What's a breakfast room?...

[Lucy61]

And do you have one? If so, what do you use it for?

We are in the process of buying and Edwardian mid terrace and it has a living room, dining room, and then a third dining space just before the kitchen which the estate agent calls a 'breakfast room'. A lot of the other houses on the road have knocked through the breakfast room to make a large kitchen, but I like this extra room- feels like a bonus room.

If you have one of these rooms, what do you use it for? Would you knock through to the kitchen or keep it as it is?

We have a breakfast room. We have a living room, a kitchen with dining room off it and a breakfast room. It has kind of become a playroom but I love having the extra space!

I have one, it's kind of open to the kitchen but not completely.

We have a table in there which is the most used piece of furniture in the house, although we never eat on it. The dc use it for their work, I use it for my laptop, and the two cats use it as a bed.

I really like it, we use it a lot.

I think it's usually a dining area adjoining the kitchen as opposed to a formal dining room. Have never heard the term used by anyone but estate agents though.

My gran had one. The kitchen was galley style, you could just stand and cook in it. It adjoined a breakfast room which was basically a back sitting room, the family table and two chairs by a fire. There was a massive formal dining room and a front room (sitting with company) as well. All that said, this was not a traditionally designed house, just a way of using the space she had.

I've seen it on property deals, on the ones I have seen it has not been a separate room. In Estate Agent speak they sometimes refer to kitchen/breakfast room which means big enough for a breakfast bar or small table but not big enough for a full sized dining table.

A small eating area directly connected to the kitchen in which small and family only meals are eaten

date from a time when dining rooms were deliberately not next to kitchens to avoid smells

Sounds like it could be a very homely space. It does have a chimney breast in it where an oven may have once been. It's only small and you have to walk through it to get to the kitchen so you can't really stick a great big table in the middle but perhaps a long bench and a table set close to the wall might work.

The kitchen is fairly large so not desperate for kitchen space. Only down side is that I like to be able to watch DS when I'm in the kitchen.

Yes, we had a house with a breakfast room - sounds exactly the same set up as you are describing. Lounge at the front (of the period terrace), corridor along the side of the lounge and dining room (behind the lounge), corridor continues to the back of the house to a door into the breakfast room, and then you had to walk through the breakfast room to get into the (smallish) kitchen. Everyone who lived in our road with small children used the breakfast room as the informal dining room (i.e. directly into the kitchen) or had in fact knocked through and made it into a large kitchen / kitchen diner, and then used what was supposed to be the dining room as a play room.

That's exactly how it's set up Mandy.

That's exactly how it's set up Mandy.

My grandparents had a breakfast room in their Edwardian house. They ate breakfast there, they had a big drying rack hoisted into the ceiling. I think it was the heart of the house, especially when they were on their own. Grannie did her flower arranging, preserving etc. in there too.
The best bit was the little panel of bell indicators which the servants could look at to see which room needed them...not that my GPs ever had any help and I'm not certain there was much room for a live-in domestic, but it was a reminder of the sort of life that originally was lived there.

They became dining rooms when people knocked down the wall between the dining room and lounge ( therefore doing away with the dining room that was.

I can't seem to find any pictures online of what a small Edwardian breakfast room would have looked like. A trip to the library- me thinks.

We had this (except there was a wall between the living and dining room).

In that picture, as in my parent's house, what is shown as a morning room would originally have been the housekeeper's sitting room. Presence of doorbells and service bells, absence of picture rail, smallness of fireplace and windows with no view, reinforce this.

Housekeeper- in my dreams!!
It's only a small terraced house. The type a working class family would have lived in.

A small slightly dingy room does not appeal to me and I would incorporate the room into the kitchen. It is great to have as much space in the kitchen as possible and having informal eating space or sitting space in the kitchen in a bonus and, in my, view enhances the appeal of a house far more than a dingy housekeeper's room. People like light spaces now and the number of rooms is less important. Larger open spaces make houses feel a lot bigger!

we had this in one of the houses i lived in when growing up. edwardian semi-detatched, we also called it the morning room

Where did that go?

Parents in law have a room with door through into kitchen that they call the breakfast room. Has pantry off it. Is huge, probably 20feet by 12feet or so, with table centrally. Most meals eaten there. They have a separate dining room only used for dinners and special occasions ( i consider this waste of space...). Assume if you have enough space for two dining rooms you can call one a breakfast room!!

My DM had a breakfast room. It's a small, informal dining room, where household tasks are also carried out (it had the older sofa and a tv in there, the cellar and utility room were doors off it. We had a separate dining room for 'good'.

Our breakfast room corresponds to Mandy's morning room. The house is a semi, built in about 1925. We have a table that seats six and a huge dresser in the room. We have deliberately not knocked through to make one big space and must be one of the few not to have done so.
DParents also have a breakfast room but they have a larger and older (slightly) detached house. Their house still has the service bell display in the breakfast room and a picture rail.
Both houses have fireplaces.

Sounds lovely, Silver. I think we'll keep the breakfast room for now. It takes a while to get a feel for a house and know how to use each space. We won't rush any decisions. Besides, I am a bit of a purist when it comes to old houses.

I have one was the old kitchen but now kitchen in extension and you walk through the breakfast room to get to it. Living and separate dining at front (period terrace again).

I have my old french armoire which Is piled with assorted plates, teapots, cups and vintage items, a small original larder cupboard, a woodburner and large old pine table with chairs.. It's cosy!