I must admit that when I started this series I figured I would probably not do the Dining room as a separate article, but when I thought about it and considered some of the activities that have taken place in this room over the years, I realised it really is a multipurpose space.
The room is not huge at 3.0 metres by 2.6 metres and it shares the output of our one small aircon with the kitchen. It has one 240v pendant light in the middle of the room, and the more often used two 12v downlights over the dining room table. The large dining room window faces(like the house) a bit north of west and has a bamboo blind covering it outside to prevent the sun shining in as it sets in summer.
Some of the purposes it has fulfilled over the years include –
Eating Place/Meeting Place
First and foremost I guess, the dining room is a place to eat. We started out with the archetypal laminex dining room table and four tubular steel and padding chairs donated by a relative, so common in the ‘70s and earlier. But before long we were able to get a solid wooden table and bench seats which easily seat six, made by a local craftsman in St Mary’s. The original design was for an outdoor table but we requested some changes, which he was happy to do, mainly around the table top being one piece rather than three boards with a gap between. It was pretty big and it was only after we got it home that I realised I would have to take the front door off to be able to get it inside!
That table has been sitting where it is now in the dining room for over 40 years. It has been the setting for endless family meals, celebrations and general get- togethers over that time. It has been where we have crafted, played games, studied, had meetings, both family and otherwise. All manner of things have been consumed off it, and discussed around it. It has been the centre of much of our family life and when we pass on and leave it to somebody else they will be getting a table with history!
Kitchen work Overflow Area
Being close to the kitchen area but not actually in it means that it can be used as a work area/set up area when making food. This particularly so when attempting some of the more space intensive (for us) activities such as pasta making, preserving, and some baking. I used to cook on the dining room table with a kero primus so I could use a traditional mild steel wok before we got the stove with a wok ring. Even now we have a small electric oven sitting on the table which we power with the off grid system for smaller dishes so we don’t need to fire up the gas stove.
Workshop/Work area
I am lucky in that we have a garage and a spacious area to work in, but when I lived at home we did not have the luxury of a garage, or even a shed and so the dining room table became the main work area. Tools and materials could be laid out, repair work and small construction projects carried out. I have even seen a set up for a demountable vise, which would improve the ease of working considerably. Even with the garage I will still carry out light repairs to household stuff on the kitchen table because it is more convenient, such as fixing the TV when it went kaboom.
Storage
There are some kitchen bits and pieces like our pasta making equipment, preserving gear and fancy plates etc for which we don’t have space for in our small kitchen. There are also some bulk food items stored in the dining room as well, that way they don’t clutter the kitchen but are in reasonably easy reach when cooking. The kitchen dresser also was an early purchase which over the years has proved valuable in containing kitchen overflow.
Music room
I am not musical (just putting that out there)! However, Linda is, and years ago I was able to get her an upright piano. She practices regularly when she has time and is getting quite good at it. Unfortunately, while the piano had a place for candle sconces to go on the front to allow playing by candlelight, it was not fitted with them when we bought it. A few years later I was able to find a pair which fit in an antique place in Windsor so it is now complete. The only place where the piano would fit, of course, was the dining room so it also doubles as our music room!
Garden Work
Yup, even with a garage and greenhouse, I find it easier to sow the seeds into punnets and pot the seedling on into newspaper pots, which I do every two weeks, on the dining room table. It is more comfortable and certainly warmer/cooler than working outside, depending on the time of year. I bring the seed raising mix and some 8-cell punnets in from the greenhouse and the seeds down from my office and sow them all according to my sowing plan. After that I lay out and cut the paper and then form the strips into newspaper pots for potting on. I then fill them with seed raising mix and pot last fortnight’s seedlings on into them at the dining room table. It is then a simple matter to take the filled punnets and newspaper pots back out to the greenhouse to continue growing.
Extra-curricular Activities
We live a hands-on life, doing stuff that I don’t think was envisioned by the original designers of the house. Over the years the dining room has provided space that was not in the direct living area but is close enough so that anything needing it can be kept an eye on. Also it was kept warmer/cooler than the outside environment and has allowed me to do some comparatively strange things including brooding chicks, fruiting mushrooms and raising crickets, all in a suburban dining room!
The dining room is a part of our zone zero, a multipurpose and very useful room which should not be neglected when reviewing what we do in our house.
Other articles in this series:
