The Outdated Room Alison Victoria Calls A Waste Of Space In Your Home

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Alison Victoria has restored many historic homes in the Chicago area for her HGTV show "Windy City Rehab." She loves bringing old homes back to their former glory, by cleaning and repurposing antique doors, stained glass, and other architectural details throughout the space. While she always keeps the vintage character of a home in-tact, she doesn't shy away from adding modern conveniences for more practical living. Instead of keeping old homes as museum pieces, they should ultimately be comfortable and workable for the people who live in them. 

That's why Victoria recommends repurposing one particular room that is bound to be in every historic home — a formal dining room. Thanks to the open-floor plan craze, many homes built in the past two decades include a combined kitchen and dining room. But, those with older homes are sure to have a separate formal dining room. On a "Windy City Rehab" episode titled "Suburban Jungle," Victoria told her clients, "Nobody's using a formal dining room these days." The clients, a young couple expecting their first child, were embarking on a new-build and wanted Victoria's advice for the floor plans. She explained that formal dining rooms are a waste of space, and that the couple's money could be better spent elsewhere. Instead, formal dining rooms can be a great blank canvas for a variety of more functional uses that are more specifically tailored to your family's needs.

If you grew up in a home with a formal dining room, chances are you only ate in the space for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and maybe a handful of birthdays and celebrations. However, nowadays most homeowners don't have the space, or budget, to spare on rooms that aren't in daily use. With home prices skyrocketing, most people are trying to squeeze every bit out of their square footage, and, for most, a formal dining room just doesn't work for those needs. 

With so many people working from home, a dedicated home office is at the top of most home wish lists. Transforming your formal dining room into an office is easy enough — use your current dining room table as your desk/workspace, swap out that fussy china cabinet for a bookshelf or 3-tier printer stand, and stock your hutch with office supplies instead of table linens. Other creative uses for an unused dining room include a craft room, home gym, theater, library, play room, or even a homework/homeschool space. 

Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't use your formal dining room for actual dining — especially if your small kitchen makes it your only viable option. In this case, Alison Victoria recommends a corner banquette to maximize space. This also creates a less formal vibe, and allows more room in the space for additional, multifunctional, uses.