Whatever happened to the dining room?
The same thing that happened to home dining itself: it’s become increasingly rare.
I speak as a person who was raised in a house with a wood-paneled dining room, a very small kitchen, and a teeny-tiny den that was the size of a large closet. There really wasn’t much choice; we had to eat in the dining room or we’d eat standing up.
At first TV was completely banned; later it crept in when my father became ill with heart disease and didn’t have his previous energy. But the dining room remained the place my parents ate even when it was just the two of them.
After I got married, I always liked to eat in our dining room, too. My kitchen was from the 50s and didn’t have a table, and the dining room gave me a feeling that I liked and remembered from childhood—not of formality, but of family, and of a leisurely rather than a rushed meal.
Now that I’ve downsized and it’s often just me, I tend to eat in a hurry and standing up. Awful, I know. I have an open living/dining room combination though, with a dining room table that’s round in shape. I had long wanted a round table; I think it’s conducive to that warm groupiness I like, on the occasions when I do have a bunch of people over. My table (which took about a year of searching to find) has several leaves that can make it a long oval. I keep meaning to set a rule that I will sit down to that table to eat every night, but I have yet to successfully enforce it on myself more than intermittently.
We turned our dining room into our media/game room. We have large “breakfast” nook in the kitchen, which allows our dinner guests to be impressed with our cooking and allow us to take part in the conversation without being isolated in the kitchen. There is no TV present.
My wife and I were laughing the other night about the fact that we do prepare and serve a good meal every evening and then we eat on the coffee table watching TV.
Now that we downsized we do have a large dining area/kitchen and perhaps we should sit down at the dining table and enjoy civilized quiet meals.
Like OldTexan, my husband and I prepare our dinner together almost every evening. My Mom once declared that my kitchen with a farm table eating area would be perfect if only it had a TV. I resisted until 9/11 as I was stuck in the kitchen preparing food for the family next door because the wife died that day. I went to Costco, bought a small TV and kept abreast of things while making homemade lasagna. In our relatively small home (2000 sq ft), we also have a formal dining room with a beautiful custom square table. I love that room even though we only eat at that table a handful of times each year.
What? now you want women barefoot and babies?
feminism…
means never having a dining room but to entertain with take out and catering.
duh… its idiocy not to get it…
you destroy the family, you destroy the need for dining rooms and increase the need for communal cafeterias and rationing… (also kills economy of scale)
How Feminism Killed Gelatin
http://www.spasmsofaccommodation.com/2014/01/how-feminism-killed-gelatin.html
This morning I pored over this BuzzFeed list of 21 Truly Upsetting Vintage Recipes and it made me think. What was going on in the world that made people want to add grated onion and vinegar to lime jello?
also dead from feminism…
modesty
desease free living
dining together
families
self determination
children
http://www.womynkind.org/scum.htm
S.C.U.M. Manifesto
(Society for Cutting Up Men)
and the lie told to women so that they can go on guilt free and responsibility free and blame it on – guess who
Betty Friedan Did Not Kill Home Cooking
http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/betty-friedan-did-not-kill-home-cooking/272518/
But what happened to our great-great grandmothers’ good, wholesome, authentic food culture in the first place? Where did it go wrong? Disturbingly, the blame has lately seemed to settle on an all-too-convenient target: Betty Friedan and co.
Here’s Michael Pollan, writing in the New York Times Magazine: “[The Feminine Mystique was] the book that taught millions of American women to regard housework, cooking included, as drudgery, indeed as a form of oppression.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02cooking-t.html?pagewanted=all
Here’s Mireille Guiliano, author of the New York Times number-one bestseller French Women Don’t Get Fat: “[Women] don’t know how to deal with stress, and they eat when they’re not hungry and get fat. They don’t know how to cook, because feminism taught us that cooking was pooh-pooh.”
http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/index.ssf/2010/06/we_have_to_go_back_to_the_kitc.html
Here’s Rose Prince, the British celebrity cookbook author: “Yes, it’s feminism we have to thank for the spread of fast-food chains and an epidemic of childhood obesity.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1313528/Feminism-killed-art-home-cooking.html
Yes, that’s right. Feminism killed home cooking. Feminism destroyed family dinner. Feminism made us fat. These attitudes are troubling. And they’re flat-out wrong. If Friedan convinced women that cooking was drudgery, then cooking must have been considered fun and fulfilling before 1963. Right? Wrong.
[edited for length by n-n]
The Dinner Party
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dinner_Party
The Dinner Party is an installation artwork by feminist artist Judy Chicago depicting place settings for 39 mythical and historical famous women. A further 999 women are honored by named floor tiles. It was produced from 1974 to 1979 as a collaboration and was first exhibited in 1979. Subsequently, despite art world resistance, it toured to 16 venues in 6 countries on 3 continents to a viewing audience of 15 million. Since 2007 it has been on permanent exhibition in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, New York.
last nail in coffin
NHS to fund sperm bank for lesbians: New generation of fatherless families… paid for by YOU
For as little as £300 women will be able to search database for donor
Will mainly benefit those who want children without relationship with a man
There is an increasing demand from lesbian couples and single women
Critics called it ‘dangerous’ and warned against creating fatherless families
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2714321/NHS-fund-sperm-bank-lesbians-New-generation-fatherless-families-paid-YOU.html
Exterminate The Men: Honoring Andrea Dworkin, A Feminist Who Meant It and Paid
http://exiledonline.com/exterminate-the-men-honoring-andrea-dworkin-a-feminist-who-meant-it-and-paid/
Feminism’s extermination craze
http://darkproxy.hubpages.com/hub/Feminisms-extermination-craze
Every man, deep down, knows he’s a worthless piece of shit – Solanas
The male is completely egocentric, trapped inside himself, incapable of empathizing or identifying with others, or love, friendship, affection of tenderness – Solanas
and you think you could sit down at a dining table with such people? their followers? etc..
the president loves them
the elite loves them
and on and on..
eugenics by working on the weak minded
(if not, then your not paying attention to them)
Our previous home had a dining room and we rarely used it – only about twice per year. When we designed our current home, we decided to save about $50,000 and leave the dining room out of the floor plan. (Square footage is expensive, you know!) On the rare occasions when we entertain, we push the living room recliners out of the way and set up my grandparents’ drop-leaf dining room table that seats up to 12.
We have lived in our 110 year old house for 40+ years. Every meal is eaten in the dining room except warm weather in which case all meals are consumed on the screened in front porch. My wife is still working so I always cook dinner. Tonight is gazpacho made from the garden, toasted cheese sandwiches, homemade pickles, and vinho verde. Customs, especially relaxing and healthy customs, need strengthening.
We have a formal dinner once or twice a year(or once every two years, depending). Mostly, the dinner table serves as a disorganized file cabinet.
The old NE farmhouse I grew up had no dining room. All meals were eaten in the kitchen area.
All our meals were eaten in the dining room as our children were growing up. Since I was gone so much it was my main chance to have conversations with our children. It’s the way I grew up, too. Family eating dinner (we called it supper back in the day) together. Amazing how many things I can think of that I learned at the dinner table.
We’re alone now, but still eat dinner on a small, round glass dining table in our modest retirement home. Both my wife and I prepare meals. I’m no great cook, but after 58 years Mrs. JJ appreciates a respite from kitchen chores. Since 9/11 we often have the TV in the living room on so we can listen to events of the day as we eat.
I absolutely love it when you give me a Blast From My Past and a BIG Smile on my 1944 chops!! Thanks mucho, N-Neo!!
Artie…Put the coffee down, Sir. Now, very slowly, step away from that mug. There. Thank you. ((-:
As the family goes, so goes the dining room.
parker, 4:32 pm — “Tonight is gazpacho made from the garden, toasted cheese sandwiches, homemade pickles, and vinho verde.”
Sounds really good! Expect me at around 6:30 pm (local time). I’ll bring dessert . . .
M J R
NeoConScum,
I actually think Art has a point about feminism and the dining room. We only had a kitchen table when I was younger, but we ate there as a family every night. I helped my my cook almost every meal. When we later had a dining room, it was used whenever we had guests who coulcdn’t fit at the kitchen table (mostly family).
The Atlantic article that tries to absolve Betty Friedan of guilt is crazy. It cites two pre-Friedan cookbooks about hating to cook, but it fails to mention the Betty Crockers, Joy of Cookings, etc that sold a lot more copies. The article concentrates on middle/upper middle class women, but the problem is that feminist degradation of “women’s work” made itself felt among the working class and poor, whose daughters no longer had home ec in school or were taught to cook by their moms. Even the idea of sitting down together with father, mother and kids at a regular time each night got lost in this new “free” world.
I’ve encountered some of the products of these types of upbringing among poorer families, and it ain’t pretty. The young women don’t know how to shop or keep a pantry stocked with basics. Many would have trouble making French toast.Their kids get cheap prepared food that is popped into the microwave whenever they get hungry. Bonds between mother as caretaker and kids are not built, and as the kids get older, the peer group takes charge.
The dinner table, whether in the dining room or kitchen, is important. And my guess is that it also stabilizes the relationship with husbands and fathers.
MJR,
Whenever in my area of Iowa you will be welcome to sup with us, just give enough advanced notice to set another place at the table. Btw, the pickles tonight are baby green beans and mango-golden raisin chutney as an appetizer.
I once told the owner of this diner I’m sitting in that we were thinking of changing the color of our dining room and what did he think?
He asked why we should care what he thought.
I reminded him he owned the joint.
We raised our three children in a farmhouse with a big kitchen with a large family table in the middle, but no dining room. We ate family meals around that table every night for 20-plus years, but on holidays, how I longed for a nice dining room where you could put on a meal with a bit of ceremony, out of sight of the dinner makings all over the counters.
Now we live in an empty-nest, retired-from-the-farm house with a small table in the kitchen just big enough for the two of us and a lovely big dining room with all the trimmings (buffet, expandable table, china closet . . . ) that we use only a few times a year, when everyone comes home. And even then, if it’s nice out, sometimes we eat on the screened porch overlooking the backyard. The rest of the time, the two of us eat in the nice living room by the fire and the TV — though we swore we wouldn’t, it’s really the most comfortable place to be together. Much of the time, that lovely dining room serves as an extra-large file cabinet.
We’re planning the next home, which will have a great room overlooking a lake that will serve as both dining room and living room, as needed. We’ll need a table with leaves that can be small enough for two or big enough for 9 — the current size of all of us at home at once, though we hope that number will grow.
Parker: like you, Mr Whatsit does all the cooking these days, as I’m still working. What a luxury! Thanks to both of you.
Expat…Well said and I salute your ability to stay out of sensory overload with the aforementioned. ‘Fraid I just numbly keep moving downward. When one can’t clear one’s throat in under 15-paragraphs, I lapse into my ancient ADD… I mean that with a giving & generous heart. (-:
Eating together is family glue.
We always had dinner in the formal dining room on Sundays and holidays. During the week, we ate at the breakfast table in the breakfast room for all three meals. But regardless, we all sat down, Dad said grace Episcopalian style, we put our napkins in our laps, and we waited for our mother to take the first bite. (Remember table manners? you learned them so you wouldn’t make a pig of yourself in public, part of the equipment of being a lady or a gentleman. I still can’t abide coarse manners.)
TV was in the den. Period. It never even occurred to us to watch TV and eat at the same time. Like watching TV in the bathtub! (oh, wait — they do that now!). Our dad was determined, too, that we kids would learn the art of conversation, and, remembering the lively adult conversations around the dinner table in his youth, he and Mom tried heroically to get us to talk about the events of the world.
We also used the sterling every Sunday, and the good china. It was lovely, actually. And it really does bring the family together.
My friend Vinnie, blue-collar New Yorker age 65, has somewhat rougher manners, but said that this weekend, when she visited her daughter, son in law, and granddaughter and they went out to dinner, she ordered them to put away the dratted phones and talk to each other “like human beings!” And so they did.
Artful, honey, remember: Samson LET Delilah cut his hair. He could have said “No.” And Adam whined that he ate that apple because Eve told him to. Y’all have to bear some of the responsibility. Like, I don’t know: half?
MJR, what Parker is saying is that “you really ought to give Iowa a try….”
Re “The Dinner Party”: Long ago when I was living in San Francisco I was friends with a comedy vocal trio called “The Pointless Sisters”. One of them was actually quite multitalented and was also an accomplished artist who put on a parody exhibition of “The Dinner Party” at a local gallery.
The exhibit was titled “Box Lunch”.
expat – thanks… you said it MUCH better than i could
Artful, honey, remember: Samson LET Delilah cut his hair. He could have said “No.” And Adam whined that he ate that apple because Eve told him to. Y’all have to bear some of the responsibility. Like, I don’t know: half?
no.. we dont…
after the state got involved and you could go to jail for raising your voice… she could and can press every button in the world, but we cant respond in kind.
Deliliah betrayed samsons love to get to his hair.. ie. pretended to love him, and bevcause he loved her, he trusted her. that puts HER at the lowest level of dantes inferno, the 9th plaine of hell where the betrayers go, like judas… your right, if men dont love women, and dont care about them, they can refuse to do things for them out of love for them, and then samson would have been ok…
lesson learned… hate women and distrust them, and your ok… out of your own mouth beverly…
you remind me of the feminist Catherine Comins:
“men who are unjustly accused can sometimes gain from the experience”
which parallels the quote from the man whose whole career is writing about sociopaths who said that their victims they tortured and killed (women), learned not to love.
and i agree..
if samson did not love deliliah, delilah would not have been able to do that
and adam whined? where? his first wife lilith was made like him, with a soul… she now is a demoness who gets children who are not baptized and married whom? and Eve? she has no soul, which explains a lot… as she was made from a part of adam
but its the same story… she used adams love for her to betray his trust
so its nice you have the feminist thing where you pretend to love someone, take his children, take his home, destroy his life, and then say its his fault for loving you
you prove my point as to modern women
why woudl someone want to dine a table who sticks up for such nasty women?
and just so you dont think that i am alone in this:
the story of delilah (and your point) confirms the ancient missive that women are not to be trusted they will sell out their husbands and children for the false promis of a BBD.. (bigger better deal)
oh… and i should point out that Samson did NOT LET delilah shave him
The story of Samson in Judges 13-16 portrays a man who was given great strength by God but who ultimately loses his strength when Delilah allows the Philistines to shave his hair during his slumber (Judges 16:19).
so get the story right… he loved her, she betrays him, and while he is sleeping (hardly voluntary), she lets some men in to shave his head – to earn some cash
maybe feminist versions are not up to the truth?
for adam to whine he would not have had faith in god..
duh
get your bibles and things out and get the actual stories right, not the revisionist versions you remember from disney, and other areas pissed in by guess who?
Judas sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver
Delilah sold out Samson for Eeleven hundred pieces of silver
and Eve sold out mankind for an education, bringing us sickness, misery, and real death – to which god haivng mercy, gave us the word (bible) so we coul dfind our way back
to which modern feminism has sided with what (socialist atheism)? and against what (god, family, etc)?
the bible just describes womens nature, which is why feminists hate it… they dont like the way they are portrayed and have no say in rewriting it (as you did with both samson and adam)
any other great examples bev?
So much for the value of a modern education over a classical one – and the rhetoric…
as i said… the game today is pissing in the heads of people so that they cant even think right as they cant even get the arguments right given the warped self serving adjustments to them.
the 1949 film of samson and delilah tells the story the way you think it goes… so i guess the socialists in hollyweird got to piss into your skull and you dont know it.
and even more interesting how that is reinforced by people in discussions who decide that the facts are not important enough to care about, and who decide to make up stuff so that they have something to say. thats also pissing into others skull
to me, that shows a horrid disrespect for other people and their lives and minds – to have a moment of self serving pleasure while sitting in a false limelight cause an idea with no basis sounds better to get micro adulation
this is why the false information bothers me so much
for people who claim to have such respect for others ine xcess of the left, you do the same skull poisoning the well as they do…
beverly…
did you realize that you came to the defense of women kind as a feminist… all ready with false information that if i did not know more and better, might have worked to shame me with a lie?
how nice is that?
since you referred to the talmud and bible to lie as to the stories and make a false claim so as to win an argument to defend the indefensible… i get to quote the same thing – but note.. i am no preacher, i live the word and that is good enough for me… i hold no one else to it.. but, if your going to use the word of god, the koran, the mormon bible, and the vedas to make a point, do get it right.
Eve lied to Adam, and you fault Adam to favor women who lied to you and whine about men… ha!
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour…or hath deceived his neighbour…and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein: Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty,
and
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
and
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.
and
Psalms 31:18, “Let the lying lips be put to silence;”
and god would have… but he had mercy and pity on ADAM.. the victim of his wife and mate that god gave him so he would not be alone.
Psalms 58:3, “The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.”
this last one out of a very very long list applies to you:
Psalms 119:69, “The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart.”
yes… so proud of women you are willing to lie about the contents of the bible to trick somoene to your side. kind of like eve and delilah… no?
ack..
i left out a really good one for you bev
Proverbs 14:25, “A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.”
and note.. its your responsiblity to know, and not spread falsehoods… ignorance is and has never been a defense
Psychology Today
The Worst Kind Of Betrayal
Daring Greatly: How The Courage To Be Vulnerable Transforms The Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead – Brené Brown
What’s the worst betrayal of trust? [disengagement but below is something on the list]
Someone uses my vulnerability against me (an act of emotional treason… [delilah]
“Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard
Some do it with a bitter look
Some with a flattering word
The coward does it with a kiss
The brave man with a sword”
― Oscar Wilde, The Ballad Of Reading Gaol
“The worst pain in the world goes beyond the physical. Even further beyond any other emotional pain one can feel. It is the betrayal of a friend.”
― Heather Brewer, Ninth Grade Slays
“Et tu, Brute?”
― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”
― Arthur Miller
Confucius
“It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”
― Confucius
and from the hadith
The Prophet said, “Were it not for Bani Israel, meat would not decay; and were it not for Eve, no woman would ever betray her husband.” (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 3083)
It has a reference to what Eve did when she tried to seduce Adam to eat from the tree until he actually did. And since she was the mother of the daughters of Adam (all females), they in turn resembled her by birth and genes, that you can hardly find a woman that had not betrayed her husband in one shape or form. And here betrayal does not mean infidelity. Far be it! It rather refers here to the incident where Eve inclined to the desire of eating from the tree and she beautified that to Adam, it was counted as a kind of betrayal for him. But for all women who came after her, their kinds of betrayals varied in levels and forms. And what is similar to that Hadith is the Hadith that says “And Adam denied, so his descendants denied.” – Shaykh Taqi Usmani
And in this Hadith a consolation for those men – who have been afflicted by some actions of their women – through the mention of what had happened from their great grandmother, affirming that this is one of their natural traits. So the man shouldn’t excessively blame the woman who unintentionally or occasionally errs or wrongs him. And for the woman not to dwell in such a manner but to discipline herself and fight her desires. It is so in Fath al-Bari.” (Takmilah Fath al-Mulhim, vol.1 pp.139-140)
and LAST…
feminists say dont blame the victim
adam was the victim of eve
she did not let him know what he was going to do
she used his love of her to gain his trust to get him to blindly act
so even under feminist doctrine, the point bev makes fails for eve and delilah – because in order to make adam equal to the crime and samson equal, she has to blame the victim..
Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them.
My dream dining room table is round and with a built in lazy susan. I saw tables like this once in a Chinese restaurant in Orlando. Made it super easy to share dishes and everybody at the table could participate in all conversations. I have never seen a table like this for sale, however, and I would buy one in a heartbeat if I ever do.
I’ve always been shocked at the number of people who have the television on during dinner.
I don’t know why, but I had assumed that the WWII generation types (my own parents if you include the latest of them) would never allow it. But I was wrong. Liberal in orientation, conservative, it didn’t seem to matter. Televisions everywhere.
I remember as a child asking to watch TV during dinner so I could finish some cartoon (You could see the TV in the living room from the kitchen dining area. The answer was invariably no.
When we moved from a suburban ranch to a larger and newer “colonial”, and you could see the TV at the far end of the family room through the archway into the kitchen dining area, the answer was the same. No. In that house there never was a TV in the living room, and to watch it from the formal dining room would have been impossible.
Perhaps people who are desperate to avoid actually talking to each other prefer the television. It makes enduring the company of other lost, anxious, depressed, or demanding souls less painful.
Neo should post a picture of her childhood dining room. Was there really no room at all in the kitchen for an eating area?
If you get time, describe your childhood house; materials, interior layout, roof style. I’m interested in domestic architecture styles. Craftsman bungalow? 1920s Tudor? 1950s 3 bedroom brick ranch? Duplex? Garrison colonial? Simple gable roof? Mansard? Hip? Basement? (Trying to think of the kinds of houses a baby boomer might have spent his early years in.)
They all offer some features of interest. It would make a good non-political topic.
When I was growing up, the small house had a kitchen hidden by a wall from the living room, but the dining area off the kitchen was open to the living room. My Mom worked, so dinner was usually at the same time as the local/national news hour, so the tv was often on; this was back before 24 hour news channels and the innertubes. You only got the news from the morning and evening papers (we got both; they later merged into one publication delivered either in the morning or the afternoon), plus the local and national newscasts. We never had a radio playing in the house except when there was bad weather, usually for school snow day updates, though the radio was always on in the car because that’s all there was; on long trips, there was constant tuning trying to pick up the megawatt channels that might be picked up for an hour or so.
Now let’s talk about TV’s in the bedroom. I’ve never had one there and have no intention of having one there. TV’s in the bedroom is another product of this modern age. Growing up, bedrooms were for sleeping, dressing and fooling around. VCRs helped put TV’s in the bedroom, nudge nudge, wink wink.
These days youths go to their smart phone and focus in, since talking is generally a harder skill set.
parker, 7:49 pm — “MJR, Whenever in my area of Iowa you will be welcome to sup with us, . . . .”
parker, your kind hospitality is *very* much appreciated.
Beverly, 4:02 am — “MJR, what Parker is saying is that ‘you really ought to give Iowa a try.'”
Having just recently moved to a different coast, there’s a point tucked away in there: maybe I need to forget about this coast or that coast and check out the heartland, which for the most part is populated by people more like me! *Good* *point*.
I remember kitchens without eating areas. Personally, I like the convenience of a kitchen / eating area. I have no nostalgia for the dining room, although I recognize its value a few times a year. I’m a single apartment-dweller currently, and I’d be more inclined to buy a home without a dining room.
I’ve known a few families who converted their dining rooms into offices, some deliberately, some gradually. It’s a big decision to finally get rid of the dinner table. I don’t have one, and I’m never expected to be the host, so it wouldn’t be any loss for me.
DNW:
Brick colonial, built in 1930s, very solid. Slate hip roof, of the rectangular type. Small tiles on kitchen floors in basket-weave tile pattern. Quite a bit of wallpaper throughout house in bedrooms, painted walls downstairs in front-to-back living room, wood-paneled dining room with a bow window at one end.
DNW:
There was no room in the kitchen for more than one of two people to eat. You could squeeze three, but it would be extremely tight and uncomfortable. There was almost no counter space, either.
I don’t think I have any pictures.
In the den, my brother and I used to eat there as children sometimes when our parents were out. To give you an idea of the size of the room, we would sit on a small couch at one end. The TV was in a small bookshelf built-in-nook at the other. In-between was a folding card table on which the food was placed. Once the card table was opened, that filled the entire space of the room.
Lurch:
My round dining room table is very pretty, and it has a removable matching lazy susan that can be placed on it if needed, because the table is quite wide.
Bev @ 4:00am: Arent’cha glad you left that lengthy 5-sentence paragraph to Artie? ((-:
Cool. Very Grosse Pointe-y.
Course there are subdivisions/neighborhoods of that type all over: Nashville or Hartford for example; even Charlotte.
Years ago I was surprised to find that London, Ontario had neighborhoods with those 1920’s Tudor style houses with the two street facing gables, flashed face brick front, and the high front porch with wrought iron railings. High ceiling living room and typically a couple of smallish stained glass windows on either side of the fireplace.
Hey! “Just like Grandma’s house.” The city grandma, anyway.
Always felt a bit like I was going into a church.
Re the kitchen. I don’t know what the heck I was thinking. Minus the slate roof, my “significant other” had a house more or less like that. A brick garrison colonial, square in plan. The whole ground floor was nothing more than a very large living room with fireplace (a baby grand hardly filled it), and a dining room, bath and kitchen. I loved visiting the very civilized and somewhat upscale neighborhood, but would get claustrophobia after a couple of hours.
Re. your “den”. It sounds as though that was built right into the original design. However, she, and many in the area have smallish – I don’t know what to call them – four season day rooms, or breakfast rooms maybe, built on the back of the houses. They are add ons, but constructed of the same materials as the house, not out of aluminum frames and panels and and jalousie windows.
Usually small; about 10 by 12 or something on that order. They are a good idea and on small lots don’t use up all the backyard. They are used as small “dens” or places to view television and let the kids mess around.
DNW:
You are correct that our den was integral to the house, not an add-on. But it was really really small; maybe 7X8 or something like that. My mother once told me it was supposed to be a breakfast room. But even if you took the diminutive couch out, the room could only fit such a small table our family of four would really be squished to try to eat breakfast there.
The playroom/familyroom was a knotty pine finished basement, with a bar.
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Striking a balance between a neighborhood restaurant and special occasion destination, the Singh
brothers designed it with Christopher Ameel Interiors and Voss Design Group as ‘an opulent, romantic and welcoming venue that is elegant, yet comfortable.
For a narrow hall or a narrow staircase, make sure you install the carpet as
a runner and leave a 3″ wide border on both sides to make the hall or staircase appear wider than it is. Accent Colors – Red, cream and white make great accent colors.