What happened to dining rooms?

[Orchidflower]

I was talking to a realtor this weekend who said that nobody wants dining rooms anymore. Since I will be left 2 sets (one new, one from the late 1800's) of tables and chairs for dining, this was pretty discouraging news for me when I buy a home.
Since I am not in the interior design know, has anyone else heard this?
I know great rooms are the rage, but what are people eating on? Or do they just put the dining table and chairs in a great room in a corner of the room but no separate dining room itself for the tables and chairs?
He said he was having a hard time selling homes with dining rooms anymore. Anyone know if this is true across the country for new homes?
My girlfriend who was a realtor for years said not to panic as styles go in and out all the time, but still....this kinda bothers me.
Didn't realize how out-of-it I was to home styles until talking to this realtor...

 

[Meadbh]

I don't know where one can find objective data on this, but I think your realtor is right. Formal dining rooms are out of fashion in new construction. However, they are legacies in millions of older homes and not all of these have been remodelled. If you are planning to sell the diningroom furniture, hopefully there is a market in your area.

I live in an 80 year old craftsman bungalow with a separate diningroom that is underutilized. The diningroom table is useful for laying out large documents and the china cabinet displays my collection. In RE I plan to move to a newer home with a greatroom. In this setting I would prefer a modern glass table and funky chairs. There would be no use for the cabinet with an open kitchen.

 

[LOL!]

Total BS. Our dining room is down a short hallway from the kitchen with a laundry room and half-bath in between. Where else would we put all the clothes from the dryer before they get sorted to drape over our exercise equipment in our [-]living room[/-] home gym?

You can go to realtor web sites and see interior photos of many homes for sale with dining rooms.

 

[Westernskies]

I was talking to a realtor this weekend who said that nobody wants dining rooms anymore. Since I will be left 2 sets (one new, one from the late 1800's) of tables and chairs for dining, this was pretty discouraging news for me when I buy a home.
Since I am not in the interior design know, has anyone else heard this?
I know great rooms are the rage, but what are people eating on? Or do they just put the dining table and chairs in a great room in a corner of the room but no separate dining room itself for the tables and chairs?
He said he was having a hard time selling homes with dining rooms anymore. Anyone know if this is true across the country for new homes?
My girlfriend who was a realtor for years said not to panic as styles go in and out all the time, but still....this kinda bothers me.
Didn't realize how out-of-it I was to home styles until talking to this realtor...

We love the Great Room concept and haven't used a formal dining room in over 10 years. Converted the DR in the the last two houses to a library/sitting room, it gets a lot more use that way, especially with the TV in the greatroom- offers a nice quiet spot to curl up with a book or with the newspaper on Sunday AM. We use a dining nook adjacent to the kitchen, with a tall pub table and chairs. If we get more than 6-8 people for dinner, i.e. Thanksgiving, we bring in the big outdoor table/chairs, cover it with a tablecloth and make do.... not really a problem we aren't into large dinner parties, and the folks who do come over regularly couldn't care less- it's about the companionship, not the furniture.

 

[KB]

I have found older homes still have dining rooms.

I lived in a house built in 1987 that had a dining area off the kitchen, not a true dining room though. My current house was built in 2004 and has a great room with a dining area and a kitchen area all in one. No eating area in the kitchen. I think it might depend on where you live though.

When you're looking for a home to buy, just tell the realtor you want a dining room and see if they can come up with any houses with one.

 

[harley]

When we built our dream house a few years ago we put a dining room in it. But we eat at a dining room table in our (really big) kitchen. No one has eaten in the dining room in the 2 1/2 years we've lived here. We've got the furniture in it, but it just collects dust. I tried to talk DW into putting a pool table in there, but no luck yet.

If we ever have a big holiday here, maybe we'll use it. But since the family is all back in the DC area, we go to them instead of them coming to us.

 

[FIREd]

As people become less formal, they have less need for formal dining rooms. Many older and upscale houses still seem to have them though. Our 32-year old house has a formal dining room and we use it maybe 5 times a year.

 

[Nodak]

My dining room has become my home office. In the 14 years I have been in this house it was never used as a dining room, I have a large open kitchen area and all meals take place there.

 

[Gumby]

In our 153 year old home, we have a formal dining room, complete with fireplace. We eat dinner there every night. The kitchen table is used solely for morning coffee and newspaper reading.

 

[audreyh1]

My new (very small) house has a great room that encompasses living room, dining area and kitchen. I just assumed it was the smallness of the design that had combined all three into one huge room. I didn't realize it was the "modern" way of doing things.

Fine with me. We'll be using the dining are table as combination "work area" (i.e. place to do stuff on our computers) and eating area. But we also have a nice raised bar between the kitchen area and living area, so that might get used more for meals.

Audrey

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

I am surprised that dining rooms held their ground as long as they did. If you don't have servants, somebody gets stuck in the kitchen while the party proceeds in the dining room.
Cooking and entertaining is fun, but not if you are isolated from your guests like a servant.
We used to have an open kitchen/breakfast nook/den in addition to a "formal" dining room. Everyone would congregate in the kitchen, then troop into the dining room when dinner was ready. Somebody still had to get up, clear plates, and bring out the next course though.

 

[Letj]

I am surprised that dining rooms held their ground as long as they did. If you don't have servants, somebody gets stuck in the kitchen while the party proceeds in the dining room.
Cooking and entertaining is fun, but not if you are isolated from your guests like a servant.
We used to have an open kitchen, breakfast nook, and den in addition to a "formal" dining room. Everyone would congregate in the kitchen, then troop into the dining room when dinner was ready. Somebody still had to get up, clear plates, and bring out the next course though.

How about the guests pitching in and helping out? Whenever, we have guests over (mostly relatives), they automatically pitch in and get the food ready for serving and help with the clean up. It's more fun that way. I also teach my children that whenever they're invited over for dinner, they should always offer to help. We've always done that and I am yet to find anyone who refuses the help. Hey, we don't live in a world anymore where the average middle class could afford servants.

 

[RunningBum]

When I built my house 10 years ago, I had an open plan designed. The kitchen is partly enclosed by the back side of the stairway on one way, and an eating counter separating it from the dining room and an edge of the living room. The dining room is not really separated from the living room other than a post, but it's defined by a lower ceiling. I eat 98% of my meals at the counter. I put a real dining table and hutch, but nothing super nice or expensive. The hutch mostly holds liquor and glassware. I get a few comments on that but most agree that it works for me. I don't have formal dishware, having lost that without regrets in the divorce.

I've never lived in a house with a true dining room.

 

[NW-Bound]

No dining room? Hah! Then how do we seat our guests when we invite them for dinner?

It is true that by ourselves, we eat in the breakfast area adjoining the kitchen, and do not use the dining room. However, we often have our sibling families over for dinner, and we would use up the 10-place main dining table as well as the 8-place breakfast table.

In fact, as I am writing this, we are awaiting the arrival of our family guests for a dinner to celebrate my son's 21st birthday.

 

[Brat]

All of my homes had a dining room which we used whenever the headcount for meals exceeded 4 (the size of my family). Personally I am not a fan of dirty dishes in view. The 'breakfast' room table was where homework was done, it was the laundry folding table and the layback table for my sewing - oh and the place we ate breakfast and dinner.

Our new condo has a space off the kitchen which we will use for informal eating and the largest room can easily accommodate the living & dining room furniture. When we looked at new condos they were all open spaces, no place to hang the art work.

There are lots of homes with both living styles, a realtor will try to sell where there is the largest 'inventory'.

 

[Rustic23]

Our home has a dinning room. I think the only reason is because we had the furniture. It has been used about 4 times in 5 years. It would make a good office or library, but that is for the kids to figure out. It is a dinning room and will be as long as DW and I are around.

 

[Texas Proud]

A couple of my sisters and mom went looking at new houses a few weeks ago... all had dining rooms... some were pretty big... but then again these were 'big' houses.. in the 3 to 4K ft range...

What was interesting was there were not any formal living rooms... a couple had 'offices' that were up front that you could make a formal living room.... but that was not their design...


SOOO, I think formal living rooms were the first to go... I don't have one in my house... did not in my last house... and would say only 25% or so of the houses I looked at before I bought this one had them... all had dining rooms..

I don't believe your realtor

 

[Katsmeow]

In the house we are currently trying to sell there is a dining room and then a breakfast bar. We are getting negative feedback on lack of a true breakfast room (the dining room adjoins the kitchen and is open to the foyer).

We are designing a soon to be house and most designs have a large breakfast room that is at one end of the kitchen. Most designs then have a family room open to the kitchen/breakfast area and typically do have a formal dining room. On the plan we are working on, we have converted the dining room to a study. We need only one place to eat and prefer the breakfast room. If we have guests we will have a bar area seating 4 and will just feed extras in the family room.

In our old house with a breakfast room and dining room, we used the dining room once a year at most.

 

[Khan]

House was built in the '40s, has a 'great room'.

 

[Rustic23]

We have a formal living room also, we also have a media room and craft/computer room. These two are like dens. We can have guest in to the living room and it is usually clean. The back rooms not so all the time.

 

[Moemg]

Since Florida homes also have outside areas that we use all year a dining room is overkill .I have a great room with a dining area . When I have big family dinners we just extend the dining area into the living area and we also utilize the table on the deck . My house was built in 1998.

 

[LOL!]

Our house built in 1993 has an open floor plan with family room, kitchen, and eating area connected without walls as katsmeow described. In this design, it is imperative that the dishwasher in the kitchen makes no noise.

The eating area in the kitchen holds a farmer's table w/ 6 chairs. One can see the TV and fireplace in the family room from this table. An island in the kitchen has a stove as well as room for 2 bar stools and places for eating. Most of our time is spent in this area. One can easily talk to the folks in the kitchen from the sofa in the family room.

In addition, it has a dining room and living room. We use our dining room and living room all the time as described above.

Upstairs above the family room is another family room / game room / den where we can banish the kids and their friends.

I've seen many older and newer homes with this same kind of floor plan.

 

[Cattusbabe]

This old house has a dining room and we eat all of our meals there. We do not have a breakfast nook. We lucked out and got a butlers pantry instead which leads to the dining room. Former owners ate daily meals in the kitchen but we saw no reason to have two dining areas in the house and opted to use all of the kitchen space for meal prep.

 

[Orchidflower]

I was so floored by my realtor girlfriend who agreed with the guy realtor telling me that dining room sets were out of favor now that I asked where the heck do people eat when they come over for dinner? The answer: tv trays.
I say ewwwwww, ick! Just IMHO.

For you folks with no formal dining room, where do your guests eat when they come over?

If formal dining rooms are going the way of the Edsel, I guess my set of Lennox china will be out in the near future, too...bring on the Chinette paper plates?

Does anyone know if china cabinets are, also, out of style? I tried looking thru HGTV's website, but really did not get an answer there. Seems people need to put their "good" china somewhere other than their everyday cabinets, but who knows what is in style now? Are china cabinets out of style also?

 

[Katsmeow]

For you folks with no formal dining room, where do your guests eat when they come over?

What is wrong with the breakfast room table and the bar at the island (for those who have them)? That is what we will have in the next house and I think that will be fine. There is no need for TV trays. Guests can eat at the breakfast room table which will probably seat 6. There will be seating for 4 more at the island.

Having said all that, I guess this is a matter of lifestyle. I don't have the kind of lifestyle where I would invite people over to eat dinner in a formal dining room. Guests are usually family (who can eat with the family in the breakfast room or at the bar area) or are friends of my kids (same).