Keep or convert formal dining rm & china?

[StephMK]

Inspired by the decluttering thread & wanting the stuff I keep to have a purpose, I'm debating selling my dining room furniture and wedding china & glassware. We've been married 9+ yrs and have only used the china/glasses a handful of times on Christmas. We don't do big entertaining dinner parties & are more of a casual, hang out in the kitchen crowd.

When we moved, I had to have a formal dining but now I wonder why. Even when our families have traveled to come visit, we still use the kitchen. The furniture is from CL and not sentimental and could get some $ to use for other things instead. Slightly sentimental about the dishes but really, what is the point?

So my questions are - do you have a formal dining room, do you use it & if you got rid of it, what do you use the space for instead? I'm curious to hear any/all ideas of what to do w/the room if you use it for something else.

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

do you have a formal dining room, yes

do you use it yes, almost weekly

if you got rid of it, what do you use the space for instead If we didn't already have a study/computer room, I guess that I would convert it to that. If I didn't have a family room/playroom, then that's what I would choose.

 

[kbkids]

When the kids were little, we didn't have a dining room set, so we made a playroom out of the dining room. That way their toys weren't cluttering up the family room all of the time.

That being said, when we built this new house, I definitely wanted a formal dining room, as I wanted a china cabinet to display my wedding china. Me personally, I couldn't get rid of my china - it's just too sentimental. We've got a huge dining room set now that seats 8, and it was a lifesaver during the holidays. It was used frequently. I know now that the holidays are over that it won't be used as often, but it's nice to always walk into a clean room when I enter the house - it's just off the foyer, so it's the first thing you see. The rest of the house may be cluttered up, but the dining room looks great.

I purposely put a "four seater" table in the kitchen nook so that the dining room would get used more often. If it's just the four of us, we're in the kitchen. If we have company, we eat in the dining room - unless if it's my parents - then the kids eat at the bar stools, and we eat at the table.

I do understand where you're coming from, but I couldn't give up my dining room.

 

[Misty89]

do you have a formal dining room : YES

do we use it: Yes, we host family dinner & game night ( SIL,MIL,BIL,BIL's GF)
once or twice a month, We have any special meals in there.

i would not get rid of my set...
it was my grandmothers set- table that expands to seat 12, matching chine hutch. I also inherited 2 sets of fine china for display in the hutch.

 

[budbeerlady]

We do not have a formal dining room.

I have a china cabinet in our dining room that holds my china that I recieved for wedding presents. I wouldnt get rid of it b/c I love it, even though we use it 1-2x a year. Also I know I would love to give it to DD some day. That being said the china cabinet takes up a space that is 5ft wide and 18inches deep, so not much space.

I would use the space for a family room or office area.

 

[dismom24]

We used our formal dining room a lot, but converted it to a bedroom for my youngest son and I don't miss the formal dining room at all. Our 3 sons have bedrooms upstairs and one night our youngest son woke up in the middle of the night and came down the stairs by himself - our house is 4000 sq ft and I never would have heard him if he fell. We have always told him to go to his older brothers and let one of them bring him down and he always had until this one time. One time was enough for me. My only problem is, I have 2 getting ready to go to college and 3 bedrooms upstairs that are not going to be used. I did turn his into an Ebay room.

 

[ncbyrne]

Yes we have a formal dining room. We broke thru a wall to the kitchen to have a 5' pass thru for dishes. I love the love the look of the dining room. Even when we are not having company in for dinner, I plan "private" dinners for DH and I. I suprise him with a special meal, and we eat by candlelight. Wouldn't be the same in my small kitchen.

 

[solfan68]

The former formal dining room in the house where we now live was converted to my wife's music studio. She offers lessons(piano and voice) and also plays for her own enjoyment.

 

[DawnM]

We use our dining room when we have parties or guests for dinner. I like having it, but we don't have anything expensive or formal in there. I wanted to move our table and chairs to the sunroom and use the formal dining room as a sitting area/formal living room (since our living room is used more as a family room), but DH didn't want to do that.

We have never had formal china. We have white corelle dishes and they are so versitle that I haven't felt the need to get formal dishes.

Dawn

 

[mickeyfan2]

We have a formal dining room. We use it on occasion, but would not need the space for anything else. I love the two china cabinets to display my collectibles. The china is underneath.

 

[kinntj]

Yes, we have a formal dining room and it's being used as an office. It's off the foyer and our furniture is really nice, so it works well.
Our office/den is being used by my mother who now lives here and can't move around much. Since she can't do stairs, she needs to have everything on one level. The den was the only room with french doors on it that we put curtain panels on, so that worked perfectly.

We do have a nook off of our kitchen, so that works out wonderfully and can fit an 8 person table/chairs and a china cabinet if we needed. We don't have a cabinet though. I don't think we'll ever get one, because when we retire we hope to downsize into a condo in the south. Don't want to haul that extra crap down there too. Don't have china, so don't know what to say about that.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[crjack]

We have a formal dining room that actually gets used regularly but my china never does. We entertain family and friends a lot and need the seating of the dining table but we are also casual entertainers and I use my everyday dishes even on the holidays.

We typically do buffets for holidays but I picked up extra dinner dishes that we use. I have a lot of china but still not enough to cover everyone and our crowd involves a mixture of adults and children so it never seems practical. Most of our friends also have children so we get together as families....the china just never seems to get used.

 

[disykat]

Our house has a formal dining room, but we don't use it as such. It is adjacent to the living room. When the kids were a lot younger, it had shelves with toys. We also had a table up against the wall that we kept craft stuff on. The room could easily be cleaned out, the table pulled out from the wall and set up for formal dining. We did it once in 5 years. it gradually became the den.

The space now has a full wall of bookshelves, a wooden filing cabinet, and a long computer desk with two computers, the printer, etc. It all matches and looks nice since it is adjacent to the living room.

Our "nook" is large enough that we can extend our table to seat 10. It is separated from the kitchen by a small "bar," so we really don't need another dining space.

I do still have a chandelier in the den. It drives me nuts, and I've been after my handy dh to put in a ceiling fan there instead.

I was very careful to get china (I have "chinastone") that would be used since I know so many people who don't use it. I had a friend who wanted to get rid of her china, but felt guilty. I suggested "accidently" breaking some and using it to tile the top of a coffeetable or make trivets, etc. then selling the rest!

 

[StephMK]

Thanks for all of the responses. I would like to convert it into a living room & make our little living room w/a door just an office. However,we will probably just keep it as is for now. I painted a few months ago & the fLR urniture goes w/the walls really well now. Plus I like our DR chandelier and that wouldn't work for a living room either.

But I'm still selling the glasses and thinking over the china. I picked out white w/gold trim so it could be used all year round but it's not much different than a cheap set would be so I may sell it. I have enough other sentimental items and plates take up a lot of space in my buffet.

 

[tinaluis]

We had a fancy china cabinet, sideboard, table and chairs that I inherited from my grandma as well as china/glassware. It was so fancy, in fact, that we never ate there and I scolded my girls when they played in the room. My cousin had just moved into her new home and was telling me that she had more rooms than furniture and felt like she would never furnish her home. I decided to give her the furniture because I knew she would treasure it. We have replaced the furniture with an everyday table, chairs and bookcase/cabinets that hold all of my china, glasses, silverware, etc. They're not in the way now and they're not on display either. We also have our computer desk in a corner of the room. The room is much more family friendly and we use it everday for meals. When our family was smaller, we had a small table and chairs in the kitchen, but since our family has grown, we needed a larger table and more chairs. I know how you feel about the clutter though -- I felt that way about a lot of glassware, knick knacks, etc. that I'd accumulated over the years and got rid of everything except the basic china, glassware and silverware that was part of the set. I've never regretted getting rid of it.

 

[geetey]

Yes, we have a formal dining room and, yes, we use it.

Really, I think the answer lies in where you are in your lives...

In our first house - no formal dining room; didn't want it or need it.

Second house? The dining room was a playroom for the kids for several years. We got a dining table, chairs and hutch from an estate sale for $75 when the kids were older.

Third house - Same set in formal dining room but was rarely used because we lived out of state and weren't around any family.

Fourth house - we are back around family; the estate set was replaced by dh's grandmother's full dining room set as well as her china. Since I am one of 5 kids and dh is one of 6, we need to use the dining room AND the kitchen whenever family comes over. The china *never* gets used (it's hand wash only and who wants to hand wash plates for 20+ people?!?) Now the formal living room is the office.

We didn't keep our wedding china or crystal. We didn't receive enough pieces at our wedding for a set so we returned it and used the money towards buying a couch. lol

Like I said, I think it really depends on what works best for you.

 

[robsmom]

Yes i have a formal dining room and yes i use it. We use it because we have a large family and we need all the seating we can get on holidays. The room i do not use is my formal living room. I would not add one if you don't have one. No one every goes in there even when i have a full house of people!! I am working on my husband to convert it to a bar room. I want to put a nice bar, a couple of high tops, etc. with wood floors. something classy but space that would be used when we are entertaining. he is considering it. i think if i put a plasma tv into the deal he might bite!!

I do not use my China. I did use it when we first married but our holidays have outgrown my set. I have 22 dinner plates but this year for Thanksgiving we had 29 people. I actually had to go with paper plates!! I have a phatzgraff winter set that i use for christmas. I love it and will use it even for regular meals in the winter. If i could go back i would not register for wedding china or crystal. I would have asked for nice everyday stuff (like the winter pattern) and get alot of it. I would also get buffet dishes, chafing dishes, and more serving type of things.

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

My MIL has a dining room and they have a small antique table off to the side they use the china cabinet that matches a s book case and they have the computer set up in that room as well as their xmas tree right now.

 

[bumbershoot]

It's all a matter of what brings you joy. If it brings you joy to have the china, to have the furniture, and to have the special room, keep it. If it brings you stress, or other mainly negative feelings, or feelings surrounded mainly in "shoulds", then there's really no reason to keep it.

My mother got great pleasure from the china she was finally able to buy after her second marriage, and we had a meal a week on it (gold edged Lenox that is now discontinued), and for holiday meals even if it was just us she brought it ALL out.

When I got married I registered for china of my own, because gold and ivory didn't do it for me (I inherited her china), and I got white and platinum-edged. Now I mix and match, even though they do not "go" together, because it brings me joy to see her stuff with my stuff.

And we don't even have a dining room at all!

 

[problemchild718]

Yes, we have a dining room-its smaller than I wanted, but the rest of the house works ok. When I remarried, I received cream Longaberger dishes that we use as our good dishes. We eat there a few nights a week. I think its good for the kids to set the table, light the candles and have a quiet meal together even if its only salad and pizza. I think life is too short to save the good dishes, not use the dining room or not burn the candles.
Do what works for you.