Family Room AND Living Room?

[Deleted]

The house we built in the 1970s had a formal living room. I don't think "great rooms" came into vogue until the 1980s maybe. The formal living room was adjacent to the foyer on one side and the formal dining room on the other side. Yes, we had a piano in the living room.

But we did use it. It stayed cleaner than the family room so if you had someone drop by unexpectedly, you seated them there. In fact, my daughter, who lives there now, JUST replaced the cream-colored living room/dining room carpet thirty years later. It was that clean.

I read in there. The piano was in there. It had large windows and lots of light. I thought of it wistfully yesterday because now we just have a great room. DH was watching golf. There is no a/c in the sunroom or the basement, and it was just too hot and humid to sit either place. So there was no quiet place to read except the bedroom, which just makes me want to nap.

[Deleted]

I have a living room and a den. The living room has never had a tv. It didn't have any furniture either for a few years. The tv is in the den, at one time that was the only tv in the house. I don't watch much tv so they aren't all that important to me.

[dancinmama]

Jul 9, 2011 10:00:32 GMT -5 Lady Gaga Gaga Snerd said:

Just do it. Homes have to change with the times too. Years back the FR/Kitchen combo was unheard of. Apparently, nobody was ever supposed to see the kitchen . Now it is oK to entertain in the kitchen. And, if a DR is useless to you, get rid of it.
I live a very casual life. And, if people don't like my home or how it is layed out or decorated, oh well.

When we have people over, DH always has booze and a blender set up on one counter while the appetizers are laid out on the island. People can come into the kitchen and grab a drink and a nibble while still having a full view of the TV in the great room.

[wodehouse]

Funny thing is that I am here in front of the tv, what am I watching? Pandora, the internet music channel.

We have only basic cable and don't watch much broadcast TV, mostly streaming from Netflix. Our cable company did something recently (something about "digital") so now I get only about 6 channels anyway! My better half is out of the country for some time and this'll have to wait for her to get back to fix it. It's too "techy" for me

[wodehouse]

"If you get rid of the dining room table, where would you eat? "

Oh, there's the table in the breakfast nook, or whatever it's called, off the kitchen. It's still a large area, probably 10 x 10. We never eat in the DR. Literally, only used that stuff a few times.

[cronewitch]

My house is old and the center of the main floor is living room and dining room with an arch between. We have an old tube tv in there because I don't want the xbox in the den. The den is a bedroom with my desk, computers, file cabinets and a flat screen tv. It has a stereo system, recycle bins and a bird play structure. He has an easy chair and rolling table he can eat on, I eat at my desk.

My living room doesn't get much use but isn't formal. It has the fireplace with wood stove insert, doorways to upstairs, bedroom hallway dinning room and front door. The bird cages is there and a couch and recliner. Two walls are mostly windows so only one long wall to use. We put the Christmas tree where the two window walls meet if we even have one. The living room only seats 4 and the den 2 so when we have company we often spend more time sitting at the dining table that seats up to 10, or moving some chairs to the living room.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

The only TV in our house is in our family room. We don't have a TV in the four bedrooms, the three bathrooms, the kitchen, the laundry room, the walk-in pantry, the dining room, or the living room.

No piano.

But we do have a 6ft tall leather-over-resin giraffe in our "safari-themed" living room. ;D

[Deleted]

This wouldn't be the place to admit I live alone (at the moment) and have 3 tvs.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

We're in a very small (to me) house right now. We have only a great room with kitchen, dining area, and sitting area, in which we've put the tv. Because of the Wii, we put another tv in our bedroom--which drives me nuts, but I don't want tvs in the kids' rooms.

In my other houses we had separate living and family rooms. The living rooms didn't have tvs. It just didn't work for us.


I'm feeling rather extroverted today, and so want to point out to Snerdley that I didn't put the same tone into Sarah's post as you did. I find it odd that after you told Sarah she was being rude for saying she has set up her home they way she wants, you then started telling people they should do what you do. Seems a bit hypocritical to me.

I have never lived with a piano!

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jul 9, 2011 10:59:52 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

This wouldn't be the place to admit I live alone (at the moment) and have 3 tvs.

And in traditional YM fasion: Why have you not sold at least two of those tvs and invested that money!!! ;D

[tallguy]

Jul 9, 2011 11:20:54 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Jul 9, 2011 10:59:52 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

This wouldn't be the place to admit I live alone (at the moment) and have 3 tvs.

And in traditional YM fasion: Why have you not sold at least two of those tvs and invested that money!!! ;D

This probably wouldn't be the place to admit that I live alone (at the moment) and that there are about seven (maybe eight) TV's in my house.... To be fair, though, 99% of my watching is on only one of them.

And,

Uhhhh, because I'm lazy? But in traditional YM fashion, my last one (now the second TV in terms of use) was picked up off of Freecycle because it had multiple inputs and some older ones I have didn't. ;D

Oh, and to bring the thread back on topic.... The second TV is in the living room, the main TV is in the den. So yes, I have both.

[txbo]

My house is big enough to have an office up front with PC & laptop, LR without TV, DR that is used all the time, FR with large TV hanging on the wall, jukebox, PS3, and set up with nine speaker surround sound. Kitchen with dinette. Most of the time we watch TV in our bedroom and it also has an enclosed cabinet with PC for wife.

[dancinmama]

Jul 9, 2011 10:06:35 GMT -5 Lady Gaga Gaga Snerd said:

We previously had a house with FR/kitchen layout. I did not like sitting in the FR looking at the kitchen all the time. I felt like i never got to get out of there.

I can totally understand your feeling about that. Luckily the seating area in our great room is such that when you are using that space, your back is to the kitchen and dining area (I never liked sitting in a formal living room where I could also see the dining room).

[constanz22]

I live in the house I grew up in, so, I can answer for "then" and "now". When I was a child, I only remember have one TV, in the living room. The house, like most others around here, are small raised ranches, so, there is only ONE living room, and a fairly small one at that. I'm lucky to fit a sofa, coffee table, small chair and tv in the room. And there is pretty much no option to change the layout, ever...it kind of stinks. When I was growing up, the basement was finished as a "rec room" and we did spend a lot of time down there playing, etc. I think there may have been another tv added down there at some point. That space it totally unusable now though due to drainage issues I do most of my "living" and tv watching in the living room where my 42" plasma is. I have a small, old 19" tv in the bedroom cuz I like to watch for a bit before going to sleep. I really don't "entertain" at all. I have a kitchen/dining room combination with an island that seats 4 and a dining table and chairs that seats 4. I'd like to get rid of the table and chairs all together and just use the island.

[teen persuasion]

The house I grew up in had a living room and a family room, each with a TV.
We all tended to use the family room most of the time, since view out the sliding doors to the park behind the house was nicer than the cramped view out the front LR windows (of the neighbors' garages.)
Dad would use the LR to escape from the noise, or watch his few favorite shows in peace.

Our current house is a bit eccentic, with regards to room use/layout.
What should be the parlour, is currently the master bedroom, with piano.
The room at the center of the house (and a million doors) is the computer room/library.
At the south end of the house is the TV room.
The kitchen and dining room are upstairs, until a remodel of the kitchen ell is completed (11 years and counting).
There are 2 TVs in the dining room, the older one for the PS, and any large instruments on loan from the school tend to reside there.
The tubas and trombone are back at school, but an upright bass is back for the summer. The smaller string and brass instruments live in the room of the child that owns them.

We tend to rearrange rooms every so often - a room can be whatever we want it to be, depending on the furniture in it. A few years ago, the TV room and the master bedroom were swapped.

[steff]

My house is set up kinda different. On the main floor, I have a living room, dining room, kitchen and what I've made my puter area.... it's all open. The dining room gets used maybe once a month when we have company over for game night. the living room is used even less, only when family from out of town is visiting...but it looks nice....lol My tv is over by my puter desk & by my chaise lounge/couch thingy that I use for reading. Tv can be seen from the kitchen, well can be seen by all the areas on this floor, but if we have company over, the tv is off.

downstairs, some would say is a basement, and we call it that. But it's basically a 1,500 sq foot 1 bed/1bath apt. has a small kitchen, bar area, dining room, living room, puter area. that's where all the teens & guys hang out on game/race days. There's a tv down there in the living room 'area'...and 2 tv's in my kiddo's room down there (1 for watching, 1 for gaming). There's a small table down there for playing poker...2 seating areas, 1 in front of the tv and another off to the side where the huge pit group couch would fit. That is used by teens for sleeping when we have a houseful. Hubby's puter desk is also downstairs.

the guest room has a tv....our bedroom on the 3rd floor has a tv. there's also an un-used tv sitting on the floor in the extra room on the 3rd floor. So we have lots of tvs...

[steff]

This message has been deleted.

[Apple]

In my house the living room is the first room you walk into--most houses around here are that way. I've always had a tv in the living room until this house, and I don't know why, I just decided I didn't want one in the living room in this house. I do keep a laptop in here much of the time and it's where I mess around on the computer. The living room has a couch, love seat, player piano, an old trunk, coffee table and a bookshelf.

The family room is upstairs and is where the tv and desktop computer is. We didn't have any laptops when we moved in. DS and I do most of our reading in the living room (or he reads in his room)--we're both big readers. When he has friends over they go to the family room or might play on a laptop at the kitchen counter (it has one of those "bars" that sticks out like an "L"). This setup works pretty well for us. I like it quiet when I'm reading, so he can go watch a show or play a game without bothering me.

[Apple]

Growing up we had a player piano, a pump organ, a regular electric organ and a regular piano in the dining room. None of us played but we would "play" on them all the time. My grampa disconnected something in the player piano when he was visiting--he didn't want to listen to it. No one knows what he disconnected and the player portion hasn't worked since.

[steff]

Hubby & I don't watch the same things on tv at all. I finally decided I couldn't sit thru rodeo & wrestling shows anymore and he couldn't deal with my History channel obsession. That was when we split into 2 living areas. There are times we do watch the same things (football, Nascar, Deadliest Catch, Swamp People) and we tend to holler back and forth down the stairs to each other. He can be watching baseball (snoooooooze) and hear me holler about something happening in the race and he'll change channels over.

[TheOtherMe]

I once had a house that was a tri-level. Formal living room on main floor and family room on lower level. I never even furnished the formal living room. It was just for me and my cats. I never used that room.

[DVM gone riding]

I think the room I use as an office was intended as either a formal sitting area or a formal DR. I have never understood what the builder intended it for but I love it and sit there and look out the window ;D not only have I living alone gotten so lazy that I no longer use the table to eat--off of the kitchen--I don't use my office so much any more for the computer everything is in the great room. but that will change most likely if I find someone else again.

[Deleted]

Our main tv is in the living room because we don't have a family room. I also grew up with the unused living room, but now I have the rarely used dining room.

[greenstone]

Jul 9, 2011 9:18:39 GMT -5 @illinicheme said:

I've never had a TV in a living room in any home I've lived in. My parents homes always had both living rooms and family rooms, and my two homes as an adult have also had both. In general, the living room isn't used as much as the family room. The family room holds the TV. The living room tends to hold the piano.

This was how I grew up too. We had a formal living (with piano) where we played games and talked. The family room was all about the TV and my Dad controlled that when he was home. My Mom was not much into TV so the living room was her domain.
I have my TV in the living room because I have no where else for it. I would love an Florida room (as they are called here) for one but can't justify making the addition because the living room would go unused.

[greenstone]

The room distinction I don't understand is large eat-in kitchen vs dining room. Where I grew up we had an informal eating area on one side the kitchen and a formal dining room on the other side. The eating area fit a round table for 5 that could be expanding by adding leaves to accommodate 8-9. My parents used the formal dining room as our "library". They had bought an expensive room-full set of matching book shelves early in their marriage and loved books. I thought it was more practical because, I couldn't imagine having a second dining set just for "formal" occasions. I know many families who had that set-up but one always went unused.

[Peace Of Mind]

We have a living room and family room. Our family room has the TV in it and that's what we usually use in the evening, but mostly sit at the table or bar area while eating and drinking because IMO the TV is too big and I prefer to be further back. The living room has our two favorite chairs, another sofa, etc. and that's where we spend the mornings drinking our coffee and just chatting and I read in there. We use the living room more than the family room for some reason. Our home has an open floor plan but it's like two houses in one. The foyer, dining room, and living room in front and the kitchen, breakfast area, and family room towards the back. But they are also open to one another. Kind of hard to explain.

[Miss Tequila]

Yes, I had a formal living room and a family room. My formal living room did not have a tv in it. That was also before children. When we built our house it had a living room and a family room but I turned the living room into an office.

[Miss Tequila]

Jul 9, 2011 18:49:09 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

We have a living room and family room. Our family room has the TV in it and that's what we usually use in the evening, but mostly sit at the table or bar area while eating and drinking because IMO the TV is too big and I prefer to be further back. The living room has our two favorite chairs, another sofa, etc. and that's where we spend the mornings drinking our coffee and just chatting and I read in there. We use the living room more than the family room for some reason. Our home has an open floor plan but it's like two houses in one. The foyer, dining room, and living room in front and the kitchen, breakfast area, and family room towards the back. But they are also open to one another. Kind of hard to explain.

POM, that's the exact layout of the house we just sold. The entire thing was open, yet it seemed like the front and back were separate...

[hockeygrl]

Growing up, one of the houses we lived in had a formal living room and a family room. The formal living room hosted the piano, glass tables, and fancy sofas. It was also the place all of us kids were lined up on the sofa and grilled one by one until the guilty party confessed when something got broken, lost, used inappropriately, etc around the house. All of us kids HATED that room!

The house we have now doesn't really have "rooms" in the living areas. You open the front door and see the entire living/dining/kitchen area, because the back wall is all windows facing the mountains so we have a great view from anywhere. The kitchen is on one wall and is long and flowy with a large island that contains the refrigerator, pantry, and a huge counter for eating/prepping. The family room is defined by furniture placement and the "formal" dining area is defined by furniture placement. The bedrooms are off the living areas and there are no hallways (wasted space in my opinion). I love the open layout. The basement will be similar when it is finished in a couple of years.

[bobosensei]

We used to have a living room without a TV in it. DH and I think it is nicer to have more of a "sitting room" for when guests come over. That way you are encouraged to actually look at each other and talk rather than everyone staring at the tv and commenting on what is on. We also don't believe in having a tv in the bedroom. Our tv used to live in what I guess I could call a rec room, but it was like a combination office/craft room/tv area. We used our smallest bedroom for it.

But since we moved to Europe we have about half of the space than we used to. We only have one tv. Our living space is a giant kitchen, dining area, and living area so that was the only choice of where to put the tv. Our bedrooms are teeny, tiny with barely enough space for the furniture. So even if we were okay with tv in the bedroom it wouldn't have really been an option.