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Original poster

mums of little children - which would you choose: a playoom or a formal dining room?

93 replies

Titter · 02/05/2008 09:43

assuming kitchen is big enough for a table to sit 6

OP posts:
Tutte · 02/05/2008 14:33

dining room is 20x21ft

sitting room has a natural divide (from a wall having been knocked though, i'm guessing) - if reinstated it would leave 2 rooms

foxythesnowfox · 02/05/2008 14:35

Can you get a dining table in the kitchen? Then I'd have kitchen/diner, family room - and then, rather than a playroom, I'd have a sitting room - for us. There can be toys strewn as far as the eye can see around the house, but we'd have somewhere to watch TV, listen to music, read - an adult space.

I'm not keen on playrooms, seems like shutting the kids away. Where I'd rather shut myself away (head in the sand approach probably!)

titchy · 02/05/2008 15:02

If both livign and sitting room are large - and they are I'd split one of them into two then you have the perfect arrangement - big kitchen, dining room, living room, study and playroom. Just aplit whichever works best

titchy · 02/05/2008 15:02

split oh and another

brimfull · 02/05/2008 15:30

PLayroom

But it must have couch and laptop.

Must be adult friendly as well as kids never want to be in their without you for some reason.

No need for dining room if table in kitchen imo.

mummyjaguar · 02/05/2008 16:02

Definitely a playroom. We have one at the moment and its used every day. Our dining room on the other hand is used once a week if that because we also have a table in the kitchen/conservatory space.

You need to be able to shut the doors on the piles of toys whihc in our house never get put away completely even with good storage and the best of intentions

AramintaAlice · 02/05/2008 17:23

The big sitting room.

I had a huge kitchen and used the practically redundant dining room as a playroom for a couple of years. However, it was constantly messy and I got fed up with looking at it every time I walked from room to room and I got tired of nagging about bedrooms AND a playroom.

I eventually turned it into a second lounge for the family to use as an alternative to the main one because the main one was so often taken up with the children playing on computer consoles etc.

AramintaAlice · 02/05/2008 17:26

Actually, I've just seen your childrens ages and so am going to do a complete u-turn, lol.

9mo old can't really play alone upstairs so maybe the playroom would be good after all, despite the mess, and even keep the mess from the lounge

Squirdle · 02/05/2008 17:48

We have a table for 6 in the kitchen. We used to have a dining table in our huge lounge/diner, but it never got used, so we took it away to create lots more lounge space. We also have a conservatory off of part of the lounge which is the playroom. The conservatory doesn't have heating so in winter it can get a little chilly, but the furniture is arranged in the lounge so that the bit off the playroom is where toys are allowed, not in the main part of the lounge. Mind you, if it meant losing lots of the lounge to have a playroom, then I probably wouldn't do it. Could you have a conservatory?

ChasingSquirrels · 02/05/2008 20:59

they are enormous rooms, even split you will be left with big rooms. I would go for it if you like the house otherwise and then split them.

LaundryFairy · 02/05/2008 21:07

I'd choose the 'formal dining room' if I had perfectly behaved angels who were brought in by Nanny in their matching flannel pyjamas to say goodnight to Mummy and Daddy between courses of dinner being served by an attentive butler.

Otherwise, a playroom.

fairylights · 02/05/2008 21:16

i was insistent about having a separate dining room when we bought this place (when pg with first child) and wish daily now that i had a large kitchen/diner which had space for play in it, or a playroom next to kitchen. We hardly use our dining room for eating (eat at tiny table in kitchen as more convenient) but its no good as a play space as i can't see it from kitchen, where i spend so much of the day .
Next house we move to i will def look for the large kitchen/diner space or playroom next door!

milou2 · 02/05/2008 22:12

Playroom.

It's great being able to have friends over with their little ones and there's space to relax. Plus no fragile turntables/houseplants/pale rugs.

We can glam up the kitchen table with a cloth and plant/candles in the middle if we feel like it.

Our big kitchen is where I spend my life.

KerryMum · 02/05/2008 22:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nancy75 · 02/05/2008 22:14

i dream of having a playroom!

pooka · 02/05/2008 22:14

Our dining room is not a dining room (never has been for as long as I've known the house - 34 years). Was a playroom when I was little and is a playroom now dh and I live here with the children.
We have a kitchen diner and can sit 6 (maybe 8 at a push).

Elkat · 03/05/2008 19:47

Playroom, it will get so much more use. We have a playroom and the DDs love it. I don't let my girls play upstairs (but they're only 1 and 4), so it is nice that they can play in their playroom and be around me on my days off work. I wouldn't want to not have a space downstairs that they can call their own.

It also means that then I can keep the living room area child free - so there are no toys in there, but with a 15ft playroom to play in, why would they need to?

Also, I find that toys do not get trashed, because I have got pleanty of storage for putting things away - plus the girls know that if a toy gets broken (either purposefully, or because they left it out and dd2 got to them), then my eldest knows the toy will go in the bin and will not be replaced. So, she respects her toys, and I'm downstairs too to keep an eye on her and to make sure she doesn't get all of her toys out!

So yes, go for a playroom! And as others have said, when the children get older it allows them to have a chill out room, where they can hang out with friends, without you having to put up with them in your front room, or having all the boys in their bedrooms!

MrsMattie · 04/05/2008 12:08

A play room. Dining rooms are naff (unless you have a tiny kitchen / no space to eat in living groom)

flack · 04/05/2008 12:34

We have a play room now that I am thinking to convert to a dining room later (with sofa on the side, as open fireplace is inthere).

When the F would I have time for formal meals with little DC around? Who would I invite and have the energy to try to cook the perfect meal for & impress? Why would I want to?

My parents had a formal dining room... I was pointedly excluded from their formal meals until I was a teen... at which age, I didn't want to attend any more. I don't want to raise my little DC to be so left out, just so I can impress people by being both a parent and someone who has scintillating dinner parties.

When DC are teens who need a big table to spread out projects on or I want to get a family jigsaw puzzle, then it will make sense to have a dining room area.

Then I can get sozzled with friends at home because four teens will be driving me to it, anyway .

MrsMattie · 04/05/2008 12:38

I tend to agree@flack.

I think formal dining rooms are a bit weird. They remind me of the 1970s - those funny little serving hatches and hostess trolleys . And the noughties version seems to be inspired by those horrible makeover shows, with a table permanenetly 'dressed' with best glassware and napkins and naff ikea art . Sorry, I just hate them...

Play rooms rock. DS's bedroom is huge so he doesn't need one, really, but I like the concept of a room for all the toys and fun and games (and mess!).

mrsflowerpot · 04/05/2008 13:05

We have the same arrangement of rooms in our house and we have the same set up as Prufrock - big 'grown-ups' sitting room/dining room, separate 'family' sitting room/playroom with plenty of storage for all the toys so they can go out of sight in the evening. When dd in particular is old enough to have all her toys in her room only (she's still only 2), we'll rethink it but it's nice having two sitting rooms to be honest.

twinsetandpearls · 04/05/2008 13:19

when dd was little our dining room was a playroom, it is now a dining room again as she has a larger bedroom.

ecoworrier · 04/05/2008 16:24

Dining room every time. I love having somewhere to eat that is totally removed from all the cooking and food preparation. Kitchen-breakfast rooms are fine for breakfast, but I would always have a dining room for other meals.

It's funny this trend for playrooms now. Every TV programme seems to imply that families 'need' a playroom, yet I managed with 3 young children and never once even felt the need for a playroom. We always had the space to do so (would never buy a house without a dining room!), but just never saw the point.

Part of me doesn't really like playrooms because it somehow feels like children are being given an odd message. I know several families where the children are virtually banned from everywhere except the playroom, the other rooms being 'grown-up rooms'. I've always liked having our children and their toys in 'our' space.

As far as the original post goes, it sounds like you will lose a lovely big sitting room and 'gain' a smallish playroom and smallish sitting room, so it just seems more of a loss than a gain to me.

However, I feel I'm against the trend here somehow, so I will withdraw gracefully!

Swedes · 04/05/2008 16:37

I would have a second family sitting room. Sofa, tv, toys, etc. IME children make their playroom wherever you are. I know it's a bit of a luxury but it is lovely to have an always tidy room. We have a big second sitting room with 2 desks with computers, big sofa, tv, masses of toys etc. We rarely use our more formal sitting room but it's lovely when we do.

LazyLinePainterJane · 04/05/2008 16:53

I would have the dining room as a playroom, and then when the are older turn it back into a dining room and get nice furniture that will not be wrecked by little hands.

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