What is a second reception room for?

[LollieB]

We are property hunting at the moment and everyone seems to be telling us that it is essential to have a second reception room. I'm not sure if it is just me who is missing the point, but what are these second reception rooms used for? Every time I visit people who have them, they seem to be kept as a room for 'best' and therefore just wasted space. Wouldn't they be better used as something else more useful or knocked through to make a bigger room?

We are about to get one and we are using it as a study - DH and I both work from home quite a lot.

Depends where it is, but either a dining room, kids/play room or a study if they are older. I really miss having one tbh.

Do you mean in addition to a dining room? We have a converted basement room with a shower room attached that opens out to the garden. Pre DS we used to use it as a party room, now we use it more as a day room/play room and sometimes as a guest room with a blow up bed. It's good now as there's always a tidy room to go into as there are toys and food all over the other!

Minecraft..

We have two living rooms , in our case it's used an mainly as an alternative TV room for when someone wants to watch something different , it's also our 'cold' lounge for when it's too hot in the main living room . If I didn't have a dining room it would be used for that, if I had small children it would be a playroom , if I worked from home it would be a study - endless possibilities .

Depends. With kids can be used as a playroom, or a study or dining if you haven't got a large kitchen.

For us, playroom

Playroom, dining room, den, family room, teenage living room, study, office, sewing room, spare room, music room. Friend of mine runs her Reiki business from hers.

We have a kitchen diner so no need for a seperate dining room, but ours is set up as a guest bedroom (we have a downstairs loo and shower next door) come playroom, come computer room come place I banish DH to if he's watching football!

Playroom/guest room

I'd love one! I could use it as a playroom to free up my bookshelves of DD's stuff.

TV room
Quiet reading room
Children's playroom
Music room
Teenagers hang out
Art room
Games room

etc

Probably not as much need if you are a couple only, but with children/teenagers at home surely it is nice to have some separate space?

Man cave, lady cave, reading room, yoga room/gym, 2nd tv room, cinema room, office, play room/kids den, cat haven...

Music room
Guest room (no spare bedrooms)
Alternative TV to watch what others don't like
Teenage hangout with friends
Study
WiiU

Unfortunately not all these things at the same time.

For us it's a playroom, when the kids are older / teenage, they'll probably have it as a second sitting room for their tv, movies, gaming, relaxing with friends etc

I would love a second reception room. How many people in your family OP? Does everyone want to relax in the same way at the same time? Is there never any disagreement about what should be happening next in the sitting room?

Somewhere to put all the junk I don't want to look at from the living room

Work from home/study for DCs.

Cave of plastic toys

We have a second room on the floor with our living room.
We use it as a study/snug for dd.

It could be turned into a 4th bedroom, or a TV room, a playroom, just a study or a library, a music room, etc.

We have three reception rooms. They are used as lounge, dining room and playroom.when househunting I would not consider a house without at least room for a lounge and separate dining room.

Depending on the ages of your children I would say it is better to have a large kitchen diner plus one reception room than have two reception rooms and a galley kitchen.

A playroom you can close the door on is great to have with toddlers, preschoolers and primary age children. I've got a 10 and 13 year old and they spend more time hanging out in their rooms. Our second reception room is a bit wasted. It houses the computer but that's only used for looking stuff up on the internet. I'm planning furniture for the room to make it a proper second area to relax in, but with the benefit of hindsight, I'd have knocked it through to the kitchen when we extended and had a larger kitchen/diner. We spend a lot more time in the kitchen area.

A second reception is often a dining room. They are quite helpful when you have children.

What about a third, fourth or fifth reception room . The Duke of Buccleigh (sp) moved out of the family pile to something smaller. A cosy 52 rooms.

They all make perfect sense, especially the Minecraft option!! All of the places we have viewed seemed to have a second living room almost identical to the first reception room (sofas, TV etc) and I couldn't quite fathom why.

We have a lounge, dining room and playroom/study. As the kids get older, I expect they will hang out in the playroom some evenings and it will be a games/TV room.