Our is to the right of the foyer, front of house. But we live on 4.5 wooded acres so it looks out to woods out the front and the lake (through the great room) in the back.

In our last home, it was past the LR but still in the front of the house. We were down a slight hill, so it didn't look "right" onto street. As seldom as it was used, even if it did, it wouldn't have mattered.

If given a choice, I would face it toward the private back - but not if it meant giving up that view in a more often used room/space.

Funny, I LIKE the formal dining room to look towards the front of the house with a window. For some reason, there's something charming about it to me.

But that assumes the house has both a formal dining room and an informal eating area. I wouldn't want to eat my everyday meals in a dining area at the front of the house. I prefer my everyday eating area to have a nice view but be somewhat private. Our last house had that (a breakfast area that looked out to the backyard) and our current house has a breakfast area that looks out to the side yard. Not a great view, but fairly private.

Our house is a very open plan MCM with one big great room that includes the LR, DR, kitchen and a garden area. The "dining" area is on an end of the room that is all glass on two sides, looking out on the side yard, mainly. Like Allison, we're in the woods, so privacy is not a concern. I can't imagine a house like this on a standard residential lot!

Like kgsd, I think I like the idea of a DR in the front of the house, mainly because something has to be in the front of the house. I wouldn't want my bedroom or family room in the front, so the DR makes more sense to me. Also, if you've got a window so that the DR can be viewed from the street, I'd think it would be a lot easier to keep a formal DR neat and attractive than a family room or bedroom!

The dining room in my house is at the back, with a patio door, but it was originally the family room. The original dining room (which I use as the breakfast and TV room, in other words, as a small family room) is between the kitchen and living room. It faces the side of the property, but if the house were oriented correctly on the lot, it would face the back. (Yes, this is a very strange house.)

Front of the house -- facing the street and the greenbelt (no houses across the street -- just a nice wooded area)

Large window and window seat (used by cats) facing the front garden and street (( and the bird feeder - TV for cats LOL!))

Plus a smaller side window too -- so plenty of light throughout the day. This house faces south ....

DH using this space as office right now ..... (yes it still has all of the dining furniture in there -- he has parked himself at the table .... LOL!)

Jan

Front of the house. Two windows look out onto our mini-courtyard, the sidewalk and then the street. The windows have pocket shutters and we keep the bottom half closed if we're eating so we don't feel so exposed.

Mine is front of the house and has 2 windows

I designed our house with all of the main living spaces oriented towards the back of our home, because we have a bit of a view there. We have a semi formal dining room with a square table that seats up to 8 and room for 3 stools at the peninsula in our kitchen.

I plan to eventually change the window on the right to a French door and build a deck off of the house there.

Ours is in the back of the house, with a lake view. It's open to the deck so what the view often is is my DH's back at the grill :) I actually prefer a dining room to be intimate...I am putting curtains up so I can close up the window wall and we can enjoy the room and each other when we dine, verses seeing snow piled on the deck.

Mine is sort of in the front of the house. I have a a long, skinny living/dining room. There is a bay window that looks out of the front of the house in the living room end of the room. So my dining room is sort of in the centre of the house and it's dark and lacking a window. Ideally it would have a wondow, but if it did it would be out the side looking at the neighbours brick wall. There is no view from the front of the house so the dining room would be nice at the back of the house overlooking the backyard. We do have an eating area in the kitchen with a walkout to the yard. We never sit there to eat because the spot is just too small.

Ours is in the middle of the house just inside the foyer and is also open to the sun room at the back of the house.

It has only 2 walls by deliberate design so that we can expand the table in 2 directions that could seat as many as 30+ if we wanted to do so.

Since the sun room has large windows overlooking the back yard we have a nice view of the lake from the DR.

How fun - I love hearing all your opinions and your layouts! Our DR is upfront and I do not consider it "formal" as we sit there for every family meal, holiday or not. I could put a small eating table in our kitchen, but I have a loveseat and coffee table there instead right now. Constantly going back and forth about this - what should be where? I had it the other way for awhile (loveseat in DR, table in kitchen) and I wasn't 100% satisfied with that either, so we moved it back recently.

Ours is on the front of the house...just to the left as you come in the front door. We have a triple window (6' wide X 7' tall) that looks out over the woods. No privacy issues for us either.

Teacats...I love the idea of a kitty bench in front of the window. One of ours has claimed a dining room chair as her own and gets annoyed if I try to move it. :o)

Mine's set up a bit like grayce's. It's kind of in the middle of the house, exposed to the LR.

Just once, before I die, I'd like one that's all by its lonesome.

Ours is in the front of the house with three windows to the front yard and sidewalk. That's why I put plantation shutters in that room. They're one piece shutters with separate adjustment about a third at the top. We can open the top and not feel as though we're eating on the lawn! Our kitchen eating area is at the back of the house with a lot of windows to the back yard. So it balances out.

Well, it's supposed to be in the back next to the kitchen ;-) but I repurposed what is supposed to be the formal living area in front and made it my dining room (I have way too much dining room furniture, lol). What is suppose to be the dining room (in the back of the house) is my artist's studio, which has the view of the pool - I spend more time there anyway. It only works because of the door placement/flow, so even though my dining room doesn't butt up against the kitchen, it's only 3 extra steps. The change makes more sense to me anyway because now when you enter the foyer - LR on right, DR on left instead of two living areas on either side of the foyer - both at the front of the house.

It's at the back of the house with a large French door looking out on a huge, long boulder which has a tree on top and a further view up to the top of a hill with boulders and trees. The window on another wall looks out at our garden and hill and valley views. Our house is up a hill with the road far below us (which has very little traffic) and we can't see our neighbors so it wouldn't really matter where any of the rooms are located. We feel immensely blessed to have this privacy and the wonderful views and wouldn't trade this for any other place.

Hi, I haven't posted in a LOOOOOONG time, but I wanted to jump in here because I have the same problem. We have a 70s tri-level and the prior owners remodeled the kitchen dining area. The kitchen is slightly bigger which is nice I guess, but I absolutely HATE having my every day eating space at the front of the house in front of the large picture window where the living room used to be. We live in the city and our neighbors are really close, I always feel like they are looking out their big picture window watching us eat, LOL. It's funny because I read that when these homes were built, the purpose of those windows was so that the neighbors could see in to the "formal" living room and admire the nice furniture and TV set that no one used because they were all in the family room downstairs!
It might be crazy but I have considered remodeling back to the prior floor plan. My DH thinks I am BONKERS.
Jen

We have a formal dining room in the front of the house, which I love. It only has one narrow, tall window, and I don't really feel like people can see into it from the outside.

We usually eat in our breakfast room, which is in a back corner of the house, with windows on both walls - it's exactly as I always envisioned my dream house would be.

Mine is also a living/dining room with the livingroom on the court side. There is a window in the dining room and it looks at the side of my neighbor's house but they don't have any windows that can see into my dining room.
I wish my dining room was wider so I could put a large buffet but right now I have a small antique buffet that makes it tight when people are sitting - esp when someone needs to get up and squeeze by.

Front and center. It used to be the LR. We knocked the wall out between the Kit and LR, added an eat at bar and turned the LR into a DR. Didn't need or use the LR since adding a 24x26 den to the back of the house. And since our dining area was in the kitchen, we really needed a dining room :)

Monica

Here is a link that might be useful: Dining Room

Ours is in the front of our house, with French doors opening to it off the foyer and the kitchen. We live on several acres of mountain land with great views through the trees down to the valley and town below us, so we have lots of privacy. Front or back doesn't make much difference to me as long as there's some semblance of privacy and a decent view of something. Close proximity to your grilling area is also convenient. We have that, too, with ours, although it doesn't open directly to the grilling area, as Igloochic's does. Another consideration for us in siting the dining room, was that it didn't face due south or west. I'd hate to have to close drapes in order to eat in there as the sun was setting! Ours faces northwest, which is nice.
Lynn

We currently use our DR as a playroom and just eat at a small table off the kitchen. But I want to say THANKS for starting this thread, gardenwebber, as we are currently trying to design our next home and the main topic of discussion all day today has been whether we want to put our main dining area in the front or in the back of our home. We will only have one dining area but if we orient it behind the kitchen (in the back) it will have much room for expansion, proximity to a FP, and easy access to our screened in porch. I loved all of those features but worried that it would be odd to have it further back in the house. Reading these responses has really alleviated my concerns :)

One place to eat, and one place to sit...we used to have a home with formal living room and formal dining room in front, eat in kitchen and great room in the back of the house. We only lived in the informal parts, yet spent tons of money furnishing the front rooms. Now we live in a more practical manner - our living/great room is big and inviting and our dining room has an extendable table for holiday dinners and clam boils and can seat 12 comfortably but also hosts casual breakfasts and suppers for the 2 of us just off the kitchen. A fireplace, a seating area and it's cozy, inviting, formal and informal depending on how we dress it.

seagrass

Ours is in front and I just love it there. Walk into a large entry and smack ahead is the fairly large dinningroom with French doors going out to rear lawn and mountain/city lights view. When we entertain in nice weather we can open the front doors and the view is straight through doors, into entry and then the d.r. beyond, all set for company,then on out into the garden via F.doors. It just feels very welcoming to me. Much of our home is two rooms deep, so there's nice lighting and views to be had from front and back at the same time in many rooms...if that makes sense. I've heard this was common in some old plantations or homes in New Orleans area (allows for cross breezes). For just fam we eat in the kitchen, facing only backyard. I might change something else, but never the layout with DR in front.

Our DR is in the front of the house to the left of the front door. No foyer, enter directly into the LR and then the large archway on the left into the DR .
One very large window in front and one on the side. view of street out front and neighbor to the side. Have lace curtains and we always ate in there, but now my kids feel they are too exposed sitting in there and eating. It never bothered me in the past but I plan on getting wooden blinds for under the lace so they can have privacy.

Seagrass - are you "living practically" in the same house? DR in front or back?

Cooperbaily - have pics of your DR? Sounds similar to mine - and I am planning on some type of lace.

Ours is in the front of the house off the foyer. Columns seperate it with alittle wall there too. We have 2 - 6ft. windows that overlook the front porch & lake view. I kinda like the DR on the front.....breakfast room is on the side of the house and I have blinds on those windows along with a WT at the top. We didn't want blinds or shutters on the very front as that would destroy the lake view. Hope this helps.......bonnie

Our dining room is in the middle of the house, open from the 'gallery'. It looks out through two sets of French doors to a tropical courtyard so the view is pretty from breakfast to dinner (the courtyard has soft lighting in the evening).

This is my first "real" DR ever and we really enjoy it. It's located in the back, side of our home and over looks our wooded back yard.

Our DR is in the middle of the house between the living room and the kitchen. There's a door to completely close off the hot kitchen. The double windows look north over an apple tree in the yard, and further up a semi terraced hill to the woods at the horizon. No neighbors.

gardenwebber - we are in a different house - we added on and re-purposed rooms in an extended Cape Cod cottage. So the "front" is the great room/living area, now with a walk through study, and in the back, the kitchen which opens to the once living/dining areas. Our only dining area now is the once living room, with a fireplace and cathedral ceiling and a staircase going to the original bedrooms. And the eat in dining area off the kitchen is now a sitting room or "cook's nook" with bay window, southern exposure, plants, baker's racks, cookbooks and pottery.

It suits us now. We use the whole house. Nothing reserved for special occasions because every day is special at our age lol!

seagrass

Seagrass: Sounds very, very nice.

gardenwebber I dont have photo of DR. I will try to take some.

Ours is also at the front of the house, along with the living room and the two are separated by the foyer. It works great since these rooms face the street and in the back of the house I have my kitchen, eating nook for everyday and family room. When we were remodeling we had some suggestions to get rid of the wall between the dining room and kitchen and eat there everyday--thereby allowing us to have more kitchen space. The reason I never seriously considered it was because I did not want a view of my kitchen and daily eating area to be either viewable from the front door or windows. So for me the ideal location for a "formal" dining room would be in the front, but for the room used most often for eating, I prefer to be in the back. My eating nook is a southern exposure, by the way, and I just love all the winter light which streams in and warms the space. I agree with lynneinnewmexico, I would not want a western exposure.

I think I have the same house as valinsv! The front of the house is formal, and the back more casual. The formal use front rooms were a big selling point for my husband when we chose the house 22 years ago. He did not want any view of the kitchen or kidÂs messes from the front foyer. Though they receive light use, I am happy with them where they are. They stay cleaner and end up being my retreat when I want a quiet place to read or relax. They are also a safe home for the more fragile family antiques I inherited and restored, all of which are a formal style that goes well with the rooms.

Our dining room is in the front with a big paladian window, and while we did our own landscaping anyway, we made a pretty garden area infront of the window which also along side our screen front entry, while we live on a cul de sac, it is still nice to look at a garden area rather then lawn, street or neighbors house across the cul de sac.
Pics. of garden area, and holly tree:
{{!gwi}}
same garden taken from front entry area, just took this shot a few min. ago:

bump

Huh?

The entire front of our house is LR and DR...separated by a pocket door, and both rooms have huge windows facing west. I love the set-up and in the late afternoon/early evening, both rooms just glow!
The east "wall" of our DR is really a floor with a wrought iron railing and opens to the den behind it ( 3 steps down) and the kitchen (same floor level as DR) to the right of it. The kitchen has a breakfast area, and this set up works wonderfully for big family dinners (often in our group :^). I can put leaves in both tables and have the ends about 4' apart...easy/close enough for conversations between the two tables.

Before our remodel, the DR was at the front of the house. I disliked that location because people coming up our walkway could see us in there, and (because we live in a fairly urban area) seeing traffic drove me crazy. I also disliked the fact that if we had a caller during dinnertime, they could see us seated at our table from the front door (which then opened directly into our living room). It always felt too exposed and busy.

After the remodel, the old DR became a foyer, and the new dining room is situated off the terrace in the back of the house. It is private--even if people are in the foyer or the living room, they cannot see the dining room--and it's quiet and peaceful. We have a family dinner every night, and we entertain a lot, and I love that it feels like such a refuge.

We also situated the dining room in such a way that while it is adjacent to the kitchen, there are few direct sight lines into the kitchen. We have an eating area in the kitchen, but we always gravitate towards the dining room.

kkay md - would pleassse post a pic of your new foyer. I'm having trouble deciding what to do with my room...Thanks

Oh angel--I have never figured out how to do that, alas! It's a small foyer, but adequate. It has a bench, a piece of art, a large coat closet. Because we changed the dining room into a foyer, the living room no longer has the feel of a hallway. The foyer is separated from the living room by a broad half wall where we have a lamp and (usually) a bouquet of fresh flowers.

We have a 3/4 glass front door and sidelight, so the foyer gets natural light, and our architect designed a long hallway from the foyer to the back of the house, lined by what she called a "gallery"--a wall of floor to ceiling bookshelves.

Having a foyer transformed our house. It was from that decision--to have a dedicated foyer--that the rest of the design flowed.

i have a dining room and an eat in kitchen also, both are on the rear of my home and both have windows faceing out onto my gardens.

my suggestion is if you don't like the view either cover it or change it..you can always plant a beautiful garden outside of your windows even if you only have a few feet to plant it in..there are narrow growing plants and trees and vines as well..wiithin 6 months you can have a beautiful garden to look out on..some discreet screening to give privacy from the outside is also easy to do with some lattice or a small arbor and vines