Katie, having a formal dining room for me is really great and useful. I have four children who are grown now. But we used the formal dining room to have family dinners 🍽 with our kids, and it taught them to be more mature . We could take them to a resort or fine 🍽 🍽 🍽 🍽 🍽 🍽 and they all had manners. We took our kids everywhere we went! A formal dining room is really nice for all the holidays as well, if you like to having a bunch of family over it's very nice to have extra seating for everyone! I have an open concept Floorplan in my family room ,but my living room and formal dining area could be closed off from each other. Which is a great option! Because all the guy's get loud watching sports and us girls wanting to relax by the fireplace! We have a track home on a golf course and a very large backyard is a must for a large family!
1. I love cashmere trees! I have a big fat one 😁🎄 2. Mom of 4 boys here. We don't have a formal dining room and never have, just our regular dining table that we do everything at...eat, crafts, homework, pile junk on 😂 I don't decorate it except for a table cloth and a little centerpiece because there's just always stuff on our table. 3. I laughed at the bar cart comment and Brynn not touching it. My first born was an absolute angel and didn't get into anything. But he did not prepare me for the hurricane that came with that second born!! My word, the second boy broke through all the baby proofing, had no fear, got into everything, marched to the beat of his own drum and still does 😅 4. All that said, what a beautiful, festive space, from a girly who doesn't even like gold 👏🏻😉🌟
100% agree! We have fall/halloween up August /October and winter/Christmas up November/February lol I’m not putting in all this work for a few weeks plus life is so much better with all the cozy vibes
When my kids were little I turned our formal room into a play room. It helps sooooo much! It was fun to decorate for the holidays and the kids would have movie nights with forts ect it really was the best decision
We don’t have a formal dining room but a great room which is a living room and dining room combined. Our table actually doubles in size so great for holidays and birthday parties but mostly gets used for homework and crafting, board games, or just placing things on when organizing. I firmly believe you make the house work for you. A playroom sounds perfect.
We used our dining room as a second playroom for our kids when they were young and then a second office during covid, and when we went to sell, we staged it back to a dining room. It worked.
When my kids were growing up, we had an eat in kitchen and a formal dining room space. We only used the table in the kitchen and then used the dining room as a flex space, mostly as a computer room.
We have a formal dining room and I love it. On a daily basis, it often has homework, craft projects, Legos, etc. It's mostly just another table surface that we can use for whatever. However, we can dress it up when we're having a holiday or dinner party. We do also have a dedicated playroom (now teenager) space. If we didn't, I would have used the formal dining room for that.
“And that makes me sad for you” 😂 LOL! I usually decorate the week of thanksgiving unless it falls a week later like it does this year. In which case, I start a week earlier, because I agree! Not enough time!
We rarely use our dining room unless we have a family party and people spill into that room. We often do crafts in there or my daughter does homework in there to get a little distance from the rest of us. 🤣
My kitchen is similar to a galley kitchen, but wider. This house was built in 1968 and renovated to be open concept. Works great for littles. I can be in the kitchen and see my son at any angle. The dining room used to have walls up, but those were removed to be like an eat-in kitchen. Kinda... Honestly, with the way families function today, if you're not using your dining room now, you likely won't in the future. Unless you plan on thanksgiving or large Christmas extended family/friends-giving dinners, I'd opt out. Less maintenance, less cleaning, more time for other things. You can always opt for an eat-in kitchen option or breakfast nook. Place your island to be side-by-side of your dining table, so guests can use the table or the island to eat on as well. And get a large enough table for gatherings if that's in your plans. My thoughts are, the more kids you have the simpler you want things while they're small. Less things to clean, less things to organize and less stress for you running back and forth all over the place.
Love the small tree. We had a formal dining room when my kids were young (all adults now) and we never ate in there. As you said it was "just decoration". They did end up doing their homework there though up until HS. 😊
Love your green, gold and silver color palette, I love how much fun and inspiration that you put into all of your videos!! When I was growing up we had a semi formal dining space connected to the front room. We ate dinner together in there every night. The table was rather big for a family of 3. We did do some entertaining at our house but not for every holiday. We also had 2 Christmas trees, one in the family room and the other in the front room.
I grew up in a house that had two living rooms, a one larger that we only used at Christmas and one smaller off the kitchen. Once my brother and I were older my mom converted it to a dining room and we used it everyday. So maybe that’s an idea? Have the room start as a cozy den/playroom and then convert down the road? I have a small kitchen in my house now and wish I had a dining room.
In our last house we used our formal dining room for Thanksging & Christmas Eve dinner only and only bc we had it. This house that we built a few years ago also has a dining room but we ended up getting a pool table that doubles as a dining room table. When we have friends over or parties we just take the table top off and use it. With no family in Fla we dont do big holiday meals here so we dont feel we need a dining ro om but we looked at new homes for litterally years and this is the home we loved the most.
Love this and can't wait to see the rest of the house. I'm working on mine and decided to get some flocked ornaments for the tree in the living room so back to hobby lobby lol!
Girl! Where have you been? I have not seen your videos in forever! I have missed you. I don’t know why I haven’t been getting your video notifications. I love having a dining room. It doesn’t get used often but it’s great to have. We like to entertain so it’s used on game nights and kids sleepovers. I also like that it is just a pretty space to look at when I walk on my home- and it’s a dumping zone for mail and packages 99% of the time.
I don't have a formal dining room, but I would certainly love it. I enjoy hosting, even if it is casual. That way there's always a seat for everyone one at the table for anything. I also love to just sit in the dining room or craft on the dining table (covered to protect it). We only have a little dining corner that's connected to the kitchen, and it just has a small round table with four to five chairs. To fit a 6-8 seat table would really compromise our walkway to our master bedroom. What *I* dont really believe in is a formal living room vs. a family den. I just dont see myself having any kind of people over whom i would not relax with ir watch tv with. If all I'm going to do in the "formal" living room is to only have tea with a pinky up with some person that i reluctantly invited to our home, i'd rather not have that room. Plus it becomes another "dont play in there!" room. Spacious living room, spacious dining room, spacious kitchen (with a window at least above the sink to make it feel warm and happy). You guys cook a lot and have a growing family, have a decent sized walk in pantry. Perhaps even a butler pantry for things even the kids can access when they're older like milk, cereal, snacks, juice, etc. top cabinets can hold coffees, teas, hot chocolates, special occasion dishware, etc. If you do get or make a 2 story home, 1 master bedroom or in-law/guest suite down stairs, and another master bedroom/guest suite upstairs. They dont have to be huge, just spacious enough for your kind of beds, night stands, closets, etc. Thalt way, if you have friends or family over, like your parents, they have somewhere they can spend the night or so. Downstairs one would especially be for elder relatives, or for when you guys get older and no longer feel like going up and down the stairs. The amount of regular bedrooms? That'll be up to you guys since you have an idea of how many children you guys want to have. 2 bedrooms can share 1 bathroom (if you end up having 2 girls or 2 boys) and then another hallway bathroom. If they'll be close in age, fighting over bathrooms before school or whatever as teenagers won't be fun. My older brother and I used to race each other to the bathroom. If your goal is togetherness, put more consideration for space into rooms you'd want to spend time in as a family. Especially knowing bedrooms are basically just for sleeping, and studying perhaps for the kids.
🌲 💚 everything is gorgeous! Great job and congratulations on your commercial with Kohl’s. Wow! 💚 ❤️ I’m traditional so I love a dining room that’s the way I grew up and I love putting up my Christmas decorations a day after Thanksgiving 🌲 🩵 ❄️ but I really enjoy all of your decorations! 🎅🏿 🤶🏻
So beautiful Katie! I also love the little corner with the shelves. The tree looks so stunning with the ribbon and ornaments. Great job and Happy Holidays!
Hi Katie! ❤ Congrats on the Kohls commercial! Love the color green, the velvet ornaments & the ribbons. I missed your Fall decorate 😮 Will be finding it! 🍁🍂
Your dining room looks gorgeous Katie! I absolutely love the way you decorated the Christmas tree. I’ve always had a formal dining room but if I had a young family I would rather have a space for a large kitchen table and not have a formal dining room. 😊❤😊🎄
We wait to put our tree up until after Thanksgiving because our living room is long and narrow and no matter where the tree goes, it's in the way, furniture has to be moved and everything looks weird for weeks, so four weeks of weirdness is all I can handle😂
My family is grown now however I will say if you build add the dining room and use it as a playroom until that season of life is over. Life has different seasons and right now you don’t need but in the future you may want it just do eliminate the possibility
We have our house fully decorated for fall and thanksgiving until the day after thanksgiving. We do have a year around holiday tree which gets moved to another room to be decorated with holiday memory type ornaments and then we pull out our big Christmas tree. Don't be sad for me, I am sad for people who take down their tree immediately after Christmas. We enjoy our Christmas tree until the end of January. Our Christmas theme leans heavily into woodland winter so we get away with keeping it out as long as we do. All the Christmas comes down when we are ready to decorate for Valentine's Day.
@KatieVining I love that!! I love my Christmas trees which is why we decided to go with the year-round holiday tree. We have govee lights on them which we can change the color based on the holiday or season. But nothing is like bringing out the big boy at Christmas time 🎄
I love how you decorate! Where did you get that star holder you clipped onto the top of the tree? It looks so unique, I didnt even know they had that. Lol.
I have a formal dining room and 2 small kids, with a baby number 3 due in January. I agree we don’t use it unless it’s a birthday party, or hosting a holiday. However, in those scenarios, yes I’m so so glad we have it. In the off season, it’s just a decorative space, but I’d be sad if I didn’t have it. Also, side question, how long do you typically leave your fall decor up before changing it over to Halloween, as well as how long does Halloween stay up before you transition to Christmas? For me, I love my fall decor so so much that a month long of any holiday decor just never feels long enough for me. I’m sad for me to take down fall! 😂 plus I don’t rip down my Christmas decor on the 26th. So I make sure I get a good amount of time enjoying it 😊 I’m sad for all those people with their beautiful Christmas trees on the curb the day after Christmas 😢
This year I decorated later just because life got in the way but normally I do fall in August-mid sept, Halloween mid sept-mid oct, and then start Christmas in mid oct 😂😂😂
Don’t be sad for me bcz I love fall and the turkey dinner is part of my fall decor. I’m Mexican and I leave my Christmas decor till Dia de Reyes which is January 6 that’s when kids get their gifts in Mexico. It’s a symbol of the gifts they brought when Jesus was born. We don’t celebrate santa.
I love a dining room but when you have small kiddos play rooms are just the best and as kids grow you add a desk for schoolwork 😊 Love the Christmas 🎄
Great idea!! Thanks for being here!!
You look SO beautiful, Katie! 🩷
Thank you for another amazing video, I appreciate you!!! 💕🩷
Thank you so much!!
Katie, having a formal dining room for me is really great and useful. I have four children who are grown now. But we used the formal dining room to have family dinners 🍽 with our kids, and it taught them to be more mature . We could take them to a resort or fine 🍽 🍽 🍽 🍽 🍽 🍽 and they all had manners. We took our kids everywhere we went! A formal dining room is really nice for all the holidays as well, if you like to having a bunch of family over it's very nice to have extra seating for everyone! I have an open concept Floorplan in my family room ,but my living room and formal dining area could be closed off from each other. Which is a great option! Because all the guy's get loud watching sports and us girls wanting to relax by the fireplace! We have a track home on a golf course and a very large backyard is a must for a large family!
Everything turned out beautiful 🎄
Thank you!!!!
1. I love cashmere trees! I have a big fat one 😁🎄
2. Mom of 4 boys here. We don't have a formal dining room and never have, just our regular dining table that we do everything at...eat, crafts, homework, pile junk on 😂 I don't decorate it except for a table cloth and a little centerpiece because there's just always stuff on our table.
3. I laughed at the bar cart comment and Brynn not touching it. My first born was an absolute angel and didn't get into anything. But he did not prepare me for the hurricane that came with that second born!! My word, the second boy broke through all the baby proofing, had no fear, got into everything, marched to the beat of his own drum and still does 😅
4. All that said, what a beautiful, festive space, from a girly who doesn't even like gold 👏🏻😉🌟
100% agree! We have fall/halloween up August /October and winter/Christmas up November/February lol I’m not putting in all this work for a few weeks plus life is so much better with all the cozy vibes
When my kids were little I turned our formal room into a play room. It helps sooooo much! It was fun to decorate for the holidays and the kids would have movie nights with forts ect it really was the best decision
I agree. Instead of a dining room, toy room or office is much more used.
Definitely in our next home we will not have a dining room!!!
We don’t have a formal dining room but a great room which is a living room and dining room combined. Our table actually doubles in size so great for holidays and birthday parties but mostly gets used for homework and crafting, board games, or just placing things on when organizing. I firmly believe you make the house work for you. A playroom sounds perfect.
Thank you Jody!!!
It looks beautiful Katie, don't forget to take some time to rest before your sweet baby boy arrives.😊💙
Thank you ♥️♥️♥️
We used our dining room as a second playroom for our kids when they were young and then a second office during covid, and when we went to sell, we staged it back to a dining room. It worked.
That’s awesome that you could transform it so many ways!!
When my kids were growing up, we had an eat in kitchen and a formal dining room space. We only used the table in the kitchen and then used the dining room as a flex space, mostly as a computer room.
I luv the wreaths on the cabinet and I love the ribbon on the tree
Thank you so much!!
I turned my formal dining room into my office by fully enclosing it with doors. My daughter is a week younger than Brynn.
We have a formal dining room and I love it. On a daily basis, it often has homework, craft projects, Legos, etc. It's mostly just another table surface that we can use for whatever. However, we can dress it up when we're having a holiday or dinner party. We do also have a dedicated playroom (now teenager) space. If we didn't, I would have used the formal dining room for that.
I love this perspective!!
I love your home. The dining room is my favorite, so far this year. Your videos bring me joy.
Thanks so much 😊
I enjoy my fall decor on Thanksgiving 🍽️ that's why I wait to put my tree up. 🦃
Love that!
“And that makes me sad for you” 😂 LOL! I usually decorate the week of thanksgiving unless it falls a week later like it does this year. In which case, I start a week earlier, because I agree! Not enough time!
Yay I’m glad you’ll be starting earlier!!!
We rarely use our dining room unless we have a family party and people spill into that room. We often do crafts in there or my daughter does homework in there to get a little distance from the rest of us. 🤣
My kitchen is similar to a galley kitchen, but wider. This house was built in 1968 and renovated to be open concept. Works great for littles. I can be in the kitchen and see my son at any angle. The dining room used to have walls up, but those were removed to be like an eat-in kitchen. Kinda... Honestly, with the way families function today, if you're not using your dining room now, you likely won't in the future. Unless you plan on thanksgiving or large Christmas extended family/friends-giving dinners, I'd opt out. Less maintenance, less cleaning, more time for other things.
You can always opt for an eat-in kitchen option or breakfast nook. Place your island to be side-by-side of your dining table, so guests can use the table or the island to eat on as well. And get a large enough table for gatherings if that's in your plans. My thoughts are, the more kids you have the simpler you want things while they're small. Less things to clean, less things to organize and less stress for you running back and forth all over the place.
I love the pencil tree next to the shelves and also the pretty centerpiece. Love your channel and great to hear Kohl's treated you well. ❤
Thanks so much!!
It looks great!! We never used the formal dining room when I was growing up so I was fine not having one when I got my own place.
Love the small tree. We had a formal dining room when my kids were young (all adults now) and we never ate in there. As you said it was "just decoration". They did end up doing their homework there though up until HS. 😊
That’s nice to hear, and a good use of the table!!
I have that same pencil tree. I love it❤
It’s SO pretty!!
Congratulations on getting recognized by Kohl’s! That is so cool.
Thank you so much!!!
Gorgeous Katie, I love the tree perfect for the room and everything else is beautiful and warm, thank you for the ideas
Thanks so much! 😊
Love your green, gold and silver color palette, I love how much fun and inspiration that you put into all of your videos!!
When I was growing up we had a semi formal dining space connected to the front room. We ate dinner together in there every night. The table was rather big for a family of 3. We did do some entertaining at our house but not for every holiday. We also had 2 Christmas trees, one in the family room and the other in the front room.
Thank you for being here!!!
Yes i feel sad putting my fall decor away But loving ❤️ my Christmas 🎄 decorations! 🎉😊❤
Hahahaha it’s so bittersweet!!!
I grew up in a house that had two living rooms, a one larger that we only used at Christmas and one smaller off the kitchen. Once my brother and I were older my mom converted it to a dining room and we used it everyday. So maybe that’s an idea? Have the room start as a cozy den/playroom and then convert down the road?
I have a small kitchen in my house now and wish I had a dining room.
Looks beautiful you look very pretty also. Take care. See you soon.
So beautiful ❤ and love how you have decorated each room so hard to pick my favorite 🥰🎄
YOU ARE GORGEOUS AND BEAUTY WITH YOUR MAKEUP ON!!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you!
Always love your decorations
Thank you so much 😊
Everything looks beautiful 🎄
Thank you so much!!!
It looks beautiful! Love your hair down!❤
Thank you so much!!
In our last house we used our formal dining room for Thanksging & Christmas Eve dinner only and only bc we had it. This house that we built a few years ago also has a dining room but we ended up getting a pool table that doubles as a dining room table. When we have friends over or parties we just take the table top off and use it.
With no family in Fla we dont do big holiday meals here so we dont feel we need a dining ro om but we looked at new homes for litterally years and this is the home we loved the most.
Yes!! It’s so hard to find a house with the right functionality!!! The hunt continues
Love this and can't wait to see the rest of the house. I'm working on mine and decided to get some flocked ornaments for the tree in the living room so back to hobby lobby lol!
Gahahaha yay happy hunting!!
Girl! Where have you been? I have not seen your videos in forever! I have missed you. I don’t know why I haven’t been getting your video notifications.
I love having a dining room. It doesn’t get used often but it’s great to have. We like to entertain so it’s used on game nights and kids sleepovers. I also like that it is just a pretty space to look at when I walk on my home- and it’s a dumping zone for mail and packages 99% of the time.
Oh no!!! I’ve been right here, welcome back ♥️♥️♥️♥️
Love this so much!!❤
Thank you for watching!!!
I don't have a formal dining room, but I would certainly love it. I enjoy hosting, even if it is casual. That way there's always a seat for everyone one at the table for anything. I also love to just sit in the dining room or craft on the dining table (covered to protect it). We only have a little dining corner that's connected to the kitchen, and it just has a small round table with four to five chairs. To fit a 6-8 seat table would really compromise our walkway to our master bedroom. What *I* dont really believe in is a formal living room vs. a family den. I just dont see myself having any kind of people over whom i would not relax with ir watch tv with. If all I'm going to do in the "formal" living room is to only have tea with a pinky up with some person that i reluctantly invited to our home, i'd rather not have that room. Plus it becomes another "dont play in there!" room.
Spacious living room, spacious dining room, spacious kitchen (with a window at least above the sink to make it feel warm and happy). You guys cook a lot and have a growing family, have a decent sized walk in pantry. Perhaps even a butler pantry for things even the kids can access when they're older like milk, cereal, snacks, juice, etc. top cabinets can hold coffees, teas, hot chocolates, special occasion dishware, etc.
If you do get or make a 2 story home, 1 master bedroom or in-law/guest suite down stairs, and another master bedroom/guest suite upstairs. They dont have to be huge, just spacious enough for your kind of beds, night stands, closets, etc.
Thalt way, if you have friends or family over, like your parents, they have somewhere they can spend the night or so. Downstairs one would especially be for elder relatives, or for when you guys get older and no longer feel like going up and down the stairs.
The amount of regular bedrooms? That'll be up to you guys since you have an idea of how many children you guys want to have.
2 bedrooms can share 1 bathroom (if you end up having 2 girls or 2 boys) and then another hallway bathroom. If they'll be close in age, fighting over bathrooms before school or whatever as teenagers won't be fun. My older brother and I used to race each other to the bathroom.
If your goal is togetherness, put more consideration for space into rooms you'd want to spend time in as a family. Especially knowing bedrooms are basically just for sleeping, and studying perhaps for the kids.
Your color palette looks so nice along all the decor. Also, you’re glowing and your hair is so so beautiful!
Thank you so much!!
🌲 💚 everything is gorgeous! Great job and congratulations on your commercial with Kohl’s. Wow! 💚 ❤️ I’m traditional so I love a dining room that’s the way I grew up and I love putting up my Christmas decorations a day after Thanksgiving 🌲 🩵 ❄️ but I really enjoy all of your decorations! 🎅🏿 🤶🏻
So beautiful Katie! I also love the little corner with the shelves. The tree looks so stunning with the ribbon and ornaments. Great job and Happy Holidays!
Thanks so much! 😊
Hi Katie! ❤ Congrats on the Kohls commercial! Love the color green, the velvet ornaments & the ribbons. I missed your Fall decorate 😮 Will be finding it! 🍁🍂
Thank you so much!!!
In California builders are making homes with bigger kitchen/dining and family rooms all in one open concept for entertaining.
No more formals .
i have only ever had an apartment. no true dining room either. always had kitchen island with seating and a pedestal dining table in the nook.
Makes sense!!! We have an eat in kitchen so it feels like overkill
Your dining room looks gorgeous Katie! I absolutely love the way you decorated the Christmas tree. I’ve always had a formal dining room but if I had a young family I would rather have a space for a large kitchen table and not have a formal dining room. 😊❤😊🎄
Thank you Maria!!!
Looks great👍🏻🌲🔔
Thank you ♥️♥️♥️♥️
We wait to put our tree up until after Thanksgiving because our living room is long and narrow and no matter where the tree goes, it's in the way, furniture has to be moved and everything looks weird for weeks, so four weeks of weirdness is all I can handle😂
Aaaahhhhh yes I get that!
We turned our dining room into the kids play room
We want to as well!!
My family is grown now however I will say if you build add the dining room and use it as a playroom until that season of life is over. Life has different seasons and right now you don’t need but in the future you may want it just do eliminate the possibility
We have our house fully decorated for fall and thanksgiving until the day after thanksgiving. We do have a year around holiday tree which gets moved to another room to be decorated with holiday memory type ornaments and then we pull out our big Christmas tree. Don't be sad for me, I am sad for people who take down their tree immediately after Christmas. We enjoy our Christmas tree until the end of January. Our Christmas theme leans heavily into woodland winter so we get away with keeping it out as long as we do. All the Christmas comes down when we are ready to decorate for Valentine's Day.
We love to enjoy our tree all of January as well!!!
@KatieVining I love that!! I love my Christmas trees which is why we decided to go with the year-round holiday tree. We have govee lights on them which we can change the color based on the holiday or season. But nothing is like bringing out the big boy at Christmas time 🎄
I love how you decorate! Where did you get that star holder you clipped onto the top of the tree? It looks so unique, I didnt even know they had that. Lol.
Nicely done Katie 🧑🎄🎄🧑🎄🎄🧑🎄🎄
Thank you so much!!
Your welcome, don't forget to rest before your baby son is born take care 🤗@@KatieVining
I have a formal dining room and 2 small kids, with a baby number 3 due in January. I agree we don’t use it unless it’s a birthday party, or hosting a holiday. However, in those scenarios, yes I’m so so glad we have it. In the off season, it’s just a decorative space, but I’d be sad if I didn’t have it.
Also, side question, how long do you typically leave your fall decor up before changing it over to Halloween, as well as how long does Halloween stay up before you transition to Christmas?
For me, I love my fall decor so so much that a month long of any holiday decor just never feels long enough for me. I’m sad for me to take down fall! 😂 plus I don’t rip down my Christmas decor on the 26th. So I make sure I get a good amount of time enjoying it 😊 I’m sad for all those people with their beautiful Christmas trees on the curb the day after Christmas 😢
This year I decorated later just because life got in the way but normally I do fall in August-mid sept, Halloween mid sept-mid oct, and then start Christmas in mid oct 😂😂😂
Your house looks so beautiful
Thank you ♥️♥️
You should wear your hair down more often. It’s very pretty ❤
Thank you!! I just hate my hair in my face and headbands give me headaches so it’s a struggle haha
Don’t be sad for me bcz I love fall and the turkey dinner is part of my fall decor.
I’m Mexican and I leave my Christmas decor till Dia de Reyes which is January 6 that’s when kids get their gifts in Mexico.
It’s a symbol of the gifts they brought when Jesus was born.
We don’t celebrate santa.
Thank you for sharing this perspective!!!
Don't be sad for me!!!!
You’re sad for me lolol! WOW!
Hahahagagagaga
I feel dining rooms are in the past seems wasted space for using only once or twice a year!
Yes!!! 100%