08/25/2026
I object to the death of the formal dining room.
I’m tired of talking heads telling us to remove these centers of connection from our homes so we can retreat into libraries, dens, offices, and other rooms designed for self-isolation.
No. The dining room is precious.
Not precious in a don’t touch anything kind of way. Precious in a sacred way.
It is where holidays are celebrated and where Tuesday-night chili somehow becomes an occasion. It is where you build ridiculous seasonal centerpieces, light the candles just because, and pull out the fine china, the thrifted china, or the paper plates when the Fourth of July picnic gets rained out.
It is where you host book clubs and Bible studies. Birthday dinners and goodbye parties. Where children draw on the tablecloth, where friends stay too late, and where someone inevitably ends up laughing so hard they can’t finish the story.
A dining room is a place for creativity, ritual, play, hospitality, and connection.
And if you aren’t using yours, I don’t think the answer is to get rid of it.
Invite your friends over.
Send the kids outside to gather leaves and make a centerpiece.
Cover the table in butcher paper and let everyone draw on it.
Order pizza and use the good plates.
Make something ordinary feel like an occasion.
Our homes already give us plenty of places to retreat from one another. Heck we will sit on the same sofa and check phones and isolate 2 inches from each other.
Don’t let a trend or a person needing to make up soundbites to stay relevant on a feed take away another place designed to bring us together.
Save the dining room. Fill the table. Have more fun at home.
