Party buffet service, meetings, family fondue night, poker/cribbage/board games, sleepover pancake breakfasts, gift wrapping, and gallery wall layouts.

lol Keitha :) I use mine for family dinners, but lately with all the family members passing away past few years, last being this past Sunday, it's not used as much as before.
Since it's a 112" long with 4 leaf table, I also use it during Sept-October to collate 70 some annual calendars that I sell. It's the only spot in the house I don't have to worry about the dogs knocking something off of :D

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, everyday. It's also where my daughter likes to color and where I go through the mail.

We don't have a dining table! and yes, I'm happy about it. We eat on the kitchen island (or in front of the TV, or the computer, or out!) However, we had my mother, his mother, his aunties, some great uncle, cousins etc on Boxing day - they were not terribly impressed with our "help yourself after waiting on line and eat on your knees" style we had going.

So the very next day we ordered a Skovby table, but a drop leaf one - http://www.barkerandstonehouse.co.uk/furniture/dining-room/Display-Cabinets/Oslo-SM101-MultiFunction-Table/sizes-1830-65263/ - I refuse to have a large piece of furniture in the house to use once or twice a year.

My mother-in-law uses hers to do jigsaw puzzles.

Dinning room is not really used..If we have guests, then yes, we would use it since the table at the breakfast area has 6 chairs only (it can be extended, but I don't think I'll ever try to extend that heavy glass table; it would probably just dent my floor). I store all my china in the dinning room sideboards.

Haven't seen th surface of my diningroom table in years....as a visiting friend once commented...."Your house looks so...uh...academic...." But we do have grandiose plans to finally get it cleared in 2014....

We eat every meal there. Kitchen table is mostly for laundry lol

My dining room table is currently used to feed the cats. I can't feed them on the floor or the dogs will eat their food. We use the kitchen table for meals. The dining room table's chairs need to be replaced or mended.

Small condo with combo kitchen/dining/living area, so the table gets used every day for some daily meals, family/holiday gathering dinners, crafts, jigsaw puzzles.

Isn't this where everyone else collects all the paperwork to do their taxes too? I know we can't be the only ones, lol!

My table serves every purpose you can imagine. My purse sits there, items to be returned,
mail, receipts, repairs ,etc. if someone comes to visit, I slide all the stuff down to the chairs. Works beautifully.

Only use mine when guests. Guilty of eating in front of tv while watching the news. Breakfast and lunch at work through the week. My dining room is the first room you see from the foyer. I am diligent about keeping it clear of clutter., even food !

Our dining room table is used for all meals. I co-opted the breakfast room for my study and our kitchen table is too small to eat much except maybe toast and coffee. I also sit at the dining room table to read the morning papers. The table can extend to seat 12, but usually it is sized for six. The photo shows it with a tablecloth, which it usually doesn't have. It is in a combination room with the family room, TV, etc. A buffet separates the two.

Yes, I sometimes sort papers on it, but because we eat there it is cleaned up promptly.

Our DR table is the only place we have to eat other than our laps in front of the TV, which we sometimes do. Presently, it is set up to seat 6, so often one end of the table is where my husband and I eat while the other end might contain the newspaper, mail, items to return, , items recently purchased, etc. I like the concept of keeping it clean at all times, but that is not going to happen, because it's not reasonable.

I never had a dining room before, my house currently has an eat in kitchen (which is tiny). However, my new house (which is in the renovation phase) does have a dining room and I can't wait to use it. In addition to eating, I will probably use it for games with friends and doing projects.

Projects, paper work, and dinner when we have company.

Also sewing on the sewing machine, which is not very frequent, thank goodness!

Don't have a dining table unless you consider a pair of sawhorses with a piece of plywood on them, a table?

We do have a dining room table we use at family get togethers, usually holidays; otherwise, my husband and I love to sit at our new-house dining booth in the living room adjacent to the kitchen/dining.

taxes

prepping for some very lousy cooking.

When we built our house we opted to use the dining room square footage as a home office with french doors. We have a spacious breakfast room with a table that can go from 48" round to 48" x 72" with leaves, when we have company. I live in SW FL where entertaining is casual and open floor plans are very popular.

Our dining table rarely gets used so I recently decided to start using it as a cutting and layout surface for my art quilt projects. It's the largest flat surface in our home, has removable protective pads to guard against scratches and works great for all the initial prep work before heading off to the sewing machine. I try to keep the mess to a 24 hr minimum so it's not a continual unsightly, creative mess!

Mine sits there collecting dust. If I could I would have not purchased the house with it in it and gone for a full on open concept space relying on just the breakfast nook, or kitchen counter bar area where we eat 95% of all meals.

Currently in the process of tearing ours out. Making a more great room concept. Original was never used and we finally got tired of guests crowding into kitchen area.

I never use it, being as I live alone. However, I love to decorate it in keeping with each holiday.

The dining room table is just used for eating dinner. The nook table is used for everything but eating.

Family meals, formal meals, pizza because we're too tired to cook. I sometime use it for sewing, my husband sometimes uses it for work. Lots of other stuff. It's in our living room/dining room, so it's more social than a separate dining room.

I'm sitting at my dining room table with my laptop as I write this! Sometimes you just need a change of scenery from the home office, so the dining room table is my automatic go-to :)

If I had a dining room table, it would be used regularly to have extended family over for Sabbath dinners. I might also use it to do puzzles and play board games with friends. Most of the types of entertaining I do would probably use the table as the gathering place, the exception being movie nights where we gather around the TV with popcorn, apples and cheese.

"How will you use your table?" is the first question we ask when a client inquires about a custom dining table. It's always so interesting to hear the response, as they differ so greatly. This is an interesting thread. We have found in recent years that flexibility with a dining table is very important to most of our clients. They want use it daily for eating, working, playing, and also want to be able to clear it off and make it beautiful for seating guests. Many of our clients are interested in efficient uses of space, so they don't intend on a dining room that is only used for formal occasions. I think this has become a very common trend - economy directed - fewer empty rooms waiting for someone to use them. The comments above that indicate a new use for a dining room would follow this trend. Thanks for asking this question - it's been interesting.

Just finished a jigsaw puzzle on it last night. Sewing projects, games, most meals, laptop time, reading, good conversations. The cat has a basket on it full-time except when company comes. It's a big room with large opening to kitchen, so there's a sofa in the room, too.

Our oldest cat is very generous in letting us use his table. It's a serving area, work station, dining area for just us or for dinners up to 6. Used to be our watch TV and eat dinner area (there is a small TV adjacent to the lighted cabinet).

The purpose of my dining room is to make me happy. It is always lovely...no maintence. Because we only use for guest and parties.
When we decided to custom build I did not even want a dinning room, but fell in love with plan with beautiful dinning space. Now it is my favorite room.

When we renovated we turned the "front room" into the dining room, it has a fireplace and fits 12 comfortably, this room faces the street. When we entertain indoor/outdoor w/ apps and cocktails (sorta stand up) the dining room table is where some people go for quiet conversation and sometimes older people sit there to converse and watch everything. Our great room will hold a round table for 6 if needed. I expect that when we sell that this room could be a sitting room/library as it is quite versatile.

I planned the house with one main place to eat. Most people don't use their dinning room. Mine is very flexible with a table that goes really large with leaves. Today I cut quilt pieces with the sun shining on me. We ate dinner on the other end.