Do you have a room in your house that you hardly ever use?

[luvflorida]

I'm used to living in a house where all the rooms are used. We've always had houses with a living room and a family room, and both rooms had televisions and were inviting, comfortable rooms. I've never been one for 'look, but don't touch' furnishings or rooms. Think sturdy LLBean stuff.

We are renting a house in Arizona and I've noticed that most of the houses here are designed with a room that is somewhat separate from the rest of the house. The house we're in has a large open-floor plan, with a kitchen and family room that extend the entire back of the house. The only cable hook-up is in the family room, so that's where our tv is. We find that we spend most of our time at the back of the house, either in the kitchen area or the family room.

The living room is the room you walk into when entering the house. It's quite large and doesn't have a cable hook-up, so I'm guessing it would be the more formal room in the house. We bought a three-piece living room set for the room, along with a few bookcases, end tables, coffee table, and area rug. It's nicely arranged and quite appealing-IMHO anyway! I was thinking how chic it looked (no tv, Wii, toys, etc.). It doesn't look 'lived-in' at all.

Anyway, DS28 came to visit a few weeks ago and we all sat around in the living room when he first got there. Up until that point, we had hardly ever been in the room other than to walk through it to get to the rest of the house. After a few minutes, DS looks around and says, "So, what room is this? The lobby?"

That was when it really hit me that we've always used every room in our houses, and they were always inviting, comfortable rooms! So much for chic!

So, do you have a room you don't use in your house? We've always had a separate dining room in every house, too, but it doesn't always get a lot of use.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I do not live in a house big enough for such a luxury.

 

[Angelhalo]

We have lots of rooms we hardly ever use but not because they are off limit or anything. DH and I have no kids so its just the two of us in a 4 bedroom house that also has a game room and a formal living room and dining room.

We never use the formal living room. We don't even have furniture for it and we have been here almost a year.

We never use the formal dining room except on holidays.

The game room has chalkboard wall, chinese lanterns, a karaoke machine, a flat screen tv and a pool table but it only gets used once every 2 or 3 months when we have a guest over.

Then we have three bedrooms that are hardly ever used. One is the guest bedroom.

One is my sewing room that I have still neglected to set up.

And the other bedroom has my husband's soundproof booth in it for him to play his saxaphone. Which he does every...oh....once in a blue moon! LOL!

 

[SCHBR'smom]

With 5 kids, there are no extra rooms in the house. The study was converted to a bedroom, the formal living was converted to a bedroom, and the formal dining is the playroom.

 

[clovergirl5]

We live in a pretty big house, 3600sq feet. 5 bedrooms and 3full baths. We don't use the dining room. More for looks. We use the breakfast nook and the island bar for meals. Sometimes the couch

 

[luvflorida]

With 5 kids, there are no extra rooms in the house. The study was converted to a bedroom, the formal living was converted to a bedroom, and the formal dining is the playroom.

DD19 would like to convert our "lobby" into her own personal dance studio. Um...no.

I'm wondering if many people have formal living rooms that don't get a lot of use?

 

[Stargazer]

We have an extra bedroom that we hardly ever use -- it's more of a guest room/den and we hardly ever have overnight guests, so ... it kinda gets forgotten!

 

[funkychunkymonkey]

umm sorta! It started out as a playroom for visting children, then a art room, then a bedroom and now its a junk room. I only go in there to clean it (and get books). Right now its a disaster.

 

[4nana]

We live in the same 2500sf split foyer 5 Brm 3 bath house DH built 30 yrs ago when we had 4 children romping the nest. Since we're an empty nest now, we only use top portion, in which our newest fave room is the nice sun room he added.

 

[wendypooh]

We have a formal living and dining room - neither are used "a lot" - but they do get used. I also have 2 guest rooms that don't get used too much - (these were our older boys bedrooms - they've since moved out).

We use the keeping room more than anything - that is where the tv is.

We have the game room too - which gets used when people are here, otherwise not so much.

We also have a bathroom that NEVER gets used!!!!

 

[aprilgail2]

I have an upstairs with 2 spare bedrooms that we never ever use- I honestly can't remember the last time I was up there!

 

[hellokitty86]

We have a formal dining room that we only use for holidays or family get togethers and we have an office and guest bedroom that don't get much use...But somehow we have 2 1/2 bathrooms that manage to get used all the time and there are only two of us?

 

[disykat]

We use every room. I like it that way.

We do have a family room where we do most of our tv watching and it a big room with the kitchen and dining "nook." However, our living room, although a bit fancier furniture-wise, has an armoire that houses the old tv and the kid's game system. It also has the piano. Because of those things it gets lots of use. Our formal dining room space is adjacent to the living room and is set up as a den with a wall of bookshelves and a very large desk with two computer stations.

We have 1850 sq ft and no extra bedrooms, so any extra room will come as the kids grow up and more out. However, the way we have it set up, dh and I will use all the space (except the bedrooms) even with just the two of us.

We did build a room under our house in part of the crawlspace (we live on a hillside so it has the necessary height) that we have to go outside to access. It has storage, exercise equipment and an old couch and tv. Depending on the time of year there are times it goes days without use.

 

[C.Ann]

Up until that point, we had hardly ever been in the room other than to walk through it to get to the rest of the house. After a few minutes, DS looks around and says, "So, what room is this? The lobby?"
.

 

[luvflorida]

Honestly, it was hard to decorate, too. The room has very high ceilings and the walls are red. Now I can't think of the room as anything but a lobby!

 

[snookiedoodles]

We have a room that only holds the computer....I sit in it for about an hour a day looking at Disney stuff!!!


Only joking!!

 

[Pakey]

Our last house was like that. When we had it designed, I just had to have those formal rooms. 10 years in that house and the white furniture in those rooms still looked untouched. In fact, the furniture was sold with the house. I also had a room for my collection of dolls that was a "don't go in there" room.

Our new house is much smaller (built after the kids were adults). We still have a formal dining room that never gets used (we use the nook instead, even if we have people over) but the rest of the house is more functional.

 

[Boston Tea Party]

Yep. It is called the kitchen.

 

[Sparx]

dbf and i live in a two bedroom apartment (about 770 sq') and we hardly ever use the back bedroom. i keep my printer in there, for when i have to print papers, but other than that, its basically a storage room.

i'm really happy we decided on the 2 bedroom though, because we just had too much stuff to fit into a one bedroom. lol.

 

[PatsGirl]

My parents "dream home" (really not that fancy or large but much bigger than the 2BD/1B they raised four kids in, lol) has a sunken living room that houses all the photographs, china that never gets used, and other untouchables. It is never used. They do put their Xmas tree in there but we stand at the entry and look at it

Every room, all six of them, haha, get used in my house with the exception of my finished basement that DD refuses to go into. It is carpeted, has a nice television and stereo system, windows and door for plenty of light and shelving for all the board games, as well as a bedroom, but she is too afraid to hang out down there and is just starting to do down to get her own games It only gets used in very inclement weather when I let my friends use it as a smoking room so they don't have to stand outside.