Would it be weird to use dining room as living room and vice versa?

[YouAreTheFocus]

We are closing on a house next week and trying to figure out what's going where so we can paint before we move in. In this house the LR is clearly a LR--it is the front room facing the street, you enter the house into a small foyer area and are immediately facing the LR, it has a fireplace w/ built in bookshelves. The next room in is the DR, which has a built-in hutch/sideboard. The thing is, the DR is MUCH bigger than the LR. We've never had a DR, so we don't have a table (yet) that needs to be accommodated. We do have a large C&B sectional, which we could probably jam into the LR, but it wouldn't work well since the room is pretty narrow (there wouldn't be much space to walk around it) and I can't figure out where we'd put the TV (factoring in that the FP is one whole wall, bay windows are one whole wall, and opening to foyer is in place of one whole wall).

So, should we use the rooms for their intended purposes...or flop them and use them as best would suit our needs & furniture?

[nfowife]

Flip them. But I would alter the lighting so that the room you plan to use as a LR doesn't have a fixture in the center of the room or put a fan or something that isn't DR-ish. And do the same on the other side- add a chandelier or other type of dining fixture put in the room you plan to use as dining.

[brittone2]

PO of our home flipped the formal DR and LR, and we have kept it the same way. She hosted a lot of holidays for a large family, and we do the same thing. We also have a decent sized dining set, china cab, etc. and the smaller room was not as good of a fit for us. We use the smaller room as a study (instead of a formal LR). Light fixtures were already changed around, the old chandy removed and capped off in what was once the DR. It works well for us.

[vonfirmath]

You are going to live in this house. Make it work.

Our house has a big combined LR/DR. It was even set up as separate DR and LR when we viewed the house. We turned it into one big Living room and have our dining table in the kitchen (Where the alcove was plenty big enough for it)

[westwoodmom04]

I think this can work, especially if you don't use the dining room often, but would flipping them mean you would then walk directly into the "new" dining room when you enter the house? If you have an eat in kitchen, I would consider using both rooms as living space with a foldable table against the wall of the "dining room" that can be pulled out for the few occasions you would use it.

[niccig]

We flipped rooms. Small dining room is our study area while I'm in school, and the large living room is the dining room w. couch and chair by fireplace. We like the dining table in there, now thinking when redo the kitchen, we'll bust into the dining room to make the kitchen bigger.

[AnnieW625]

unless your dining room has a traditional dining room chandelier you can't move or formal dining room touches like mouldings around where the chandelier hangs, or a really raised ceiling I don't see why it can't be done. Many homes walk into a hallway and the dining room is to the immediate right or left.

[Jacobsmom]

I don't think it's weird. You have to make the house work for you. We actually use the "dining room" in our house as the living room and the "living room" as the playroom. We have a large eat in kitchen so we decided we would rather have a dedicated playroom for DC than a dining room that would be rarely used.

[Sweetum]

While not weird, I would think about how far food has to travel to get to the table, and how far dirty plates and dishes have to travel to get to the sink. Also, consider making a living room portion in the dining room, esp if you are thinking you might get a smallish table. That way you'll have more seating, and the living room stays intact without the daily rituals of dining getting in the way.

[SASM]

We are looking at a house that has the dining room at the front of the house and the living in the back with the kitchen in between. The living room is TINY for a 5BR house so, if we actually get this house, our plan is to covert the dining room into a library of sorts with our bookshelves (of mainly children's books) and a bunch of our random leather and linen chairs...a more formal room. The living room will remain the living room but would have more space for a suitable sofa. The kitchen has an eat-in area so we will use this as our sole dining space (we live away from family...sadly, no huge family gathering spaces required).