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I have no interest in eating in my kitchen. I don't want to have my dinner by the hot stove while staring at the dirty dishes. I would much rather move into the dining room where I have nice art and a much better view out the windows. To me, the waste would be sacrificing kitchen space to make room for seating. That's why I chose a house where the whole kitchen is for cooking and eating happens in the dining room.
As a side note, I also can't see how a living room would be wasted space. Ours is where we congregate when we have people over, where we relax after work, and really just where we...well...live. We have a separate room in the basement where we have the TV, but we really only hang out there if we have something specific to watch.
We live at our dining room table. It seats 8 comfortably but I wish there was room for 12. I love having big dinner parties. I sit here every morning with a cup of tea and disappear into City Data land. Our house is old and the dining room is beautiful. You can keep your open concept. That is just not for us. Give me the beautiful oak trim, antique dining room furniture, and leaded windows over some modern nightmare with no character.
Our current house has no formal dining room, but an open floor plan across the back half of the main floor of kitchen>eating area>family room. The kitchen and dining area share a wood floor, the family room is carpeted. The dining area is large enough for a table seating six (eight if squeezed) and the kitchen has a raised island (we considered adding a table-height matching addition to the raised kitchen island, extending into the eating area). The open kitchen>dining space>family room is a common design in our area (though some do set up another room as a formal dining room in addition ... ours is an office).
Our last house had a formal dining room off the kitchen, which was used maybe six times over ten years. Otherwise, it collected piles of stuff on the table. We considered knocking down the wall between the dining room and kitchen and extending the kitchen into that space (that kitchen already had a raised island and room for a four-person round table).
I'm with many here that I love my small but elegant formal dining room, and use it every day- just not necessarily for dining. Mine is even smaller than gentlearts, a mere 10 x 11, but we designed a custom banquette and table that seats six comfortably and eight in a pinch. With a couple of nice antiques to compliment the detailed '20s architecture: inset coved plaster ceiling and arches; mahogany doors and trim; hammered metal chandelier and a triple window looking out on a pond/birdbath, flagstone terrace and 60 y.o. flowering Hibiscus, it is a pleasant place to be day or night.
We use it mostly as a study, laptop set up on it and I have a bunch of plans on the table right now for a project I am in the middle of permitting through the city. It is the go to place for a quick business meeting with clients or vendors and most importantly, we entertain often and it is used for a fun dinner party with friends at least once a month- with the swinging butlers door swung firmly shut to hide the kitchen mess lol. Card games at the table for hours after dessert often follows.
Because one must skirt the corner of it to enter the kitchen it is also an important room for daily circulation so just the fact that it must be briefly walked through constantly means it is used and enjoyed. This house would be irreparably ruined if it were somehow taken out or combined with the kitchen, and we wouldn't love or enjoy our house nearly as much as we do.
Our current house has no formal dining room, but an open floor plan across the back half of the main floor of kitchen>eating area>family room. The kitchen and dining area share a wood floor, the family room is carpeted. The dining area is large enough for a table seating six (eight if squeezed) and the kitchen has a raised island (we considered adding a table-height matching addition to the raised kitchen island, extending into the eating area). The open kitchen>dining space>family room is a common design in our area (though some do set up another room as a formal dining room in addition ... ours is an office).
Our last house had a formal dining room off the kitchen, which was used maybe six times over ten years. Otherwise, it collected piles of stuff on the table. We considered knocking down the wall between the dining room and kitchen and extending the kitchen into that space (that kitchen already had a raised island and room for a four-person round table).
How is your formal dining room different than just a dining room?
Maybe you did not use it as you elevated it to some high standard?
I have a dining room and a living room. Nothing formal about them.
Fun fact: three out of four homeowners we surveyed said that they do not regularly eat their meals in their formal dining rooms. So where do they? 42% said that they dine in their eat-in kitchens, while 34% said they eat in their family room or in front of the T.V.
Never, love my formal dining room and I have an EIK as well.
Ditto. I rarely eat in the kitchen. The table exists mostly for sit-down work space.
Quote:
Originally Posted by randomparent
Uh, no. I have three children. We need more than one gathering room on the ground floor. Anyway, why must these spaces be formal? My dining room has a casual decorating scheme, but it's still a dining room. Same goes for the living room, which isn't any more formal than the family room. They differ only in that one room holds the TV/gaming system, while the other hosts the family computer and bookcases.
Right now, my living room is littered with magazines and cat toys. The family room is cleaner than the living room, but the living room has more comfortable furniture.
The dining room isn't much more "formal" than that. When you have only 6 or 7 rooms, there's not much space for formality.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WoodburyWoody
Our current house has no formal dining room, but an open floor plan across the back half of the main floor of kitchen>eating area>family room. The kitchen and dining area share a wood floor, the family room is carpeted. The dining area is large enough for a table seating six (eight if squeezed) and the kitchen has a raised island
What you have is a huge eat-in kitchen. Not to everyone's taste.
We have a formal dining room that gets used once a year - for our annual Xmas party. We move the table up against the wall and set it up to be our "serve yourself" drink table.
Other than that, we never even walk into the dining room for any reason whatsoever.
Our eat-in kitchen can serve 10 at the table, and we have a wraparound bar that can seat 8-10 people (although we only have bar stools for 6 at the moment).
I have a totally open floor plan on my main floor, so no dining "room" exactly. I do have a designated section that is clearly the dining area, with my table, an art deco buffet and a couple of other pieces. I am not a fan of sitting at a breakfast bar so my son and I eat all of our meals at the dining room table, but depending on how you look at it, it's also the kitchen table. I entertain 6+ people (sometimes double that or more) enough times during the course of the year that I need room for a large enough table, although most of the time, the extra leaves are not in it.
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The family room is cleaner than the living room, but the living room has more comfortable furniture. 
