Just like in the commercials, people are still enjoying family dinners together, but chances are they’re not taking place in those formal dining rooms of years gone by.
Instead, you’re likely to find families eating at large kitchen islands, desks in multi-functioning offices, on terraces, or in outdoor kitchens. In fact, anyplace equipped with a table and chairs (or bench) can host dinnertime. Think wingback chairs around a marble table in the living room.
So where are dining rooms? Don’t feel sorry for them – they haven’t completely been abandoned. They’re just being used for other purposes, as described in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.
Homeowners in pursuit of useful square footage are turning dining rooms into living areas or workspaces, particularly in metropolitan, square-footage challenged homes, and luxury properties, WSJ says.
In fact, formal dining rooms are reincarnating architecturally; interior designers are turning existing dining rooms into multi-function rooms, like lounges or pantry/mudroom combinations. For their part, builders, architects, and contractors are creating rooms that can quickly be “flipped” into dining areas, like offices where desks or shelving unit components fold down into dining tables. Or living rooms where the coffee table extends and rises to seat six or more people in total comfort.
The traditional dining room may be gone, but it’s been reborn as a space where people can tailor their homes to their lifestyles. And maybe, like the kitchen that returned to its roots as the heart of the home, it’s an idea whose time has come.