If your home has a formal dining room, do you use it? If not, do you wish the room were being used for something else?
I'm buying a house that has a formal dining room and a breakfast nook, and I'm trying to decide if putting a table in the breakfast nook would be enough. I feel like a formal dining room might only get used on holidays, but if we made it a playroom, it could be used everyday.
58 votes
hostess / papaya / 10219 posts
Only when guests are over or holidays. I do like having it for entertaining but a playroom is a necessity so if I had to choose I'd choose that
papaya / 10343 posts
I don't know how "formal" ours is... but we do have a separate dining room with dining room set, in addition to a table with chairs in the kitchen. We sit in the actual dining room for dinner every night.
grapefruit / 4085 posts
We eat in our dining room every night. When we redo the kitchen, I plan to knock down the wall between the two and add an island with seating for more casual/quick meals.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
We plan to use it for holidays- so a couple times a year. But we have extra space for a playroom (the formal living room, actually, since we have a family room with hardly any toys now). I'd rather have a playroom if there is a big enough space for a big kitchen table.
@fancyfunction: we are considering knocking down the wall and having a bigger kitchen/ dining room with a big island and everything. But not for several years so we are just mulling it over. Ow.
coconut / 8472 posts
We have both a dining room and a playroom. I'd pick the playroom hands down if I could have only one. But the dining room does get used every so often. Our kitchen table seats 6 when the leaf is in. But sometimes we need more space. Our closest friends have 2 kids and we have 2 kids, so if they eat with us we need the dining room. A couple weeks ago my parents and aunt and uncle were visiting and we used the table then too.
pomelo / 5866 posts
We have a dining room with a big table, numerous chairs and dropped floor with a view. It is definitely a formal dining room and we eat there every night. However, it has mixed use and I have a computer desk in one corner and a small art station in another.
pomegranate / 3272 posts
Our kitchen table, which is actually our ridiculously large island, only sits our family of 4. So when we have guests over, we use the dining room. We have my parents over a lot. That being said, I would love to build a house that doesn't have a formal living or dining room. I would much rather have a giant kitchen with room for a table that can expand. And really, who uses a formal living room anymore other than for a Christmas tree???
persimmon / 1233 posts
Following because we're having a similar dilemma. We do have a playroom but also a formal dining room. However, the dining room is too small for a very big table so I'm thinking of turning it into a more multipurpose library/living area, and just buying a folding table and nice tablecloth for when we have a big group over. I'm torn!
God this is such a first-world problem. 
nectarine / 2173 posts
We have an open floor plan with a dining area but not a separate room. We do have a formal table and chairs, china cabinet, etc and this is where we eat all means (vs bar stools at the island which would be the other option).
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
We have one. Still happy we do. However, I thought it may get used more- once a year instead of zero. This year we don't need it, but perhaps next year we will host a holiday.
The dining room chandelier definitely prevents us from turning that room into a playroom.
persimmon / 1310 posts
We decided to use ours as a playroom. No complaints. Our kitchen table fits six.
persimmon / 1130 posts
We use ours, but only because we don't have room for a table in our kitchen. I dislike the setup. We would love to knock down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and have it be one large and open space, but it would be super expensive. In your case I'd consider turning it into a playroom.
persimmon / 1188 posts
We only use it when we have people over. Not just holidays but also if our parents come over for dinner. Right now the table is housing all of my son's art projects from school!
pomelo / 5573 posts
Mostly we use ours to pile stuff on, does that count? On the rare occasion that we host at a holiday we use it but otherwise not really. Now you've got me thinking we should turn it into a playroom! It's right in the front door, though, so it might be weird. It would be nice to get the train set out of my kitchen though.
honeydew / 7230 posts
We eat dinner there every night, and sometimes lunch. We have bar stools and a learning tower at our kitchen peninsula, so we eat breakfast there.
pomelo / 5326 posts
We use ours when we have guests over and holidays. I'd say once a month or so. I enjoy having a formal dining area. We have a family room and a living room and DD uses part of the family room for her play area.
grapefruit / 4085 posts
@Foodnerd81: Yes, I can't wait to remodel but I think it's at least 2 years out.
nectarine / 2180 posts
We do use it when we have company. Our kitchen table can squeeze 6, but we can fit 6-8 a lot more comfortably in the dining room. Ours is right at the front of the house, adjacent to the front door so it's not an ideal location for a playroom. I wouldn't want to look at all the toys as soon as I walked in the door.
pear / 1809 posts
I'm feeling torn on what to do. Our downstairs also has an office space that I could make the playroom and keep the dining room, but DH really wants that office for himself, so he would not be too happy about losing it to the kids. Upstairs we have a bonus room, but my kids are only 1 and 3, so I don't want them playing up there by themselves if I'm downstairs cooking dinner or doing other stuff, and I don't want to have to sit up there with them all day long.
pear / 1809 posts
@Mamaof2: We own a table that seats 6 that we put in our current breakfast nook. The new house has a large space between the kitchen and living room, which would easily fit the table. I like the idea of having a larger table for when we host holidays (which is really only once a year) or have more people over, but we could just set up a folded table next to our current table.
squash / 13208 posts
@aprild: then I would use the dining room as a playroom - it wont be forever but it will be used a lot during the next 5 or so years!
We turned our formal living room into a playroom and have had zero regrets!
squash / 13208 posts
@aprild: if needed you could also make space in the formal dining room for a table at holidays then when its over its back to being a playroom!
nectarine / 2018 posts
@aprild: could you use the downstairs office as a playroom and the bonus room upstairs as an office? At least for now while your kids are little. Eventually you could flip them back when your kids are old enough to spend time up there alone.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
@aprild: I would make it a playroom for the next couple of years, then when they are older and can play upstairs more you can invest in dining room furniture that you love, too. I'd rather have it work for me 360 days a year than have a nice formal dining room for the five days I would want it.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
@catgirl: good idea-then the office upstairs would be quieter if the kids are down, too. Dhs office is near our kitchen and itcan be an issue if the3 yo is loud.
honeydew / 7283 posts
We use ours as a playroom and have our table in the kitchen nook. The play space / toy space is more valuable to me at this age.
pear / 1809 posts
@catgirl: @Foodnerd81: The problem with having his office be in the bonus room is the walls in the bonus room have a slope, so he doesn't have the vertical wall space for his bookcases. He wants to keep all his books in the office where they are easily accessible. Our bonus room looks similar to this
pear / 1961 posts
@aprild: i would definitely just set up the dining room as a playroom for now. i think it will get a lot more use, and you can always set-up the kids table or whatever in there when you have guests over for bigger family meals. the bonus room will eventually make a great playroom/family room/game room, but i'd wait to do that until your kids are older and will play upstairs by themselves (slash you are comfortable with them doing so...). Nothing's ever permanent! 
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
My house is old (1963) so it's built in the way of the times, with a separate dining room right next to the kitchen. I would say we kept it very casual, though, the furniture could be at home in a large eat in kitchen.
We have a separate playroom, but if we had a larger kitchen, I wouldn't need the dining area at all!
cherry / 189 posts
we have a table in our kitchen that we use for everyday eating. but it only seats 4 adults (plus two kids chairs squeezed in). So we use our 8-seater in the dining room if we have more than that number over for dinner. we also use it for playing board games, etc. since it's a large surface.
pineapple / 12793 posts
We do every day.
We can't fit three high chairs at our kitchen table.
papaya / 10570 posts
I use it every day..... as a dumping ground. 
The dining table always has piles of clean laundry on it and the pushchair and car seat get stored in there out of the way. It makes me sad because I love that room and would love to use it properly.... But it's the only place to put this stuff for the time being.
grapefruit / 4278 posts
We are not formal dining room people. We have an eat-in kitchen, use the den as a playroom and the formal dining space is kind of dead space. There's an elliptical in there now, so I'm hoping to turn into a sewing/exercise space.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
I don't know what is formal or not, but we only have 1 area as dining room and we do eat all our meals there. Aside from that, we have two stools at our kitchen counter. We used that more when we didn't have kids.
pomegranate / 3658 posts
I think formal dining rooms are slowly going the way of the dodo. Makes sense; I feel like when you buy a house you're paying for every square foot of it so it's a real shame to buy an entire room you're barely ever going to set foot in. Like most people these days, we have an open plan living/dining area, and we chose a pretty table that we can dress up or down to suit casual everyday or special occasion use.
In other words, if I were in your situation, I absolutely would convert the dining room to a playroom. Get some use out of it!
nectarine / 2765 posts
We use it every day for dinner. Then of course it's used for holidays, etc. A dining room will be a deal breaker when we move in the future.
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