Interesting article on the death of dining rooms. We have a formal dining table but directly across from the kitchen, not walled in. One of our kids has a small apartment where you have to either eat on your lap or at the island, the other has a bigger apartment with a dining table in the corner between the kitchen and the living room.
I can’t read the whole article (paywalled) but I adore our formal dining room and we use it all the time. Our house is 120 years old though.
But, my D is moving to her forth apartment (two in college) and now on to the second post graduation, and all had a space for a dining table plus room for barstools at the kitchen counter.
I can’t imagine buying or renting a place without a designated spot to sit down and have a meal.
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We have a living room/dining room/eat in kitchen, but we are actually taking down the wall, we will have built in seating by the 6 windows on one side, and an island that will seat 6. Right now we have a formal dining table which is about 8 feet away from our large kitchen table on the other side of the wall. Our dining room is rarely used, our 110 year old home is tall and narrow (we have a large wrap around porch, square footage is probably as big as the living room. ETA
All of our trim is chestnut and pretty big, our windows are original, the bay windows are nice and I think will look nice with a built in bench.
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On behalf of the 99.98% of NYC residents not living in an entire brownstone or a classic 6, what’s a dining room? 
We do have a dining area with real DR furniture, plue we installed a breakfast bar last year. I actually prefer the openness and improved flow from not having it walled in.
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We have a traditional dining room, plus big eat in kitchen (which we use much more often than dining room).
My kid rented an expensive, fairly new apartment that had an island between the kitchen and other open area. It would have been nearly impossible to put a sofa, coffee table and any kind of dining table in that “living area.”
The older apartment he lived in prior to the new one had a tiny kitchen, but plenty of room for table and chairs, plus living room stuff.
Something I could really live without is a formal living room. We use our less formal space all the time, but hardly ever use our formal living room.
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I love a dining room. It’s a non-negotiable when we downsize to still have a formal dining room. I’d give up an eat-in kitchen (we have that too) to make sure we have a dining room.
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We have a formal dining room…and we use it about four times a year. When we do, we are glad to have it.
The living room is my personal space. No TV, and it’s also where the piano is. So great for practicing that too. I’m actually getting ready to refurnish it with more casual furniture.
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I use my dining room every week-- weekend meals, anytime we have visitors (including kids and grandchildren). I’m with beebee-- if I had to downsize, the eat-in kitchen would be the first thing to go!
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I think it depends on if you have eat in kitchen space. If eat in kitchen space and you don’t need to ever seat 6 and up people I can understand ditching the dining room or just entertaining outside or very casual in living areas (plate on lap- don’t judge me) 
Weirdly our house we recently bought had no eat in kitchen space and the only spot for a dining table at all was along one a lot of the larger living area. Really kind of odd!
Just a few steps from the kitchen was what was called a 4th bedroom - with French doors and a closet 
. Our realtor suggested we turn that into a dining room - took down the closet doors and some trim and that nook holds an antique piece we use to hold bar stuff and the dining table seats 8. New flooring, lighting, etc really only use it for dining when the kids or other company are here. And other times with the French doors we use it for work purposes - myself or daughter/son in law when they come to stay use it for work/zoom calls.
My husband uses it when he wants to spread some bills or paper work out. I just have a rule that stuff does not get left on it! It’s the first room you see when you walk in. in
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Guess what I’m doing while reading this!!
But I only eat here if I’m by myself. If H or anyone else is here, we eat in the dining room. We’ve eaten in a dining room since we moved out of our apartment in the mid 90s.
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We have a formal dining room and use it also all the time. We are entertaining so much more with the kids gone. But… Now that’s it’s nice out our back yard for dinner is getting a work out lately.
My wife loved using her mother’s and grandmother’s China also. Kinda makes us feel grown up. Lol 
… We tend to host major holidays for 20+ also
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My DiL insisted on a starter house with a dining room, and didn’t she just eventually find one. They like to have friends over, and she wanted plenty of space to stage meals without being in the kitchen. She uses her grandmother’s china , too
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We had a formal dining room when we lived in the DC area. We almost never used it.
Our house here (100 years old, but remodeled several times) has a formal living room which is open to an eat in kitchen. In nice weather (May-October) we usually eat on our screened porch).
I don’t miss it.
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I would hate to not have a space for a designated dining table. It’s just me and hubby now, but we have plenty of dinner gatherings. I totally understand not having a designated dining area in a small space.
When I saw the article title, I felt sad. Gathering to eat is a fundamental human exercise.
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My next house will not have a formal dining room…but it will have a breakfast room area with a large farm style table.
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We have a small dining area in the kitchen that comfortably fits a smallish table for four. I appreciate having a formal dining room for times we have family for dinner or when we host euchre. We have a mid century teak extendable dining table that has a relatively relaxed vibe. The room is narrow, so we just have a narrow credenza in addition to the table. MIL wanted us to have her dining table when she downsized, but it is way too wide. She actually told us that we should change the living room to a dining room, since we also have a family room, and turn the dining room into a small sitting area. I don’t have that big a need to have a fancy dining table right there when you walk in the front door. In fact, while I like having a room for a dining table, I am not interested in a big, formal dining area at all.
We have a huge kitchen, with big table plus 4 bar stools at the breakfast bar. But we eat dinner most nights in the dining room, something we started doing during Covid. The dining room table is actually a bit more convenient to the fridge and stove/microwave than the kitchen table.
Our neighbors did that…they have a large family and do all the holidays and celebrations. The LR is a DR, and the former DR which was smaller is a sitting room with two very nice reading chairs, and a counter height table used for puzzles. And a bookshelf. It’s actually very nice.
Their large family room functions as a great room.
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But you don’t need a formal dining room for that. We remodeled our house to a more open floor plan and in the kitchen/dining space we have a big pine farmhouse table that seats 8 plus an island that seats 4. It’s all very informal though and flows into the den/living room. We are not formal people. We do not like a formal dining room or living room for us. Just wasted space.
My parents’ 3 bedroom brick ranch had an eat in kitchen with a round table that could seat the whole family and then a formal dining room that got used about 3 times a year for eating. My mom would sometimes spread out bills in there but that space could’ve been so much more.
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I also don’t in any way think not having a dining ROOM has any effect on dining together. If you eat at a table in the kitchen, or an island, or an outdoor table or even on tv trays in the living room that’s eating together!
I dislike formal. I would take a table for 8 in the kitchen or outside ANY day over a separate dining room.
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