You don’t use your dining area as much as you thought you would, so what to do with the extra space?
Some buyers already know they wouldn’t use the spacious dining room for its intended purpose. Hence, these buyers repurpose the room into a den for media and entertainment.
They installed built-ins at one end to hold the TV, books and keepsakes, put a bench with cushions at the other end and brought in comfortable armchairs.
What to do if you don’t have a dining area but have guests?
When they entertain they set up their dining table on the deck in the backyard or gather around the large coffee table in the living room.
Once an essential component in a home, the dining room is now being regarded as something of a waste of space.
The trend can be traced back to the rise in popularity of the great room and the facts of modern living — working parents who come home at different times, kids on different schedules.
But now, dedicated dining rooms are being replaced with something that will actually be used: an office, TV room, even a guest suite.
For empty nesters, they may decide to knock down the wall between the dining room and kitchen. Therefore, the kitchen will be expanded, a long table will take up the space where the wall used to be and the family can dine there or outdoors.
Both for everyday eating and dinner parties, the action is moving from a dining room to just about anywhere else.
People are wanting to make their rooms a lot more multi-purpose, and that includes an extension into the outdoors.
Lifestyles are dictating this. Everybody is so busy. Everything is more casual. People are thinking differently about how and where they eat.
They’re usually small and blocked off, and that’s not how people want to live anymore. So if they’re doing a remodel anyway, they knock down the dining room walls. It’s a more cost-effective project and can have a drastic effect on the whole home.
Removing barriers
What does the trend away from the traditional dining room say about the ritual of gathering together as a family, setting a proper table and enjoying a meal?
There’s no question that there’s a move away from a nuclear family sitting down together and sharing a meal. Although combining the acts of cooking, eating and entertaining can actually be healthful for family and friendships.
There’s something really great about taking out the barriers between the kitchen and the eating and living spaces. The old model was based on some aristocratic notion that cooking is something that somebody else does for us.