Formal dining rooms are so hard to own these days. Unless you do a lot of dinner parties or host family holidays, they really just don’t get much use. And I can’t handle wasted space in a home. It seems so silly to pay so much for that coveted square footage and not use it! I have such a room. My dining room is located off the kitchen but on the opposite side of the living room which gives it a very closed off feeling. And I’m brainstorming some ways to entice guests to meander over into that room….
(Dining room photo before paint and furniture)
I could easily make the room an office. But I have to confess, I just don’t utilize a desk much. Sitting at a desk isn’t very conducive to create writing. And I feel that turning the room into an office would leave it in the same unused predicament. Here are my two ideas: 1) Make it a lounge. Remember the hutch that is a new addition to the room?
Why not use it as a bar? I could fill it with my glassware and a few bottles of Sangria. Better yet, I could add some cozy chairs and make it feel like a place you’d go to meet for drinks and have a stimulating conversation. Or to feel perhaps like cigar bar, minus the smoke and smoking one so strong everything is pink after you leave (that one is for you Ms. Wilson ;).
2) Turn it into a library/den/study. I could take that hutch and fill it with books. I could fill the room wall to wall with books and get a library ladder. I could use my sofa for a nice place to cuddle up with a great read.
I could add some artwork and funky lighting and require everyone who enters to whisper… My imagination is getting carried away again. It must be the cold medicine. How would you use this room to end my dilemma? Whatever I choose, I just hope this room doesn’t end up being so stressful for me I end up like Monica on that episode of Friends where she can’t get the gang to hang out in Joey and Chandler’s old apartment….