<p>We have a kitchen that opens to an eating area that opens to the family room. That’s where we spend most of our family time. </p>
<p>Like others, our living room is our piano room. S2 is the only one who plays, so it doesn’t get used much anymore. Our dining room is our catch-all room (extra groceries that can’t fit into the pantry, copier/printer is in there, things to be donated are organized in there, etc).</p>
<p>Last year we built a new house with no dining room or living room. Very few of the available plans offered either. We have a large eat in kitchen and the space is larger than my previous dining room. I love this new smaller house and don’t miss either room one bit.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4–I have an extra large round dining table (70") which I adore. It seats a lot of people and is great for conversation. But we didn’t use it much as I would have liked except for holidays because it was too hard to pass food around. So I bought a 40" lazy susan for the table. It’s absolutely perfect. And fun. That size is not common but can be found on-line (I lucked out and actually found one at a consignment shop).</p>
<p>I like my living room (all the pianos and guitars are there) but if I were doing anything different I would ditch my pretty light colored couch and get one that I wouldn’t feel guilty lounging on. The ability to USE your furniture without worry is a biggie to using a room. But I still like it because it’s uncluttered and makes me feel that at least ONE spot is cleaned up!</p>
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<p>About 6 months ago we purchased a 5-year-old custom home. The living room and dining room (aka the great room) was carpeted. For me, there is nothing worse than a carpeted dining room! We laid hardwood flooring that matches perfectly to the exisitng hardwood in the kitchen and entry. The previous (original) owners must have run out of money because there was no patio out the dining room doors. We created an outdoor living space out these doors rather than out the family room doors because the dining room doors were on grade level and about the same distance from the kitchen as the family room. </p>
<p>For the first time ever in my 40 years of home ownership, we now use our living room and dining room daily!</p>
<p>Shrinkwrap…in the Midwest where I grew up, the front room was another name for the living room.</p>
<p>My family dont use living room, but our dog (akita breed) love one old chair there and spend a lot of time. Here is some great living room designs:
[Living</a> Room - browse articles by category Living Room](<a href=“http://flolly.com/category/home/living-room/]Living”>http://flolly.com/category/home/living-room/)</p>
<p>I have an eat in kitchen with no dining room. Do eat in there most of the times but it’s not unusual to eat at the large coffee table in my living room. I have two large bedrooms on my second floor - one of which I am currently using as my guest room and the other one is kind of like a family/2nd living room room - bookshelves, couches, my drums and guitars. It gets used when I have people over - It’s the biggest room in my house so it makes for a great hang out room. There is also a futon in there so it works as a backup guest room if I have extra guests over. That being said, the entire second floor is really only getting used when I have guests over.</p>
<p>Ideally, if i ever get around to finishing my basement, that will be come the family rec room and I’d consider putting my bedroom on the second floor and have it take up both rooms - a large bedroom and a sitting room. Then I’d make my current bedroom into a guest room. My fourth bedroom is currently my home office.</p>
<p>Having an upstairs gameroom was a requirement when we moved here and I happily gave up the formal living room to get it. We do have a dining room which has been used maybe 5 times in 7 years. If it didn’t have an arched entry from the foyer I’d have put in french doors and used for my hobby (stained glass).</p>
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<p>I was just thinking about that this morning. I’ll get online and see what I can find.</p>
<p>Nrdsb4–most are Amish or other custom sites for the size turn table needed for a very large table. They can be made to match your table and can be art pieces by themselves. You might find a local craftsman to do it for you. I don’t know your size table but if it’s 70" like mine, you don’t want smaller than 40 inch Can be expensive (unless you happen on one like I did) but definitely worth it. And the art factor is not to be overlooked–I’m drooling over a few still and may upgrade some day.</p>
<p>The back of our house is the dining room, doorway to the kitchen, the kitchen is eat-in which is open to the family room. We have actually eaten in the dining room less than 10 times in over 10 years.</p>
<p>Reading that some people still like the separate dining room gives me hope that when we move someday, there will be a buyer who likes it.</p>
<p>In my plans for if I got a BIG pile of money, and didn’t want to move, I’d change it to be what Wellspring’s house sounds like to me from her post. The wall between dining and kitchen would come down. The kitchen would run all along the back wall of the current kitchen into the dining room back wall and up the side of the dining room. lots and lots of cupboards and maybe a bench or something. The big table would go there. Then I’d have a LONG island in the old kitchen space and it would angle into the current kitchen table area. It would seat 4-5 at barstools, maybe more. This would be the casual seating area because the big TV is in the family room. Probably talking miles of granite…dream dream dream. Or, I’d just get awesome kitchen cabinets in a different config than I have now.</p>
<p>The living room is in the front of the house. It is a pretty room to look at when you enter the house. It has a fireplace, but we hardly use it…Really have to make more fires. Now that we have a dog, she sits in the living room window and sometimes plays “chase me” around the coffee table, so we sort of use that room now. We use it so little that you would believe the 17 year old cream carpet was only a few years old, and we moved here when the boys were little kids!</p>
<p>No formal dining room in my next house! If I didn’t have a study (carved out of what the builder intended to be the laundry room) I would have made the dining room a study/office.</p>
<p>We only use the living room when DH and I want to watch two different TV shows, but the dining room is used for every meal. The kitchen has an area that was designed to be used as a breakfast nook, but it turned out to be the perfect place for the guinea pig cage (yes, she is totally spoiled!).</p>
<p>We use our formal dining room at least a couple of times a month. We like to entertain and it’s fun to eat in there. We added built-ins to our formal living room and – horror of horrors, a wall mounted plasma tv. Now it’s cozy and inviting, so we use it. The “family room” is off the kitchen and larger and serves a different purpose. </p>
<p>It took awhile, but we figured out how to use both.</p>
<p>I’m actually not that big on the “no formal dining room” and just a family room, no living room concept. I think our living spaces are better with some definition.</p>
<p>What we discovered when we moved into this house with the “great room” was that there was no place to send the kids and their friends after dinner when the adults wanted to remove from the dinner table and continue their conversation. We had to add a family room to take care of the problem. As I said above, I am not a fan of great rooms. And perhaps it’s a matter of climate–I can see the appeal of an open floor plan in a hot climate, but frankly, in winter, I want a cosy room in which to curl up and read.</p>
<p>We have always lived in old spaces and instead of a living room or front room have had parlors.</p>
<p>We sit in the Parlor, with a fire in winter. We eat all meals in the formal dining room, with table cloth, silver and china, and a fire in winter. No eat in kitchen. No family room. However this is the empty-nesting dream house, not the house in which we raised children.</p>
<p>In that house usually it was only adults sitting in the parlor, except for special occasions. Children had a play room, and later as teenagers tv/game table spaces. Dinner was in the dining room, but other meals in the eat-in kitchen. Except for when meals were eaten in the car between various activities.</p>
<p>When we moved into our house more than 20 years ago, we had lots more rooms than furniture. So we had an empty dining room, and a living room we used as a large playroom. We ate our meals in the eat-in kitchen, and hung out/entertained/otherwise lived in the family room. </p>
<p>Now we have furniture for every room but still rarely use the dining room (Thanksgiving, Christmas, maybe another 3-4 times a year). We put the Christmas tree in the living room and open gifts there, but most guests wind up sitting at the kitchen table for conversation. (So the furniture is holding up nicely.)</p>
<p>The dining room table gets extensive use because my husband can’t resist a flat empty surface. Right now it’s covered with tax stuff.</p>
<p>I may be the only person on the planet who doesn’t like the open floor plan. I don’t want to see the dishes or hear the noise from the kitchen if I’m in the family room. And, I didn’t want a tv in viewing of the kitchen. </p>
<p>We have an eat in kitchen, and a dining room and living room.</p>
<p>What worries me now is that this colonial style is completely out of favor now. Will I ever be able to sell a house that has a living room and dining room?</p>
<p>Eye, you’re not even the only person in this thread who dislikes the open floor plan. It seems to be a popular dislike.</p>
<p>We turned our living room into a wonderful master suite with a huge bathroom and closet and then turned the former small den into an office and the former master bedroom into a family room. It’s a 60 year old house, so the rooms are very discrete. We do have a huge kitchen with a breakfast area. The formal dining room gets used a half-dozen times a year. Guests always hang out in kitchen.</p>
<p>If we were to design the perfect house to retire in, I would do away with all formal rooms. We’ve rarely ever use them. </p>
<p>We had an open floor plan in our last house. I don’t really miss it. I think it’s nice when the kids are young so you can keep an eye on them from the kitchen but noisy otherwise. The nice thing about having a less than open floor plan is overnight guests (or my son and his friends) have a room to go and watch TV with a little bit of privacy and quiet. Our current family room is right off the kitchen.</p>
<p>Everything comes and goes. I think open plan will have its day and go away. Or so I hope.</p>