Some of my clients think that a dining room is an essential
part of a house or condo worth buying, others are happy as long as there is one
place for the residents to eat. Is doing without a dining room a space-cutting
compromise you would make? If you live without a dining room, does it matter to
you?
When the subject of dining rooms comes up for house hunters
I work with, I focus on how often the room will be used and how important those
occasions are. For some people, a few big family dinners a year are the occasions
that make a house a home. It doesn’t matter if the table is a pseudo-desk and
mail drop the rest of the year. The way around that for space-savers is to
choose a place with a living room-dining room that is one big room. An
expandable table can be put in one area and opened on the rare, but important,
occasions.
For others, dinner in the dining room is a mark of civility
that they will not do without on a regular basis. This demands a dining room
that accommodates a dining table every day. If this buyer is really tight on
space, a desk may live in that dining room, too. But the room is a dining room,
first, and an office, second.
Happy Thanksgiving. How’s your dining room?
The other question that comes up about dining rooms is that
some clients strongly object to dining rooms that are not close to the kitchen.
They feel the same way about outdoor eating spaces that are far from the
kitchen. Do you have the same pet peeve?
2 comments:
In both of the houses we've owned, the kitchen was not of the eat-in variety, so we needed someplace else to eat. The first house had a separate, small dining room just off the kitchen; the second has a combined living/dining long room. I prefer space for a good-sized table. If either current house had that space in the kitchen, we would have used it and not set up a separate eating space.
In both cases, our dining area is the place we eat every day. I can't imagine us having a separate dining room that we use only on occasion. If we did, I would turn that room into an office very quickly.
Love the topic!
Many of my clients have a formal dining room -- often quite beautiful -- that is rarely used for the eponymous purpose.
Yet that is a bit different from "rarely used". There are frequently times when it is useful to have a broad, clear table on which to spread out. Desks these days get crowded by computers (and filing systems). A table accommodates two at once working on the same set of papers.
I've met with clients in the living room on occasion, but that is awkward, is difficult to maintain appropriate personal distance, and it is hard to share documents. Kitchen tables work well, as long as they aren't too dirty, but they are closer to the food prep than I would prefer. The "dining room" table is often the best workspace in the house.
And besides, where else can you seat your family for that special holiday dinner? A few times a year that the kitchen table simply won't do.
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