OT Formal dining?

UncleFred

Just curious.... Do you use the formal dining room in your home regularly?

I am of the opinion that a dedicated dining room (and to a lesser extent a formal living room) in homes are an anachronism in 2015.  They haven't been used regularly since the "Leave it to Beaver" and "Father Knows Best" days of the 1950's. But builders continue to put them in new homes..

I will submit that my opinions may be just a "west coast" or generational bias and there may be regions of the country where these rooms ARE used on a regular basis (the upper mid west? the deep south? new england?). I don't know.. which is why I threw it out there for discussion and enlightenment.

shucker

We only use ours when the family comes over a few times a year but swmbo had to have it

BigGreenBamaGriller

We sit in the dining room for every meal. Maybe we're just old souls, or maybe it's just an Alabama thing...

pgprescott

Maybe once a month, but invaluable when we do. You really want everyone to sit down and enjoy each other's company. 

Chicklet

Maybe it is a Southern thang but we use a formal dining room often.  I do not have one in my little house but my parents do and it is so nice to be able to have the whole family around a table for meals - even informal ones.  

Now, the formal living room....notsomuch.  Used to have one in my other house and never used it.  Not once in the 8 years I lived there.  

lousubcap

@UncleFred - I agree with your premise that a specific "dining room" is old school.  Having spent some time in AFC (aka San Diego) I know where you are coming from.  But it is not unique to geography.  If you have good sized kitchen table/eatery independent of the dining room then that greatly drives down the usage.  And yes I have such a dining room and yes it does get used but no more than two or three times a year unless SWMBO calls an audible.
But at this time of year it serves an alternate function; a place to compile records and files for the April 15th tax man.  Enjoy San Diego!

Ozzie_Isaac

We converted our dining room into a study room for the kids.  We put their computers and a desk in there.  Then we know what they are doing on the computer and it gives them a place to study and do school work.

UncleFred

Chicklet said:

Maybe it is a Southern thang but we use a formal dining room often...

Now, the formal living room....notsomuch.  Used to have one in my other house and never used it.  Not once in the 8 years I lived there. 

lousubcap said:

@UncleFred - I agree with your premise that a specific "dining room" is old school...

Seems, so far, that it more of a "thang" in the South...  Even when family gets together here we are either outside or we'll set up tables in the family room (usually because there's a game on and the big screen is there too)
Our living room is where the Christmas tree goes...  

RRP

We had our home built 35 years ago and used an architect to help us design it. Several things were high on our list which included a huge fireplace in the family room and a nice size formal dining room. In all these years we haven't used that dining room with its table with 8 chairs but a few times!  Now we only use it once a year, but we are of the age and era that it is nice to have when we need it.  The fireplace?...haven't used it in at least 11 years now!!!

DMW

Our formal dining room gets used when we host extended family gatherings, or occasionally when we host dinner parties. The adults sit in the dining room, and the kiddos sit around the kitchen table.

Our formal dining room is home to our piano, our 13 year old daughter is getting pretty good.

I'm glad we have both rooms. 

theyolksonyou

Well, I'm lifelong southerner and never had either formal dining room or living room and never really wanted one. 

@rrp I built a gas insert fireplace about twelve years ago for some definition on a tall boring wall. Never been lit.  

Eggcelsior

Around here in the mid-Atlantic, spec homes are still built with formal dining areas, along with many custom homes. I live in a town that has existed as long as this country has so you'll find homes from the mid-1700s(not many) to present. There is a large amount of homes built from the 1860s until the 1950s in the most established neighborhoods around city center. Except for the massive Victorians and Georgians, most were built with a bunch of little rooms. People redo them and usually knock walls down and eat the DR making a massive eat-in kitchen with a bar or peninsula that has an informal eating area and a formalish eating are with living area past that.

UncleFred

Eggcelsior said:

Around here in the mid-Atlantic, spec homes are still built with formal dining areas, along with many custom homes...

...eat-in kitchen with a bar or peninsula that has an informal eating area and a formalish eating are with living area past that.

Last week we checked out some model homes (been a while since homes around here have been built on any scale) and found, for the most part they all still had formal dining and living rooms.

Tract home builders have made kitchens bigger because they realize that in 2015 that's where most of the people hang out, but they still design in a dining room and if they include any kind of a pantry at all, it's about the size of a closet.
In retrospect we'd MUCH rather have had a walk-in pantry than a dining room, and I think it would be a good selling point (like a walk in closet for SWMBO)

Little Steven

My dining room was next to the kitchen. After the fire we had a big kitchen and no dining room.

[IMG]

DMW

Another reason I like the dining room? When not in use its convenient off kitchen storage area.

Much to my wife's displeasure.  

Canugghead

What dining room? I call ours kitchen extension 

fishlessman

i dont have a formal dining room but i do have a very nice den with french doors my dinner table is in the living area where it should be

Lit

Formal dining room is when you turn the tv off right?

saluki2007

I live in central IL and we are in the process of building a new home and we are not having a formal dinning room.  We have a very open floor plan where the main foyer, kitchen, living room and "breakfast" areas are all combined.  Most of the eating will be done at the kitchen island, but the wife wants to add a dinning room table in the breakfast area.

pgprescott

saluki2007 said:

I live in central IL and we are in the process of building a new home and we are not having a formal dinning room.  We have a very open floor plan where the main foyer, kitchen, living room and "breakfast" areas are all combined.  Most of the eating will be done at the kitchen island, but the wife wants to add a dinning room table in the breakfast area.

Wow, that's a really low pitch roof! Looking cool so far. Did you have to get a special waiver to use the low pitch roof? I didn't think they let you do that anymore without some extra scrutiny? I like the windows too.

Cookinbob

We use ours at least once a month on average, for dinner parties or holidays, though not much in the summer.  My wife likes to set the table and use the china and good flatware.  With that said, if we built a new house (We are empty-nesters now), we would probably go with a wide open floor plan, and skip the living and dining rooms - it would be a better fit for the way we entertain.

saluki2007

pgprescott said:

Wow, that's a really low pitch roof! Looking cool so far. Did you have to get a special waiver to use the low pitch roof? I didn't think they let you do that anymore without some extra scrutiny? I like the windows too.

@pgprescott thanks!  We did not have to get a waiver.  It was the lowest our builder would go though.  It's a 4/12 pitch. I will have to dig for the newer pictures.  There is a facade that is missing in this picture and the shingles/soffit are now on.  

pgprescott

saluki2007 said:

pgprescott said:

Wow, that's a really low pitch roof! Looking cool so far. Did you have to get a special waiver to use the low pitch roof? I didn't think they let you do that anymore without some extra scrutiny? I like the windows too.

@pgprescott thanks!  We did not have to get a waiver.  It was the lowest our builder would go though.  It's a 4/12 pitch. I will have to dig for the newer pictures.  There is a facade that is missing in this picture and the shingles/soffit are now on.  

It must be the perspective of the photo, because it looked far less than 4 1/2 to me, that's why I was asking. Looked like 3 or less. Exciting time for you and yours. Try not to spend ALL your $. Best of luck,

saluki2007

Oh, the wife is doing a good job of that.  Luckily we haven't hit any snags and are still within budget.

Here is an updated picture from the outside:


Here is a view from the kitchen looking into the breakfast/living room:


And here is from the breakfast area looking towards the living room/front entrance:

RRP

Lookin mighty fine! Who is your contractor?

saluki2007

Kent Eigsti.  He and his father have been building homes in the Morton/Washington area for almost 50 years.  He built my in-laws house.  I really like the layout of your fireplace.  Lots of windows!

Acn

We have a dining room where we eat the majority of our meals - but our house is older and doesn't have an eat-in kitchen, or a bar or similar. 

We will soon be taking posession of a formal dining suite from my in-laws, that is made by some famous NC furniture maker, and that will make it feel a bit more formal.

RRP

saluki2007 said:

Kent Eigsti.  He and his father have been building homes in the Morton/Washington area for almost 50 years.  He built my in-laws house.  I really like the layout of your fireplace.  Lots of windows!

Thanks - we back up on woods so we have a lot of glass on the backside plus 5 sliders.

Eggcelsior

@ACN who? We went with Sherrill and Hickory Chair, all out of Hickory, NC. Love the quality.

Acn

@eggcelsior - I believe Henkel Harris, but I'm not 100% certain without double checking with the Mrs.  I know we've gotten a Henkel Harris corner curio from them.

aukerns08

Our house was built a year and a half ago.  Very open floor plan on the main floor, with an eat in kitchen and no dining or living room.  It's perfect for us because we can see everything our 11 month is getting into while we cook and eat and it limits the areas he wants to go explore because it's all right there for him.  We set up a baby gate to keep him out of the mudroom, powder room and foyer area.