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Depending on where the dining room is located, is there any way it can be converted into a huge walk in closet - if it is adjacent to the bedroom?
Think about where you spend your time. Can room allocation be proportional to time used?
Same for storage. If you have a small MB closet maybe the DR can be converted to a closet or storage room if walls are added.
That's a nice room. I'd keep it as a dining room, but then again I use mine nearly every day. My kitchen table is great for breakfast, but the last thing I want to look at while I'm eating dinner and relaxing after work is my dirty kitchen.
But if that were not the case, I'd just make into another living room, den, family room -- it doesn't matter what you call it, you still live in it. I enjoy having a change of scenery when I'm reading, working on the laptop, writing letters or paying bills, etc. Some comfy chairs and handy tables and bookshelves or other storage or display pieces would be nice.
We use our FDR a great deal, but we have to go through it to get to the rest of the house from the kitchen. We tend to congregate there, do homework there, eat there, pet the cat, watch birds, sit and read, talk, play board games, write letters, do art projects, play cards, etc.
For us it is particularly good for socializing. The library is off to the side and usually has people doing computer stuff in it. The front parlor usually has somone watching TV or palying X-box (at least until we replace the broken TV in the game room. The game room in the basement is usually a bit racous and is also the place where people practice musical instrucments, karate, tumbling, singing, dramatics, speeches for school, etc. We mostly use the side parlor for entertaining guests and try to keep it spotless. Thus, the dining room tends to be the best place to read a book or magazine, do homework, play games or just sit and talk while still possibly interacting with people int he kitchen or front parlor.
We have an eating area in the kitchen, but it is usually covered with stuff. The dining room is more convenient since we have to walk through it anyway. We have a library, but it is pretty much taken up with computers and book shelves. The dining room is better suited to non-computer homework, reading,etc. Plus in the dining room we cna keep an eye on homework progress from the kitchen, peole reading palying a game etc, can still interact with people int he kitchen or front parlor. It makes a better homeworks, reading and socializing location than most other rooms.
Thus, even though we only eat int he dining room 20 or 30 times a year, it is a heavily used room. You could set yours up for some of these purposes.
For your dining room a few suggestions:
The reading room set up is a good idea.
Put more chairs around that able, and you may use it more.
Put in a game table (look online for game tables with reversible tops) and make it into a game/chatting room.
Put in a couch a loveseat and a Tete a tete and make is a room for socializing.
Make is a game room for X-box etc, or put in a pool table or air hockey table if there is room.
Create a music room (once popular in many homes). Put in some hard backed chairs, shelving or cabinets for musical instruments, a piano, organ, or pianaforte. A music cabinet, several music stands, guitar rack, etc.
Make a little theater with a big screen tv, theater style seating, surround sound, etc.
If you are an artsy family, make it into an arts and crafts room. Put in a rough table that cna get paint and other goo on it, and put in cabinets ect with art and craft supplies.
Make it into a sewing room.
Put your exercise stuff in it (staionary bike, treadmill, erg, etc) and dont ever go in there again. You need some place to store all that stuff that you never use. Besides people will be impressed if they see all that exercise equipment out in the open looking like you actually use it.
Gee, thanks everyone, I'm having fun reading your ideas. I'm feeling more confident with turning that room into something else.
Knocking out walls could be an option but at a later date as we don't want to spend the money now. Until then, we'd like to use it as something other than to display dining furniture we don't use. The other eating area is a nice and big space so we'll be using that as our one and only dining room.
I'm having a formal dining room ADDED to my house (actually the carpenters are working as I speak SO EXCITED) because I can't live with the open floor plan anymore. :blush I don't understand why anyone would eat in a living room or the kitchen on purpose.
I also like to decorate, and the decor in the living room is not necessarily what I want for a dining room...I do understand your dislike for the "hutch" though. Usually people get big ones and they end up overpowering the room. I'm planning to use wine "towers" that have a bit of a lower profile... But who cares about me?!
I can't see the pictures, but I think if you have chair rail, remove it. No matter how you use the room, if there is a chair rail IMO it will still look like a dining room that you stuck other stuff in. If the room is kind of "in the middle" of the house, and doesn't have much outside light, it won't be inviting as a gathering space so I think anything with a lot of seating that you expect people to use is off limits. Most people don't want to do daily activities in a dimly lit room.
Also, if it's a "pass through" room, you will just annoy yourself if you stuff it with furniture. How about a space that is useful, calming and can be decorated in a minimalist way?
I have a couple of (possibly strange) ideas:
1. A chapel or religious room... or a room for meditation that you can use in the morning to ground yourself before starting your day. If the room is sorta dark, this may be a good fit. If your religion allows icons etc, you can use those as well as pictures, rug(s) for praying, candles etc. If you're not religious, a meditation area would be great! Have you seen those cute meditation "chairs?" OMG and maybe a peaceful fountain or something...
2. A yoga studio...I enjoy doing yoga in the morning, although I don't do it as often lately, but it can also be fun to do with your family before leaving for the day. You can install mirrors on one wall and minimalist shelving for your yoga mats... I think you could go crazy and have fun with a "yoga" or even "tai chi" theme. A spa decor might be nice, and it would be minimal and a peaceful little walk-through on the way to the other rooms in the house when not in use. If there's room, a small seating group in corner could be nice. But I doubt it would be used...
Ideas for decor: https://www.spabodyworkmarket.com/secure/images/products/seagrass_chair_p.jpg (broken link) http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/site_i...6/Picture2.jpg
http://shantiyoga.ca/images/content/massage-studio.jpg (broken link)
if i'm looking at the room right, your dead space will be where the piano is. that would be the place for your reading chair or chairs. you could possibly do a screen as well for additional privacy. make sure you have a nice floor lamp and let lighting help define the reading area. the corner with the mirror would be less ideal for reading because people will walk through at an angle and you won't have the kind of privacy that is nice for reading and reflection.
large built-ins where the china cabinet is. a quality carpenter would be able to make it perfect for you, if you can afford that.
i'm a little less sure about the corner with the mirror. something like a secretary desk and a display area might work. you'd still be left with a blank wall. art or even just picture frame molding might do the trick. with an interior room like that, picture frame molding on the walls can help make it a lot more interesting as well.
The piano is going with the vendors. Even though the vendor offered to leave it, for a price, it looked like it needed a lot of work (sounded off, and lots of keys were either yellowed or missing ivories. Plus, it's a bit big and bulky.
Been down that road. An antique piano is a pretty piece of furniture that happens to play music (hopefully). It is not a musical instrument for perfect sound quality. It cost us more to get our piano tuned than it did to buy it. They had to tune it incrementally (a tiny bit each month) to avoid damaging it. The broke a couple of strings each time. They could not tune it to correct pitch, so they tuned it to itself. Thus while the progession of notes was correct, each note was different than a normal piano would produce.
If you want a musical instrument, buy one of those new plastic pianos. They are cheaper, easier to maintain and stay in tune much better (they just look cruddy). If you want a pretty piece of antique furniture, then just do not worry too much about keeping it tuned (within reason). Our antique piano ended up good enough for our kids to learn to play on it and it looked really beautiful (Tiger Oak with lots of pretty trim).
I'm with golfgal - a reading nook. That would be easy to pull off with comfy chairs or even a chaise lounge in the corner. We turned a huge niche (for lack of better way to describe it) in our open foyer into just that and we love it! Many nights my husband and I sit there and read or play on the laptop. It just gives a different feel.
We also turned our formal dining room (right across from the niche, separate by arched columns) into another sitting area with three chairs and a large leather ottoman/coffee table in the middle. We've also got a large armoire in there, for storage. It really looks nice and is a LOT more functional than a formal dining room would ever be!
Maybe you don't read but there are plenty of people that do read, myself included. Depending on the size of the book I read at least 2 books/week.
What's a book?
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My kitchen table is great for breakfast, but the last thing I want to look at while I'm eating dinner and relaxing after work is my dirty kitchen.
Speak for yourself.
