Can a Sitting Room Double as a Dining Room?

THE POPLAR COTTAGE

Taking a break from the Poplar Cottage siding today (yes, we’re stilllllll going!) and turning our attention to the interior of the house. Because we’re finally ready to start finishing some of these spaces!!!

Can a sitting room (or a small living room) double as a dining room? Garrett and I have been asking ourselves that question for months. Now that we added a new second story with a larger living room at the Poplar Cottage, how do we utilize the original small main-floor living room? Our dream… a spot to relax, read, do-homework and a spot to eat at meal times. A sitting room / dining room combo. Can it be done? We’re going to give it a try. Let me show you how…

paint color: BM Swiss Coffee, windows, wallpaper (in gold/slate)

This room has the best southern and western light and it’s cozy. The room was on the small side to begin with (159sf), made even smaller with the addition of stairs to the new second story. It’s 12’x10.5’ now, about 126 sf. The room is located off the front door, with connection to the main-floor bedroom and the kitchen.

Let me show you what that looks like on a floor plan…

Floor plan

A little backstory…

When this was just a one-story house, this space was used as a living room and a small dining table lived in the kitchen. And we planned to keep that same arrangement when we embarked on what we thought would be just a a cosmetic remodel of this small cottage. But, of course, we decided to add a second story and with a new, big living room upstairs, we no longer needed a full living room down here. Also, the small table in the kitchen suddenly didn’t feel large enough for the number of people that will reside here (primarily our family of 5 while we renovate our new home, the Hill House). Add in small-house principles like efficiently and using every space daily and the idea of a combo sitting room/dining room was born.

I think it’s worth noting that formal dining rooms aren’t the must-have space that they used to be. Many people forgo a dining table all together these days or fit one in the kitchen or another space. And honestly, we’re comfortable eating anywhere really as long as it’s together and at a table. So if this little experiment fails, and we don’t like the combo room use, we have a couple of options. We’ll either nix the sitting-room part of the room and make it a designated dining room or we’ll nix the dining table and bring a smaller one into the kitchen and lose our personal space at meal times. I think the house works well either well and it’s good to be flexible ;)

Finishes

A combo living/dining room really comes down to the furniture, so here’s what I’m thinking… A comfortable couch (in a performance fabric) + a charming vintage dining table to start. Bring in a reading light and soft finishes like curtains, pillows, and throws to cozy things up and make you want to linger. Lay down a rug to up the living room vibe (and because we’re risk-takers ;). Add in a healthy dose of if-it-dosen’t-work-we-can-always-change-it-later, and I think we’re there :)

We’ve been working with Pottery Barn on this space for months now and they’re delivering the couch next week. Garrett will be digging my Nana’s table out of the basement (one of the rare pieces that came with us from the Farmhouse since I swapped it out before listing the house for sale) and I’ve got all my fingers crossed that everything works! Stay tuned…

What do you think? Would a combo sitting/dining room work for you? Are we onto something or are we headed for failure?

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