The Keeping Room: What Is It? Why Do I Need One? Dallas Real Estate News

The latest must-have room in your large or even not so large home is the “Keeping Room”. The name for these rooms originated in colonial times, before homes were 5,000 plus square feet. They were a multi-use room attached to the kitchen or open to it, complete with a fireplace for coziness and warmth. Now, it’s either an old-time concept that adds depth and a place for more activity to modern kitchens, or a great excuse to extend the kitchen even more.

And another sofa to get crumbs on.

Carolyn Isler home (pictured left)

Builders tell me that kitchens are always evolving, and consumers love having this auxiliary room. It was Dominique Browning, editor of now defunct House Beautiful Magazine, who said that every kitchen really needs a place for a comfortable sofa. She’s got a point: most kitchens flow into the open family room, which becomes a keeping room of sorts. But some consumers now prefer the nooky keeping room to a peninsula bar with those high, not-so-comfy stools.

It’s a place where the family can relax on a sofa and snack, do homework, watch television, check ipads,  or gaze into the embers. Never fear: the keeping room does not in any way replace the breakfast room or the family room.

“You’re really not supposed to eat in the family room,” Dallas builder Carolyn Isler told me. Ha — I wish someone would get that message to MY family. Seems I’m not alone. My designer friends, like Ann Sutherland,  tell me they are selling outdoor fabrics for sofas way more than regular fabrics, because they are so very washable.

Because like it or not, everyone really does eat on the sofa.