Home Home Design & Decor Dining Room Design Ideas 7 Ideas for Transforming Your Formal Dining Room Into a More Functional Space If you rarely use your formal dining room, consider changing its function to something that will get more use. By Sally Jones Sally Jones Sally has been a professional writer and editor for more than 15 years. She specializes in home and lifestyle content. Sally loves bringing readers new perspectives on home trends, design, and decor. Editorial Guidelines Published on July 1, 2024 Close Photo: J.L. Jordan Photography If you're lucky enough to move into a home with a dedicated dining room, your first impulse might be to tear down those walls and open everything up. After all, a formal dining room is usually the first thing to go when homeowners want to make way for an open-concept dream kitchen with island seating. Formal living and dining rooms have indeed lost some relevance for many of today's home dwellers. "I have a lot of clients with open floor plan kitchens that allow for a big dining table. For these clients, the dining room becomes obsolete, so they often want to make use of it in other ways," says Elizabeth Vergara of Vergara Homes, a luxury design and build firm. By all means, if you have a formal dining room and you eat there regularly, it's fine to keep that room intact and enjoy every minute that you spend there. There’s nothing wrong with having a room that functions as it was intended if that fits your needs. The key is understanding your needs. Why More People Are Changing the Use of Their Dining Rooms UCLA researchers who have studied residential behavioral architecture found that the average family uses only 40 percent of their home's floor plan regularly. That activity was clustered around the kitchen, breakfast nook, and family room (or wherever the TV was located). Meanwhile, formal living and dining rooms were barely used. "The relevance of a formal dining room really depends on the era of the house and how the homeowners use it," says Ashley Ferguson of Ashley Ferguson Interiors. "In a more traditional or historic home, a formal dining room has its place visually, but its necessity ultimately depends on the homeowner. Are they going to host formal dinner parties or Thanksgiving dinners with all the china, or are they more relaxed in their entertaining style and never have formal engagements? It's key to consider the best use of space and whether entertaining is part of their lifestyle." Open your mind to all the possibilities, including using your formal dining room as a hybrid space. "If a client truly doesn't use the dining room—usually because they have a large eat-in kitchen, or the dining room is just too far away to be practical—I would absolutely suggest a better use for that space," says Bethany Adams of Bethany Adams Interiors. "Using a room once a year when you have year-round space needs just doesn't make sense." Whether you want to set aside your formal dining room for a single purpose or multiple purposes, read on as our experts offer some thoughtful ways to use a formal dining room. Elizabeth Vergara of Vergara Homes, a luxury design and build firm Ashley Ferguson of Ashley Ferguson Interiors, a full-service design studio Bethany Adams of Bethany Adams Interiors, a full-service design and decorating studio 10 Small Dining Room Ideas to Help You Make the Most of This Space 01 of 07 Home Office Dana Gallagher At a time when many jobs have gone hybrid if not completely remote, a formal dining room could pull double duty as a home office with just a few design tweaks. First, make sure you have a door that you can close when you need privacy for conference calls. "Consider adding glass doors for light and aural privacy if your room is open to the rest of the home," says Adams. This benefits both the office worker and everyone else in the house. "It's not fair to the rest of the family to demand quiet while you zoom out in the open,” she says. Consider adding a secretary desk, where you can close the lid on your day's work instead of using your dining room table as a de-facto desk. Finally, make sure the room has adequate power for all the devices that you use in your work. And you might also want an office chair that can be rolled away when it's not in use. 12 Home Office Ideas That Are Functional and Beautiful 02 of 07 Game Room Getty Images A lot of families prioritize entertainment over formal dining these days. If yours is one, the dining room might be the right place to house a pool table, a foosball table, a vintage Pac-man video game, or even a poker table as well as provide the space to play board games and work on puzzles. "A game room is a fun idea if yours is the house where all the tweens want to hang out on the weekend," says Adams. "In a recent hospitality project, I took the space that had been the formal dining room and turned it into a billiards room. It made much more sense to connect the living room with this more convivial space and to tuck the dining room in the back of the house by the kitchen." If the kids are younger, include some toy storage in the room." Toy rooms are an easy and cost-effective conversion for a former dining room," says Vergara. "You can quickly transform the space by adding built-in shelves to store children's toys, a comfortable sectional, and a thick durable carpet or rug to make the space safe and cozy." 03 of 07 Home Library William Abranowicz Your unused dining room could become the prime spot to house your book collection if you have one. Add a library ladder, and you'll have a room that will be the envy of your book club friends. "I'm of the opinion that a library can be added to just about any room," says Adams. "So if you desperately want a place for your collection and a place to host Thanksgiving, I'd suggest we add beautiful built-in shelving to your dining room." Keep the dining table and chairs in place, for annual holiday entertaining, if there's a need. Or turn the rest of the room into a sitting area, with cozy chairs, side tables, and reading lamps. Bookshelf Wealth Is the Ultimate Design Trend for Readers 04 of 07 Sitting Room Rick Lozier Many home dwellers find a cozy sitting room more useful than a formal dining room. "I've turned a formal dining room into a sitting room on multiple occasions," says Ferguson. "These bonus living areas are incredibly practical for entertaining and everyday life. A secondary sitting room can serve many purposes, acting as overflow space when hosting or providing a quiet escape to curl up with a book." Or make the room a combined library/snug. "One room I designed had a cozy library feel," says Ferguson. "It was dark and moody and featured an antique piano passed down through the family. Transforming the dining room into a formal sitting room really worked for this client, and we never looked back." 05 of 07 Homework Room Ngoc Minh Ngo Families with school-age children might find a homework room more useful than a formal dining room. This is especially true for homeschooling families. Just a word of caution about the location—if the dining room is in the front of the home or gets a lot of foot traffic, this may not be an ideal use of the space. "While homework nooks are always popular among young families, this type of space would likely feel too casual as a prominent feature on the main floor," says Ferguson. It might be more efficient to add a homework "space" to a library or sitting room. "Homework spaces do not require as much square footage as a formal dining room," she says. "Having a large designated homework area might result in wasted space and could feel like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole." But, a multi-purpose library/homework room might be a winner, instead! 06 of 07 Music Room Aj Watt / Getty Images If your family is musically inclined, they might relish a music room in the place of a rarely used formal dining room. "If music plays a significant role in your family, I love the concept of repurposing the dining room into a music room,” says Ferguson. "This could be especially great if you have an heirloom piano or instrument collection to help anchor the space. Ultimately, a home should fit your lifestyle, and if you have a talent or deep love for music, this swap could be a very strategic use of space." You'll want to make sure there is a door that you can close as well as good soundproofing installed. "A music room is a lovely idea if you are an active musician," says Adams. "Similarly to a home office, consider adding doors if you don't already have them—especially if you are just starting on your musical journey." 07 of 07 Craft Room Martha Stewart If someone in the home is a dedicated DIYer, you could turn your formal dining room into a crafts room. Much as with a library, you'd want to keep the dining table and chairs, plus add a good deal of storage. But this only works if the dining room is removed from the flow of foot traffic through your house. Because no one wants to have to clean up clutter when they are mid-project. "Depending on the dining room's location, a craft room could feel out of place," says Ferguson. "Placing a craft room near the entrance, which is typically where a dining room is located, could be visually jarring and too chaotic when entering a home. Another consideration is that craft rooms tend to be a bit cluttered, even for organized crafters." 12 Craft Room Ideas That Blend Form and Function Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources Martha Stewart is committed to using high-quality, reputable sources—including peer-reviewed studies—to support the facts in our articles. Read about our editorial policies and standards to learn more about how we fact check our content for accuracy. Arnold, Jeanne E., Anthony P. Graesch, Enzo Ragazzini, and Elinor Ochs. Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors, 2017.