Walk into any modern-day home which was built recently and has had its interiors decorated in one of the few modern styles, and chances are you won’t find what was once the traditional dining room table in a room designated to be the dining room. In fact, most interior spaces these days are assuming closer to what signifies loft-type living or open-plan living, where explicitly sectioned-off rooms are perhaps only the bathrooms and the bedrooms.
Ultra- and even uber-modern living favours the wide open spaces which are sectioned-off into their various functionalities by way of how they’re decorated and not physically as was previously the case. The kitchen is essentially a ‘kitchen area’ which is clearly distinguishable by the common constituents of a typical kitchen, but you could probably get a full view of what’s going on in the kitchen from the living room, which in turn also flows into many other spaces, like the study area, gym area, etc.
As they say — the interior space which essentially makes up your everyday living environment is perhaps a projection of your lifestyle because it’s really hard to have to adjust the way you live to a space that isn’t comfortable. You can do that when squatting with a friend or family member, etc, but your own space needs to be as comfortable as possible for you. Consequently, as suggested by how we furnish and arrange our modern day interior spaces, the fact that the typical modern day home doesn’t have a classic dining room with a dining room table in it speaks a lot to how we now interact with each other and have our dinner.
Of course, some people might prefer to blend the traditional styles with modern design, and that can actually be quite interesting! Placing a modern wood dining table in an open space somewhere between the kitchen and living room can make for an excellent island sort of space. It can be perfect for setting up all the food in buffet style when you have friends over for a dinner party. Or maybe it’s just you and your best friend, and you can sit at the table with a glass of wine for a quick catch-up as you cook. If you can get imaginative, you are bound to find many versatile uses for the table, but not everyone chooses that path. Some may instead choose to use a coffee table for more casual dining. This provides somewhere flat to place your drinks, making TV dinners a less precarious affair.
Who still ‘sets the table’ for everybody to gather around for that one meal which the whole family is forced to have together? We wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a bad thing and it’s in fact perhaps just a representation of the evolved manner in which families interact these days.
That’s why designer sofas are selling much faster than those classic dining room tables made from expensive wood which is shipped from far and wide. The living room is the new dining room and families of all sizes tend to enjoy having their dinner in front of the TV, which makes for a different way of bonding in that it engages everybody in what is more of an interactive, unforced manner. People love being in front of the TV watching something fun, thrilling, action-packed, etc., and using resources like https://likewise.com/blog/everything-coming-to-hbo they can find out what’s on TV and get to all enjoy themselves together and bond as they watch. There aren’t any exclamations of anybody being unusually quiet on a specific night just because they have nothing to say. If you’re eating dinner on the couch while watching TV, chances are you’ll be doing more eating and TV-watching than talking, the implications of which are perhaps best left to a session with the psychologists.
We’ll maintain however that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however it does compel one to take a different view on just how much they spend on the couch everybody is going to be sitting in for a long time to come in the future, which means it much be of good quality and style since that is where all the magic happens.