Dining rooms - do you use them?

[TrinaLowsln]

We are shortly to be moving (touch wood) to a new house which, downstairs, has a kitchen diner, living room, study and second reception room which is currently used as a dining table. We are only four - me, DH and two DC, and although we do have visitors who come to stay, and host dinners with friends etc, I don't feel that these happen frequently enough to really justify the use of an entire room for a big table and chairs, when the diner part of the kitchen diner is big enough for a table to seat us every day. I would prefer to use the second reception as another living area or a playroom etc. We home educate so I am also quite tempted to use it as a homeschool room to keep the main living room free of "school" stuff.

If you have a dining room do you use it much?

I had one growing up, the space wasn't really needed as there was a big kitchen with table & 2 other living rooms (one became a playroom). It was off limits to use when young except at Christmas & parents used it when having parties/dinner parties.

we have big kitchen with a table. But it sits max 6.
We have a dining room next door with a table that can sit 12.

By preference we eat daily at the kitchen table, our kitchen table is the heart of the home. Coffee, friends, meals, etc etc.
If I had the right shaped room etc and could fit a bigger table then I would never sit and eat in the dining room.

But our dining room table is in constant use for craft, sewing, home work and I tutor from home at that table. I also work fomr home at that table.

In your situation I would 100% make the dining room the home school room.

I suppose it depends if you have a dining kitchen or a breakfasting kitchen. So e.g.my PILs and grandparents had a small table in the centre of the kitchen with the units all around and enough space for 4 people to eat, so a breakfasting kitchen, they both had formal dining rooms as well. My kitchen diner is a long thin room with the kitchen in one half and the dining room in the other (it's a modern extension) with a peninsula separating the two halves of the room. It would be perfectly possible to put up a dividing wall between the two halves and both would be a good sized room so we have no need for a separate dining room. I have upgraded the appearance of the kitchen caddy etc though since it's much more on display to guests!