I have a lot of insanity going on:
-corner built-in china cabinets like rafor's (clearly not going anywhere)
-we eat in the DR daily (kitchen not an eat-in),
and
-we actually use the china frequently! (The "special occasion" need not be all that "special.") Many of you will agree with me: Live a little! Use the china!

Well, I don't plan to have a formal dining room, but I do intend to get a big china cabinet, to go next to the kitchen table. I do have china (crystal and silver, too) and what doesn't fit in the cabinet will go in the sunroom (for tea) and glass upper cabinets in the pantry area.

There's something so civilized about bringing out fancy dishes for a special tea or cake and coffee. Even if you don't host elaborate dinner parties, I'd still recommend picking up beautiful dishes for special occasions :)

This is an aside, because I think what people have said about formal and informal china is probably very true. So this is just a different way of thinking about things:

Formal does not have to equal expensive.

I like being able to make a pretty table and I often entertain multiple dozens. I have very pretty white porcelain with gold trim dishes, and chargers, flatware, stemware and flatware to go witch. All of which was cheaper for settings for 2-3 dozen than my kitchen dishes for four (not dozen, just four). The gold company dishes are much more formal (though I also have some casual company dishes, which were also much more expensive for settings for 12). If I'm entertaining large mobs, I use all of the above, plus my mother's old stainless, plus her old dishes which I used in college. At that point a plate is a plate, and there's nothing formal about a mob scene.

For a sit down dinner, however, formal can be very pretty. And cheap. :)

Oh yeah...formal china--especially if one likes vintage or antique stuff--is cheaper than regular tableware, but then I guess used stuff generally is.

Similarly, used china cabinets are practically free on craigslist. I love old china cabinets and I need to stop looking. They are so inexpensive and so pretty and I still lack walls.

I just recently finished the woodwork in the dining room and the window coverings. My next purchase will be a side board/buffet in here. It will hold the china and silver that is down in the basement doing absolutely nothing. I don't particularly like my wedding china. My MIL, though, has several china cabs full though so maybe I'll convince her to pass on the set intended for my husband sooner rather than later ;). She never uses any of that china. I've never even seen them use the dining room. Everyone kind of eats at the kitchen table (which seats 4) and island (which seats 3) and the rest stand and eat.. funny.

I don't want a tall china cab - not exactly a great idea in earthquake country.

The liquor cab in the corner will probably also get a new home - i think this corner would look better with a small table with flowers on it or something.

(why do cats always jump into pictures ? )

I'm also undecided about the whole light fixture thing... Keep the relic or change it out? Matches the sconces on the wall...

marcy...what a wonderful light filled room ! Would love to see the rug more clearly. it is hard to tell about the chandie...is it original to the house...the wall sconce too ? What did you have to do to the wood work ? So beautiful...love the kittie too :) c

Thanks Trail!

Lots of light today! The fog finally gave me a break.

We purchased that rug right before we were married, so probably around 1989? It's been with us forever. I'm glad you like it. I've had it so long I every once in a while tell DH its got to go and he says no! It's Turkish and wasn't new when we got it (in Boston). Not sure how old exactly...
The chandie and sconces probably are original to the house. They have a matching single light in the hall adjacent to dining room. I do have beuatiful chandelier that I took from our condo (the buyer was going to go modern), but then I wouldn't have matching sconces. Have yet to find an that would go with it.

My woodwork story is long. It took me the better part of a year (working mainly on weekends since I work full time and have 2 children with busy schedules). The windows were in bad shape and that single one was replaced with the remodel. It had been replaced in the 70's maybe with an aluminum, god forbid. That side of the house gets all the weather, so I know *why* they did it, but horrible match to the rest. I ended up using smart strip and denatured alcohol to strip. Then buying shellac flakes and making my own. It was tough to get the new window (light colored ) looking like the rest, but after some mistakes which required re-stripping, I think I now have it looking appropriate in color and distressedness (I know not a word but I don't have a better one :). After the shellac, I rubbed with 000 steel wool per Casey's suggestion and polished with paste wax.

I also had to add a coat of shellac to the beams and baseboards. The beams had some water marks (the bay window roof had bad leaks the first 2 years were were here) and simple shellac coat to them fixed it (shellac melts the old shellac).

Rug

Chandie

Sconce (yes, orange bulbs were here when we moved in... kind of waiting for them all to die... moooodd lighting..)

Closer pics of trim on the windows - all my hard work!

Yellow paint touchup is on the honey do list...

Cat says thanks :) - I've had him almost as long as the rug - 18 years!.

Here is a link that might be useful: my post to the woodworking forum

I do have dishes in my China Cabinet but mostly I display my collectables. Llardros, Hummels, etc. I have a few of each. Small minatures too.

We didn't have a china cabinet until just recently. I chose to get more formal 30's-40's pieces for economic reasons. Cheaper than Target, but also took 5 cleanings to achieve this color again.

Old pieces tend to fit the scale of our house - so it feels like win-win.

I don't care if they are in or out. I love my china cabinet and will always have one.

I wish I had known what I know now when we got married (about a lot of things, lol, but I digress....). The china we registered for does not match our current house or our last one. I had been renting when we made up our registry. I inherited a ton of truly fine china from my grandmother and should have just added any pieces that were missing. I have opened one of the 2 boxes of dishes and used it once. The other is still sealed. Luckily, we did not get many of the matching pieces, so it did not compound my mistake.

I have more than one china cabinet, but they are not used exclusively for china. In fact, I never unpacked my china or delicate things in our move into this house almost 6 years ago. We knew we'd renovate, so never took the breakables out of the boxes. In the meantime, one served as a board game cabinet for a few years with odds and ends in the hidden bottom half. Now, we still need so much done, that the cabinets remain jammed in the hallway, empty. The sad thing is we do just fine without them. Maybe I'll feel differently when we get things put back in place including the 2 china cabs blocking the hallway to the bedrooms from the front door. Because the living room needs doing and we don't want them back in until it is ready for them, they take up space. I won't have room for the dining room one to go back in there because the town made us add a window on the wall we'd need as part of the reno. So... we walk the long way to the bedrooms when we are using the front door. Sigh.

I intend to paint the larger one of them a glossy black and to change or paint the hardware. It was a cheap garage sale find 10 years ago, so if I mess it up, c'est la vie. As noted, there are plenty of them on CL these days....

Re earthquake country--the plates balanced on end for display maybe not, but the cabinet itself can be strapped to the studs to keep it from tipping over, and you can put good latches on the doors, and even the drawers, to keep them shut...

Fori, good reminder about the used china. I've seen whole services for a song at resale shops. Mine were just closeouts and new, and not nearly the same quality as the good china at the antique stores. The guests don't care. They just think the table looks pretty. :)

I have a china cabinet that I love, but no dinnerware in it. Right now it houses a variety of vintage glassware, a tea set, and a few other fragile family heirlooms. I agree with the previous comments about fewer walls and a more casual lifestyle diminishing the need or desire for large china cabinets.

I recently decided that I probably should sell the formal platinum banded china we have. It's rarely used, and when I bring it out, DH jokes about "the queen coming to dinner". It was my mother's but she bought it after her divorce and never really used it. It really has no sentimental value to me. Don't get me wrong, I love beautiful dinnerware, this just doesn't really suit me. I also think that some people may pick a china when they are young, and find that it's not what they like a decade or so down the road.

I have some colored stoneware we use everyday, and a set of nice white china that can be used for almost any occasion.

marcy, really love your dining room. Seeing such beautiful wood trim is a real pleasure. I understand why newer homes (especially on the west coast) don't have it, but that doesn't stop me from wishing it were more common. Very, very nicely done. If you are going to keep the current chandelier, you might see if it can be lowered. It might look better a little closer to the table.

bmorepanic, very lovely cabinet. What a great find.

bmore: beautiful piece...they don't make them like that anymore.

marcy: wow....what a lot of work but so worth it. I have all painted woodwork. In this house it is old heart pine and had way too many coats of paint. Besides in this house I like the painted look. I have seen others in our neighborhood, all historic homes and the ones with the natural wood are gorgeous but I am not good at stripping the intricate details...I have tried. Also their wood is better quality than ours. Fancier .

I am not a big fan of that chandy or the sconces. I have seen some really lovely ones over the years but I don't particularly care for those. If you see restored antique ones that you like better I would go for it. I love that rug !! And that wall color . I am a fan of rich wall colors and Oriental rugs...have a house full. Thanks for showing. c

Marcy that's such a lovely room! I love those warm golden walls.

We have a buffet in our DR that my parents gave us when we got married. It's great: stores all our china and crystal (14 place settings and we use them fairly often -- everyday dishes are stored in the kitchen) plus extra things like candles, napkin rings, and extra flatware. (I have 3 sets of flatware because when we have the whole extended family over, we tend to use it all.) It's close enough to the table that we can turn around from our chairs and place dishes on it when we're done passing food. I know I'd miss it if I didn't have it.

mcmjilly, thanks for the smile. I am older every day, and have rarely been in style : ) .

I don't have a formal dining room, and don't have "good" china, though I have several different patterns I use depending on whim and occasion. But I do have a china cabinet as well as a sideboard/buffet, though neither is part of a set. The china cabinet is an older piece, bought on the street at Eastern Market in Washington, DC one afternoon more than 25 years ago; it was part of a set but the person who bought everything else didn't have room for the cabinet, so I got it for a song, since the seller didn't want to schlep it back to Virginia.

I've been dreaming about as long about a large, wide antique Welsh dresser, but will keep the china cabinet until the dresser finally arrives! The sideboard is French with a marble top, bought at ABC Carpet & Home in NYC about 20 years ago.

I have my mother's old Wedgwood Edme, the Spode Blue Italian I treated myself to after I bought my first apartment (I figured I didn't want to wait until marriage to have nice dishes), a few place settings of Wedgwood Citron (a wedding present), and recently a bunch of Burgess & Leigh/Burleigh Blue Calico and Red Calico. And a growing collection of blue transferware from various periods. All the blue and white stuff will have to be pried out of my fingers, especially since my 14-year-old daughter is already starting to fondle it. It must be genetic...

Thanks everyone for the lovely pictures. What a beautiful selection/collection of china cabinets and dining rooms!

Becky

bmore - I missed your pic before and just absolutely love your china cab and your floor ;) That is a stunner!

Love my china cabinet. Will never be w/o one.

I know that, as these are built-ins, this won't directly help the OP, but here is a picture. Personally, I love how much these little guys hold:

I'm having a built-in china cabinet built as part of our kitchen/bath reno. I'm getting rid of the main floor bath (that's never used)and using the space for a craftsman style cabinet. Probably a standard 4 door on the bottom and 4 glass doors abive. Our house is from the 20's and they're quite common in this part of the world, if they haven't been ripped out in some previous reno.
So, the short version is, I'm a big fan of china cabinets.

I don't know what I'd do without my giant, heavy Chinese Rosewood (#2, no cherry) "China" cabinet. I have no "china" but lots of random stuff - Caleca from the outlet shop in Sicily, a set of hand-painted glasses I couldn't resist in Hungary, "souvenir" wine glasses from formal dining or charity events, a tea set I picked up in Japan, a weird-shaped stirrup from the bazaar in Rabat (Morrocco), and other breakable gifts from over the years such as a gorgeous Mikasa vase I was given for my wedding (I eloped - no registry - didn't need anything after all the collecting).
In the buffet underneath the display part, I have serving dishes and candles and other odds and ends that don't fit in the kitchen.

kitchens were smaller and not so special..houses consisted of "rooms"..leftover from Victorian designs.Thus a diningroom would always be present and a natural spot to store the china that would be used for company. Then dishwashers came ...can't put that china with the gold rims in the dishwasher..so other dinnerware is used mostly... I think the china was passed off or given away before the hutches left the room. You'll see set after set of complete 12 person settings of formal china in flea markets and antique stores. A hutch can be re-purposed. But in the last 20 yrs kitchens have gotten quite large and more a gathering space so decorative glass doors and corner cabs show up in the kitchen which is a showplace kitchen now..that hutch somewhere is taking up space from an open plan liv/dining space...so the hutch now leaves the room. Many homes with formal dining rooms will still have a hutch no doubt, but they do appear en masse in vintage and antique stores.Welsh dressers are a little more casual and interesting with the vertical display, plate racks and such..pottery and ceramics look good...and with cabinet storage below-some have drawers..really nice.

I have two matching, large china cabinets on one wall of the formal dining room and another of a different style on the opposite wall. The top sections of both have glass doors. I rely on the dust protection of the doors and drawers. When I lived in L.A., I already had the two large ones, bolted into studs. When we were about to relocate, I insisted on wrapping all the old crystal and china myself. At 9:30 p.m. on January 16, 1994, I packed the very last stem in bubble wrap. At 4:31 a.m., January 17, the Northridge quake hit--epicenter approximately 35 miles from my house. I won't go into detail, but those huge china cabinets remained bolted to the wall and I didn't lose a single stem or piece of china. Friends and neighbors lost entire collections. Now, I guess I cannot recommend that people to keep their stemware in bubble wrap (although it certainly worked out fortuitously), but I do recommend bolting those huge, heavy cabinets to the walls! In style or not, there are five of them around here.

KD...would love to see yours. How fortuitous indeed. I am so glad you still have your pretties.

Angie : please tell about your home ! Any more pics ??? Love the animals on top of the cabs :)

c9pilot : I hope you will post your pic of the finished cab and the wonderful sounding collections. c

Glad to hear some others still have them. :)

Not that I'm getting rid of mine no matter what's "in style".
Just curious if it looked unusual to people when they came over. Never had crossed my mind before.

Chiefy, yours looks great in a "modern" setting.

bmorepanic, that's too gorgeous!

angie, corner built-ins are always great. They are common in older PA homes around me too

Whiteriversooner, lovely DR, especially that chandy.

Funny thing is, don't actually have "good porcelain" myself :)
Simply a set of Christmas dishes with winter scenes on, collected because we tend to do the "winter" family dinners.
But winter scenes or not, they actually get used whenever (like we run out of dishes...)
Plus my collection of green depression glass, and crystal bought at auctions.

Worse, I have an old kuechenschrank (hand made hutch from Germany) in the kitchen with a collection of antique cream pitchers.
The glass doors hold the hand-blown glass ones, china on the open shelves below.
Someday these will all be sold at auction and I will flood the collectibles market with cream pitchers. :D

Agree that collecting china and glassware as a hobby tends to steer one towards owning display pieces.

I do think china cabinets are out of style (ie not depicted I shelter mags as much, etc). A few reasons ....

More minimalist designs. China cabs can look busy and cluttered, and also take up a lot of physical and visual space. As great rooms got bigger, DR were cut. Also, I think the popularity of butlers pantries has shifted dish storage there.

There was a funny article about armoires a while back in the wsj. High end hotels have all switched to flat screens and flooded the market with tv armoires at very low prices. They are dinosaurs now.

My husband wanted to get a tv armoire 15 years ago and I said, "No. When flat screen TVs are widespread, we'll be stuck with a huge beastly piece of furniture that we won't be able to give away."

Maybe the flat screen tv is the key to it all because it allows for a sleek, uncluttered look in the living room that wasn't possible before. Maybe it's just spread to the rest of the house.

I wonder whether old tv armoires ever get turned into kitchen pantry cabinets? ;)

I love my built-in corner cabs. They're a lot like Angie DIY's. If I didn't have them, I would want a china cabinet. But I'm a throwback. I enjoy formal entertaining with all the plates, crystal, and flatware, and I need somewhere to store it. (I even own fish plates.)I think many people don't bother with all of that. In a more traditional house, however, a I think a china cabinet is lovely.

Maybe with TV armoires becoming extinct, they might actually make the ones you can store clothes in again....

My TV armoire is a linen cabinet now. These houses from the 50s don't have room for TV cabinets and don't have room for spare pillows and blankets.

Trail: Thanks so much for your interest and kind words. My 1930 house is likely best described as Mediterranean Revival. It is light tan brick, and it has arches and arched windows in many places, and a row of arabesque columns in front. Each room in the house has a different texture of stucco, which I love.

At the suggestion of many GWers, we opened up the doorway from kitchen to DR, so we made it a 49" arched doorway. We also arched the other door to the kitchen; I am convinced the only reason they were not arched originally is that, of course, there were actual doors between the kitchen and the other rooms. I am similarly convinced that the arches we put in will look "original" when the kitchen is finished.
Here is a shot of the LR, with the DR that you already saw off to the left. (Don't mind the mess!!)

Oh angie...I love that house. I was just telling DH how much I have always wanted to live in a real adobe home...you know the ones in NM. We lived in Santa Fe long years ago for a summer. When I saw the old old adobe I was in a swoon. Your fire place is so lovely. I can hardly wait to see the finished kitchen . Are all the other rooms " done " ? What a charming home you have. And thank you. c

Trail: *Blush*. Thank you,you are too kind. We like to joke that we bought the arched front windows, and the rest of the house came along gratis. Yes, the kitchen is the only thing we are working on at the moment; we were fortunate to get a house in good shape, and have only really had to do "infrastructure" projects (insulation, windows, plumbing, new side door...). Oh, and I built a sauna some time ago.
Yes, a real adobe house would be divine, I agree. I would love that! We strongly agree on one other thing, too: I also cannot wait to see the finished kitchen! ;-) Merci.

Angie- I love the beams! What a lovely and inviting home :)

Thanks Anna! We were kind of luck in that no one ever painted over this trim. I admit to being tempted at times :) Most of the homes here have been painted many many times. The last owner had it for 71 years! They did very little over the years - the kitchen in 1953 and that was about it (well, and replacing 1 wood window with aluminum). Thankfully what was on them for the most part was the faux bois finish and all of it was alcohol soluble so I didn't have to deal with anything toxic. And the shellac that was in place on the baseboards and beams was easily revitalized with another coat. I do have a whole big foyer and staircase to do though :( Maybe by 2013 that will be done. Oh, yeah, now that you pointed that out, the chandie is too high! Funny how you don't notice things like that after seeing it for almost 6 years!

chicagoans - thanks! Funny how that color looks different in every pic. I keep pondering painting it grey.. but then that's yet another project. DH would *kill* me though. And yes, I really want a buffect/sideboard for the reasons you mentioned! Great place to put food if you have a lot of people around the table. And my table isn't very wide. Can put the pretty desserts and extra wine there too!

trail, thanks. Luckily I didn't have a lot of intricate detail. This is an Edwardian so the lines are straight and simple. I'd probably have thrown in the towel and called the painter if it had been more difficult. I think you are right about the chandie. It says "french chateau" to me (and probably is since that is where the POs came from int he 30's), not SF Edwardian. Actually, I think it would look very nice in a Mediterranean house from the 20s or 30s, like say in Angies! Hey, Angie, need sconces, a pendant, and a chandelier?!! :)

Thanks for the compliments.
I'm really enjoying everyone's photos and thoughts.

angie...a sauna ??? that is another thread...so cool...I mean hot/humid :) would love to see...have never seen a home sauna .

marcy: 71 yrs..you are so lucky that they didn't remuddle. Yes the lights are almost " castle" like. Pass them along on ebay and find the right ones :) Will look so beautiful. Did you not like the faux bois ? What you have done is remarkable. On to the staircase ...better you than I. I am finished remodeling ( note I didn't say d&o&n&e)....c

I wonder whether old tv armoires ever get turned into kitchen pantry cabinets? ;)

I had that exact same thought a couple of weeks ago. lol. My brother built ours, so we are not getting rid of it; but it needs a job in this small house, it can't just sit there looking oak-y. But we don't have room for it in the kitchen, more's the pity. I thought about putting glass in the doors and turning it into a china cab, but it's too deep and bulky to work well for that.

We do have a real china cabinet; it holds my grandmother's china and it looks nice from across the room (antique curved glass front). DH is not a big fan of it because he is convinced the kids are going to go straight through the glass one of these days (it sits in the corner between their chairs). I'd love built-in corner ones like yours, Angie. Much more practical, at least in our case. I don't have room for the china in the kitchen, so a china cabinet it is.

I took off the faux bois where it was damaged. The window trim wasn't in great shape. Water had been there... And that 4th window was replaced so that one had even more chips, scratches, and such. And I took Casey's opinion that it wasn't probably original to the house, see link below.

It still exists on that door into the kitchen, the baseboards, and the headers of the door into the foyer from the dining room. It was like someone tried to spruce up the dining room at some point. It doesn't exist in the foyer or up the stairwell. Probably around the time they installed very large wood cornices and drapes which I tore down as soon as the boxes were unpacked. Not everything matches, but I'm okay with that for now (plenty of other low hanging fruit around here for projects).

GW is so great! I've enjoyed this DR thread and learned about all kinds of things that I never would have known. Shellac flakes! I would have gone to the paint store and gotten bad advice from some sales clerk who may have known something about the products on the shelf but certainly not what was required - shellac!

Remuddling - love that word!

Here is a link that might be useful: woodworking forum help.

We have a dining room built-in china cabinet (1920's house) that, oddly I think, has glass doors both above and below. I wouldn't have chosen glass below, and often wish for drawers there for table linens.

Someone here had the same worry about rambunctious kids as northcarolina's DH. Before we bought the house it was used as a preschool. All the glass in my cabinet was changed out for plexiglass. Someday I'll restore the glass, but it's not high on the project list.

Several years ago, I gave mine to my DD. She has open concept, and my china cabinet exactly matched her kitchen cabinets.

This is a pic from our old house. We had our cabinet maker build these in our dining room. They are of QS oak, like the rest of the house, and hold an incredible amount of stuff. Top drawers are for silverware, small candles...and the bottom drawers are for placemats, napkins, and smaller tablecloths. I hang my large tablecloths on hangers. We had a similar larger one built into the dining room of our new house. Great storage.

Joyce, those are beautiful!!!! I love seeing all the great cabinet styles.
Diane

ah...I can see why you got rid of that faux....don't much care for it. what you have done is beautiful.

joyce those cabinets are lovely.How did you ever leave that wonderful A&C home ???

Thanks for the compliments. Trailrunner: I drive by that house several times a week, and get a lump in my throat every time. But it was a HUGE house, with a whole block to mow. At our age, we needed something a little less work. New house is nice, too, but smaller!!

I wanted a place to display some items and also to store additional tablecloths, serving platters, etc. After looking for months, i wasn't able to find a china cabinet or hutch I liked, so I had one built out of cabinets....love the extra storage!

Question for all those with built in china cabinets: Do you like glass or a solid door? If it is in a corner, can you really fit everything?

Thanks

Oh, and please post photos? They are the most helpful.

Thanks

K

My 1940 colonial style corner cabs have a lower section with solid doors and mullioned glass doors on top. Each bottom section has two shelves and holds a complete set of good china, plus a few other things. The top parts have 4 shelves each. They hold a ton. They are a remarkably efficient use of space.

I had a built in in my old DR. It was roomy. It was not glass, it was a mirrored door. Something I would not have selected but it worked well.

Two pics:
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

KitschyKitch: My most illuminating photos are already posted upthread. I will echo Ginny to say that these cabinets do hold a lot, and take up little room. That is a serving set for 12 that you see in the upper part of one of our two cabinets. Below, we keep our liquor, some candles, vases, that sort of thing. That leaves the other cabinet for glasses, knick-knacks, linens, etc.