How frequently do you use the dining room?

[Moopheus]

Our apartment is like Ling's--small and without real dining area. We have an island with a flip-up counter.

When we had a house in Mass., the room we used as the dining room (i.e., the room we ate in) was the original kitchen, and still had a beehive oven (this house was post-war, but post-Revolutionary War). The original dining room we used as a sitting room. The kitchen we used was an add-on from the 1840s.

[Viola da gamba]

Growing up, we always used the dining room for dinner - unless we were having a "scratch" meal in front of the television. Now, although we have a formal dining room, we don't have a dining room table yet (students for way too long) - so we have the dining room set up as a reading/computer/music room - it currently also has a puzzle set up in it which I'm hoping to finish by Easter. Our kitchen has an archway through to a fairly good-sized "nook" - the kitchen table is in there, and we eat meals there whenever it involves more than one course - otherwise, side tables in front of the TV for us, too.

[viva]

I have an open floor plan great room in the back half of my house, comprised of a kitchen, a middle area that I use for a dining table & bar, plus TV/family area. All dining entertaining takes place back here, either milling around abstractly or seated at the dining table.

The front half of my house was technically designed to be a formal dining room and formal living room. I've made them into a library and a reading room. I would never be able to herd people in there away from the kitchen anyway.

I will also add a dining table to my back patio, for some alfresco dining possibilities.

[shiv]

My family's huge and when everyone was around (usually on Sundays and all holidays, birthdays, etc), we had to use the dining room to fit all those people.

By the time I came along, a lot of people had already moved out, so most week-day meals were eaten in the kitchen. Family gatherings were (and still are) common, though, so the dining room gets plenty of use.

Now that it's just my husband and I, meals are split between the dining room and in front of the TV. We've got an island in the kitchen of our new home that would be great for eating, but we haven't found the right stools yet.

[browniebaker]

How do I know we don't use the dining room very often? My daughter, when she was three years old last year, called it the "Thanksgiving room" -- LOL!

Off the kitchen there's a breakfast room that ends up being where we eat all our meals. With two young children, I just want to slap a meal on the table, eat, clean up, and go lie down in a dark room.

[Busboy]

How do I know we don't use the dining room very often? My daughter, when she was three years old last year, called it the "Thanksgiving room"  --  LOL!

Off the kitchen there's a breakfast room that ends up being where we eat all our meals. With two young children, I just want to slap a meal on the table, eat, clean up, and go lie down in a dark room.

←

I hear you. As you're lying there exhausted, though, take heart in the fact that in a few years, an hour around the table with your kids will be the highlight of your day. (Especially if you have a glass or two of vino and make them do the dishes!).

[Basilgirl]

Never unless it's something very messy that I don't want to spill on my sweater or leather sofa. My boyfriends insists on eating every meal in front of the TV, on the coffee table, while reading the paper. So sometimes he eats by himself while I enjoy a civilized meal at my beautiful oval teak dining room table, which expands to seat 12.

[DaleJ]

Since there have been two of us for some time, we eat all breakfast and dinner meals in our dining room. Lunches are at work. The table, granite topped (and given to me by a grateful granite supplier thirty years ago) suggests formality but we usually us paper napery. The exception is midday meal on Saturday when we gather around for public tv cooking shows. Interestingly, the adjacent (actually part of the same large room) "living room" has been occupied only once since we built the house seven years ago. Someone came over after some sort of ceremony and we sat around and talked. At dinner parties the crowd always gathers around the kitchen island to watch the cooking show that I provide. (Enjoy showing off.)

[ladyyoung98]

well ive used it twice this week...does that count?........

[fifi]

Interesting topic. As I think about it, I have never had a "formal" dining room. That is what we call it in the south. The first house I built, in 1969, was an open plan, one dining area. I was considered barking mad at the time. This was in New Orleans where you had to have not only a formal dining room but a formal living room to boot. The in-laws were wringing their hands that we would never be able to sell the thing. About three years later, due to a move to Houston, we put it on the market. The first day it was on the market the realtor held an open house. By six o'clock that evening, we had an earnest money contract for the full price and two back-ups. Maybe I was ahead of a trend.