Do you have a dining room? Is it a deal breaker if you don’t?

[AnnieW625]

Nothing is set in stone, but dh and I really like this house (based on pictures and virtual tour only) and while the kitchen says it has been redone in the last 5 years the open set up is kind of weird. I am pretty sure they removed the wall that separated the kitchen from the living area, but I don’t feel like the design worked very well. The house is almost at the top of our budget, but it really ticks a lot of boxes for us (4 beds, two family areas, a small office space in one of the family areas, a pool, finished backyard, and enough grass for the dog) The house will sadly probably go into escrow before we have a chance to look at (our house goes on the market in two weeks and that is when we will start physically looking at houses, and we are moving from one sellers market to another sellers market....houses that meet our specs are staying on the market for an average of 2 weeks ), but how would this space work for your family?

The house is staged with one small table; we have a slightly larger 6 seat table. In an ideal world with a larger budget we would finish out the counter top to where the table starts and make a peninsula with some seating (2 or 3 chairs) and the we would put our dining room table further back; close to where the couch along the windows is (that faces the TV, and fireplace). We are used to having a tv in our dining space due to living in a small space now where our dining and living room are one space. If we don’t add a peninsula then I could see arranging the dining table in the other direction from the kitchen.

Any thoughts?

[gymnbomb]

I would be totally fine not having a dining room if I could fit our smaller 6 person table in the kitchen for our family of 4 plus 2 guests. We only use the dining room (where that table is now) when we have company. But we have company 4-8 weeks a year in a normal year.


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[twowhat?]

That would not bother me one bit! As long as the space is large enough for your large table with room all around to easily walk/pass through even with chairs pulled out. I'd even be OK with a giant table that juts into that open kitchen a bit, almost like a giant island, with backless or low-backed chairs that push completely underneath (or alternatively a bench on one side), that way the table could double as kitchen surface workspace. A counter-height table might be fun but not quite as practical as a regular height table (e.g. little kids, elderly guests). It looks like a lovely house! Those windows!!

[carolinacool]

In an ideal world with a larger budget we would finish out the counter top to where the table starts and make a peninsula with some seating (2 or 3 chairs) and the we would put our dining room table further back;

We don't have a separate dining room, and this is similar to how our space is set up. Basically, we have a big open space on the back of the house -- the kitchen is on the right and the dining area is on the left. I think that the peninsula helps close the space in to make the kitchen feel like its own area. We have a six-seat dining table that has plenty of room. There's probably 10 to 12 feet from the back of the peninsula to the back of the chair at the end of the table.

We are still in our first house. When we were looking, we had to decide if a dining room was important. If I was looking now, a dining room might be higher on my list.

[carolinamama]

It wouldn't bother me to forego a dining room. Large open house plans seem to lend themselves to this set-up well.

[bisous]

In concept not having a dining room wouldn’t bother me but I’m not sure from the pictures if the space is sufficiently large to have a decent sized table? I’d want to seat at least 6. For our family we like at least 8. Maybe in the same spot you could seat more by building a banquette against the wall?

[echoesofspring]

Our house has a bit of a awkward section between the great room and the kitchen, it's not quite like your photos, but it's kind of similar, except the space is more in the great room and not in the kitchen area based on where the flooring ends and begins. Honestly those pics looks more natural flowwise, I don't know what they were thinking with ours. When we looked at the house it was staged with a little cafe table and TV similar to where the microwave is on your photo (and there's a narrow cabinet section). We have a dining room but we really wanted to use that space for something else (first a playroom now a music room), so we put our dining room table where the cafe table had been. It works fine, and we usually have it open for 4-6 people. I will say however, that I'm searching for replacement dining room chairs and similar to bisous's suggestion above, threw out the idea of getting a bench for against the wall this morning to DH, which I'm hoping will just give it a sleeker look.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Depends. I wouldn’t like that particular layout because it’d feel like you were eating in your kitchen. And looking at the mess of the kitchen. No thanks. But I’m also not one that really cares about open floor plans at all


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[hillview]

Wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me (last house of 12 years didn’t have a dining room and current new house does not either). I’d want to see what it really looks like in person but it sounds like it checks a ton of boxes

[Kestrel]

I would have no problem with this, our former house was very much like it. We got a long skinny table to push against the outside wall, that was it's "normal" position and still sat four that way. We could then pull it out from the wall when we had guests, and just have a bit less walking space - not a big deal short-term for the time of a meal with guests.