Design dilemmas

Do I need a dining room?

Reports of the death of the dining room are premature—although many of those in the confines of townhouses have had to sacrifice theirs to create home offices and TV rooms, those with more space to spare are reclaiming them to create a room dedicated to formal entertaining, often decorated to create a bit of drama. Among the advantages is that guests are spared the view of sinks and work surfaces in disarray, but the downside is that food often has to be ferried from the warm embrace of the kitchen to the often chillier climes of a little used (and sometimes overly formal) dining room.