no, she stays under the table, reading her own copy of the journal. she's a very business oriented cat.

Good morning Shea! :) I like that model very much and the addition of the pool table too! :) That is the kind of space that just calls for some fun, and family and friends ..... I love that. :) Question? Are there more pictures of that home in your profile? I would love to peek. :) Okay... well, I guess I could just go peek. Lol :) Have a great day! Thanks for the response. :)

In a previous home, we got rid of the dining room because we rarely used it, and converted it to a sort of sitting room... which didn't get any more use, ha! Fast forward 10 years with kids and more family nearby, and we were excited to get our dining room back because we do enjoy hosting people for nice meals on occasion. I'll admit it doesn't get as much use as I'd like, maybe 5-6 times per year, but when I need it, it really comes in handy, plus it just looks so nice from our foyer. =) So I think it depends how much you'll use it. PS, yours is beautiful!!

Other. In my family we have a tradition of having Sabbath dinner every Saturday and the women of the family rotate who's making it. So it is immediate family plus whichever aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and any current significant others. Numbers vary every weekend, but generally in the 12-15 range. As soon as I get my formal dining area set up, I'll be added to the rotation. Used to be my mom & two aunts, now it's my sister and me and two cousins holding the dinners. I finally live geographically close enough to be in the rotation and am looking forward to being able to break out the good dishes every chance I get.

i'm always bemused when a new homeowner posts "what should we do with our dining room because we'll never use it". i just think to myself, 'patience, grasshopper'.

We used ours every day. It was a fairly large space adjoining the living room (separated by a half wall) which gave it a nice spaciousness. We only had a breakfast bar in the kitchen so all our dinners were served in the dining room. I liked not having to look at kitchen mess while I ate. It made the meal much more relaxing.

Good morning zazfuzzroc! Here is
the link, in case you didn't find it. It’s also nice to have here in case
others would also like to view! Thanks!! http://www.houzz.com/projects/540292/retreat-the-bridges-gilbert-az-2915-inspiration-plan

Thank you Rebecca,
for your kind words! So happy to hear you were able to you the space in
different ways!

Jessica
that is awesome family traditions are everything!

Thanks Shea, you have a lot of homes posted. ;)

PS.... the shower looks amazing! Love it! I think this is one of my favorites. :)

My smaller multilevel home had a living room and a family room and only a smaller dining area in the eat in kitchen. Since we rarely used the formal living room and our family room is larger, I turned the living room into a dining room for when we have dinner parties, holidays, and serves for a large buffet/drinks are for large groups. I couldn't be happier with the decision!

I may have cheated on the poll because we use our formal dining room for homeschooling as well as eating! We probably use it for dining once or twice a month on average. But I love having a flexible space. Our table seats 12 so we have a great space for school and other projects and also room to have dinner guests and to host holidays. Your room is beautiful, but if you don't love using it for dining, maybe you would love it more serving a different function.

Our dining room is only used for meals a few times a year, but my kids use it for homework every day. We threw a laptop in there, and let them take it over. I love having them close while I make dinner, but I love not having to ask them to move everything before we eat even more.

That's the only place I have a dining table, so, everyday. Why would you have a dining room if you don't use it? Ok, sometimes I eat in front of the TV or in bed, but mostly I use my dining room table, located directly outside the kitchen with a lovely view of outside.

We use our formal dining room daily as a workspace -- it's where my husband grades papers and does taxes (plenty of room to spread out), and I often park one of our homeschooled children there to work at the computer in quiet. You can shut both the swinging door into the kitchen and the French doors into the living room and really be separate and private when the need arises.

But it is still very much a dining room, with a big, long table (really too long for the room, but that's another issue . . . ). We spread out buffets there when we have parties. We eat there at holidays and whenever we have too much company to fit at our kitchen table, which seats six. Maximum number of people we've seated at our dining-room table is 15... I would never not have a formal dining room, as I love a space that's separate from the kitchen, where the pretty china really looks at home and the meal feels extra-special. And the pots, pans, and baking dishes are out of sight... though often at holidays I do set up a buffet on our little kitchen island, counters, and stovetop, rather than serving at the table. Our dining table is a narrow, refectory-type table, so this works well.

For daily meals, we do eat at our table in the kitchen: cozy, warm in the winter, informal. Both rooms have the same pretty view of our woodsy side yard, where currently we love watching bird life.

I have a cousin and they never used their formal dining area. She and her husband have two active children so they made it into a playroom!! Its perfect for a family with children especially because they entertain often!

My dining room gets used at least once a week. I bought a distressed table made of solid wood so I don't have to worry about scratches, etc with young children or their friends. If I want it to be more formal, I put a tablecloth and jazz it up. My kids also do their homework and projects on the table

Holidays always, Dinner Parties, Romantic Dinners for Two.

We prefer to do our (always casual) entertaining outdoors where we have a lovely pool and patio (we live in the South), so a formal dining room would be wasted space. I do have fond memories of Thanksgiving at Grandma's house in New England, though, with the formal dining room, fancy china, the works! Family is too spread out now, sadly, so those kinds of gatherings rarely happen anymore. :(

Quite often, these coming weeks have a large event going on so will be using it again.

We do not have a formal dining room. Our home is a little less than 800 sq. ft. total. However, if we had one we would certainly use it every day.

I voted "other" because we use it for holidays, when we have house guests, and at other times as well - at least once a month, sometimes more often. Not every day, but often enough for it to be an integral part of our home and one we specifically looked for after living for four years in a home with nothing more than a big eat in kitchen. Now we have an eating area in the kitchen, at the island, and in the formal dining room, as well as room for a card table set up if necessary - WHEW, we needed every one of those spots at times! We love our formal dining room and I think we will always prefer having that space in our home. Here's our formal dining room, all ready for this past Easter dinner!

My dining room gets used mostly as my office - laptop and paperwork are spread all over the table! But I'll clear it all as necessary for guests.

My dinning room is more of a part of the kitchen (older home). However I do have a nice round table that comfortably sits six, or snuggly fits up to eight. We eat there with friends or family regularly. If we have more people than that it extends to the patio and beyond...

Two or three times a month. We entertain friends and family and flow from kitchen to deck to dining room to sunroom to living room to family room. I love my dining room and will never sacrifice it again!

It's just the two of us but we still use ours quite often. It usually depends on what I'm cooking! If it's a nice meal we'll eat at the table. Pizza or sandwiches sometimes in the living room or computer room. Our house is older with a small living room so much of our visiting with friends is done over coffee at the dining room table or outside on the deck.

Since April my dining room has been filled with boxes containing kitchen cabinets waiting to be installed. The work on the kitchen is incredibly slow - my husband hates doing this type of work. When he finishes the wiring I am going to try doing the drywall (when he's at work). I can't wait to have things in order, if that ever will happen.

I voted "Everyday". I don't use it "Everyday" for formal, or dining but I do use that space everyday since it's right in the middle of the house, right in front of the patio doors, halfway between the bedrooms and the kitchen. It's the table, that's in the middle of it all, so although it doesn't get used for dinners much, it gets used, and used well.

We have a not terribly formal dining room (in a modern not terribly formal house) and no kitchen eating spot. When house hunting I walked into house after house after house with an eat in kitchen and an obviously unused dining room. I don't like eating while looking at chores (such as dirty dishes from cooking) so we have a dining room only. We use it every day for every meal.

Shea homes, I love the drapes! Nice pattern, any chance you could tell me the name of the pattern? Thanks.

Our dining room table is beautiful, but glass and has to be covered when used. Also, while I love the rug it is on, I fear food getting on it and staining thus, this table and rug remain a very attractive "vignette" in my Great Room. If I had it to do it over, I'd have purchased a great, distressed wood farm table and placed it in a flat weave rug. My bad....lol

We're about to use our formal dining room again Saturday night. We use it for any meal involving guests because our kitchen table only seats four.

maf, you can still do that.

We have game nights at least once a week and when there are too many people for our table, we move to the dining room.

We use it when there is a "supper with a subject" - a model that I've used over the years when a topic is offered with an invitation. The sit down table scene helps the discussion and hopefully the harmony. But those events are few - most of the time, the table serves as the buffet with folks just eating when they wish.

I don't have one at the moment, but when I move in to my new house I will have one

Daily when home. We eat breakfast at our island and our dinner in the dining room.

Sundays, for holidays, and for guests (our kitchen table area can only accommodate two!).

We use our only dining space, which is an exceptionally informal utilitarian 70 year old barn table, three meals a day, everyday.

I 'use' the table almost everyday...packages to be mailed, books to go back to the library, the next embroidery project.......or for a hand of cards with supper guests who get to eat in the kitchen......I'm happy to report that its not piles that get abandoned, but an ever changing thing,,,,,, with seasonal table vignettes. :) dining room is the passage out to the deck.

Our dining room is a reserved for relaxed dining with friends and family. There is something appealing to dine with fine china, crystal, and sterling silver. It serves to make our guests feel that they are special to us. Traditionally, our holidays are reserved for cooking large meals and we have places for at least 8 in our dining room. Since our home is styled in a colonial manner, the dining room is separated from the adjacent kitchen. That way no one has to see the pots and pans and cooking implements that have been used to prepare and serve the meal. This is very important for me inasmuch as everything has to be coordinated to be ready almost simultaneously and so, admittedly, the kitchen can become somewhat hectic at the last minute. I also don't want guests to see or talk with me as I prepare the meal--I require complete concentration. So they are elsewhere engaged in conversation with my wife until everything is ready. A tinkle of the dinner bell to summon them is all that is necessary. This is why an open floor plan where the kitchen is visible in the dining area and/or family room would not work for me.

In our open concept floor plans, we often design a formal dining room - with a focus on the dining and not on the formality. Formal dining rooms are traditionally isolated from the kitchen and other core living areas - and who wants to feel isolated (even if you're all isolated in a room together?)? For many of our homes and projects where the client does want a dedicated dining room space, we architecturally define the dining room without marooning it from the rest of the home's programming. Extra wide door frames - almost the entire width of the room, in fact - is one of our favorite ways to achieve the "formal" dining room without the old fashioned boxed-in feel.

One of our EarthHome projects: photo taken from the dining room into the adjacent kitchen. Notice the extra wide doorway that offers architectural definition to each room without confinement!

Just holidays and special occasions.

Why is never not a choice? I've lived in this house for five years. It came with a formal dining room all set up. I'm selling the furniture and turning it into a gym. We need to start living in the present and not in our parents and grandparents past.

We eat in our formal dining room every evening unless we eat outdoors and Saturday and Sunday morning for brunch. I often eat lunch outdoors in the pergola, but right now I have some plants that I am repotting on the pergola table, and so I have to finish that before I can clear it off for dining again.

We absolutely never eat in the kitchen - that is the worst place to eat, and I do not allow it. We have a peninsula, but there is a pot rack above that, and so it is not good for seating. Also, the less time spent in the kitchen the better. I do not consider the kitchen an entertaining space - it is a work space.

The picnic table in the pergola counts as our informal dining space, and unless it is raining (which is extremely rare), then the weather is perfectly fine for eating outdoors, as our daytime temperatures range from upper 60s in the winter to upper 70s in the summer, with again rare exceptions. Lately we have had a few days in the 80s, and so we did not eat outdoors. Our winter temperature are also usually in the 70s. I have a collection of four trays for taking food from the kitchen to the pergola, but we also cook outdoors often.

When I visited friends in Mexico City, every meal was in the formal dining room, with linen tablecloths, crystal, and silver and was served by servants. I was not allowed in the kitchen, as that was the domain of the cook. If I wanted anything at all, I had to ask the servants for it, and they would bring it me on a silver platter.

"Why is never not a choice?"

My thought too......I had a formal dining room in my old house and never used it. When I moved to a condo, I "re-purposed" the area for formal dining, and I am much happier than having an unused room.

Lars, I had to smile. You are using your dining room and that is great. If you ever come to the Canadian Maritimes, kitchen parties are a real thing here. Eating outside can be done here but you are wedging it in between our two seasons, winter and black fly season. The only time that eating outside is pleasant is in the fall after the first hard frost ( which kills off most things that bite). As for servants, they wouldn't want to live in a place where I have to drive an hour and a half to get groceries, see a movie or see a doctor.

"kitchen parties"

Yes! Kitchens rule! I say we should all expand our kitchens and ditch the dining room!

We don't have a formal dining room. We live in a 1920's foursquare so there are only 4 rooms on the main floor: the living room, foyer, kitchen and dining. The dining room is open to the kitchen and it is the only dining area that we have. Because it's our only dining space it's a casual space that we use every day.