I think your solution to use the front room as the dining room makes a lot of sense. That will make your house work in the best way for you on a daily basis. When you do host large holiday meals, I'm sure you can come up with ideas to minimize your trips to the kitchen.

I think it is great to use rooms in your home how you want them, so swapping out the dining and family room sounds like a good idea for you. If the biggest challenge is the distance, you can help close that gap by using a cart to move things between the kitchen and the dining room. There are plenty of different styles, so sure you can find one that works for you (wood, metal, rattan, etc.)

{{!gwi}}

I live in a 1913 house where the dining room is not next to the kitchen. I've often wondered about that, since most houses of the era I've seen were designed for efficiency. But the layout is original. It is a single floor (now condo; the two story house was designed as a duplex) and you have to walk from the dining room through a long hall (off of which are the bedrooms) to the back of the house to get to the kitchen.

Old houses purposely kept the DR away from the kitchen, which would have been hot, noisy, and full of "the help", none of which/whom would have been 'desirable' close to the DR!! Really :-)!

wow! I am so surprised that everyone is in agreement! I thought for sure that someone would think it is wierd! Well I guess we are going to try it then!!

My formal living room furniture can go other places in the house so I don't have to get rid of anything. Plus, my bedrooms will have more space because I really wanted to move my exercise equipment into the mudroom area.

So I guess the house will become less and less formal and you walk towards the back of the house. Makes sense I would think.

thanks everyone!
-renee

I'll play devil's advocate.

When purchasing a home, I invariably reject those whose dining room is not adjacent to the kitchen. I usually see this in home that have had received an addition at some point, and it just hits me wrong to have things tacked on ungracefully. I'm looking at home now, and I've noticed they often have no chairs in the DR. I guess this is to make it seem less tight. It works for home shopping, if not for living!

That said, a lot of old homes where the entry is into the big dining room also have a bathroom off the DR. That's not so great either.

But once I'm in a home I repurpose the rooms however I feel necessary. For example, the TV is in the "formal" living room of my home and the family room has no TV because that's how it lives well for us.

My peeve is having a family room open to the kitchen. Make a mess in the kitchen and the whole house seems dirty!

I live in a old new england farm house. I have 2 capes that are connected. One built 100 years after the other. I have a kitchen and then a large breakfast room and then the dining room. I bought the house because I LOVE dining room. We use it 3 nights out of the week at least. I converted a large room at the back of the home into a master bedroom. I think your idea is great. I cant wait to see pics. jenny

My step son deliberately designed his new and very upscale home that way! His large kitchen is open to the family room, they call it the 'sun room', which in turn has French doors to the dining room. There is nothing awkward about it, it works great and looks beautiful!

Renee, if your current dining room isn't large enough for your family, it makes sense for you to swap your living and dining room. However, I agree with jamies and would prefer to have the dining room adjacent to the kitchen, as is traditional. It's so much easier to carry food to the dining room and dirty dishes back to the kitchen if they're close by. Moving the dining room away from your kitchen could hurt your resale value if the change isn't easy to reverse. If it's just a matter of changing the furniture, it shouldn't matter. Dining rooms typically have a chandelier of some sort centered over the table, but it would be simple to change it out for a ceiling fan or other type of overhead light.

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Old houses purposely kept the DR away from the kitchen, which would have been hot, noisy, and full of "the help", none of which/whom would have been 'desirable' close to the DR!! Really :-)!
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Larke, are you talking about medieval English manor houses? Newport cottages in the Gilded Age? That was never typical for middle-class North Americans in any era. In the South, before the advent of air conditioning, many wealthier homes to have "summer kitchens", often in separate buildings away from the main house, but these were not common among the middle class. If you look at floor plans for older middle-class homes, the dining room is typically close to the kitchen. In some of the Newport cottages, which of course were used exclusively in the summer, the kitchens were located in the basement because it was cooler there, and a dumbwaiter was used to transport food and dirty dishes between the kitchen and the dining hall above.

Also, in older, well-built homes, noise was not a huge issue because the walls were made of plaster and the doors were heavy, solid wood such as oak. Modern homes are MUCH noisier. (I grew up in a very solidly built Victorian, and the house was relatively quiet, even in a household of 8 people.)

You can add a serving buffet in the dining room (if there is enough room). Always nice to have some items placed within quick reach during a dinner party.

Totally understand about wanting the family room in quick view with little ones. That was the main reason I liked our current home. The living areas are all open making keeping an eye on babies (who are now big kids) very easy.

We have a 1960 ranch with a large formal living room (15x25) and a small dining room. We flipped them and love it! The house has a central fireplace and glass across the back, so it is a sort-of-open floor plan. The reconfigured space works perfectly for us. No worries about whether anyone else will like it-if we decide to move, we can always put it back in the traditional manner to show it, so that is definitely not a concern. I bet you will love having your space switched up, too.

If we ever sell we would probably just move the dining room table to the kitchen. That is how it was when we bought the house however we wanted more counter space and added a moving island so now we have a smaller table in the kitchen. so really, our house never had a dining room in the first place. It is an old farmhouse so I wonder if it ever had one.

Jamies: our downstairs bathroom is actually off the kitchen (opens right up into it!) but we are used to it now. Old house buffs learn to live with weird things like that. I actually have found it really useful because I can run the dogs right into the bathroom tub if they get muddy and not have them dirty up any rugged areas. But yes, it would be nice to have the bathroom in a more private place! We do have a second one upstairs in the hall. Much more privacy up there!

How are things going with your room repurposing? I have been contemplating the same exact move. We have a relatively new home, 2 story farmhouse concept. Kitchen,dinette and what is now being used as a game room are in the back of the house and they all run together. There is a small built in cabinet dividing the dinette and game room. There are only 2 of us, we have no kids just 11 cats. We purchased a very large leather sectional a few years ago and put it in what we call the living room. As you walk into the front door, it is the room to the left. It is long and narrow but works well with the sectional. It is however on the southwest corner of the home so it can be very warm in the summer. With all the leather, we have to keep the wooden blinds closed to protect the leather from fading which helps on the heat but in the winter it gets cold in there because we're closing the blinds and the winds get pretty strong. I am considering moving the living room to the back of the house in what is now the game room, we will move the game table to the dinette area and as a result use our beautiful piece of furniture more often for both formal and informal dining and of course poker. My challenge is the large dining room. Yes, for the holidays it will be terrific, I have 5 brothers and about 25 nieces and nephews. There just isn't a house big enough to seat us all at the same time however I figured if I used benches I could accomodate more people than by using chairs. My challenge is that for the 5 times a year we are all together the room will be great, what do I do with it the other 360 days of the year? We have an office to the right of the front door as you walk in. I am thinking of putting a large comfy chair with a floor lamp in one corner for reading but just can't figure out the rest of the room. Any ideas? Oh, and for some reason the builder put in turquoise carpet in both of these rooms so I have to work around that. It is a very good quality carpet with a very good padding. Someday we will replace with hardwood floors but just can't do that now.
As for decorating, that's another subject matter and I don't want to bore you now. Any thoughts, imput etc. would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Your plan sounds like it makes perfect sense and fits you/your family's needs. We have a relatively small dining room off the kitchen and a large living room on the other side of the central hall, which frankly doesn't get a whole lot of use, given that we also have a family room and a sunroom. We debated "repurposing" the rooms, but didn't want to part with our current set-up for various reasons. Instead of flipping, we compromised by keeping the DR as a DR for use with 8 or less guests. At the back of the formal living room I bought a large Duncan Phyfe drop leaf table with 2 leaves. That will be used for hosting holidays and very large dinner parties. When the table is closed it functions as a library table.

As for resale, I think you'll be fine because the perspective buyers will see the flexibility afforded by the layout of the house. That's very appealing to homebuyers. Lots of people don't care much about a formal dining room today. Also, lots of people do not want a "cookie-cutter" home that is predictable.
As for carrying food, as long as you can serve buffet- sytle in the kitchen you should be fine. Also, as has been mentioned, having a sideboard near the table will serve as a place to place food that you bring to the new DR from the kitchen. Good luck and please come back and post pics!

Hi,
We made the move and we really like it. We have to still put some stuff away but we have SO much more room for the dining area now. I think it will be much nicer for people. Also some family members thought the old dining room was too cold and there is a fake fireplace in the new dining room so they can sit next to that if they are too cold.

I think it will work out very nicely. We usually eat in the kitchen so it isn't like we will have to walk back and forth everyday, just for special occasions. I don't think it looks weird either.

We bought a beautiful rug for under the table and a matching runner that runs from the dining room to the kitchen so that really pulls it together also. I will have to try to take pics when everything is together. We only have a little bit of time in the evening to work on things (after the baby goes to bed)

-renee