The death of the dining room: how mealtimes moved to the kitchen
The idea of a room that you use only occasionally for sit-down meals has gone out of fashion. Now people have found better ways to use the space
TL;DR
- Dining rooms, once a standard feature in middle-class homes from Victorian times, are now rarely found.
- Many homeowners have repurposed their dining rooms into gyms, home offices, or expanded living rooms/kitchens.
- The trend towards open-plan living and the fashion for bigger kitchens have diminished the need for separate dining spaces.
- People now tend to cook and eat in the same space, often in more casual settings like in front of a computer or on the sofa.
- It was predicted that dining rooms would be extinct by 2020 due to renovation plans involving knocking down dining room walls.