INTERIORS Many opt for dining rooms that are cozier, less formal

More and more houses feature a dining room without four walls.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The American dining room is shedding its formal image.
Traditionally relegated to a separate room in the home with four walls of its own, it was often filled with a matched set of table, chairs and china hutch. People usually were dressed in their holiday best when they sat down to eat there -- a few times a year.
Now, many Americans want to sip their morning coffee in an attractive but comfortable dining room space. Or, they may be part of that nesting instinct that's all the rage and have friends or family over frequently for casual dinners. But they don't want to be relegated to a room that feels closed off from the rest of the home.
So the dining room has gone the way of other spaces in the modern home -- it is part of an open floor plan, where the kitchen, dining area and great room meld into one another. The dining room might be separated from the other spaces with pillars or glass cabinets or fireplaces, but not with four walls.
Different tastes
"For the younger generations, it's more about making the dining experience special and less about the room. You can do that with china and placemats. For the older generations, it's less about formality and more about creating a comfortable space for the family to reunite," says generations expert David Stillman, co-author of "When Generations Collide."
Chris Thompson, a builder and president of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities, says homeowners often feel they need some sort of dining room space for resale value. He's currently building a home for someone who is nixing the dining room and instead including a roomier eating nook in the kitchen, which melts into a cozy hearth room.
"People congregate in the kitchen, anyway," says Thompson.
Randy Bacchus of Bacchus Homes Inc. of the Twin Cities, says that about one in three of his customers wants a dining room.
"It depends on the price," says Bacchus. "The more expensive the home, the more you see them."
Eclectic decorating
Furniture manufacturers as well as builders have had to respond to the shifting nature of the dining room, too.
"Consumers are a little more interested in an eclectic style. They don't want to always buy a suit of dining room furniture, a matched collection," says Patricia Bowling, spokeswoman for the American Furniture Manufacturers Association. "Manufacturers recognize that and enable people to mix and match."
Because newlywed Sharon Hanifl-Lee likes to entertain, she prefers a home with a formal dining room. Luckily, she and her husband, Mike Lee, found one in their new place, built by Bacchus Homes. The space is located off the kitchen, part of an open floor plan yet separated by columns and glass cabinets.
Although they have a separate breakfast nook in their kitchen, this isn't a young couple who are going to let dust gather on the dining room table. "A week after we moved in, my family was visiting so I opened up the leaves and served corned beef and cabbage," says Hanifl-Lee.