According to Lobel, several factors gave rise to the typical room we know today. Mechanized furniture manufacturing allowed middle class Americans to afford dining room furniture; improved transportation meant that people could also afford a greater variety of food; and new kitchens gadgets and appliances led to the preparation of more complex dishes, which they ate with new mass-produced silver plate.
The dining room became “a status thing,” in Victorian days, says Lobel. It was the place where you could, “show off your wealth and social standing through your house.”
And that hasn’t changed a bit. In fact, Nilou Navab, an interior designer in West Hartford, Connecticut, sees that rather than disappearing, dining rooms are becoming more elaborate than ever. Today’s fashionable dining rooms have wainscoting, chair rails, tray ceilings, and built-in cabinetry. Her clients are asking for more drapery and fancier chandeliers. “People are going all the way with their dining rooms,” she says. “They’re looking for something chic, very classy.”
I don’t care a lot about chic and classy; nevertheless, I’m enmeshed in the dining room status cycle. My house has a dining room, so I bought a dining set (table, chairs, sideboard, china cabinet) to fill it up. If I moved, I’d want a house with a dining room so that I’d have space for this costly stuff. Dining rooms, like Nana’s crystal fruit bowl, aren’t disappearing any time soon.
