I never really would have given the idea of not having a dining room in your house much thought until someone presented the argument sometime last week. He was explaining how the idea of a dining room wasn’t very consistent with (or appropriate for) the Nigerian context. It sounded strange at first, but his justification proved quite logical.

He started by explaining how most people in this part of the world very rarely sit at a table to eat, either individually or as a family. Everyone either gravitates toward their favourite spot in front of the TV in the living room, or smuggles their food into their bedrooms (I’m pretty sure some guilty parties are reading this right now- haha).

Even though this is true in some cases, and might prove what colossal waste a dining room and all the costs that come with it are, it doesn’t mean you’ll have to ditch having a dining room altogether. Instances when you have friends over for a small semi-formal house party or get-together, or need a place to play board games, monitor children while they do homework etc. actually necessitate having some extra room- distinct from your main living area(s).

Another reason why dining rooms are useful even if not as a space to eat in is because extra-large tables help prevent clutter  especially when you don’t have enough worktops in your kitchen. People who like to bake might often place their cakes on their dining room tables to cool off or use the extra space for icing them, storing utensils they don’t use all the time (in drawers and shelves) or packing pastries. This helps avoid knocking them over while they tidy up or move on to other tasks.

So I’d say choosing to have a dining room or not is really your choice to make. However, based on both sides of this argument, I’d like to share two ideas you could consider in order to avoid uneconomic design choices. Look out for our next blog post where we’ll be sharing two of these ideas. In the meantime, feel free to share some of your own thoughts on this.