As our lifestyles change, so do the living spaces. A drastic architectural evolution is driving one particular area of the house to the brink of extinction - the dining room.
In the busy routine of our lives, we are hardly at home and the rooms we use the most are probably the living area and the bedrooms. We usually have our meals in front of the TV or in that "modern kitchen" and, therefore, the need for dining space has almost disappeared.
"Ninety percent of the women I deal with work outside the home, and they don't have all day to spend in the kitchen anyway. Formal entertaining is pretty much a thing of the past," said Chris Rachuba, vice-president of operations for the Rachuba Group, to theBaltimore Sun in an earlier feature.
Most homes, however, still offer dining space but people are hardly using it for what it was meant to be. A large number of homeowners are turning dining areas into "living pavilions", where meals may occasionally be served, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Luxury owners are custom fitting other rooms with make-shift dining amenities like a table disappearing into the wall or setting up chairs around a stone deck. Some are also being converted into libraries, dens, play areas or sitting rooms.
Indeed, dining rooms are becoming obsolete. But this isn't a sudden change. Just like biological evolution, the room is slowly disappearing from the property floor plan, largely because open spaces are more in demand.
According to Freshhome.com, "open floor plans" have become "hot commodity" in real estate. A large number of home buyers are attracted by a modern contemporary floor plan that offers easy access and flow from one room to another.
Nobody really wants to open too many doors and find their way through a maze of rooms in their own house.
"I love to cook, and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. My husband works from home and is a movie fanatic. If we had a house full of closed-off rooms, we would technically not 'see' one another. With the flow of our home, we feel togetherness," said Stephanie Blatchley, a kindergarten teacher at St. John's Parish Day School in Ellicott City, to the Baltimore Sun.
However, there are some who like it old-school, especially those who like the country way of living. The table banter, the gathering, passing around plates - all of it still holds a charm for some. Real estate agents told The Journal that upscale home buyers prefer homes with dining rooms, no matter what they do with it later.
"If you're looking at the luxury market on [New York's] Upper East Side, 99% of the time, people are looking for a formal dining room," said Eleonora Srugo, an agent with New York City's Skroka DE team. She also added that if she had to sell a home with a converted dining area, she would pull up the original floor plan because that's how the buyers get an idea of the design.
Dining area or not, the best way to improve a home is to use the space and square-footage of the residence in an optimal way.
"...choosing to have a room that is multi functional - a room that can best be served for different purposes - a room that could be converted from office or library to dining area, and if designed properly, this conversion is easily done," according to Freshome.com.
