Do you have a formal living or dining room and if so, do you use it? We have an older home so we have a large formal living room and a formal dining room. We use the dining room about 3-4 times a year and the living room 1-2 times a year. I wish we could use those spaces differently! I would like to use the formal living room as our family room because our family room is much smaller, but the living room is not near the kitchen at all and the current family room is semi-open to the kitchen. Our house isn't huge, I just wish the space was allocated differently.
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We have a formal dining room. We use it all the time. We don't have a formal living room though.
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Our kitchen was eat-in when we moved in but we didn't put a table in there because we wanted more space so we use our formal dining room exclusively. We have a formal living room that I read in sometimes when dh is watching lo but other than that we really only use it when we have guests. It's nice to have a space that's always neat if someone drops in!
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We have a wooden floored formal dining room. Next week it is being carpeted and changed into a play room
much better use of the space, we only used to sit in there at Xmas anyway!
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We have a formal dining room, which rarely gets used. It is attached to our living room, which is decorated far from formally, and gets used quite a bit (I read in there, play with the dog, sit in there when people come over, etc.). We do spend most of our time downstairs in the rec/family room, though.
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Sort of? We have 2 "living rooms" that when we moved in we intended to be the "main living room" and then the "man cave." We used them that way for the first year or so, but as we started investing in the "man cave" (nice couch, nice tv, etc) we found that we just spend all of our time there, together. So now that is our main living space and the other living room rarely gets used. Basically I use it on football sundays when my husband is binging on NFL redzone. Still, I sort of like having both because if I want to have friends over (like I do book clubs sometimes, or just have a girl friend over to watch a movie) I can hang with her in the "main" living room and my husband has his own space and neither of us are relegated to the bedroom.
We also have a formal dining room… formal in that it is a separate room, although there is nothing particularly formal about it. We don't eat there a ton but we do use it whenever my parents are in town because my brother/SIL always come over for breakfast, or when we have friends over for dinner. It's really nice to have a space big enough to comfortably seat 6, and even using it just 6-8 times/year makes it feel "worth it" to me.
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We have 3 non-bedrooms (dining room, family room and living room). Our family room (off the kitchen) is currently our office. We watch TV in our family room and eat in our dining room or in front of the TV. We don't have a kitchen table area.
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we have a formal dining room that we use for big family dinners, holidays.
we turned the formal living room into our den, but adding french doors and office furniture.
we have a great room as our main living area
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I'm wondering if getting new furniture for our formal living room might make me want to use it more. We inherited furniture from my grandma, and it is very grandma-parlor-esque. It's really nice furniture and in great shape, but I don't think we or our guests ever feel relaxed in there. On the other hand I hate to spend money on it when we have stuff we can use!
@JerricaBenton: I think that is my theory, that I would like to keep a clean space for guests, but everyone comes to our back door anyway so they see the mess as soon as they walk in!
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We have a formal living and dining room. We use the dining room once a year when we host Thanksgiving. The living room is used a bit more when my husband works in there or I read a book.
In our next (dream) home I hope we can get a house with great room and just a formal dining room.
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We have a formal dining room and use it whenever we have guests or make a "fancy" meal. The rest of the time we eat at the bar in the kitchen.
No formal living room and I'd prefer not to buy a house with one in the future. It just seems like a waste of space for our needs.
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Our new house has a dining room open to the living room, and is right off of the eat in kitchen. We're planning on using it as a playroom until the kids are older, then getting a big beautiful dining table once the big toys are out!
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We have a formal dining room that we maybe once every few months for entertaining. We have a formal living room that we only used for the Christmas tree before having a baby. Now it's a playroom and gets used all day everyday. I really love it.
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We have a formal dining room that is furnished as a dining room but gets used as a storage facility for boxes. Our formal living room is also furnished and never used, ever.
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We don't but my parents do. The formal living room was utterly useless. I called it The Stupid Room because it had fancy furniture in it. My parents have lived there for 15+ years and even my mom calls it The Stupid Room.
Their formal dining room is used at holidays or any time we have a family dinner & need more than six seats.
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Both are not really rooms since it's an open concept but the areas are very defined.
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Our house is relatively small, but has a family room, living room and formal dining room. We have a breakfast bar in the kitchen but no eat-in. Right now we have the TV in the living room so we spend time in there. We're planning on transitioning the family room to more of a kid-friendly play room (no TV in there). We use the formal dinning room whenever we have people over for a meal. I also sometimes use it to work from home. I'm sure it'll get more use once we have a family (not enough room at the breakfast bar and don't want to eat in front of the TV).
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We have a formal dining room we never use....
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We don't have either in our new house. My mom has both but my dad converted the living room into his office with french doors. He works from home.
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We don't have either. I wouldn't use either if we did. I would allot the space for a play area or office.
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We have a family room off the kitchen at the back of the house and a big L shaped living room dining room at the front of the house. We use both, the family room has all the toys but the living room is brighter so we are up there more - especially during the day. The kitchen only has island seating so we use the dining room quite a bit.
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Nope! If we did I would make it a playroom.
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Our house originally had a formal living room and a family room but since they were next to each other, the wall in between was taken down to make one large living space. We do have a formal dining room. We don't use it very often. I'd like to open it up the kitchen in the future.
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@mrs. wagon: we have a formal dining room and totally turned it into a playroom! One side opens into the entryway and the other side has a doorway into the kitchen. We gated it all, ikea'd it out and voila, it's a fun place for LO to play and we can see her if we are in the kitchen or living room.
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We don't have either, but we live in an apartment
When we do buy a house we really don't want a place with a formal living room, and don't really care if it has a formal dining room either. I generally think it is just wasted space that we won't really use.
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We don't have a "formal" living dining room, per se. But our living dining and kitchen are all open to each other. And we also have a room that is a few steps down from the main living area. We typically use the dining table every night for dinner. But have been straying from that lately; need t get back to that!
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So funny that people don't use their formal dining room. I would LOVE a formal dining room.. We just have a regular dining room that is open concept to the living area. We also have a table in the kitchen (eat in?) but it is never used.. I am thinking of getting rid of that to put a buffet style table or something.
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We have a formal living room that flows into the formal dining room. They're separated from the kitchen with a wall that will evetnually come down. I prefer a more open concept home, but this was the style in the 60's when my house was built.
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We have a formal dining room that rarely gets used.
Our formal living room is huge and we turned it into the playroom. Has worked out great and grown well with the kids over the past 5 years.I told DH the other day I can always see that room as more of the "kids room" - maybe add a couch and TV when they get older.
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@mrs. 64: Your space sounds exactly like ours. It's all of my grandparents old furniture. We are moving my office down there with the baby (since I will WAH part time) and I figure it will become a little playroom-esque. The only "person" that uses it is my golden retriever... she likes to sleep on the sofa, as it has the best view outside.
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The previous owners of our house opened up the main floor so it is basically a rectangle with the stairs right in the middle so there is some division. The kitchen is in the back corner and there is a living room and dining room on either side. The previous owners had the dining room where we have the living room and then there is an addition in front of that room which could serve as a formal living room. They used what we have as a dining room as more of a family room. The kitchen is not eat-in so we use the dining room. We use the addition as a play room so that we also always use the living room. There is just one area between the front door and dining room that we haven't really figured out what to do with yet. So far we put in an Ikea closet and it will probably just serve as the entry area. The basement is also finished so at some point we could make our living room more formal and use the basement as a family room but I doubt that will happen. I think it will just become more of a kids' play area when they don't need constant supervision.
@Reese: Our condo had no dining area so we just had a tiny table in the kitchen and a slightly larger one in the living room. One of our requirements was to have an actual dining room so that we could have people over for dinner and not have to eat crammed in another room.
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Technically we do have both but we don't have an eat in kitchen (just bar space at the island) and we don't have a family room which means the dining room is where we eat when it is more than just the two of us and we hang out in the living room. Since they are the first two rooms you see when walking in the front door we still wanted them to be nice looking but they had to be non-fussy enough for frequent use. We are still working on them but so far we do use both a lot and they both still feel like nice rooms.
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We do, but it's carpeted so we don't use it. It's a 30 year old home and the style was having the dining area in the front of the house. We changed the lighting to a flush mount versus a chandelier and put a couch and some of E's toys in there
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We have both. The living room is technically the play room and will continue to be so until the kids get older. I plan on doing a lot of work in there so that it's more usable. We'll probably put in a tv over the fireplace with some nice seating. I hate formal living rooms and call them the Christmas room.
We actually use our formal dining room a decent amount since there's only a large island in our kitchen that we eat in. It seats 4. Therefore, if we have company come over, we need to move to the dining room to accommodate everyone. We also have a 3 season room that we put a table and chairs in so we'll eat there more when it (finally) warms up.
If I were to build my dream house, I wouldn't have a living room and not sure that I would have a formal dining room. I would just want a large space that works for every day and entertaining.
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Our formal dining room is the only eating place in the house, so we use it every day. We only have one living room, although we want to finish our basement to get a second living space.
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I never understood the purpose of a formal living room. My inlaws have one that they use once a year, and I think it's a pointless space. All it does is collect dust! We don't have one right now, but I think I'd turn it into a playroom or office-anything so it could get some use.
In my ideal house, we would have neither a formal living or dining room. I much prefer open concept!
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@mrs. 64: new furniture might be a good idea! Anything to make it comfortable. Could you consign your old furniture?
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We could have one but we turned it into a playroom. We are not formal people.
much better use of the space, we only used to sit in there at Xmas anyway!
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