we have a teeny formal living room, we put a piano in and now we're in there. Also, a corner contains Lego overflow. But only our best Legos.

Grobby you could come decorate my house anytime! After we take care of the hoarding situation, that is.

Grobby, it looks like a nice relaxing space!

Thanks mollysmom123, call me after you've declutterd. I've always loved to decorate and love being a Houzzer. I probably missed my true calling when I went into nursing, or at least one of my (not so nice) supervisors thought so - at our annual office party, held at my house, I overheard her say to someone, " I think she missed her calling." I still get a good laugh when I think about that and I love telling the story!
@ beverlynn. Thanks, it is comfortable. Trust me, it doesn't always look that way. Usually the sofa cushions are everywhere, food all over the island - it's a lake house, and we just hang out, eat, hang out, eat some more. At dark, we're on the deck to wind down with a glass of wine or a cold one.

Lake houses are meant to be relaxing! No better way to unwind at the lake than the way you do! Perfect ending of a great day!

I like an area separate from the area with the tv where anyone who wants to chat can be. It's most helpful when the guys want to watch a sports event or all of the cousins are over and need a place to play. The rooms are only separated by half a wall but it's still enough to have a designated space to comfortably do separate activities yet still have the feeling of being together.

We have a formal living room & dining room. Living room is used at holidays & always looks good. We use the dining room when we have guests for dinner. We also have a family room with the TV & fireplace. Our kitchen has an eating area between it & the family room that is used for our everyday meals. I just had plantation shutters installed on the dining room & living room windows after having sheers & valances for 25 + years.

Jessica, your post reminded me of a different Ray Stevens song about a squirrel getting loose in church lol. No wonder folks avoided the formal parlor in grandma's day. It was often called the front room in my family.
We do lots of living in our not so formal living room. It's tv free but the iPads And laptops do invade. Our sunroom has the sound systems, tv and computer. So that is where we veg like electronic zombies or send the kids while grown ups visit in the living room. Maybe I should start calling them the drawing room and solarium.

Love the art Jen!!!

I love my formal living room and use it daily to read and enjoy a cup of tea. It is a relaxing room filled with items I cherish.

Our living room is our "conversation" room. Aside from music there is no distracting TV in the room. We love to sit in there, have a glass or two of wine, and talk. Sometimes I'll curl up on the sofa and read or take a nap. I love my living room and wouldn't want to be without it!!

Pictures of the room - arranged a little differently now.

I miss my formal room, not I more or less use my great room as a formal room and use an upstairs loft as more of a family room. With little kids it's nice to have a space that is always clean and neat for unexpected guests.

In many old homes in North India we have what is called the 'deori', which is where you receive people you don't want to admit to your private quarters. Sadly this doesn't happen in modern flats, where often the front door opens straight into the living room. Many people try to maintain privacy by putting a screen in front of the door. I miss our old home where the front door opened onto a passage and the formal sitting room was the first room you came to. It was used only when we had guests, so always clean and tidy. The children were not allowed to play there, and even the dog knew it was off limits!

janbhan...I totally agree that it need to be off limits to children & pets...a quiet place where you & your guests can actually talk without interruptions...notice in this room there is no TV yet there is a piano & books...ahhhh ;)

Yes, I have a formal living room (he parlor) and it is used daily. It features antiques and in my mind, antiques are to be cherished and used so there is more history and memories added to them.

We have a formal living room but most of the daily living is done is the kitchen/family/tv space. I do love having a FL because flows nicely from the front door and hides all the clutter of daily living of the kitch/fam/tv space.

Yes, more so in the winter.

Yes I have one! I grew up in a house where we had one living/family room area and I would visit friends houses where they had these beautiful untouched rooms and always swore I would have one when I grew up. Now I do. It's closed up tight thanks to french doors about 360 days a year and that's the way I like it. I put my favorite, family heirlooms , art, framed pictures and furniture in there. It's the one room my kids, pets and hubby haven't destroyed.

We encouraged our kids to use the formal room so they could practice being quiet and civilized;

I'm old school because I grew in homes where we had a separate living room, dining room, den, etc. Though I have a great room, I still have the separate dining and living room. I'm not old and this notion that it's too formal is mind-boggling. When I have dinner parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas and various dinners throughout the year, I absolutely do not want my kitchen and breakfast nook to be the only area where people eat. I feel we've gotten too far away from acting civilized. That's fine sometimes, but sitting down to dinner at the dining room table or having conversation in the living room (yes I know that's practically unheard of nowadays) is how my friends, family and I roll.

My kids actually used the formal sitting room to do their homework, especially when there were several friends studying for exams together. No TV, no music, just a nice calm place to work quietly.

Like another commentator above, our living room turned into a music room, complete with grand piano, violin, viola, cellos, and shelves of music, even though there is a table set and a couch and two chairs. So our new "addition" with the vaulted ceiling became the new living room, with huge moldings and windows, and large bookshelves,etc. Oddly enough we still call it the "addition".

I want my formal living and formal dining to be two rooms but have big doors in between so you can close them off or leave them open to suit the situation :) Similar to these but different style/color

We have a formal living room, but it's not used that way. It's more of a library/movie room. Our fossil and rock collection is displayed in that room. The furniture is overstuffed and comfortable to watch a movie or read. By the way, the rooms pictured are gorgeous!

I think the best use of formal living room vs family room for us is the style change. We have family room, loft (680sq feet) and formal living room. The loft we are using as game room/gathering room and kids play room (train set etc). The family room is modern and is a large area that meets the kitchen and breakfast nook area. The formal in contrast will be Victorian style furniture matching formal dinning room.
I wanted to put some transitional style furniture there and call it a day but wife is winning the argument here.

Yes but it is RARELY used...same as the formal dining. The next house will have just one large family room considering it is all we ever use. Nixing the formal dining room as well.

We do entertain more than few times a year, thus we would get use out of it. Could we live without it sure, but like mentioned the fact that we can dine more formally and entertain more formally and still keep a very comfortable and modern family room is the benefit of the space.

IT'S ALWAYS CLEAN & TIDY WHEN GUESTS ARRIVE SO IT GIVES A NICE IMPRESSION, IT'S A QUIET PLACE SO WE CAN ENJOY THE FIREPLACE & READ OR JUST TALK-STORY TOGETHER...THE PIANO IS THERE BUT NO TV, SO IT'S A TRANQUIL RETREAT...FAM. RM IS AN ALTOGETHER DIFFERENT STORY FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES...WE NEED BOTH ;)

Vacuum b4 the party & mop after...once the full- house is deep cleaned, have 3 different groups over at different times so you get the max enjoyment with minimum prep-time.
The Southern woman in me entertains a lot, using china, silver, & crystal (& cloth napkins) when we can sit down at a very large table with simple chandelier lighting overhead. .....people say they love the change of pace from Hawaii's Chinese-take-out-box mindset ///paper products are less work but yield less of a 'special treat' for guests & kudos for us....we use outside areas too for grilling & alfresco dining on square-glass-dishes ...presentation helps set the stage for the meal & conversation...! Parties for 30-60 are easily accommodated if we use all the different areas of the common spaces instead of trying to jam everyone into a large family room.;) Post-Party Dishwasher & Clothes Washer are used to keep my happy-factor going ;) 'When's your next party?' is the most oft-asked question...so, Must be doing something right ;)

i wish ! then it would look something like this :)) of course i would never be able to decide between all the fabulous styles.

2 bedroom condo in oc california... no living room :( i also sometimes dream of a pink living room, lol. xoxo eva

dreamhomechicc, Your home has wonderful character, and is very beautiful. Love the fireplace!

I don't have a separate formal living room - just one space that I use for company but also to sit and read, watch a movie or chat with a friend. When I'm entertaining it seems next to impossible to get guests away from the kitchen though - no matter how enticing I think I've made the living room (food, martinis...)! Here are some photos but it's since been reconfigured so that we can sit on the couch and look out the window rather than facing the fireplace.

I love seeing how other people live, and use their space. The photos are fun to see.

The only room I could really call formal is my dining room. I must confess that we don't use it often, and then mostly to set up a buffet meal. I like good quality furniture, but nothing formal.

I do sit at the dining table to play on the computer, as the large window shows a nice mountain view.

I have one informal living room. That works for me!

Susan Mcfarlane, did you mean me or someone else lol? The picture I put up is not mine haha just from the internet as an example of how I would like doors in between the living and dining. Lol I'm not married or don't have kids yet so I don't actually have my own home I just like to plan in advance haha! :P

Funny! I'm sorry I misunderstood. The picture you posted is so cool.

My home is comfortable, but because of location, does not have a lot of bells and whistles. If we had bought a home further away from the mountains and out of the city, we could have gotten some pretty spectacular places for the same amount of money. Oh well.

Haha that's alright, but thanks anyway glad the picture inspired you! :)

In regards to your comment about the price of houses I have seen some amazing ones on real estate websites for less than it costs to buy an "average sized" home in my country lol which state are you based in just curious as I have always dreamed of living in usa! :)

Yes, we have young kids, so it is nice to have a room free of toys! There is a table in there we use as a game table, and of course the fireplace. It does get more use in cooler weather because of the fireplace. Nice to have a gathering room without a TV - more talking, playing games, watching the fire.

Nothing about our home or life are formal. We had knocked out the back walls of our dining room & kitchen & added a large family room, eating area next to the kitchen. We live in this room. Our two pit bulls use the old living room couch for looking out the window & sleeping during the day. Our dining room is at the end of the living room & only use it at Thanksgiving time & maybe one other time during the year. Lately have been trying to figure out ways to use the living room other than buying a new couch (dogs not allowed on) which we'll never use.

Yes, we have a large formal living room in that it is always ready for visitors, we use it a lot and in fact having a large family gathering next week too so even guest room will be used too.

We have a formal dining room next to it and a bathroom and vanity area in between them ( connects the rooms ) each have sliding doors.

When any family member has visitors, they go in there without having to 'uproot' other family members in family living room which is a more casual area and where you will find newspaper on coffee table or children playing with their toys- so formal room offers a quieter area too.

The style of our living room isn't more formal than other areas, but we use it primarily for meetings with tradespeople, service people, etc. When friends and family visit, we use the "family" room downstairs. So, yes, I'd say our living room is formal in purpose.

Indeed! Do not waste the space but embrace and enjoy!

We are building a new house and will eliminate the formal living room. Even when we had big house parties, everyone hung out in the kitchen. A few women might congregate in the lr and I would deliberately sit there with an afternoon tea, but it was mostly a well furnished and underused space.

We just put the kitchen in the living room. I love the view from this room, so we thought it would be amazing to make it our kitchen.

Our family room is nice and useful and the kids also have a rec room in the basement. I don't miss our living room.

Yes our formal living room is our Sunday NY Times reading room, a beautiful quiet, uncluttered, music room. No toys, no junk ahh we love it

Yes we do, we usually relax there after a long day, or when entertaining guests. My dogs sleep there too. It's something we use quite often.

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Not having a formal living room and a formal dining room is a deal breaker for sure. Even though the formal is used mainly for special occasions, it is still my favorite space to decorate. The den, or family room, is a perfect time to showcase my casual side and taste...besides, I get caught up trying to decide which of my 3 or 4 favorite sofas to buy and with the two living areas it's the guilt free perfect excuse to purchase two, versus only one, of my final favorites!

fit for use!