Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jun 16, 2009 6:48 pm What a waste of time these rooms are! We are not having either... and quite a few people have commented. One of my friends told us he used his formal lounge regularly...... for drying washing in. My in-laws do not use their formal lounge at all, ever. They have a 5 year old house and just never ever go in there. Shame, as it's a lovely room. We made the decision to have more space for other rooms and do without these 2 rooms. What does everyone else think? JB Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 2Jun 16, 2009 6:54 pm I think the rooms exist.... it's just the terminology has changed. Lots of houses have the theatre where a lounge would traditionally be. We will have four different living areas... one is labelled "Lounge", but I can't see us using it as a traditional formal lounge. We're still tossing up exactly what will be there..... but I can see it evolving into more of an open library. That what the lounge in another house we were going to build would be. I do think it's nice to have at least one area that isn't dominated by TV or gadgets. A room to just chill and relax in... whether that is labelled Lounge or not is up to the individual. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 3Jun 16, 2009 7:08 pm Yeh, we also have a "theatre" which will be a non-tv room with our piano and most likely kids toys etc in. So, not used as a formal lounge as such but somewhere to go and relax away from the big open plan kitchen, family and living room. Whether this room becomes the room where clothes get aired and school projects get laid out and done remains to be seen. But I do think it will be a useful other living space for us. Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 5Jun 16, 2009 7:22 pm Brickie joles We will have four different living areas... Why? Do you get to live a different life in each area? Im intrigued...... I'm building with my mum. My son will live with us, as well as my adult invalid brother. So there are three generations living in the one house and leading very seperate lives. Mum was looking at downsizing, I was looking at buying something small, it made sense to pool resources and money. We will all have our own space. You'll find many people on here are building houses with 3 or 4 living areas. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 6Jun 16, 2009 7:42 pm We have always used the lounge to watch tv as its cosy with carpets and drapes. We used our family room as a pool room but when the guys played pool and the ladies sat drinking their wines we couldnt all sit in the same area unless we sat at the meals table, which became uncomfortable after a while. So this time I have a massive room with a pool table in and couches and its all open plan to the meals and kitchen. It is what I planned as I wanted a large interacting area. But....... now we have moved in DH has the plasma in there too so we can have music dvds in the background when socialising, he doesnt feel any need to use the lounge! We havnt even put any furniture in there yet I hate not using every room and wouldnt have bothered with having a lounge and saved money on the building cost, but DH reckons because of the price of our block and where it is we had to go for a certain size and have certain things as it would be expected in resale times But it seems a waste of time to me, maybe it will be good if I get another plasma set up in there, then if we want to watch some thing different we can, or put a realistic gas fire in there and have it for a cosy reading room Know where your going in life............... you may already be there Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 7Jun 16, 2009 7:56 pm We have a house with 2 liveing areas- one is a large open space kitchen/family/dining with sliding doors to alfresco and at front we have a separate lounge. Our TV is in there as I prefer the TV away from the active liveing area, dislike people walking past and talking and kitchen noise etc when I am concentrating on a program. However I dont watch a lot of TV, we also sit in there to chat in a quiet comfy area, I read in there etc - its the adults quiet spot, if you like. (son is 17 and has his own TV in his bedroom) I guess it could be called the 'formal lounge' and as such is definetly not wasted space for us. However if you dont like the term 'formal lounge' call it a home theatre, or adults retreat or whatever you like Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 8Jun 16, 2009 8:55 pm Your plan sounds the same as mine I think to that once I get a new lounge and plasma in there, we will go back to using it as tv definately sounds better with all the soft furnishings around Then we can use the family room when we entertain and watch tv whilst we have our meals. Mind you it would be good if I want an early night I can send DH to the family room so the tv doesnt disturb me As our last house was the same with the lounge and main bedroom at the front and I had to keep asking him to turn the tv down Done a double wammy here got cavity sliding doors put in and sound proofing in the walls to try and stop that happening this time! But think it would still be good if he went to the back end of the house Know where your going in life............... you may already be there Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 9Jun 16, 2009 8:59 pm I agree. I do not have formal lounge or dining, waste of space and $$ imho. I don't get why people spend $$ on stunning dining and lounge suites which barely get used. In the 20 years my parents have had formal dining it was used twice. Formal lounge got used about 10 or so years in, as we had a the third and best tv in there. Shame to have only used it when visitors came over. In my place, kitchen will have meals area. Seperate lounge and a party room for parties and general kids play area. Also I want to get King Furniture lounge suite and for what they are worth I will be sitting on it every day rather than stick it in the "nice room" In fact I would rate that up there as useless along with spa baths. Spas are the biggest waste of $$ and water and again in 20+ years I have used the one at home 3 times. Needless to say I briefed my architect to exclude those 3 items from my design/drawings. Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 10Jun 16, 2009 9:06 pm we have an open "family/dining" area at the rear of the house, where 90% of the living will be done in. We do also have the "lounge" which is where I am banishing the xbox and other gadgets to Me and the husband like to enjoy some alone time at times, where I'll chill out on the couch with the TV and he'll play a game or something. We were also thinking long term, when we have older kids who have a bunch of mates over, or have a slumber party, or want to fight over the TV in the living area. Then me and the hubby and escape to the lounge and have somewhere to spend the evening and not have to be confined to our bedroom to get away from it all. If I didn't have the option to escape somewhere besides the bedroom, I think I'll go mad. We seriously considered adding a rumpus to the house as well, just to have somewhere for the kids to play that wasn't in the living area, but realised that may have been overboard for us Built with Bentley homes in Doreen All moved in Dec 2009 Now for the garden! Our stuff so far viewtopic.php?f=31&t=16532 Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 11Jun 16, 2009 9:10 pm I think it really depends on your lifestyle, as to whether they are a waste of money and time. For example, we often have guests and have a relatively big family. We often make family get together lunches etc and need a larger table, which will be in the space labeled "dining room". We also have a "meals" area which we will use on a daily bases, we will have a small table to sit probably 4-5 people (which clearly isnt big enough when we have our family over for lunc). The reason we have an area labeled "sitting" is to have an area in the house which will (hopefully) always be clean, it is at the front of the house so guests dont have to walk through the rest of the house. Later on, once we've got kids this is probably the space they will take over... We think it will work for us and this is why we chose to have it Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 12Jun 16, 2009 9:13 pm taffy, yes we have the lounge and main bedroom at front of house, either side of the entry hallway. the lounge has bifold doors so it can be closed off - keep noise out of bedroom if one person sleeping, keep noise from casual liveing area out, can double up as overnight room if someone sleeps on couch. We use this room every day, definetly not waste of space or $$ for us Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 13Jun 16, 2009 9:23 pm I think houses over a certain size should have two separate living areas, regardless of what you choose to call them. There are times when members of the household will want to be doing different things, and even if you don't, for resale value the option is beneficial. I have relatives who turned the formal dining room into a study. Seems to me with a bit of imagination there needn't be any unused rooms. Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 14Jun 16, 2009 9:44 pm In our last house we had ***a separate lounge room which housed the tv, playstation etc ***a large open plan area near the kitchen which was meals, games room etc. We spent most of our waking hours in this area as did our visitors. No formal dining. This time we have more areas. ***A lounge -it will eventually have a nice sized new tv but no gaming machines. ***a kids activity room - for the old tv and the kids gaming stuff ie playstation , and bookshelves, bean bags etc. ( eventually there will be a work bench for computers but not for a few years) ***A family room area to one side of the kitchen- books cases, big display unit, other bits and pieces and a comfy couch and one day a nice fire /Meals area- table /Games room- to start with where all our computers will be. A large open plan area for meals, family,kitchen, games.No tv but there is potential for a future tv point. ***Office/parent escape room- instead of a shed it will be our hobbies and interests room, for listening to music, for me to do work in for my job, for DH to do Yoga. etc There will NOT be a tv in here but there is potential for a future tv point. Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 15Jun 16, 2009 10:01 pm We will have a lounge at the new house which we have added double doors to so it can be closed off. We have also got it set up with plenty of powerpoints, and a phone and TV point. This is because we were going to use it as our home office but now we will use the study/bed 5 instead. But that would be an option in the future, or it could be a home theatre/TV room. I like having a lounge as it's somewhere that I can shut myself off when I want some quiet time. My mum lives in the UK and we quite often have 2 hour phone calls in an evening, once a month. I like to sit in the lounge to chat to her and escape the kids and TV noise Dining room - we will have a designated area but it's off the family room/kitchen so it would also be classed as a meals area. We only need the one area so that's perfect for us. It's big enough for entertaining but we would most likely use the Alfresco for larger groups as it has a bigger table and will be fully enclosed with heating/cooling. Blog: http://bluemistkids.blogspot.com "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, and professionals built the Titanic." Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 16Jun 16, 2009 10:01 pm A formal dining in our situation is a waste of money...however the formal lounge (our HT room) will not be...we have a lounge and family room where we rent now. I have a 3yo leather lounge suite in there that still has the new leather smell as it rarely gets used. Why? because the plasma is in the family room and so we watch tv/dvds in there. Trying to watch another channel or dvd on a 68cm tv (which is what is in the lounge) is really hard when your used to a plasma. Also, the lounge is open and right next to the meals/family so both tv's compete against each other noise wise. I cannot wait to get my HT/Lounge in the new house!....it'll be away from the family room, have bi-folds to close it off and will also house a new plasma!..and to be able to regularly enjoy our lounge suite will be icing on the cake! Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 17Jun 16, 2009 10:20 pm Yes I think 2 living areas are great when you have kids at home I wouldnt have coped without them Now its just me and DH there is sooooooo much space and sooooooo many rooms Maybe thats why people downsize to units I'm not at that stage yet though I was thinking thorney of if I built again to have a lounge at the back next to the family room but using it as a pool table room but as you said if you have 2 tvs on at the same time they would be too close. And I suppose even when you build a house to your needs you still have to consider resale to a certain extent and what would benefit the majority of people, and if they dont want a pool table then these rooms would be too close. So I think I did the right thing even though DH has all this space to chase me around in Know where your going in life............... you may already be there Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 18Jun 16, 2009 10:55 pm Taffy Yes I think 2 living areas are great when you have kids at home I wouldnt have coped without them Now its just me and DH there is sooooooo much space and sooooooo many rooms Maybe thats why people downsize to units I'm not at that stage yet though I was thinking thorney of if I built again to have a lounge at the back next to the family room but using it as a pool table room but as you said if you have 2 tvs on at the same time they would be too close. And I suppose even when you build a house to your needs you still have to consider resale to a certain extent and what would benefit the majority of people, and if they dont want a pool table then these rooms would be too close. So I think I did the right thing even though DH has all this space to chase me around in I think if your walls were insulated having a lounge next to the family room would be ok for tv watching in both....l've seen alot of plans that have this. We'll have our Rumpus next to the family room pretty much, where we'll put the other tv and game consoles in there...and down the track a pool table...l so want a pool table! So we'll pretty much be doing what your thinking of....so it's quite a doable option (l still cannot believe your thinking of building again already though, lol!) for you. Resale consideration has never been a high priority for us, this will be our home for 15-20yrs so we built it to how we wanted it Glad your enjoying all your space! Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 19Jun 17, 2009 3:58 am My ideal house has 7 'living' areas, 8 if you include the alfresco * a large open space at the rear of the house with a meals area, 'great room' (sitting area with no TV) and informal family room/tv area * a library/formal lounge at the front of the house for when any adults want to have a private conversation - will probably also double as a study * a separate kids play area off their bedrooms where they can keep all their toys, and have their own TV and later on (as they get to high school etc.) will become a separate study/computer room for them * upstairs will have (with an open balcony overlooking the great room) a rumpus room with a pool/poker table, popcorn machine, bar etc., and off that a dedicated home theatre We love entertaining and having people around for dinner and having friends and family stop by all the time so this is what would suit our lifestyle. I guess it's each to their own, but I could never go with the traditional 'formal lounge/formal dining/family room and that's it' combination After 2 false starts, a year living overseas, two more world trips and 3 years of uncertainty we are now starting the build process again - hopefully for real this time! Re: Formal lounges and formal dining... what a waste of time! 20Jun 17, 2009 9:10 am We're living with the inlaws at the moment and they have a formal lounge and dining. It does get used (the dining part anyway), but only when they are having a function and usually we're spread out across the formal and informal area. As far as Im concerned, the only reason it gets used is because the main dining area isnt large enough for a function. If they had used that space and made a large dining/living/kitchen area then it would have been more day-to-day useable space. We decided against a formal lounge/dining as we knew that we wanted our entertaining area to be the kitchen/dining/lounge/alfresco area. Instead, we are using our space to get a 4 car garage as its something which we will actually use (to house the boat, the project car and leave room for George to tinker or put the other two cars) Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Can anyone suggest a house layout where the kitchen-dining - living runs the length across the rear of the house left to right where our best view will be we… 0 4348 9 24782 1 13118 |