We often turned our dedicated dining room space into a storage or spillover room rather than using it for its intended purpose. Instead of family dinners, we filled the room with stacks of old ...

One of the few days this family probably used their dining rooms. / Burke/Triolo Productions/The Image Bank/Getty Images (dining room scene); Justin Dodd/Mental Floss (question mark background ...

Traditionally, this space has been bound by certain decor and design rules. For example, when you were a child, your family most likely utilized the dining room on special occasions, bringing out fine ...