Living Rooms: Classy? Yes. Wanted? Not So Much.
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Over the years we have seen housing trends such as pink tile in bathrooms, shag carpeting, olive green appliances, and many more.
While styles and trends come in and out popularity, it is important to keep on the curve.
Two-story single-family homes generally follow a basic floor plan. Formal living and dining rooms flanking the foyer. Family room, kitchen, and dinette area in the rear of the home, often open spaces for entertaining. Three to four bedrooms all on the second level, sometimes the master suite on the first floor of the home, but you all get the idea.
Now, one of those standards is not so standard any more. How many of you have a formal living room? That room right off of the entry in which you have a nice couch and chair, perhaps some ornate pieces of art, a piano, etc.
You know, that room that you never use, but vacuum every once in a while to make the lines in the carpet visible again. Yes, that room. Trends are moving homeowners away from that, and replacing it with something people will use.
We are seeing those formal living rooms replaced with home offices, reading rooms, and music rooms. More ambitious projects feature walls being taken down and the living room space becoming part of the more informal great room.
I believe it is a generational gap that we will see shorten as time moves on. For example, my grandparents have a formal living room. They barely use it, but would never even think to get rid of it or use the space as something else.
The generational difference exists between even my parents and me. When my parents built their current home 7 years ago, one requirement my mom had was it had to have a formal living room. But even now the thought has been tossed around to use the space more practically.
Personally, I wouldn’t need a formal living room; I’d use it as a home office, or not have the space at all.
We are seeing it in the new home business at Bennett Builders as well, people don’t need or want the formal living room, but want a space that they can use every day.
The formal living room is disappearing from American homes. National home magazines believe that the formal living room will be deleted from new home construction by 2014. That’s just around the corner.
What will go in its place? A room that people will use more often that once a year, or it will be removed completely to make way for more space from another room. Email me your thoughts on this! Do you utilize a formal living room more than once a year? What have you converted that space to make it more useable?
Also email me what you’d like me to write about! To preview my next topic: New Year! New Home? Tips for Prepping your Home for the Market!
Melissa Hebert
12:26 pm on Sunday, January 15, 2012
We've changed how we live and entertain so much. Once upon a time, kids were sent to the basement "rec room" or to grandma's while the parents had company over for an evening or a cocktail party. Today, entertaining is much more multi-generational and casual.
The living room needs a new purpose. So many homes I go into, it's dead space that's prettily decorated but hardly ever used. I like the ideas such as a home office or library/quiet space.
The formal dining room can be like that, too, only used on holidays. If I had one, I'd be using it more often than that.
Barbara
8:52 am on Monday, January 16, 2012
As people remodel their homes, myself included, kitchens are being expanded to include a family/multipurpose/sun room. Since these rooms are adjacent to the kitchen, the 'heart of the home', this is where people congregate. This generally leaves the formal living room unused.
At one time, the trend was to move the TV out of the living room and into smaller space, such as an extra bedroom. Now that TVs are larger and require a larger viewing area, formal living rooms in older homes can be re-purposed to more function like the home theaters seen in new construction. Also, with people tightening their budgets for entertainment, it makes sense to put the money into a space that's already there.
Jon Ridinger
3:15 pm on Monday, January 16, 2012
My brother and sister-in-law recently moved into a house (built 1995) that has both a formal living room and dining room. While both don't get the high amount of use that the family room (where the TV is) and the kitchen table, both do get regular use besides holidays (and the kitchen and family room are only separated by a half-wall that's about 4 feet high, so essentially the same room). They are people who do have a lot of visitors, so the living room is a great place to sit and talk (piano is also in there that gets regular use) and the dining room table is larger than the kitchen table, so it gets used whenever there is company if not more. It really depends on the lifestyle of the people in the house as to how often "formal" rooms like that get used. The layout also helps. My brother's house is much more compact, so using the dining room, for instance, is not a problem since it's right off the kitchen. The dining room and living room are essentially the same room, separated only by an archway. I grew up in a small house that had neither, so I've never really seen the point of them, but seeing my brother's house (especially against my grandmother's house, where the two formal rooms are used much more infrequently), I can see their purpose. I think it depends on the people and the layout. Much easier to only use them a few times a year when they're separate rooms as opposed to adjacent.
tanya conerly
12:22 am on Monday, May 20, 2013
I have a formal living room and family room(the fireplace is located ) and dining room.I`m 36 years old. I been in this house since 1979. My parents passed away I gain ownership.I love having two living two areas.I enjoy having nicefurniture but I do not want my furniture to be used for lounging. The more use of something the more brake down of wear and tear.Im not going to buy expensive furniture 4 everyday use Of laying on. Thats why its good to have two areas of living.plus i dont want company all threw my house. And i know the living room is clean because no one is in there . So if unsuspected
company arrive i can take them to the living area. My kids wont be interrupted by my guest.