Open Floor Plan vs. Formal Dining Room
alisonn
13 years ago
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Comments (19)
maurenemm
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Formal Dining Room: open or closed and entertaining?
Comments (18)Three things - First, the first plan requires that anyone progressing from the great room to the dining room either go through the kitchen or back out through the front hall. Not a good idea. Second, the "Sagecrest" and "Bloomsbury Park" plans have one of those, you should excuse me for saying so, horrible open spaces with columns and no walls right off the entry hall that they call a dining room, but that is really an affront to all of the time-tested hierarchies of space. To all of you who have such an arrangement, I apologize. And third, since you don't like the open plan you now have, you may be overcorrecting by looking for a completely enclosed room, which only works if the room is very large. Consider instead a room that connects to the kitchen through a door in a solid wall, perhaps with a pass-through window that can be closed at dinnertime. Then instead of a solid wall on the more public entry, a pair of half-height walls with columns, flanking a wide doorway into the dining room. That way, you avoid the rabbit warren of closed rooms, you establish a distinct separation between rooms, you keep an open view, and you don't have to make the rooms too big for your needs or for the proportions of your house. If you want to accommodate both your immediate family and larger groups, consider building a library-dining room, with bookshelves and cabinetry that can also house china and flatware, and a table with many leaves that will function as a library table and dinner table for the few, and expand to accommodate the many. The library aspect can keep it from looking abandoned and unused when you aren't entertaining....See Morenew flooring in open plan living room dining room hall with pale grey
Comments (3)try and post a few from diff areas so we can get an overall look. post the name and a good shot of the wall color. and post any pics that the new flooring will transition to the flooring you want to keep. that way we can see what we have to match....See MoreHelp! Dining room help open concept no idea what to do with floor plan
Comments (7)I feel like this is a family room type look. But you can use as dining room if that works better for you Many will ask for more pictures and a floor plan. So if you can post those. But I guess to answer your question, if you do end up using this as a dining room: There’s not much room for much so a rug, table, chairs, maybe a bench on one side, what’s your style? Maybe wallpaper on the walls....See MoreOpen floor plan dining room
Comments (20)I vote for the art. It pulls the space together in a very relaxing way. Even a wall sculpture or some piece of art. We moved to Florida from a large contemporary house in NY. It had high ceilings (18 ft) and walls of windows. However the kitchen was dark. We decided to put skylights on the roof to bring in more light. It was unbelievable how much light came in and how beautiful the kitchen looked. Looked like a different house. I know people worry about leaks etc. We had them for 40 yrs, through storms, blizzards, and they never leaked. People forget how effective skylights are and how much light they bring into a room. They are so much more effective than windows for bringing in light. Now in sunny Florida, before moving in, we had skylights installed in the kitchen, family room, laundry room, small powder room. If I could, I'd put a large one in the garage! Jane...See MoreCarol_from_ny
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