To live without a dining table??

I hated not having a dining table for a while, though managed without. Currently living in a static, so tight for space and having similar to this has been a godsend.

https://www.lookagain.co.uk/products/santos-pine-amp-painted-butterfly-table-amp-4-chairs-dining-set//A-48S1333?utmsource=GoogleProductList&utmmmedium=PLA&utmcampaign=Furniture&utmmcontent=48S133&nsscampaign=Furniture&nsmchannel=PLA&nsssource=GoogleProductList&nslinkname=48S1333&nsfee=0&ordermedia=L0637&entry=3&gclid=CjwKCAiAAKz-BRAJEiwAhJNY71OJj6dYL94AReNrkkQZzO0UD666fCDJZE8Q-O6dGKdky2lHPLO1hoCykgQAvDDBwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I'd be lost without my kitchen table! Where would we craft or dump stuff 🤣 Joking aside we rarely eat at the table as there's just the 3 of us now and the lounge is more cosy but if we have guests or my dd and gs come round for tea then we sit up the table (they are in our bubble) I think it's totally upto each household to decide. I wouldn't stress about it. Mine is used more for other things than eating at xx

I blame the house designers and those who've carved up flats into intsy spaces. Of course everyone would like a kitchen table and a comfortable sitting room. Not everyone can afford it. I have a 2 bd flat where you can sit comfortably with two small sofas and a coffee table, and possibly eat in the hallway with one of those fold up tables, but it's also the only WFH space. The kitchen is a tiny galley with one tiny fold down table but gets so steamy you wouldn't want to eat in it though it does for breakfast. I dont know anyone with a £3000 sofa in my positio though.

I went without both for a couple of years when doing renovations, I missed a sofa so much, if you go for the sofa, see if you can get a foldaway small table that can be tucked under the sofa or in a cupboard somewhere, there are some meals that don't work on the sofa, so would be good to crack out the table, even if it's just a little individual TV dinners sofa style one.

LESS inclined, I meant.

I gave ours up about a year ago, I couldn't fit it anymore when DH bought his longed for technics decks and mixer, it's basically a through lounge with a studio now
Don't really miss it as we have a travel trunk that we use as storage and coffee table. We have a fold up table for Christmas and we have to move things around for the day but that's it

Do you have to make a decision now?

Personally I dislike eating from the sofa, but try it for a bit and see if you can cope. Make a decision then.

You can't teach table manners if you don't have a table.
A coffee table or a side table is a table though.

• I usually (shock horror!) eat my breakfast in bed.
• School or college work done wherever.. bed, couch, desk; depending on laptop or paper etc. Neither of my teens found a dining chair comfortable for study anyway. (And funnily enough Ds1, now in halls, coping with a law degree - gasp - with no dining table.)

At least you'd never have to host Christmas Day!

You can't teach table manners if you don't have a table. It's not great for adult manners, either.
I'd get rid of the huge sofa which sounds as if it spoils the proportions of the room.

We have this coffee table but we have a proper dining table too. This coffee table is for the “can’t be bothered” days. You could get something like this?

www.ashleyfurniture.com/p/gately_coffee_table_with_lift_top/T845-21.html

What about breakfast, for those who don’t have a table? Do you eat breakfast standing up in the kitchen, or on the sofa?

We don’t use the dining table as it’s in the dining room, I only have a table in there don’t have one in my living room so we don’t use one.

@givemeabreak88 I don't think anyone's talking about dining rooms!

I’m so surprised by these comments! We have a dining room but it’s become more of a dumping ground for random things that have no place so I hardly ever use it! Didn’t realise people were so judgmental about this.

Sounds like your sofa is too big for your house.

The idea that my child cannot function when faced with a dining table or eat properly as we don’t have room for one at home is just so unbelievably snobbish and rude. I need space to work at home, to hang up my washing, to fit my freezer in the house. We sit together and have meals and talk, it’s not like we don’t prioritise that just because I was homeless once and ended up in a small council flat. Frankly , all the judgement that my child doesn’t know how to eat or behave well while eating - or not be able to do her homework (desk in her room, who would have thought!) - is just amazing.

Just astonishing the level of judgement people make over a dining table. If you met my child in a restaurant you would never know we sit on a sofa to have tea frankly, and why would you?

[quote Europilgrim]@kowari That only really works with little children! We have 3 teens / preteens so it's not practical. Plus we don't have the space for a coffee table![/quote]
Teens and adults can sit on the floor too, except maybe elderly and some people with disabilities. Or otherwise the sofa. You may not have space, but many people may have space for a coffee table even if they don't have space for a dining table as a coffee table can go in front of a sofa.

I see, so your first comment was disingenuous nonsense.

Good to know there’s a link between the cost of a sofa and the amount you’re able to spend on a house though!

Where do your children do their homework?

I think having a proper work area makes all the difference in how well they do at school.

@Sonofapizzaman

Obviously, I just presumed that OP didn’t come into that category, with a 3 grand sofa.