We eat in the kitchen. I have a large beautiful table that we use for most meals. I have seating at the island that we never use and next time I design a kitchen I will omit that. I also have a dining room that is only used for holiday meals. We never eat a meal on a sofa - I would find that uncomfortable- but we do eat snacks on the couch in the family room.

We plan to downsize in a few years when DH retires - I'm not interested in having a separate dining room anymore - but I definitely want a large enough table in the kitchen to serve large holiday meals.

Perhaps you can figure out a table situation where you can entertain guests that isn't a dining room table - doesn't have to be a traditional table - maybe one of those coffee tables that raise up and down, or a table that folds up small etc. -think out of the box.

We eat everywhere. The table when the whole family eats together which isn't often and holidays. Mostly the island and sometimes in front of the boob tube :) when I am feeling generous and lazy. It's hard to picture without photos. Can you post a couple? Can you turn it into a casual sitting space with a low table/ coffee table for eating and a couch or couple of comfy chairs? Maybe coffee house style if you will? I guess worst case is you have to convert it back to an eating area of it doesn't pan out.

Aleximorrie and I posted at the same time :)

I have little kids. Kids eat at the island while I prep dinner for DH And I. Then we put kids to bed. I cook dinner while we chat about our days. Then we eat at the island while we look at our computer or phone. Not the ideal family meal but that's what it is!

We use our breakfast room for breakfast and when we have a small group of casual company (one set of grandparents) and the dining room when we have a bigger crowd.

Eta we never eat on the couch. Too messy.

We eat pretty much every meal at our island unless we have company and then we either all sit in the dining room or the adults sit in the dining room and the kids sit at the island.

With 4 small kids we have a strict "no food outside of the kitchen/dining room" rule.

We are a house of 3 adults. We have a great room in our condo that is a very large rectangle housing the kitchen and dining area in one half and the living room in the other half. We never eat at the island. If we're eating a regular meal, we eat at the dining room table. But if we're having a one-dish meal, then we eat on the couch.

Two adults, two kids. We have a dining room and a breakfast nook. No eat in space in the kitchen. The breakfast nook is the art area for the kids. We eat all meals at the dining room table with rare special treats eating in front of the television for World Series games or the like.

There are 2 of us, and just at home, we mostly eat in the dining room, unless there is a game on, and then we eat in the recliners in the Pub/Media room. When guests come, sometimes we eat outside on one of the decks, but mostly in the dining room or pub. Depends on the occasion.

Pretty much every meal in the breakfast/eating area in the open kitchen, which is big enough for a table for 4 (or 6). Relatively infrequent in the formal dining room, and never, ever on the couch in front of the TV.

Actually, how do you eat on your couch? With plates in your lap? Tray tables? Do you load your plates in the kitchen and then run back and forth?

We are 2adults. We eat dinner in the dining room and some lunches and breakfasts as well. We have a bistro table in our sun room that is an extension of the kitchen. We thought we would eat most meals there because of the view, but it almost never gets used, I think because we don't like the height. I plan to replace it at some point with the thought that breakfast and lunch will be eaten there.

When it's just DH and I, we have a sit down meal in the dining room. Since I moved back to help my parents, we eat in the bedroom.

We mostly eat at the kitchen table. If we are having pizza, we eat in the living room watching TV. On holidays and when we have company, we eat at the dining table in our separate, formal dining room. We are building a new home. It will be our 1 story retirement home. It will not have a formal dining room. We will have a dining area with a more casual dining table where we will eat when guests are over otherwise we will eat at the kitchen island probably most of the time.

Hi. Thanks for the comments. My camera on my phone is the pits. I'll ask my DH to take a picture, AFTER we've taken out the recycling. It's our holding area right now.

We use small separate tables that scooch right under the sofa, so the food is at the right height and distance for eating. We're not messy eaters, and no little kids anymore so no worries about that. We load up at the counter and then sit down.

I rarely sit down. I have a standing computer and a job that has me on my feet and moving the whole week. So when I sit I want to be totally comfortable and cushioned. :) I find even cushioned straight chairs to be uncomfortable after a short time. It couldn't be my age... ;) Plus the dining area is small, cramped and not pretty. I like to look at the fireplace and our fish tank and tchotchkes from the couch. :)

I'd put my standing computer where the dining table is. Ideally I'd like to camouflage it with some kind of a screen as I do handle all the household and business books and paperwork.

When our children were growing up, we ate all our meals at the dining room table. We are empty nesters now and eat most of our meals on the couch. We do have trays but don't always use them. I make our plates in the kitchen and we don't have seconds, so I only go back to the kitchen when we are done.

When the kids are home, we eat at the bistro table in the breakfast nook unless we have company, then we eat in the dining room. If we have a large group, we have additional seating outside, a table under roof, one on the screened pool deck under an umbrella, and one on the outside patio. We also have a seating area under roof and people often choose to eat there.

We have a raised bar in the kitchen with three seats, I occasionally eat a meal there if my husband is not home and my daughter often eats there when she is home. My son will sit at the bar on his laptop, but I don't think I have ever seen him or my husband eat a meal there.

We live in an old bungalow from the 1920's that has a small breakfast nook off the kitchen. After we remodeled the whole kitchen in 2013 we find that we eat in the breakfast nook much more often. It is just the two of us. We spiffed up the nook by adding white bead board wainscoting, painted a cheery lime green color, added a picture rail and got a skinny 11inch wide sideboard to hold the clutter. We have a small drop leaf table that was my DH's grandfathers, and 2 old oak thrift store chairs in the same stain, that are perfect with it. Is it just perfect for us. It seats two adequately! I admit my DH likes to have the TV on while we eat. We have a small 19 inch flatscreen on the end of one of our galley kitchen counters, but we don't have cable there so it isn't used much... we can only get NBC and public TV on it right now. Someday we'll get cable to it. We find the nook much more cozier and intimate, just the right size for us to eat in. I also use it as my check paying, banking, bill paying station (keeping the necessities in the little sideboard.)

We do have a formal dining room, but only use it for eating when friends and family come over, Holidays, and we also use it when we need to spread out stuff (taxes, paperwork, games etc.

When its just the two of us, or us with another couple, we eat at the breakfast table....and that means dinner ;) I can seat 5 comfortably in my kitchen, this is a pretty casual household - given more to frequent 'drop-ins' than formal entertaining. I do have a dining room with table I can extend to seat 14 so use that for larger gatherings, but I seem to do buffet style a lot any more and don't formally serve at the table there.

My office is set up with desks for each of us and a mans chair and TV for DH. Lots of evenings he's in here watching television while I'm working but we rarely eat in here, snacks sometimes, never meals. No rule, we just don't. Appetizers and drinks in the living room, but we don't go in and sit on the sofa and watch TV while we eat a meal, just have never acquired the habit ;)

We also eat in the living, ie TV room.

When raising my daughter, we always ate at kitchen table. After she moved out and I later moved in with current BF, I used to tease him about his eating in the TV room (stating a bachelor thing) but soon came to adopt his and your philosphy - its truly more comfortable.

Yet there are certain meals which we do use the table because its more practical. Messier meals like BBQ or lobster / crab where the meals create more mess as you eat makes sense at the table. We also use table for takeout chinese because easier to spread out the different items (although we've done coffee table chinese too.

Depends on the mood though because sometimes its just nice to have a table sit down, like for a Sunday roast dinner but mostly its just informal, comfy couch dining.

When our kids were younger (they're 19 and almost 21 now), we ate all our meals together - from the time they could sit in a high chair at the table through high school and, now, when they're home from college. So many studies have shown that when children eat with their parent(s) at least 5 days a week, the children are far less likely to get involved with drugs, alcohol, etc., than those who eat separately. Plus, it brings the family together, promotes bonding, and is more fun! (Probably why the studies had the results they did!)

All our meals are eaten at the table - b/f the remodel the table was in the kitchen, but it was a tight squeeze once our children reached 9 or 10; after the remodel, we ate at the table in the DR (we eliminated the Kitchen table in favor of a far more functional Kitchen.)

Interestingly, when we started eating in the DR, it seemed that our children's table manners improved - or maybe it was b/c they were getting older. :-)

To us, having a DR that was used only for holidays or for inside parties (pre-remodel) was a waste of space. Far better to use all the rooms in the house on a regular basis and have enough room to be more comfortable.

Even our Living Room was converted into a music room with a piano and places for the children to practice their instruments. Later, we added a desk when my DH and I both started working from home occasionally (this allowed us to have two desks).

Even when both our children are away at college, my DH and I eat at least half our meals at the DR table. The only time we eat in the FR on trays is when there is something we want to watch on TV or a movie - or when there's a fire going in the fireplace! :-) We have found that eating at the DR table still increases bonding and it's a great way to reconnect with just the two of us after so many years of raising children. Just as when the children were growing up, it's also more conducive to conversation - both seating and less distractions. Oh and sitting at an actual table is more comfortable than eating in the FR on a TV table/tray or at the peninsula.

There's a saying that you should design your home for how you you really live not how you want to live. And since the answers you've received are all so different, you really can't determine this by how other people do it. You will need to assess your lifestyle and what will work best for you and then design your space to achieve that.

I do have a caveat with the "not how you want to live" part of that saying. You may not be doing something a certain way right now because your space is not designed for it. An example of that might be if you really want to eat at a farmhouse table in your kitchen that is big enough for holiday gatherings and other larger entertaining events but your kitchen is too small for that. If that is really how you want to live and you know in your gut it's right for you and your family, then go ahead and design that space for how you want to live. It might mean just knocking out a wall between kitchen and dining room to achieve that. Remember, that's just an example, not saying that's what you want or what you should do.

I suggest you consider what you want for daily living and entertaining, and the type of entertaining you do or want to do, and then post a layout of your kitchen, dining and living room with dimensions so the talented folks here can help you achieve what you decide you want.

For us, since we only host dinners using our dining room table 8-12 times a year, we have opened our small, formal dining room that was little used to the kitchen and are making it a combo sitting room/dining room. Even though the project isn't complete yet, we are using that space so much more now. It makes sense for how we live and want to live.

I used to sit and watch TV... and eat. When we had a TV. So no
judgement there. We used to eat with the kids at the table. Before,
when the kids were little. Now only my disabled son is home with us and
he's an adult... He usually eats in his room, which he cleans up. Unless it's a special occasion.

There
in lies the dilemma. I'd need to set things up so the table would be
accessible when we do have guests which is at Xmas and Thanksgiving.
Not sure if I should just buy fold-able benches, 2 sawhorses and
plywood. Or store the table and chairs and drag them out every holiday.

I
have never been a formal person but do believe kids are better off when
they have a family who they can be with very regularly in lots of
settings. In fact here in Canada a scientist was practically begging
people to spend more time at home with their kids due to the trouble
they can get into. I was a stay at home mom. Mostly due to my and my
son's illness, but being there at meals helped the kids I think. Sorry
to get personal. I'm not sure if I would have stayed at home without my
particular circumstances so not judging at all! The money was very
tight, which I'm sure is why many work. They have no choice. Others
may feel the need to express themselves outside of being a parent etc.
I'm sure there's as many reasons as people. :)

I've got no money to physically change my rooms and my kitchen is a fait accompli, thanks to the kind folks here and my uber lurk-dom skills :). I know my needs but love to hear how other people do it. :) Also I might feel clearer about my needs when bounced off of others' styles. Thanks for the thoughtful and considerate replies. It helps, and reminds me why I lurk here.

Occasionally at our island in the kitchen, almost always at our small dining table in the adjacent family/great room, special events in formal dining. (Sometimes when I'm solo and really into something on the tv and eating something small I eat on the sofa :D)

We eat too often in our "rec" room on tv trays. I need to get back to the kitchen table.

I agree with Buehl that it is nice to sit at the table, as a family. When we were kids, we almost always ate at the table with very few exceptions. I was in high school, before I realized some kids did not...and they were very uncomfortable going to a 'fancy' restaurant.

We don't have kids, but I can't imagine NOT having a table. Even now (with remodel mess) I miss the table and like going up to my mom's and eating there. We do eat in front of the TV (especially football or movie night) but we don't have kids. If we did, we would eat at the table.

As Buehl said (and Marcolo in a previous thread) it really does make a difference in bonding and attitude. And it provides children with the experience of 'dining' as well as the confidence to fit in, when they get older.

We are only two and we have a small kitchen table in the kitchen and a gorgeous large dining table (reclaimed madrone wood table) in a dining room that is separate but adjacent from the kitchen. We always eat in the dining room unless DH is working nights then sometimes I'll eat at the kitchen table. There's more space in the dining room than the small kitchen table and it's nice to leave the kitchen mess behind while we are eating. We have our music playing, our bottle of wine, our time together. It's my favorite part of the day.

Family of six with two teens and two pre-teens. Despite busy evening schedules with sports, we manage to eat dinner together most every night. We have a big farm table off to the side of the working part of our kitchen and eat all meals there. Our family room/tv are right next to the kitchen table but rule has always been tv off during meals (we rarely watch tv during week anyway). It will be awhile until we are empty nesters but I imagine dh and I will still eat at the table since we don't really watch tv much so no reason to eat anywhere but in the kitchen. We both grew up in similar circumstances so following the same with our own mids.

We have two kids (one at college), a kitchen table, and a dining room right next to it; we eat together at the kitchen table unless we have company. But bad parents that we are, we eat with Wheel of Fortune or France 24 news on. (Small tv in the kitchen to keep the cook or bottle-washer company)

Just two of us and the beggar (our dog). We have a breakfast bar and a dining table off the kitchen. Breakfast is usually at the breakfast bar or for me it's at my computer in my office, and dinner is always at the dining room table. When we build our house, the dining table will be in the living/dining/kitchen space with kitchen/island with chairs/dining table and great room off of the kitchen/dining.