I agree......and by the way, all of your photos are great.
A nice "light and bright" yet "cool" place to get in out of the sun.

Whenever we'd rent on Sanibel Island,Florida the luxury gulf front condos were done in a theme similar to the one you've chosen.

Very relaxing.........very nice for Florida living.

The first "Lifestyle Visit" Home we were in had a formal dining "spot" after you entered the foyer....to the left, with a large dining room table, chairs.

It also had a good sized (not a nook) dining area "off the kitchen" which was also "off the lanai" via sliding doors. The sliding doors continued on across the entire back of the living room.......a full big wall of glass.

There was a "second formal dining room table and chairs"....not the average kitchen table.......in that spot off the kitchen, with easy access to the kitchen.........and also to the lanai which had a dining table.

In that particular model, not sure if it was a Lantana? on Merryweather Way in Creekside Landings......that dining area would be all that we'd need, plus the dining on the lanai.

Just as we do here, we like "lots of xtra comfortable seating" for when all the adult children and grandchildren visit......so yes, I'd rather give up having "two" dining room sets vs. having more seating.

Also, as other posters have mentioned.......having a "seating area" for reading, relaxing, etc.........that isn't part of the main living room setting with the television, etc........is nice to have....

The open floor plans provide opportunity to have a big "great room" as we call them up here. People, us included, added them on to our homes........and still kept the traditional living rooms and traditional dining rooms, but if truth be told........everyone gravitates to the great room.

Also the lanai is plenty big for a good sized table or two......and for those with pools and summer kitchens, it would be convenient to just eat out there............unless it is UnGodly hot out.

The guys with the "home theatre" arrangements are also on to something. Very popular with the 20's, 30's and young 40's college grad generations..........

Have had the formal dining room for 48 years of marriage.
Been there, done that. Don't play poker.

For someone who does play poker, how about a folding poker table that is stored away in one of the walk in closets?

What I'd like to hear a solution to is where do all the grandchildren sleep and the adult "kids" if they all came at once????? Obviously we would get the three bedrooms..........and I guess sofa beds in the living areas?

Up here we have three "master sized" very large bedrooms with 3 King sized beds, 2 blow up Queen sized beds for the grandkids plus a porta crib.......sold our two living room sofa beds and replaced them with regular sofas.........so the blow up beds do come in handy.....

However, the bedrooms in the TV homes are smaller, except for the master bedrooms. I've seen a few of those murphy beds in the walls.

Thanks in advance............

We do have a formal dining room with a formal Baker dining set from the 1920's passed down from my grandmother to my mother in the 1950's.
Lots of memories; birthdays and holidays.
Do we use it? Not much; maybe 2 times a year.
Nook area? Got nice new furniture when we moved in. Do we use it? Only when kids and grandkids come for a visit otherwise we carry in a plate and eat in our recliners.
2 formal living areas. Do we use them?
Yep; the pool table and game table takes up 1 of them so now its a game room.
Bring your stuff down you just never know.

What do you do with your dining room? What do you have in your dining area? How about doing something else with the sit in dining in the kitchen? We have an open Whispering Pine.

If I got the Iris I would do as other mentioned. Change the back wall with the sliders to make it a straight wall so it would accomodate a large table in the breakfst noonk or be able to extend the smaller able by using leaves. Then I would expand the Lanai to make it wide enough to sit out there and enclose if needed.

I would put a ceiling fan where the dinning table should go and move the living room/TV area to the middle along the long wall. If that is clear.

If we got a Begonia style...we wanted to build in a desk/mail center in the nook and keep the Dinning area as our main eating area with a large table but no formal hutches or china....just our style I guess.

Well one can dream anyway ;-)

We set up the table, dust the place setting off every one in awhile, then dine out.

We have a Bengonia and had a built in desk put in the kitchen nook space when we did the design meeting.
We put cabinets above the desk that matched the kitchen cabinets and drawers on each side of the desk which gave us lots of extra cabinet and drawer space. We also replaced the chandler in the kitchen nook with a ceiling fan. We love it since it cools the kitchen area.
We have the kitchen counter, the formal dining room, and a table on the lani for eating and didn't need another eating space.

We did that after closing. Exact same cabinets and counter top

i love the combo of the cabinets and counter

Great suggestion........

LOVE what you did with the space!

We are building the Aspen, because we loved the wide open living area and generous dining area opening onto the large lanai.
We are selling off the china, sterling, all the formal stuff that has been boxed up for years.
Very liberating!!!!
We are bringing a "pub table" which is bar stool height. It is square, which seats 4, with 4 leaves which fold out to create a circular table capable of seating 8. We are bringing the 8 bar stools, 4 for the table and 4 for the raised bar kitchen counter. That way we can accommodate a crowd when the family descends upon us!!
We like your home theater, Jimbo2012! It actually looks just like the one we have now! We actually converted a large bedroom in the basement of our current home into a home theater, with the raised "stadium" seating. We have a large 8 ft projection screen.
We have enjoyed it thoroughly!! but after 5 yrs, have decided that we do not need it. Instead we will get a 60" LED which we will place on the front wall of the LR. We are downsizing considerably and the Living Room will become the entertainment center.
But if you do the Home theater Jimbo2012, you will love it!! We are just ready to simplify and have more of a multi-use living area.
We were surprised when we visited TV for the first time in May, that so very many of the homes did contain a nook and a dining room. Most of the homes here have large open living area-kitchen combos. We were so glad to find the Aspen, It fits our needs to a tee!
Judging by the responses to this thread, we are not alone in wanting fewer dining areas.

Heading down this path ourselves. We have an expanded Gardenia and the Kitchen is wider then normal. So the nook is larger. Currently still in the planning phase as still not happy with a living room used for just a living room. But would like to put a table that could seat 6 in the nook, or one with the ability to expand to 6. Eliminate our dining room set. Beautiful set hand carved in Germany with folding leaves that hide under the table if anyone still wants a dining set that will expand to seat ten. Convert dining room to a seating area with the TV on the back wall so it can be seen from the kitchen. But then we will have a "formal living room"? Not the right solution yet. Maybe make the dining room the TV area and the living room a reading area as we already have a gas fireplace there. Like I said, still planning. Might also like some type of folding table to set up on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Still working on the details before the change begins.

Saw pics of a house for sale on the net can't remember if it was villages or mls, that had two high end looking card tables with four chairs and book shelves in the dining area. Kind of businessman's club style. Thought of this thread when I saw it. One could push the tables together to make a large one for family but have it set up for gaming (cards mahjong etc) most of the time.

One of the craft projects I never got around to was a card/mahjong table that when you removed the top the table would have chip racks which could also double as mahjong tile racks built in. Played around with the router to get the slot right just never made the table.

In this house the dining area can make a great home theater

Love what you did with the nook!
 

Now you have me re thinking my choice.....I am looking at the Sunflower now when I thought that the Aspen was the house for us!!. It has the golf car garage and a nook. The rest of the living area is very similar to the Aspen, in that it is light and open. The frame/siding construction decreases the cost a bit and that will leave room for some upgrades that I was afraid we had to shelf for now. And we could not add the golf car garage to the Aspen on the lot we chose. But the Sunflower fits just fine.

The Dining area is very spacious and the Nook would be a great home office, like you designed. We hated the idea of setting up a home office in the guest area and having it in the way when family comes to visit.

The home office in the Nook is such a great idea! More central to the rest of the house and there is plenty of room. We even thought that with the Sunflower we could put a closet in the foyer where the arched doorway to the nook is located and not lose much function in the home office.......
Lots of possibilities.... Now I am confused!!!

Originally we were going to use the dining room for a living room
and the living as a family room and get rid of the dining room set.
Problem - what do you do with the "stuff" in your china cabinet?
Also, I use the table (with the pads on) when I want to quilt.

I don't really want 2 tables but not bringing the dining room sets
off a "chain reaction" - we would need a bigger kitchen set, etc.
We bought all new furniture when we moved to FL and don't
want to do that again.

A lot of tough decisions when you downsize!

I find we can read in our living room, read on the lanai, front porch, and in the den, all quite cozily. We cannot, on the other hand, seat six or eight for dinner with no dining room furniture. We frequently have need to seat that many. Eating on the lanai is not a given in the winter cool weather.

I like having a dining room. I like the way it looks and like the additional storage.

Did you get your office cabinets from the people that put in the kitchen cabinets?

No, it was my real estate agents husband that did the work. He ordered the cabinets from the same place the builder did. Took a couple weeks to get the cabinets from Indiana but they are identical, same manufacturer. Same thing with the countertop, and get this...

$2200 installed :-)

That's one reason we got the Bogonia over the Gardenia. We didn't need to seat 16 for dinner indoors but a work station with file drawers is really handy.

I too like having a dining room that is used from time to time for dining and the rest of the time for other things, like craft projects. There are a table and four chairs in the kitchen nook as well; the kitchen is a room separate from the living/dining rooms.

Since I'm not a television watcher, I have never had a set in the living room, which frees up that space to really be a living room and not a TV room. One of the small bedrooms serves as a combined television room--perfect for streaming movies, videos, and so forth--and my home office; the other small bedroom is the guest room.

I did add a second ceiling fan (balanced with the original fan) to the large room that makes up the living and dining rooms, "lost" the builder's fixture over the dining room table (actually traded it for a wine rack...), and put up track lighting, so nothing interferes visually with what's on the walls of the dining room. An L-shaped sofa with the long part of the L serving as a room divider creates two very separate rooms out of the one big room. Works for me....

Quixote, you have just described our condo setup in Michigan (just sold). Now you are giving me an idea for the dining room. We too went without a chandelier in the condo because of triple windows looking out over a marina. So standing in the kitchen, there was an unobstructed view through the dining room. We put cans in instead, over the dining room table.

Thanks for that description! Now I'm thinking cans in the dining room ceiling of our Begonia. We have two pictures for the dining room, and I just realized the builder's fixture is going to obscure those. And whoever decided where to place that fixture to begin with has a bad eye. No way would it ever be over the center of the dining room table without moving the table way too far out from the wall.

Love this forum and the many ideas people have. Thanx!

We did just that.We built an Aspen & one of the reasons is we didn't see the need for more then one dining area.

We have a dining room table that is used for dining occasionally, but for the most part it is used for our lap top computer.

Make it a walk in beer cooler.