8 thoughts on “Dining Rooms”

  1. Kate Wagner’s original article is the real read – Dreher links to it.

  2. We’ve lived in our house almost five years now, and used the dining room twice — both times at the instigation of my now-late mother-in-law.

    Both were holiday meals with visiting family, and that many people couldn’t have sat together at our kitchen table. Mrs. McG aren’t the dinner party type, left to our own devices.

    1. Not saying the thesis is wrong, just that we may be an exception. We use the dining room ourselves, and often have friends over for dinner. Of course, I hate going out to dinner, so it’s the most likely social location for eating with friends.

      1. When I was a kid, we had a dining room, and we ate our meals there. Habits evolve.

        In our previous house, we set up Mrs. McG’s computer, desk, and filing cabinets in the dining room. It’s better to have the space, even if the homeowner uses it for something else.

  3. The Great Room is the in thing these days. Your kitchen, dining area, and living room in one large space that is anything from partially to totally open, all the way across.

    It gives you lots of flexibility in terms of layout, which is particularly nice if you aren’t into entertaining crowds (or, conversely, if you do so frequently).

  4. This isn’t exactly a new thing. Growing up in the 70s, I had a house with a formal dining room and we only ever ate there on holidays. It got used a few more times a year for things like model-building. We had a table in the kitchen and ate our meals there.

    In our house’s case, it was partly due to the layout, I think. You had to go down a (short, admittedly) hallway and do a U-turn around a stairwell to get to the dining room. The layout wasn’t very efficient.

  5. I live in Texas. Relative to much of the country, housing is cheap. Why not have a dining room with the other rooms? Alas, some of the new McMansions do come without them.

  6. Family of five with the occasional exchange student. We eat every single meal in the formal dining room. Formal living room is for media(TV/movies). Its smaller size and square shape make the lighting and acoustics more easily controlled. The big rectangular family room is for family things like reading, games and visiting(no tv in the family room).

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