You have excellent taste. It looks so serene and inviting.
Much better than an unused "dining room" section.

Love the white cabinets and white furniture , as well as the fireplace.
Gives off a bright and light Key West kind of ambience. Great color scheme in general.

Beautiful. Great use of those columns, as a room divider.

So, you ended up with one big GREAT ROOM.......as your main living room is across from that space, right?

March 2013. I'm trying hard to "liquidate" my current inventory before the big move.

Nice play on words,

by the way if you can't liquidate before moving send what you can now so we can help.

I don't know how to post a picture, BUT we put a bar in the dining area of our lantana. As my daughter said, hit the door, hit the bar, hit the lanai. We love it and have had many compliments on the use of the area.

I really don't believe that we are in the minority when utilizing our dinning area with a fully extended dinning room table throughout the year. common folks somebody out there has formal dinning, a gourmet club, poker night???????

It is one large room, but they have two distinct looks. The other room has a tv, sofa and two chair with a large end table and has a nautical theme. We chose a large sailboat picture for above the sofa and a glass sea turtle, glass octopus oil lamp with shells and floating candles for the large table. We use it for watching tv. Thank you for your wonderful compliments about our fireplace area. please look for pics of the living room on another post. Can't attach to this one.

Living room pics
 

This is our living room which is across from the "sitting room" with the fireplace. We have a Gardenia so the space is open. Sorry, but the pics didn't load.

Living room pics
 

Hopefully these pictures post....

Larger lanai/no formal dining
 

I think that if you have a larger lanai, then a formal dining room may not be needed because you can use that outside space for dining and entertaining. Hopefully the weather cooperates!

We are not dining room users soooo...
 

previous owner already changed what should be a dining room to a library/TV roohttp://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...lhjouse001.jpgm which works for us...Here is a pic.

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 ;-)