Gardenia owners
 

Have many of you Gardenia owners have gotten creative with your breakfast nook area? My wife and I find that we only use either the kitchen bar or the dining room (television is viewable from there), so the breakfast area is redundant. How do you use this area? Any ideas?

We use it for media area, computer, newspapers, magazines, etc!

We're the same as you, ducati, we use our breakfast bar for eating. We've kept a small round table in the breakfast nook which is available when we have people over for cards and/or games.

We have friends who use the area as a small sitting room - they have a loveseat in front of the window, with a small area rug and a floor lamp. It looks quite nice and cozy. They painted that particular wall a different color i.e. accent wall, to set it off as its own space. The color picks up the colors of her cushions on the loveseat.

Hoganth, I like your idea of a media area as well!

We only use it when we have lots of guests eating, or for playing cards like Taj44.

We eliminated the columns in the dining area, took down the DR light and installed matching fans in both living and dining area and created a Great Room (the entire house excluding BRs is tiled on the diagonal). We use the eating area of the kitchen as our "dining room". Albiet, it is a small area, but we never have formal dining, and we can use the dining nook and breakfast bar if we have a large number of people we need to feed informally.

The Gardenia is the model we plan to purchase. I could see myself having my morning coffee and reading the news at a small table by that window in the mornin, especially in the colder months. Do any of you use that area for morning coffee and news?

Actually, my wife and i do most all our dining in the kitchen nook and watch a small TV on the end of the kitchen counter if we wish.

My kitchen window faces east and I get that beautiful morning sun to read my paper by.

We almost never eat in the dining room area unless we have guests

I always use the breakfast nook precisely for that! Maybe I'm unimaginative! :wave:

I usually eat other meals at the counter. Don't know why.

The dining room gets used as such primarily only on Christmas Eve when I feed my brother and his family.

The Cat loves to nap in the dining room chair nearest the kitchen so she can keep tabs on me!

SWR
:beer3:

We also got rid of the dinning room concept in our Gardenia. We took down the light and have two ceiling fans (one in each area). It is now one big room. We usually eat at the counter and weather permitting on the lanai. We do have a small table at the breakast nook where I eat breakfast and read the paper.

I use my breakfast nook for coffee and to read the paper on the mornings the lanai is too chilly. I get the morning sun in the nook and I love that.

Has anyone installed a bay window in the front BR/Den of their Gardenia? Also, for those with large bird cages in back, has anyone installed a tropical garden inside the bird cage?

We put a bay window in the front BR/Den when we had the house built..It really does make the room feel larger...We also had extended the side by 2 feet which also helped. We have a desk unit and a pull out couch in it which is great when we have company.

We also use the kitchen nook for coffee, breakfast and reading the paper where it is sunny in the morning. We got a nice cherry dining table where the top can be flipped for cards and used as a game table. This has been used for games several times and only once for dining so it was a great choice. We also purchased bar stools without arms or backs that could be tucked way under the counter out of the way and are only used as extra seating for large groups.