dining room question

[smiley]

We currently have two living rooms and a dining room. The one living room is on the small side and is in the entry. The other living room "family room" is in the back of the house with the dining room.

The house is on the small size (less than 1,000 sq ft) so we need to maximize the amount of space we have. My dad suggested today to have the dining room in the front of the house and then having one large family room in the back of the house so we wouldn't have wasted space. We currently don't use the living room at the entry way, it is a place where we pretty much drop our shoes and purse and continue on to the family room.

My question is... would it be strange to have a dining room as your entryway? It would be more functional for us to have one large family room rather than two smaller family rooms but I wouldn't want to make the layout awkward for our guests either


here is the current layout... it's not to scale but it gives the general flow of the house (or lack of flow)



here is what the new layout would be if we moved the dining room...



edited to add picture ...

[smiley]

I hope all of that made sense!

[Susie]

I'm not sure I'm following. It sounds sort of similar to the layout in our house, but maybe not exactly.

In any event, in our house it wouldn't work to put the dining room in the front because it doesn't directly connect to the kitchen, and that would be awkward. Our front living room also doesn't have wiring for an overhead light, which would complicate turning it into a DR. A DR w/o a light/chandelier over the table would look strange.

[housegeek]

I'm a little confused. Any chance of posting a floor plan? My old will have their Dning room right next to the entry way, but it's hard to explain why it works.

[smiley]

I was trying to make a picture to post... maybe I will draw one by hand and post it... I guess it would make more sense to see it... give me a few!

[sju]

Not strange at all but how far is the kitchen? Plenty of houses have the dining room when you first walk in or near the foyer. However, there is typically a direct connection to the kitchen.

[smiley]

Jun 13, 2012 14:52:38 GMT -5 sju said:

Not strange at all but how far is the kitchen? Plenty of houses have the dining room when you first walk in or near the foyer. However, there is typically a direct connection to the kitchen.

The kitchen can be reached from the current location of the dining room or the new location with the layout.

We could add a chandelier above the table to make it feel more like a dining room.

[sratsey]

So basically when someone walks into your house, they immediately walk into the dining room?
I wouldn't like that.

[Susie]

The picture helps a lot.

Based on that, I think you could do the switch, as long as you add a light over where the table will go. I don't think the carport door is a problem.

My one reservation - The bedroom next to the potentially-future-dining room... whose is it?

When we were house shopping we saw one where the master was right off the dining area. It was awkward to be at the table and look in to a master bedroom. Didn't like it. It also wouldn't be a good kid bedroom if you entertain much and want to be able to sit at the table and talk with a kid sleeping.

[housegeek]

I think it would be weird. The way the doorways are, putting a table in there would completely mess up any pathway/ flow through the house.

[minniebee]

I think the switch would work, the only thing is that it might be awkward to walk around a table in the middle of the new dining room to get to the rest of the house. Is there a way to widen the doorway between the kitchen and potential new dining room?

There are lots of houses where the dining room is at the front of the house near the entrance, so I don't think that's weird. But there's usually a hallway past the dining area so the the flow seems a little more natural than walking through a room. It's not a huge deal, though, you're currently walking through the middle of a living room instead of a hallway.

[smiley]

The house was built in the early 60s and the 2nd bedroom / family room / dining room that we currently have in the back was a later addition which makes the house flow strangely. I am assuming there was no formal dining room when the house was first put together.

I think it could possibly work... Maybe I will con DH into helping me move the table to see if I like it there first before we make the switch. That front room is carpet so that would have to change to either tile or wood before we made it a permanent thing. I don't like the idea of rug in the dining room.

Also, the bedroom in the front of the house is just a second bedroom. We use it as an office space right now. If we were going to have a child that would be their room. We don't entertain much so I don't think noise would be a problem. If it was we could always move the party to the family room.

[TBM]

We have used our front room as a dining room before....it was actually my favorite use for the rather small, awkward room.

I first saw another neighbor use theirs that way and thought it made more sense than anything else. Since then I have seen others use theirs as a dining room too....guess the builder should have thought of it.lol

[tcsbride]

Just a idea, but would there by anywhere else to put an eating area? Like possibly the "nook" area to the far right of the kitchen above the bedroom? Could you do built in benches there and a small table? Or open up the wall between the kitchen and the family room and just hav a bunch of barstool seating. Then you could make the now living room into a mudroom tip area with a bench and area to put your coats and such.....I noticed you didn't have a closet for those things anywhere.

[smiley]

Jun 13, 2012 22:30:52 GMT -5 tcsbride said:

Just a idea, but would there by anywhere else to put an eating area? Like possibly the "nook" area to the far right of the kitchen above the bedroom? Could you do built in benches there and a small table? Or open up the wall between the kitchen and the family room and just hav a bunch of barstool seating. Then you could make the now living room into a mudroom tip area with a bench and area to put your coats and such.....I noticed you didn't have a closet for those things anywhere.

My picture isn't to scale which may make it a little confusing. There is no where in kitchen to put an eating area. The area you mentioned is where our fridge is. There is no other place we could put a fridge unless we redesign the kitchen.

I thought of cutting out the wall from the kitchen to the family room but it is load bearing. That use to be the back of the house when it was originally built. It is a block house so the wall is really really thick and would be a pain to make into a bar area.

I didn't add any of the closets into the picture but there are a few. There is actually a coat closet in that front room but it now houses part of our air conditioning unit. Most of the houses in the neighborhood do not have central air but it was added in the 80s. They needed a place to put part of the unit and that was the closet they chose. We also live in FL so we rarely coats. I don't even own one. lol

[tarheels]

I think it seems like a fabulous option. Makes tons of sense to me.

Is this another regional thing? I was reading or watching something where somebody from California was shopping for a house in Alabama and they were all weirded out by all the dining rooms right beside the front door. I'm thinking of all the houses I've ever lived in since I was little, and maybe about half of them have the DR right as you walk in. It's normal to me.

But now I'm curious, for those for whom it's atypical and think it's a strange idea, how are true colonials set up wherever you are? Ours was a box: left front, formal LR; right front (obv right by the door), formal DR; back left, family room; back right, kitchen. That's the pretty usual set up for a historically inspired colonial. (Not to be confused with the loose definition of colonial thrown around for anything contemporary where the realtor isn't sure what to call the house that's really just '90s style.)

[magdala9]

Add the chandelier to give the room the substance of a dining room and it will work out great.

[darkling_glory]

I like it. For us, personally, the rooms would all get a lot more use that way!

[car.ramrod]

Jun 14, 2012 7:10:56 GMT -5 tarheels said:

I think it seems like a fabulous option. Makes tons of sense to me.

Is this another regional thing? I was reading or watching something where somebody from California was shopping for a house in Alabama and they were all weirded out by all the dining rooms right beside the front door. I'm thinking of all the houses I've ever lived in since I was little, and maybe about half of them have the DR right as you walk in. It's normal to me.

But now I'm curious, for those for whom it's atypical and think it's a strange idea, how are true colonials set up wherever you are? Ours was a box: left front, formal LR; right front (obv right by the door), formal DR; back left, family room; back right, kitchen. That's the pretty usual set up for a historically inspired colonial. (Not to be confused with the loose definition of colonial thrown around for anything contemporary where the realtor isn't sure what to call the house that's really just '90s style.)

Ditto this. I think it is fine especially if it will work better for you. Honestly it seemed like it would be such a small amount of work that worse case scenario if you change your mind or want to switch it back when you go to sell it wouldn't be a big deal. We have a colonial and it is set up exactly how the above poster stated. The dining room and formal living are right off the entry way. It is pretty standard in our area. When we were looking I would say half the houses were set up that way.