The end of formal living and dining
These days, it’s rare to have a special area just for visitors. Katie Newton looks at how we currently entertain, and the way forward.
Even modest Kiwi homes used to have a ‘‘good’’ room where visitors were received and children were seen but not heard. But it’s becoming increasingly rare to have designated formal living and dining spaces in modern homes, especially if space is an issue.
Why are New Zealanders not interested in these formal entertaining rooms anymore? And what are they using them for instead?
Interior designer Nicola Manning from NM Design says the way people live has changed dramatically in the last decade. ‘‘People are more drawn to the informal spaces. It’s partly because of the way we entertain now. People enjoy more casual occasions with their friends, congregating around the kitchen island and having a drink. It’s even shown in the food we eat.’’
Interior designer Bridget Foley agrees. ‘‘People want rooms that are more multi-functional and inclusive,’’ she says.
‘‘Life has become more busy and more informal, often with both partners working, so formal dinners have become a thing of the past.’’
As New Zealand has become a more cosmopolitan country, special dinners such as birthdays and anniversaries are often celebrated out at restaurants. Christmas Day is one of the only traditional home cooked feasts left.
Despite this, modern kitchens are bigger than they’ve ever been in the past. Island benches, double door fridges and butler’s pantries all take up space that might have once been given to a separate formal dining room. ‘‘The cook no longer wants to be left alone to attend to the meals on her or his own,’’ Foley says. So, the guests now come to them.
Those living in smaller apartments and townhouses also require their spaces to work harder. Foley says: ‘‘Having a room that is only used now and then is not practical.’’
Marketing manager for Landmark Homes, Shelley Begg, says the trend is echoed in new builds too. ‘‘Out of all of our designs, I think there is only one left that has a designated formal dining room in it. And that’s a 400 square metre home, which is definitely not the norm.’’
She says most of their popular plans feature open plan living with outdoor entertaining spaces that open off the kitchen. ‘‘Even in the biggest homes with multiple living areas, everyone always ends up in the kitchen anyway.’’
The new rooms
Manning says her clients are getting rid of formal living and dining rooms in favour of more user-friendly spaces. ‘‘I have people all the time saying ‘I have this formal lounge but it never gets used. I help them to make it into a space that will be useful to their situation.’’
She recently had clients with small children who converted their formal dining room to a playroom. ‘‘Often this space is close to the kitchen and when the kids are little it’s easy to keep an eye on them when they play there.’’
Fifty years ago, it would have been very uncommon for children to have a special room just for their toys and books, but any parent would tell you, today’s children tend to have a lot of ‘‘stuff’’. ‘‘It’s part of that life stage,’’ says Manning.
When the kids grow up, formal lounges get converted to media rooms and teenage hangouts away from the main living area. ‘‘The adults tend to want to claim the family room and then the older kids get the separate room,’’ she says. ‘‘They put the big TV in there, and just use it for movie nights or watching sport.’’
Begg says many Landmark clients also request media rooms and home theatres in their plans. ‘‘It comes down to personal choice, but media rooms are certainly very ‘in’.’’
And what about when the kids move out and the family shrinks in size again? Manning says the rooms are often turned into hobby rooms, offices or libraries. ‘‘Older people might want to keep it as a formal space, but often they request there be no TV in there,’’ she says. ‘‘They treat it like a peaceful kind of retreat room where there are no distractions.’’
She adds: ‘‘I always advise people with younger families to really think about making their renovation flexible to suit their different life stages.’’
Ironically though, Manning herself has actually bucked this recent trend. ‘‘I renovated a couple of years ago and turned my dining room into a really formal space,’’ she says. ‘‘It was mainly because I absolutely loved the wallpaper and wanted somewhere to show it off! My kids now refer to the table as the ‘‘Christmas dinner table’’. I had to laugh.’’