside in addition to the regular door. We and the beast are always in and out and there are no "dirt-lock" entries where we can contain the damage.
 
I read my response and have to update.....
The dining room now is my massage room for my home business, I still have my paintings there, and there is only one cat.
 
Dining room contains expandable formal DR table used every day, 29 gal goldfish tank, majority of my houseplants on poles and plant stands, a small terrarium with native salamanders, china cabinet sans china :rolleyes: used for glassware and enclosed appliance storage, and the other side of the kitchen peninsula.
The wall that used to separate the kitchen and dining room was removed in a complete remodel 10 yrs ago. :D
It was a small room but looks wide open now.
 
I use a 3-sided counter with stools in the kitchen for most of our meals. The dining room is for having people over for dinner. I'm the type who would be likely to pile junk on it for months, so I try real hard not to, especially since it's open to the living area and is very visible.

But it's most used part is the hutch, aka the liquor cabinet.
 
Beautiful furniture, china cabinet, butler's hutch, dining table all call the dining room home. It is impeccably decorated, just in case we have any sudden dust bunnies pop in for a visit. This room is a good illustration of why I don't like expensive and fancy furniture...its too nice to use, so its just something to look at, enjoy the view, and to collect dust bunnies.

R
 
Sometimes, about twice a year, we actually use it for dining.

The rest of the time it's for reading the newspaper while eating breakfast, dropping the mail on the table, writing checks. That's about it.
 
Ours appears to be for decoration as we rarely use it. However, am pleased to say it is not covered with mail as it has been in the past.
 
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