Everything about Dining Room totally explained
A
dining room is a
room for consuming food. In modern times it's usually adjacent to the
kitchen for convenience in serving, although in
medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically the dining room is furnished with a rather large
dining table and a number of dining chairs; the most common table shape is generally rectangular with two armed end chairs and an even number of un-armed side chairs along the long sides.
History
In the
Middle Ages,
upper class Britons and other
European
nobility in
castles or large
manor houses dined in the
Great Hall. This was a large multi-function room capable of seating the bulk of the population of the house. The family would sit at the head table on a raised
dais, with the rest of the population arrayed in order of diminishing rank away from them. Tables in the great hall would tend to be long trestle tables with benches. The Great Hall would have been extremely noisy, and likely would have been quite smoky and
malodorous, making it an unpleasant place to hold a discussion.
In response to certain discomforts of dining in the Great Hall, the nobility began to construct
parlours or
drawing rooms off the Great Hall. These were far smaller rooms to which the nobility could withdraw to relax and talk in comparative quiet. Over time, the nobility took more of their meals in the parlour, and the parlour became, functionally, a dining room (or was split into two separate rooms). It also migrated farther from the Great Hall, often accessed via grand ceremonial
staircases from the dais in the Great Hall. Eventually dining in the Great Hall became something that was done primarily on special occasions.
Toward the beginning of the 18th Century, a pattern emerged where the ladies of the house would withdraw after dinner from the dining room to the drawing room, while the gentlemen would remain in the dining room having drinks. The dining room tended to take on a more masculine tenor as a result.
Modern Dining Rooms
A typical North American dining room will contain a table with chairs arranged along the sides and ends of the table, as well as other pieces of furniture, (often used for storing formal china), as space permits.
In modern
American homes, the dining room is increasingly used only for formal dining with guests or on special occasions. Informal daily meals are often taken in the kitchen,
breakfast nook or
family room. This was traditionally the case in
England, where the dining room would for many families be used only on Sundays, other meals being eaten in the kitchen. Often tables in modern dining rooms will have a removable leaf to allow for the larger number of people present on those special occasions without taking up extra space when not in use. In Australia, while the use of the dining room is still prevalent, family meals are also often eaten in front of the television in the
lounge.
Although the "typical" family dining experience is at a wooden table or some sort of kitchen area, some choose to make their dining rooms more comfortable by using couches or comfortable chairs.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Dining Room'.
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