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Buying a home is an exercise in making important decisions between elements that most people don’t really want to choose between. Do you go with the house with the two-car garage or the one with two bathrooms? Should you forgo the fireplace for upgraded flooring in the kitchen? One choice that’s becoming easier for homebuyers and homeowners is the formal dining room. Although homes certainly still have them, the way we see eating and entertaining in America is changing rapidly, and it’s leading to some major changes in how many people feel about formal dining rooms.

Who Still Cares About Formal Dining Rooms? 

Obviously, there are plenty of houses built in a different time with formal dining rooms that won’t really be going anywhere. Often the home’s layout makes it difficult to simply open the dining room to the rest of the living space, although newer homes may lack that barrier. Even so, some people do still care about formal dining spaces.

“As an interior designer, I have found that the demand for dining rooms varies among my clients,” says Artem Kropovinsky, founder of Arsight, an interior design studio based in New York. “Some clients, especially those who enjoy hosting dinner parties or have large families, still prioritize having a dedicated space for dining. On the other hand, I have also worked with clients who rarely use their dining room and would prefer to have a more functional space, such as a home office or playroom, in its place. Overall, the popularity of dining rooms seems to be declining as more people opt for more open floor plans and multifunctional spaces.”

Other home experts also report declining interest in formal dining rooms, though some interest remains even in new construction homes in certain areas of the United States.

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“We see a marked demand for formal dining spaces in our upper end (price point) homes and those designed for communities catering to a more mature clientele,” says Paige dk Foss, Architecture Designer with Drees Homes in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky. “We also see more of these customers along the East Coast and Midwest regions. Our southeastern and Texas markets have a marked preference for single, informal dining spaces in our floor plans.”

 

What to Do With Unused Dining Room Spaces
 

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