In her recent memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Ina Garten recalls one of her favorite dinner parties: a simple, yet delicious three-course meal at her friend’s apartment in Paris (oh, to be Ina). The best part? They didn’t even use a formal dining room. Instead, they set up a table in the hallway and cleared it afterward to lounge in the living room. While the Parisian food and backdrop certainly played a role in the evening’s success, Ina also credited the ingenuity of the set up.
As it turns out, we all want to be a little bit like Ina. According to Houzz’s 2025 U.S. Kitchen Trends Study, homeowners everywhere are saying goodbye to formal dining spaces in favor of larger, more multifunctional kitchens. The study said that more than a third of homeowners increase their kitchen size during renovations—often at the expense of dining rooms (29% of the time, compared to just 12% for living rooms). Read More >>
