Keep or convert formal dining rm & china?

[jessica52877]

We have a formal dining room but I don't have a fancy table in there, I wanted something totally usable. No china or cabinet. My laptop is usually on the table. We also use it for crafts, games and other fun things. We sometimes sit in there when my parents come but usually just sit around the smaller eat in kitchen table.

I love dining room being functional. We used to have a desk computer, sewing machine and chair. All those were fine but we finished the basement put them down there. I also have a little tikes kitchen set, washer/dryer, store and grill so DS plays in here all the time if I am listing on ebay.

 

[dvcgirl]

We've had a formal dining room in all of the houses we've owned and we've never used it. Well, once or twice in the four years we owned our first big home in NJ. We ended up selling the whole formal set to the people who bought our home. In Orlando we ended up using the formal dining room as my office. And now back in NJ, we have a much smaller home so we do have our "dinette" set in the room considered to be the dining room. And still, we don't use it....lol! When we entertain we usually end up doing heavy appetizers and drinks....and everyone always ends up hanging out in one room, the kitchen.

 

[luv2nascar]

I love the look of our formal dining room but it is big and formal. 100 yr old Walnut Berkey and Gay set from my Inlaws. So I could never sell it. I'd give it back to them first. We have a table with 4 leaves, six chairs (2 captains chairs and 4 with out arms), a huge buffet, linen press, and china cabinet.

I have tons of dishes actually set of 24kt gold trimmed china I inherited from my great aunt, my china DH & I bought together Bob Timberlake, and my christmas dishes all in there. It isn't always the most functional room but it stays and I'm glad.

 

[ptcruisermom]

do i have a formal dining room, not for the past 11 months, since i moved

did i have a formal dining room, yes in the last two homes

would use them for b-day parties and holidays when we would have the ex's family over, and mine on occasion.

also had a formal living room and a breakfst room and family roomwhere did everyone hang out the kitchen and breakfast room


yes i have good china, but it is from the 1980's it is noritake i got it from kroegers before i got married you got a stamp for so many dollars in purchases, it is pretty and i like and i will keep it, no crystal glasses though.

fast forward divorced, house sold, i bought a much smaller home, no formal living room, no formal dining room but huge kitchen with eating area that is separted from the kitchen by a breakfast bar, the eating area is our family room, have a tv couch entertainment center a chair and end table, and we use bar stools at breakfast bar. we did this because house had 3 br and i have 3 kids and they all have had their own rooms, and wanted to keep it that way, so we made the living room into my bedroom and put up doors to shut it off from the kitchen, it works really well, as i have a huge room so all my bedroom furniture fit plus a love seat and a glider rocker and my file cabinet, my own little retreat, and the kids no not to use front dorr when they come home if it is late and my light is out. LIke i said everyone hung out in the kitchen and breakfast room at the other house, so we figured hey why not. in fact my kitchen is big enough i have a computer desk on one end, and we just got a second computer and that sits on the one end of the breakfast bar out of the way. i love the smaller house it is just so cozy plus it is all on one floor, andi'm getting older

oh and i just sold my dinding room set last month on ebay, i had a china hutch, table with a large leaf, and 6 chairs, and the table pads, iy wasn't anything special but it was nice, but i didn't want to keep it in storage for the winter with the cold temps i probably got about half out of it for what we paid, i don' tremember exactlywhat we paid, but it was 25 years old

 

[bkreitzel]

Yes, we have a dining room. We use it as our playroom (DD's 3 and 5). I put my dining room rug in there to cover the hardwood. Then had DH build a full wall unit around the window w/ windowseat and floor to ceiling storage w/ doors. All the little toys are hidden and you only see the big stuff like the dollhouse, their reading chair/books and kitchen ...which is impt as this is open to the foyer.
I figure we can use the storage no matter WHAT we are using the room for and it looks nice. We copied the look from the pottery barn catalog at about 1/1000 of the price. The seat is cushioned w/ four cusions velcroed to the actual wood.