Just how bonkers would I be to put my dining table upstairs?

[SpikyCoconut]

I live by myself so this situation isn't affecting anybody else. I have a really odd shaped dining room/sitting room as my house has been extended (it is an old one, this room used to be a kitchen-cum-sitting room I think, and my table won't fit anywhere in it without me having to get rid of something else and everything is accounted for. I work from this room so my desk is in here, a sofa (which to be fair I want to replace with a smaller one but not found one I like yet) and two armchairs which I won't get rid of as they're lovely, good quality and were a present when I got my first house.

I never use the table at all-It's currently just shoved in a corner of the sitting room/dining room and again, gets things plonked on it occasionally but that's it.

I have two spare bedrooms, one is set up for guests one is doing absolutely nothing. As I am a slattern I occasionally use it to store junk that doesn't have a home yet but other than that It's empty.

Would it be very odd and weird to put the table in the spare bedroom upstairs? It has a cupboard I could keep some crockery and salt and pepper etc in. I don't like the thought of having to carry food upstairs if someone is here for dinner-but it isn't that much of a hardship is it? And then the sitting room is less cluttered and I'd have somewhere I could use to just eat...

I saw an episode of 'Come Dine with Me' where a woman's dining room was downstairs from her kitchen (a modern spiral staircase, mind) but that's the one and only time I've known of anything similar in a 'normal' house?

I have tried having the spare room as my office by the way. I just couldn't get used to it. I like to be downstairs where I can answer the door, get food, nip out into the garden while I am WFH. In case that is a suggestion

@SpikyCoconut

i understand where you're coming from.

but i know, for me, it wouldn't get used upstairs, can you not use the table (or a different table) instead of your desk & just move work stuff off if you have people over for dinner?

I could I suppose!

My desk has all my paperwork in though so I could see me ending up with lots of bits of paperwork floating about which would annoy. But I will have a think about it....

Does the dining table get used at all?

Can you get rid of it completely or find an alternative that can be used as a table?

Something that could be attached to and folded up against a wall, perhaps?

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/ideas/make-a-space-saving-dining-table-pub1e6fb9a1

I just wouldn’t bother …..defo not upstairs

Why not try it and see how you get on with that configuration? If you have only yourself to please, what have you got to lose?

Just get rid of it.

You csn di whatever youbwant in your oen house.
If it doesnt work after a few months sell table

Or go the whole hog move kitchen upstairs

I'm a big believer in making a house work for you even if that is slightly unconventional. Give it a go, but do it properly, set up as a really cosy dining room with proper lighting, etc. I think it sounds like a great idea as it makes downstairs work for you on a daily basis and your dining room is still available when you need it.

Why not move your desk upstairs so have one bedroom as your work office room and have downstairs as home?

So when work is done you close office door and downstairs is no work?

Because she's just said she wants to work downstairs. Op just try it. What have you got to lose?

Get rid - ours and six chairs is in the garage!

Why not try it? You can always get rid of it if it doesn't work for you later. The fold down IKEA table looks a good option from a PP.
I'm planning on making my now evacuated 3rd bedroom into an upstairs snug/TV room with a sofa, as it catches the last rays of the sun in the summer. I'm a heat seeking missile at home and I'll sit anywhere as long as it's warm and sunny!

What about moving the livingroom upstairs if you dont want an office up there?

I don't think I'd want to be walking upstairs with plates of food - mainly because I know I'd tip loads of it onto the carpet!

OR, are you saying you only eat on at the table when you have guests? At which point, what about a folding table?

Could you use a table as your desk (and get a new one with leaves if the current dining table is too big for the space), and then get a nice cupboard that looks a bit like a sideboard so that if you have someone over you can put all your work stuff in the cupboard? You will just have to be ruthless about saving the cupboard space for your work bits. I am guessing you dont have someone over every day, so your work things wouldnt need to be in and out all the time. Then store the spare chairs upstairs in the extra bedroom and bring down however many you need, when you need them.

I also like to work downstairs.

I work at one end of the dining table And eat at the other.

I’d move the desk to the spare room and make a nice separate office away from the rest of my living space. I know you said you’re not into it but you can still walk around even if it’s upstairs, and you could take a few hours in the day to take your laptop downstairs maybe and work from your new dining table, or sofa, to break the day up. But at least all the clutter lives upstairs and out the way.
then that would give more room for the dining table potentially? And if it doesn’t, or you really don’t want to move your desk, just get rid of the dining table.
you’re not gonna start taking your dinner upstairs if you don’t even use it when it’s in the same room, so you’re just storing furniture in your house for no reason, when you could actually make use of that space.

I'm intrigued why you don't have this far more normal set up already?!

Sorry just read more carefully - why can't you answer the door / get food if you're upstairs???

I regularly pop downstairs to make a tea / stretch legs / answer door / pop into garden?!

Unless you have mobility issues I really can't see your reasoning at all!

Plenty of people abroad have split level housing and have this set up.

Make your spare room into a snug/sitting room and keep your table downstairs. Taking meals up and down will be a pita!

Wheee is abroad exactly? 😂

op, don’t do that would feel like dining room in a bedroom, which is what it would be, and you won’t want to traipse up and down with plates, food and drinks.

townhouses are often split level with a sitting room upstairs, and kitchen down, but generally the kitchen has a dining area.

can you really Imagine inviting folks upstairs to eat in one of the bedrooms?

It is your house. Do what you want and what works for you. It doesn't matter what anyone else says or would do. If it doesn't work, try something else. You can do what you want. Why do you need someone else's permission ?

There's no reason you couldn't but I'd find it a right pain to have to carry my food upstairs. We once had a dining room at the front of the house and a kitchen at the back of the house and that was annoying enough traipsing through the living room and hall with hot plates etc.
If I were you I'd turn one of the guest rooms into a sitting room and keep your table, desk and maybe one of your armchairs downstairs.

I turned things slightly upside down by putting our living room upstairs. It made sense to have my office downstairs to avoid having to take clients upstairs for meetings (which really would seem weird!).

Visitors can't get their heads around it and tend to perch in my office rather than relax upstairs but DD and I have adapted. It works really well for us.

Make your house work for you. It doesn't matter whether it's conventional or not.

can you really Imagine inviting folks upstairs to eat in one of the bedrooms?

It would not be a bedroom would it ?

If it has dining table and chairs it is not a bedroom with a bed.