plug in dining library rooms into your search engine under images. TONS of pics and inspiration. I keep thinking about it myself...

This is my one day room,but first too many other things to finish, but i love this room. table is out to lay your work on and shelves of books( to dust) a nice leather wingback chair and side table to reading with tea and my fav. the library ladder a must. I will have this one day I hope but for now I have a comfy windowseat to lounge with a good book, you could use a seatee too, a table set to seat six, another folding table under a window to add to dining table so we can fit 10 to 14 if we pull it up to the window seat for extra seating. I also have a mahogany desk that my lap top sits for every day use but it easily stows in top drawer when we have guests and the desk becomes a console for serving dishes and desserts. with the exception of my kitchen,I use my dining room more than anyother room in my house and yet it still is for dining too. Here is my one day inspiration pic.

How exactly would you like to use the room? Do you want a room for reading with book storage? Do you want somewhere to spread out and work on projects? Somewhere to work on a laptop? How much space do you have around your dining room table? What style is the room? Do you have any pictures?

My mother uses her dining room as a study when she's working on projects (usually research). She likes to spread out books across the dining room table. She sits in a comfortable dining room chair and has a foot stool to kick up her feet for reading.

For this kind of use, I think one of the most important things is to have a nonfussy dining room table. I used my dining room table as a library table while I was working on a book project. The dining room table is reclaimed wood and distressed--I didn't really need to worry about scratches, so I was comfortable spreading out books and papers.

When I was growing up in a large family in a small house, our dining room table was used constantly, and not just for holiday meals. That's where we typed up term papers, spread out sewing, did jigsaw puzzles and played card and board games, and our parents did taxes. That was a polished dining room table--but table pads made all the other uses possible.

I'm in the process of converting a formal DR to a home office. We thought about keeping it functional for both areas, but I really don't think we'd ever use the FDR space. We're just not formal diners, and neither are our friends.

One of the things I had considered was attaching a nice wood shelf (not a lifting shelf) to an area of the FDR that's inset (for a china cabinet) with a fabric skirt to match the drapes. That could be a desk, and then double as a buffet.

Similar to davisgard, growing up our dining room table was also my desk, computer desk (and typewriter desk before we had a computer, then word processor desk...), art table/play table, fort, parents' financial workspace, dinner table, measuring/sewing table... I can't think of much I did that wasn't centered around that table. Can you not have the 10-seater table you want, and just let it serve other purposes when not holding a meal?

Our 10-12-seater mahogany table has 2 leaf inserts that are stored in a nearby closet, and 2 drop leaves that...drop when it's pushed against a wall to serve as a library table with books, lamp, one chair. That's most of the time in our empty-nester house, when the DRM in the center of our home functions both as library and central traffic crossroads (4 main doorways connecting foyer, LRM, and kitchen, plus stairs up and down). If it were a normal room, I might well leave the smaller table version "up" somewhere for everyday use, but I'd still suggest considering a drop-leaf table for flexibility. Ours takes the 2 of us virtually no time to shift it to the center for 6-8, only slightly more for 10-12.

That reminded me of a blog I read a while back where they changed the FDR to a Study in a few minutes. I think there is also a later picture where she used a giant dresser as a buffet that stores dishes and study papers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Yellow Cape Cod

Hey everyone, Please check out my Dining Room that turns into a Home Office and back in 5 minutes! I love my formal dining room for entertaining so I could never live without it. However, when I am not entertaining it is a sophisticated, well functioning Home Office.

Regards,
Sarah @ theyellowcapecod.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Dining Room to Office in 5 minutes.

Thanks for all the wonderful ideas!

To answer several of the questions. The room is an awkward 12.5' x 14'. It's just my DH and myself. He needs a study (works from home in the unfinished basement) but we also need it every 2 weeks or so for family gatherings. Someday he will have his Man Cave.

Rosie, I've seen those tables before on CL. It's great to know that they actually function as well as they would seem.

Itltrot, I LOVE your study/dining room. I've got to show it to my DH and see what he thinks (since he'll be using the room much more then anyone). He'll probably say it doesn't have to be that fancy but I think it will provide everything he needs while also satisfying a nice presentation. I think the big fancy chair may be too much for him (not me), but here's hoping. I'm not sure it would be comfortable to sit for long periods of time. Do you have your main work area somewhere else? I wanted to thank you and everyone else first but I'm going back to your website to read more!

I said the room was awkward because there is a angled wall. I proposed the idea of making that area into a quisi display cabinet (though we have very little to display). He seemed reluctant but perhaps when he sees Itltrot study he might go for it. If not the room would still work out.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

Sorry didn't mean to confuse you. That's not my study. The link I posted was to a blog of someone else's wonderful room.

I guess in my excitement, I didn't note the differtiation between you and Sarah. I can understand why you mentioned it, it was a GREAT idea.

So while my DH has been downstairs at work, I've been trying to recreate the room into a study too. It's hard when I'm trying to be a minimalist to come up with "stuff" around the house that I can use to fancy it up :)

That said, I'm loving it! I took one of the dinette chairs that is majorily comforable with arms and seated cushion. I wanted the "office" chair to be different from the regular windsor style chairs (not so modern but if I only have two out at a time and they are black, maybe it won't be too bad - at least for awhile). I'm sitting down and the only trouble I can see, is both of us wanting to use it at the same time! The "sweet" spot for the desk looks out into the entire house. You can see out the front door and into the bank of windows that overlooks our lake, all within a room that has no windows!

The idea seems so simple, but I don't know if I would have EVER thought of it. Thanks Sarah (and itltrot). This is why I read GW so much!

Thanks, aloha2009. I am so glad it's working for you! No worries, itltrot is a friend of mine, we go way back :) She is very sweet for mentioning my blog here. I also love this forum!! Best regards, Sarah

We need to go out and get a few accessories for the "desk" but my DH seems to really like it. Yeah, I know the black towel doesn't really do his desk justice :), nor the gold light fixture, nor the blank eggplant wall in the background...Looks like I've got a room that may function better but now needs some thought to beauty.
My DH did bring up his leather desk chair that is much more erogomically correct then the dinette chair and it looks MUCH better too.

I wanted to include a pic of the in progess study/dining room.

Thanks again for everyones help.