Dining rooms used to be an American staple before COVID-19 are they out of date or overdue for a comeback?

Once a mainstay in American homes, the dining room has apparently become all but obsolete in the modern age.Lately, buyers seem to favor a more contemporary approach to home design—the open floor plan.This desirable layout often finds walls being torn down and once-separated rooms sharing the same space, offering flexibility and more movement.This shift in architectural preferences reflects a change in the way we live and use our homes, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many socioeconomic factors, such as the increasingly tricky road to homeownership for many Americans, also contribute to the trend.However, some experts say that dining rooms are not extinct—like parlors and drawing rooms—and may make a comeback sooner than you think.Home life has dramatically changed since the pandemic.Many owners with separate dining rooms converted the entertaining space into offices, playrooms, or even schools for their kids and have since kept the layouts. In looking at current listings across the country, Realtor.com analysts noted that only 25% of properties listed in the U.S.

have a dining room.However, this number may not actually reflect the true number of houses with dining rooms— only that realtors aren’t highlighting them in the listing. And that sort of tells you the whole story right there.But to drive the point even further, Ana Cvetkovic, principal of Rowhome Design, a Philadelphia-based interior design and home staging firm, explains that many historic rowhouse renovations in the city removed formal dining rooms, replacing them with open-concept living areas.According to her, an open-concept plan offers a seamless flow from the living area to the kitchen. “We’ve also become more informal in how we use our homes,” she explains. “Dine-in kitchens are the heart of the home and are more comfortable and casual than dining rooms.”Another factor driving the disappearing act of dining rooms is the increase in single people owning homes, man...